Counting Coup in the Yupiit Nation

I just finished reading the recommended book "Counting Coup" and I really felt like I was back in Akiachak with my Yupik Eskimo friends. I felt so much of the sadness and frustration that my classmates felt and it left a tremendous impact on my heart. I don't claim to be an expert on the "Indian problems" but I will never forget the despair in the eyes of my friends. The Yupik are some of the most kind and sharing people I have ever met.

One of my favorite people in Akiachak was Moses Peter. Moses was a very rotund Eskimo man who taught Alaskan history at the high school. In his younger days, Mo had been in service and fought in Vietnam. He was one of the most up-beat and accepting people in the village. I had to take his class because it was required for graduation. Even though he taught most of the class in Yupik to help his students retain their language, he always went out of his way to teach me the same material in English so that I could learn the history of this great state from a Yupik perspective.

There were a lot of politics in the village for school employees because the superintendent was Caucasian but the entire school board was Eskimo. If they did not like you for any reason, you were out. Politics not withstanding, I will never forget the day that Mo and I were standing on the deck outside the high school talking when another student began trying to pick a fight with me. I ignored him for a while because Mo and I were having a good conversation. Finally, I told the kid to stop on last time. He came up to me and shoved me in the chest, so I hit him in the chest hard enough to knock him over the railing and down 10-12 feet to the ground. All the other kids looked at Mo to see what he would do to me, and he said to the kid, "Well, Andrew, you certainly deserved that!" and then went on with our conversation. Mo has since passed away and now the high school is named Moses Peter Memorial High.

Counting Coup brought back many memories indeed; some sad, some funny, and some very deep that have caused me much reflection since then. I highly recommend the book if you haven't read it!

Mark