Celebrate Native People
November is National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. Since 1990, this time has been dedicated to celebrating the traditions, customs and many contributions of Native people in the United States.
The Mini Page meets some Alaskan women featured by the National Park Service to learn more about their lives.
Pelagia Melgenak
In 1912, Pelagia Melgenak, who was about 35 years old, lived in a remote Alaskan village called Savonoski with her husband, Petr Kayagvak, and children. As she later told her grandchildren, the volcano Novarupta erupted that year, covering the community with hot ashes.
“They thought the end of the world was coming when the mountain started erupting,” Pelagia’s grandson Teddy said. But Pelagia and other townspeople had learned from their elders what to do in case of an eruption: Turn over boats so ash wouldn’t fill them up, collect fresh water before it became contaminated, and be ready to make an escape.
After Petr died, Pelagia remarried and helped her family survive the 1918 flu epidemic by social distancing — staying away from townspeople and visitors! Although she moved away from Savonoski, she returned
Sinrock Mary
to nearby Qit’rwik every year until she was an old woman. That area is now Katmai National Park.
Pelagia is remembered by her family and community for helping share stories, songs and traditions to link them to their past.
Mary Makriko was born in 1870 to an Alaskan mother and Russian father. Able to speak English, Russian and Inupiat, she was raised in a town where traders and Native people gathered to exchange goods. After marrying Charlie Antisarlook, Mary moved to Sinrock, where she learned from Siberian reindeer herders how to raise the large animals and use them to pull sleds.
After Charlie died, Mary fought to keep half their herd and sold reindeer meat to the thousands of people who had come to Alaska in search of gold. Her business made her the richest Native woman in the North and gave her the nickname “the Reindeer Queen,” but she was also known for her generosity.
Mary’s herd numbered about 1,500 animals when she died in 1948.