A place for learning, sharing and healing

It is late August and despite the nip in the air as fall descends on Interior Alaska, 56 elders and emerging elders eagerly gathered to learn and share their traditional Native activities at the third Denakkanaaga Elders Mentoring Elders Cultural Camp. Held at the scenic Howard Luke Gaalee'ya Spirit Camp on the Tanana River, the elders joined together to celebrate Native traditions, values, stories and skills.

"The camp is an opportunity to support elders who were disconnected from their culture, traditional foods and languages due to various reasons, such as being taken away to boarding schools," said one of the camp planners, Dr. LaVerne Xilegg Demientieff. "The camp creates a safe space for elders to work together to heal, connect and learn without criticism or judgement."

For the past three years Denakkanaaga, an Interior regional Native nonprofit elder advocacy organization, has collaborated with University of Alaska Fairbanks professors Dr. Demientieff and Dr. Jessica Black to hold this unique camp which has seen participants from many of the 42 Interior villages and Fairbanks.

"For some elders, their experiences with traditional knowledge and practices have been limited. So, to be able to attend a camp such as the Elders Mentoring Elders, it is an opportunity that not only benefits them, but also the younger generations of their families," said Sharon McConnell, Executive Director of Denakkanaaga. "One of the camp goals is that the elders will learn these skills and then return home and teach others."

Decided on by the elders themselves, this year's camp centered on the harvest of moose and related fall activities, such as cutting up the moose, tanning the hide, jarring moose meat and blueberry jam, making moose dry meat and begee (similar to fry bread), learning about the moose through Denaakk'e (Koyukon) language games and making healing salves from plants gathered earlier in the spring. Camp planners received a special hunting permit and were able to get a moose for hands-on teaching at the gathering.

Funded by the Center for Indigenous Innovation and Health Equity, through the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, the camp brought back many memories for elders, such as the smell of moose hide being smoked and tanned, and the making of fry bread and goose and moose soups over a campfire. One elder commented that "I learned so much. I'm still willing to learn! When I smelled the moose skin, I had tears in my eyes as I smelled my mom. It's been a long time."

Marie Simmons of Fairbanks, age 87 and originally of Galena, happily declared after practicing how to cut a salmon caught earlier this summer, "I DID IT! I'm so happy!" To her, the camp was "like going back to my childhood when I went to fish camp with my mom, being in a tent and watching her cut fish. This was when I was nine years old.

That was the last cultural event I remember with my family before being sent away to boarding school shortly thereafter."

Another participant, 89-year-old Elizabeth Fleagle of Fairbanks, and originally Alatna, said that the food was key to the success of the camp, as well as being on the land and river, and sitting around the campfire and interacting with others. It took her back to all the positive things she experienced as a child. It brought back memories of when she was young and strong and as a result during the camp she felt younger and stronger.

This year the four-day camp allowed elders to stay overnight in cabins, each heated by a wood stove. Despite it raining most of the days, the elders told concerned camp planners not to worry, that they were resilient and had dressed appropriately for the weather.

Some 10 traditional cultural teachers were on hand to teach and share their skills, and each day healing circles were held to allow elders a chance to talk about their feelings that were coming up as they participated in the activities.

"It was so inspiring to see the elders adding their personal stories and knowledge as the various activities were being held," said camp planner Dr. Jessica Black. "It was so empowering, and really enhanced the camp as a whole."

For camp manager Taniesha Moses, the gathering was a special event in which she, as a young adult, could assist and help the elders attending. "Seeing the elders together, learning and laughing, made me think of my own grandmother, which was so special."

A key component of the camp is how traditional activities impact the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of individuals and how these activities specifically relate to food sovereignty. Food is connected to the well-being of the people. Focusing on moose during the camp provided holistic opportunities to engage in a respectful relationship with the moose, in a way that Native people have done since time immemorial.

It starts with ceremonies of gratitude for the moose giving itself to us and ends with a giveaway celebration to include dancing and singing, ensuring all the elders and participants get to go home with moose meat to enjoy with their families. In between these ceremonies are lots of hard work, stories, laughter and healing.

The camp planners will soon begin work on the 2025 camp that will take place in the summer or fall.

In October they will fly to Reykjavik, Iceland, to present on the camp at the Arctic Circle Assembly that brings together leaders from 60 northern countries.

Sharon McConnell is the Denakkanaaga executive director.