What a great cartoon. Agree?
Known primarily for his humorous essays. every now and then Slim Randles slips a serious topic in his weekly columns. Here’s one of his most recent:
Do you know …which is the oldest settlement in the United States? Forget Jamestown. Forget Roanoke. Forget St. Augustine. According to book learning, the oldest settlement in the United States is Acoma Pueblo, which sits on top of a 365-foot-high mesa in the middle of New Mexico.
It will come as no surprise that Native American settlements predate European ones, but it may surprise some people that Acoma Pueblo, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been continuously occupied since the 12th century. The Acoma still inhabit their “Sky City,” a settlement of about 4,800 people. Previously, as was their tradition, the Acoma people were hunters and traders but now make their income from a cultural center and casino complex.
Coincidentally, the oldest state capital in the United States is Santa Fe, which recently celebrated its 400th anniversary.
Now that’s what it says in that big book of facts, but folks in charge of compiling those facts too often overlook a part of Alaska that is even older. Sometimes, those fact guys don’t even consider Alaska to be part of the United States. I can recall many times when I was freezing to death in Alaska at 40 below, and the weather report on the radio told me the coldest place in the nation was some town in Minnesota hovering at 10 below.
Why do I mention this? Because, according to two archaeologists I once interviewed for the Anchorage Daily News, the tiny Athabascan Indian village of Nulato on the Yukon River has been continuously inhabited since the end of the last Ice Age … about 10,000 years ago. The Koyukon Athabascans traditionally had spring, summer, fall, and winter camps and moved as the wild game migrated. There were 12 summer fish camps located on the Yukon River between the Koyukuk and Nowitna Rivers. Nulato was the trading site between Athabascans and Inupiat Eskimos from the Kobuk area.
Temperatures can go as low as -55 in the winter, so it would be a good place to visit in late July when the temps are around 70 degrees.
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Brought to you by the wonderful people who live in Kwethluk, Alaska, because they haven’t been there as long as their friends in Nulato, but they still say “forever” when asked.
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Now for the humor as promised. This is an oldie, but a goodie, from years past. Enjoy!
There was Doc, just cruising around slowly on a warm Saturday, alone with his thoughts, which kinda centered around “I sure am lucky to live here.”
Then he saw the carboard boxes with bricks on top to hold them down in the wind, and an arrow on the front.
Saling! Yard-saling! It’s that season again. And of course he had to stop. Especially if you hadn’t been yard-saling in months.
He wandered through mountains of magazines, crates of kitchen utensils, tons of tools, and cartons of old clothes. Then he saw it. A red tie. He didn’t have a red tie. He didn’t wear a tie except to church, and that was just because Mrs. Doc made him do it.
But he didn’t have a red tie, and that fact alone made him feel … well … incomplete?
I mean, what if one of the guys came over to the house and asked if he could borrow Doc’s red tie? Think about it. What would he say?
“Well, sorry, Herb. I have never owned a red tie.”
“You don’t mean it!”
And Doc would be forced to nod sadly and suffer the pitying glances of a fellow human being.
He bought the tie. Fifty cents.
Spending that half dollar did several things for Doc that Saturday. It gave him a feeling of completeness. Now if someone came by to borrow … oh yes, he’s ready. And buying that tie also made him feel more … American.
On warm weekends here in Home Country, we set out our cardboard boxes with the arrows on them and we haul all our detritus out onto the driveway and the lawn and we do our bit to make sure our fellow Americans are fulfilled in the red tie department. Of course, we watch, don’t we, as our friends and neighbors pick through things we’ve been storing since the Eisenhower Administration. And if any one of them should curl a lip in scorn at one of these treasures, we’ll consider scratching them off the birthday party list.
Respect, after all, is the very backbone of democracy.
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Brought to you by Strange Tales of Alaska, by Slim Randles.
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