Every year during the first weekend in October the Jamboree takes place in Galena. Many gather together in order to celebrate sobriety. It is good clean fun with lots of music, dancing, food, and socializing! This has been one of our favorite community events that we have gotten to participate in for the last 2 years and this year we got to share the experience with Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Benni while they were visiting. The Yukon Jamboree took place on October 5-7 this year (I know this may be confusing as the date today is January 6th, but I am trying to catch up on past events). This is great timing as moose season ends the weekend before and it gives people a chance to relax and enjoy each other after a bountiful harvest (hopefully). Students from GILA (Galena Interior Learning Academy, in other words the boarding school), local youth, and Native elders from around the area gather for two nights of guitar and fiddle music. Bands from Ruby, Huslia, Steven's, Kaltag, Koyukuk, and Galena participated this year. There is a potluck with music and dancing the first night. The second night kicks off with a potlatch followed by music and dancing. You may ask what the difference is between a potluck and potlatch. I had the same question and have come to understand it more since living here. At this particular event a potluck or "cover dish" means we each bring a crockpot or dish of some sort and go through a line to dish up what food one wants out of what everyone has brought. A potlatch is where everyone sits at a table and people from the community come around to serve you. It is considered impolite to decline or not eat the food that is put on your plate. There are many traditional foods at the potlatch (ice cream made out of fat, lard, or Crisco mixed with berries and sugar, dried fish, moose stew, salmon eggs mixed with berries, etc.) Sorry, I have forgotten what the native names are for these food items. We decided not to go this year as I didn't want to be rude in declining the food if it was something I was unable to eat because of the migraine diet I am on. Potlatches are held when someone passes away as well as at other community events here in Galena. According to Wikipedia "At potlatch gatherings, a family or hereditary leader hosts guests in their family's house and holds a feast for their guests. The main purpose of the potlatch is the re-distribution and reciprocity of wealth. Different events take place during a potlatch, like singing and dancing, sometimes with masks or the real regalia, such as Chilkat blankets, the barter of wealth through gifts, such as dried foods, sugar, flour, or other material things, and sometimes money. For many potlatches, spiritual ceremonies take place for different occasions. This is either through material wealth such as foods and goods or non-material things such as songs and dances. For some cultures, such as Kwakwaka'wakw, elaborate and theatrical dances are performed reflecting the hosts' genealogy and cultural wealth. Many of these dances are also sacred ceremonies of secret societies like the hamatsa, or display of family origin from supernatural creatures such as the dzunukwa. Typically the potlatching is practiced more in the winter seasons as historically the warmer months were for procuring wealth for the family, clan, or village, then coming home and sharing that with neighbors and friends." Potlatches do not always follow this particular definition but that is how they originally were and can be still today. This particular potlatch is mostly eating, socializing, followed by dancing.
It has been a surprise for me that most of the traditional music here does not include drums like the traditional native music in Southeast Alaska did. Instead it includes the fiddle and a lot of twang in almost every song. Most songs can only be danced to with the two step as they are quite slow. However when Karrie Pavish Anderson (Aubrey's piano teacher) and the students she has helped form into a band get up to play, they play some faster songs. Ross and I love the faster songs as we can jitterbug to them! They also use to have quite a bit of square dancing which doesn't happen now as they don't have a "caller".
The final day of the Jamboree includes a community church service followed by another potluck. The two churches here (Galena Bible Church and the Catholic church) switch who hosts it every year and the community gathers to worship. This year it was our church's turn to host. The Bible Church sponsored Bill Pagerin, a Tlingit Native man who is a Christian and president of a suicide prevention orginization called Carry the Cure to be the guest speaker of the Yukon Jamboree, and to preach at the community church service. He has also joined a band called Broken Walls. There were about 80 people in attendance at the church service including several local community members, and residents of other villages that came in for the Jamboree. I didn't get any pictures of this but I did get several of all the dancing!
