Aas

=__**My Profile**__= I am a Tlingit and a totem pole carver. My name is Aas (tree). I am 25 years old, a man whose favorite foods are fish eggs and fresh salmons with fish oils. The skill, or strength, I have that makes me proudest is that I could read the story that is carved on the totem poles. I thinks the others in my clan admire me most for how I uses the colors very well on the totem poles. A fear I have is that maybe other villagers might think my carvings are bad, and this goes along with the weakness I have which is that I can't carve very well sea creatures. Something else I want you to know about me is that I'm good at carving many stories in 1 totem pole.

=__**My Person**__=



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=__**Wolf Clan Room**__=

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= = =__**Today**__= By Kao I threw my bearskin blanket and woke up. I was the first person to wake up. I looked around my long house. The fire was off, so it was kind of dark inside the house. But my I could hear everybody snoring. I changed my clothes to sleeveless jacket and I went outside. I could see the sun slowly rising up. I realized that was a dawn. I splashed the water to my face, my mouth and my hand. I walked straight to the long house with wolf symbol on. When I came back, everybody was awake. They were preparing for their work. I took my tools went to work. My totem pole teacher, Dis was waiting for me at the front door, near my totem pole that is standing straight in front my house. We started to work. This is my worst part in my day. Because we can’t eat our breakfast before we go to work! I’m always hungry this time and kind of sleepy.

When I came back from work, I smelled delicious smoke salmons and berries. Everybody was waiting for me. I started to eat straightly. I dipped my berries and chewed my smoke salmons. Eating salmons from sticks were good, but dipping berries into fish oils were not so good. But I was very hungry that time, so I ate all of my breakfast. When I was full, I went back to carve my totem pole. While we were walking, I saw children playing, fishermen working, and women picking up some berries in the bush. This is my favorite part in my day, because I like to work carving my totem pole and I ate my breakfast already, so I have a lot of energy. So I can focus on carving with Dis.

We don’t eat lunch, so when I came back, nobody was there. I sometimes nap or sometimes I only rest here for about 10 minutes and go back to work again. Dis and I work all day long until the sun was changing to orange and red. I saw everyone walking toward his or her own long house. Dis and I also started to go home. I hold my stuffs and we both held the totem pole that we carved today. Dis held the bottom of the totem pole, and I put the top totem pole on my right shoulder and started to walk slowly. While we were walking, I saw hunters carrying the deer, and fishermen holding many fish. Dis and we kept our totem pole in front of Dis’s house.

When I walked inside my house, I saw everybody sitting. I smelled the good smell of fish eggs and fresh salmons with fish oils. I started to eat, and everyone else, too. When I ate all of my dinner with my hands, I slowly stood up and went to my platform. I pulled my bearskin blanket and slowly I lay down. I closed my eyes.

=__**The Potlatch**__= By Kao Let me tell you about the potlatch that was on yesterday. It was just so amazing!! The totem pole that Dis and I made was raised on that day. Dis and I were happy that our favorite totem pole was raised on the baby birth potlatch day. With the same day, a cute little girl baby was born on that day. We thought that the baby came from the special babyland we had never seen before. That's because the baby spoke baby languages but in a different way as other babies do. We thought the cute little girl came from the new babyland, because she acted weird. But not so weird. She was just a little bit different from other babies. We decided that the baby came from the babyland that is near the Northeast. The baby spoke with her babyland language. The host of this potlatch invited medicine women, so they started to repeat what the baby said, except they turned the language to our language, so we could know what medicine women were saying. The medicine women said that the baby is happy to be born today. When the medicine women finished telling what the baby want, the mother of the baby started to flatten the baby's forehead. The mother thought that baby would be the most beautiful girl in the wolf clan, because she flattened her forehead so much. But I didn't think the baby would be the most famous and most beautiful girl in the wolf clan, because, I thought the mother of the baby flattened the baby's forehead too much! This is my worst part in that potlatch. That's because I saw the mother of the baby was flattening the baby's forehead! I never saw that! I didn't like looking at that flattening faces! That was my worst part because it was boring! First I thought it is going to be super boring if the mother of the baby cared about her child ONLY! This time, I thought the round forehead is more normal and it's better. But I didn't care. Because that's not my family. The baby of the mother has to care, so I just ignored that part. Sorry for ignoring, baby.

There was many people in the potlatch. There was Daanaa, of course, Dis my totem pole teacher, medicine women, shaman, my friend, Axaa the canoe maker, fisherman, hunters, some children and of course the mother of the baby. I said "Hi," to everyone those were invited. I did so much things at the potlatch. The foods were so yummy! That was my favorite part of that day. That part was my favorite part, because I could eat lots of salmons, and other delicacies. I could dip my salmons in the seal oil! I also could eat seal meat! It was just so delicious! I never ate seal meat before!

I saw dancers dancing, putting their masks on. The dancers were dancing crazily. I could see that the dancers were dancing as hard as they could, because their hair were spinning in the air. They looked really tired after dancing their most beautiful dance. The singers sang as the dancers danced around the fire. Thumb, thumb, thumb. The thunder bird hand drums were hit by the peoples' s hands, and it was really beautiful. The rhythm made me feel interested in drums.This part was my another favorite part. I could feel that I was also dancing and singing in my heart. That was very exciting! I wanted to learn how to play that beautiful thunder bird drum. But, that potlatch was not for learning and playing drums, so I patiently waited.

After we finished watching the dancers dance and singers sing, the host of this potlatch came. We sat down, waiting for the gifts. The host called out the names and gave his Chilkat blankets, dentalium shells, coppers and slaves. The chief, Daanaa got a tall slave. My totem pole teacher, Dis got copper. Medicine women got Chilkat blankets, Axaa got a box, fishermen got a new big canoe, and so on. I got some dentalium shells. When every one received their gifts, we started to go home. I loved the salmons and dipping sauce that I ate for the lunch, so I took some salmons and sauce and brought them home. That's why, you could eat the salmons and the seal oil dipping sauce. That day, I felt really tired after I went home. I could feel my legs are really aching to me because I was just standing, walking or talking! Bu I had fun potlatch yesterday! I was really tired. But I felt happy. I was happy because I could eat seal oil and Dis and my totem pole was raised on the potlatch and it was same day that the baby born! And of course that I was invited to that huge exciting potlatch. Poor you, my sister.