At Home in the Bush

At Home in the Bush

When ice on the Kuskokwim River breaks up in May, the only road to Aniak, Alaska (pop. 572), disappears with the melting snow, and villagers await the summer salmon runs.

The river is central to the lives of residents of the Yup’ik Eskimo village, providing food, recreation and a transportation route year-round. In the winter, the frozen river is a thoroughfare for snowmobiles and trucks transporting fuel and supplies to nearby villages. In summer, floatplanes land on the water, and fishing boats and barges ply the river.

"It’s the road, it’s the supermarket, it’s the playground," says Jeff Thompson, 44, a physician assistant who moved to Aniak four years ago to provide medical care to residents of 16 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region.

Thompson, who took the job as a way to repay his student loans while exploring the nation’s Last Frontier, enjoys the solitude and remoteness of the Alaskan bush, a vast wilderness of forest and tundra inhabited by moose, wolves, caribou and bear.

"I always wanted to come to Alaska, and this was my opportunity to do it," says the Casper, Wyo., native. "Living here in the wild, it’s the kind of place you dream about."

Aniak, located at the confluence of the Aniak and Kuskokwim rivers in southwest Alaska, has long inspired explorers and adventurers. Russian fur traders visited the region in the 1800s, followed by gold prospectors in the early 1900s.

Some outsiders settled in Aniak and fathered children with the indigenous Yup’ik and Athabascan women, inspiring the name of Aniak High School’s mascot—The Halfbreeds.

"It’s exactly what we are," says Ruth Birky, president of the Aniak Traditional Council, which represents 240 natives in the village. "We’re part white and part native."

Birky, whose white father met her Yup’ik mother while he was stationed in Aniak with the U.S. Air Force in 1956, says the team’s name caused some embarrassment when the boys’ basketball squad advanced to the state tournament in Anchorage last year, but residents are proud of their heritage and their team.

During basketball season, fans follow the team to games in nearby villages on the frozen river. "It looks like a highway," says Birky, whose son, Frederick, plays on the team. "You follow the headlights."

While basketball is a favorite winter pastime, fishing rules when the salmon runs begin in June. Five species of salmon—king, chum, sockeye, pink, and silver—spawn in the Aniak River, along with rainbow trout, artic char, grayling and northern pike.

"It’s a world-class drainage," says Roy "Woody" Wooderson, a fishing guide and owner of Hook-M-Up Fishing Adventures. "You can come up here and catch eight different species of fish in one day."

Fishing is especially popular during the annual Silver Salmon Derby. Last August, 175 villagers paid $5 each to participate in the 20-day event. Darlene Morgan captured first place and $1,500 in the adult category with her 12.8-pound fish, and Dakota Phillips, 10, took top prize—$500—in the youth division with his 11.1-pounder.

"He caught a king salmon when he was 4 years old," says Lisa Feyereisen, Phillips’ mother. "He’s been fishing ever since."

Fishing, hunting and gardening sustain many of the villagers, a collection of earthy, self-sufficient people who smoke and can salmon, hunt moose and caribou, and grow cold weather crops such as cabbage, carrots and potatoes during the brief, sunlit summer in preparation for the long, cold winter, during which temperatures can dip to 50 below zero.

Jim and Leslie Boelens plan to plant a large garden this spring on land they own along the Aniak River. Last year, the Boelens built a modest, two-story home on the seven-acre tract.

"It’s something I’ve always wanted to do," says Jim, 45, who milled lumber for the home from trees on the property. Boelens, a carpenter, mechanic and heavy equipment operator, moved to Alaska 20 years ago from Fremont, Mich.

Sitting on the steps of their home, Leslie, 34, smiles at her husband with a sense of accomplishment. The Wamego, Kan., native, who has lived in Aniak since 1995, plans to stay and raise one of the village’s newest residents.

"Right now, there’s no place I’d rather be," says Leslie, who gave birth to a 9-pound baby girl Feb. 7.

Stuart Englert is a Senior Editor at American Profile.

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