The girls danced and danced and danced and would have kept dancing all through the night until it was morning if we had given them the chance. In fact we did! One night we stayed until 1:30 A.M. and had to drag the girls off the dance floor. I guess the bands kept going until 2 or 3 in the morning that night! Our girls love to dance and have the Two Step down pretty well along with a little bit of Western Swing. They also love to twirl and asked every night if they could wear a dress or a skirt that went out when they twirled. The girls do a good job of dragging people out on the dance floor that might not dance otherwise, breaking down the barriers socially. I guess they didn't get much shyness from me. I was actually surprised at how many people they asked to dance. Every time I turned around they were dancing with someone else. I don't think they sat down for one dance!
Aubrey and Mackenzie dancing ![]()
Two beautiful red heads dancing together ![]()
Aubrey danced with every boy in her class plus other boys who are not in her class. She did some of the asking but had plenty of boys asking her as well. Dad might have to get out that rifle a little earlier than he thought! It was all innocent fun (we hope)! :)
Boy #1 ![]()
Boy #2 ![]()
Boy #3 ![]()
Boy #4. Ok I lost track of how many she danced with! :) ![]()
Aub dancing with Grandpa Bruce. It was so sweet how she was reaching clear up to his shoulder. ![]()
Aubrey jitterbugging with another teacher friend, Jason. He was one of the very few besides us who knew how to jitterbug and had lots of people asking him.
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Aubrey dancing with the guy she loves most of all in the world, her Dad! ![]()
One happy dancer! ![]()
One of the other red heads in town (I think there is only 3) is a wonderful woman by the name of Kim. She is actually the first person I met from Galena. Mackenzie had a connection with her the moment they met. She adores her! Maybe it is because the red hair reminds her of her older sister.
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Mackenzie and Marina are dancing with our local doctor. She married into the community so we are lucky to actually have a doctor in Galena. Most villages do not and just have a doctor who travels there from another town. She also teaches the girls sign language in an after school program. Here is an example of small town life...her son is in Aubrey's class and her mom is one of Aubrey's teachers!
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Mackenzie dancing with her adorable friend! ![]()
Grandma Benni and Mack enjoying a dance! ![]()
How many of you remember dancing on your Dad's feet? One of my favorite memories of dancing with my Dad is when I was small enough to ride around on his feet while he was dancing. I hope the girls have fond memories of dancing with their Dad as well, which as you can see from the pictures it looks like they will!
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"I love you Daddy." ![]()
All smiles! ![]()
The dip! ![]()
Aubrey finally took a break from dancing with all the boys to dance with her little sister! ![]()
Twirl, twirl, twirl! ![]()
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The Dancing Sisters
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Marina having some fun with Grandma Benni ![]()
Marina dancing with Grandpa Bruce and Mackenzie dancing with our dear friend Tabitha ![]()
Little ones (including Marina) chasing each other around while the band plays. ![]()
I am not in very many of the pictures as I was the one behind the camera. I don't know if you remember me posting about spraining my ankle way back in September? Well after hobbling around on it for about a week, I finally went in and got crutches and x-rays. It ended up that a bone in my upper foot was fractured on the tip. I had been trying to walk on it and then quit using the crutches all to find out later that the x-rays finally came back showing a fracture. I was wondering why I was feeling so much pain from just a sprain and chalked it up to being wimpier than I use to be. I didn't have much time to heal before the Jamboree but I was determined I was going to dance. My ankle was still hurting when I was on it much but I just wrapped it up tight, stuffed it into my boot, and tried to ignore the pain most of the evening. It was pretty sore by the end of each evening, but I was so happy I was able to dance and didn't have to sit on the sidelines. We must have done an decent job of dancing, as we have had a lot of people request that Ross and I teach dancing lessons. Most people around here have not seen the type of dancing we do. They mostly just know the Two Step so Ross and I hope to teach a few classes this next semester. Aubrey loves taking pictures so finally we passed her the camera and she caught the next two photos of Ross and I dancing.
