Yak'ei

= = =My Profile:= I am a shaman I am a Tlingit my name is Yak'ei. I am 23 years old, a woman whose favorite food is smoked [|halibut] with [|fish oil] and [|seaweed].The skill, or strength, I have that makes me proudest is curing someone who gets hurt. I think the others in my clan admire me most for cooking fish because in my clan there are so few women so I have to cook many times so I can be practiced to cook. A fear I have is that for traveling to the spirit world because there are so few people that so sick so I can't go to the spirit world so many time. So I don't know who stole the person's soul. I can be lost and die, and it goes along with the weakness I have which is curing dogs. Something else I want you to know about me is I live in a wooden house. I can travel to the 'spirit world'

Today:
My name is Yak’ei. I am a shaman. I'm a wolf clan person. Native Americans used clans. The clan symbols were animals. I wake upIn the morning. I see some light from the smoke hole. We don't have any window so the light is just come from the smoke hole and the fire. I take a bath at the river. My home is near a river. After I take a bath, I get dressed. I usually wear a bark cloth and a bark skirt. When I went home, a man tells me that he needs help. I ran to his family area and I saw a fat woman screaming, hurt. It was his wife. She will have a baby. I pushed her stomach. Nothing happened. I pushed again and again until the baby’s hear looked. I pushed again and again. Unit the baby’s nest looked. I pull the baby carefully. The baby has born!. “Congratulations for your baby”, I said. “Thanks to you for making the baby born. I can’t do things like you did”, the husband said. Then I went to the eating-place. I’m so hungry. I’ve been waiting until the daylight for the breakfast. At last, the breakfast comes to me. It was [|salmon] with fish oil. Native Americans like fish oil. Even sometimes they eat dessert with fish oil. I ate 3 salmons because I was so hungry. The salmons were smoked. After I ate them, I return their bone to the river. I was already afternoon. I was cooking salmon for dinner. The slaves turn on the fire because it was extinguished. I stick the salmon and grill it above the fire. Then everybody ate the dinner. After we ate dinner... “Yak’ei”, called Dleit. “What?” I responded. “Let’s return the salmon bone together”, she said. “OK”, I said. Then we walked to the river and return the bones together at the same time.Native Americans believe that after we ate fish, we usually return the fish bone to a river or sea we found the fish because we believe that they can alive again. We walked back home and we go to our own area then we went to sleep.

My favorite part: When I pushed the woman’s stomach. My worst part: When I was hungry. By: Anisa

=The [|Potlatch]:= The baby has come from the babyland! The baby was a boy.There were speeches, singing, dancing, feasting and gift giving. When the baby was born, he cries a lot.Because the baby cries a lot, Dleit and I called. We hear him crying and he said he doesn't like his name. So his parents changed it. After his parents changed it, the baby stop crying. After crying, the baby went to sleep.

We ate after the baby went to sleep. I ate salmon with seal oil. There was some seal meal but I don't really like seals.We ate with spoon because that was a big party.

In the potlatch party, the host gave something to each person. I got a dentalium shell for the gift.There was a person got a slave for his gift. There was a person that got a blanket. There was a person that got a canoe.There were coppers, canoes, blankets, boxes, furs, dentalium shells and even a slave for the gifts.

The party was not so long. I think it was about 3 or 4 hours.I was so happy at the party because I got a dentalium shell. The dentalium shell was white.

[|More about Potlatch]