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Another dip! ![]()
Ross and I dancing the western swing. ![]()
This is the only one I have of the girls and I dancing ![]()
Aubrey also took this picture of Grandma Benni and Grandpa Bruce dancing ![]()
Our friend, Martin, asked Grandma Virginia to dance. She is barely able to walk without assistance, but she got out their and danced her heart out. I thought this was the sweetest picture. All our kids call her Grandma Virginia and run up to her to give her hugs whenever they see her. She says, "Come see Grandma Virginia" and gives them big kisses in return. I love Grandma Virginia's kuspuk. She said she would teach me how to make one, but I haven't gotten the material for it yet. Grammy Cakes is making one for each of the girls though. Many of the women and children wear the kuspuks to functions like this in order to dress up. I think they are so cute!
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They also had face painting and kid's games at the Jamboree. Mackenzie is getting both sides of her face painted.
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Marina showing off her face painting ![]()
One of Galena's favorite songs is "Indian Rock 'n' Roll" sung by Marc Brown and the Blues Crew (who are Alaska's #1 band) and written by Louis Demoski, who is actually from Galena. I hadn't heard of it before moving here, but I must admit it is a pretty fun song to dance to. The minute the band starts playing, everyone gets off their seats and starts jumping up and down to the chorus with their arm raised and going up and down. Sounds kind of funny to explain but it is pretty fun. You can see the crowd doing what I explained in the picture below. Also if you look hard enough you can see Ross toward the back of the crowd by the band, throwing Mackenzie in the air! For weeks after the Jamboree the girls could be heard singing the chorus over and over. Marina still sings it off and on to this day!
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On a sadder note, I just want to say functions like this that support good clean fun and sobriety are great for the community. Our community just lost a middle aged man to suicide a few days before Christmas. He was drinking when it happened which is quite often the case. I remember him dancing with his girlfriend at the Jamboree. It looked like they were very happy, but you never know what someone is going through deep down. Please be praying for others in the villages as the long cold winter days can lead to a lot of depression and suicidal thoughts for those who don't have Jesus to run to. We feel that is why God has placed us here, to reach out and shine God's light into the darkness. Please pray for perseverance for us as the students return on Monday and Ross starts teaching again. We will have another full semester with a lot of student contact! We look forward to seeing what God has planned for us, the students, and community!
It has been a surprise for me that most of the traditional music here does not include drums like the traditional native music in Southeast Alaska did. Instead it includes the fiddle and a lot of twang in almost every song. Most songs can only be danced to with the two step as they are quite slow. However when Karrie Pavish Anderson (Aubrey's piano teacher) and the students she has helped form into a band get up to play, they play some faster songs. Ross and I love the faster songs as we can jitterbug to them! They also use to have quite a bit of square dancing which doesn't happen now as they don't have a "caller".
The final day of the Jamboree includes a community church service followed by another potluck. The two churches here (Galena Bible Church and the Catholic church) switch who hosts it every year and the community gathers to worship. This year it was our church's turn to host. The Bible Church sponsored Bill Pagerin, a Tlingit Native man who is a Christian and president of a suicide prevention orginization called Carry the Cure to be the guest speaker of the Yukon Jamboree, and to preach at the community church service. He has also joined a band called Broken Walls. There were about 80 people in attendance at the church service including several local community members, and residents of other villages that came in for the Jamboree. I didn't get any pictures of this but I did get several of all the dancing!
The girls danced and danced and danced and would have kept dancing all through the night until it was morning if we had given them the chance. In fact we did! One night we stayed until 1:30 A.M. and had to drag the girls off the dance floor. I guess the bands kept going until 2 or 3 in the morning that night! Our girls love to dance and have the Two Step down pretty well along with a little bit of Western Swing. They also love to twirl and asked every night if they could wear a dress or a skirt that went out when they twirled. The girls do a good job of dragging people out on the dance floor that might not dance otherwise, breaking down the barriers socially. I guess they didn't get much shyness from me. I was actually surprised at how many people they asked to dance. Every time I turned around they were dancing with someone else. I don't think they sat down for one dance!
Aubrey danced with every boy in her class plus other boys who are not in her class. She did some of the asking but had plenty of boys asking her as well. Dad might have to get out that rifle a little earlier than he thought! It was all innocent fun (we hope)! :)
Aubrey jitterbugging with another teacher friend, Jason. He was one of the very few besides us who knew how to jitterbug and had lots of people asking him.
One of the other red heads in town (I think there is only 3) is a wonderful woman by the name of Kim. She is actually the first person I met from Galena. Mackenzie had a connection with her the moment they met. She adores her! Maybe it is because the red hair reminds her of her older sister.
Mackenzie and Marina are dancing with our local doctor. She married into the community so we are lucky to actually have a doctor in Galena. Most villages do not and just have a doctor who travels there from another town. She also teaches the girls sign language in an after school program. Here is an example of small town life...her son is in Aubrey's class and her mom is one of Aubrey's teachers!
How many of you remember dancing on your Dad's feet? One of my favorite memories of dancing with my Dad is when I was small enough to ride around on his feet while he was dancing. I hope the girls have fond memories of dancing with their Dad as well, which as you can see from the pictures it looks like they will!
I am not in very many of the pictures as I was the one behind the camera. I don't know if you remember me posting about spraining my ankle way back in September? Well after hobbling around on it for about a week, I finally went in and got crutches and x-rays. It ended up that a bone in my upper foot was fractured on the tip. I had been trying to walk on it and then quit using the crutches all to find out later that the x-rays finally came back showing a fracture. I was wondering why I was feeling so much pain from just a sprain and chalked it up to being wimpier than I use to be. I didn't have much time to heal before the Jamboree but I was determined I was going to dance. My ankle was still hurting when I was on it much but I just wrapped it up tight, stuffed it into my boot, and tried to ignore the pain most of the evening. It was pretty sore by the end of each evening, but I was so happy I was able to dance and didn't have to sit on the sidelines. We must have done an decent job of dancing, as we have had a lot of people request that Ross and I teach dancing lessons. Most people around here have not seen the type of dancing we do. They mostly just know the Two Step so Ross and I hope to teach a few classes this next semester. Aubrey loves taking pictures so finally we passed her the camera and she caught the next two photos of Ross and I dancing.
Our friend, Martin, asked Grandma Virginia to dance. She is barely able to walk without assistance, but she got out their and danced her heart out. I thought this was the sweetest picture. All our kids call her Grandma Virginia and run up to her to give her hugs whenever they see her. She says, "Come see Grandma Virginia" and gives them big kisses in return. I love Grandma Virginia's kuspuk. She said she would teach me how to make one, but I haven't gotten the material for it yet. Grammy Cakes is making one for each of the girls though. Many of the women and children wear the kuspuks to functions like this in order to dress up. I think they are so cute!
They also had face painting and kid's games at the Jamboree. Mackenzie is getting both sides of her face painted.
One of Galena's favorite songs is "Indian Rock 'n' Roll" sung by Marc Brown and the Blues Crew (who are Alaska's #1 band) and written by Louis Demoski, who is actually from Galena. I hadn't heard of it before moving here, but I must admit it is a pretty fun song to dance to. The minute the band starts playing, everyone gets off their seats and starts jumping up and down to the chorus with their arm raised and going up and down. Sounds kind of funny to explain but it is pretty fun. You can see the crowd doing what I explained in the picture below. Also if you look hard enough you can see Ross toward the back of the crowd by the band, throwing Mackenzie in the air! For weeks after the Jamboree the girls could be heard singing the chorus over and over. Marina still sings it off and on to this day!
On a sadder note, I just want to say functions like this that support good clean fun and sobriety are great for the community. Our community just lost a middle aged man to suicide a few days before Christmas. He was drinking when it happened which is quite often the case. I remember him dancing with his girlfriend at the Jamboree. It looked like they were very happy, but you never know what someone is going through deep down. Please be praying for others in the villages as the long cold winter days can lead to a lot of depression and suicidal thoughts for those who don't have Jesus to run to. We feel that is why God has placed us here, to reach out and shine God's light into the darkness. Please pray for perseverance for us as the students return on Monday and Ross starts teaching again. We will have another full semester with a lot of student contact! We look forward to seeing what God has planned for us, the students, and community!