About

My first day in my first Alaskan village, Kipnuk. We, the four young ladies and I, are returning from berry picking on the tundra. August, 1978

About Kipnuk.net…

In the late summer of 1978, I signed a two-year contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to teach Native Alaskan children in rural Alaska. As good fortune would have it, I was assigned to teach Yup’ik Eskimo children in Kipnuk, a remote village on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, a few miles from the Bering Sea coast.

My two-year “obligation” morphed into 17 happy years, teaching in several rural Native Alaskan classrooms. However, my eternal gratitude for those 17 wonderful years will always remain with the people of Kipnuk, my first home in Alaska. They are the ones who taught me the art of gentle teasing, to laugh at myself, to share, to really understand and appreciate the sense of Community.

This website offers a pictorial glimpse into that Community, which I have come to appreciate and love so very much.

About me…

In October 2025, the remnants of Typhoon Halong made landfall on the coast of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of Alaska, resulting in the near-complete destruction of the villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. The ultimate fate of these two villages and their Yup’ik Eskimo inhabitants remains uncertain. For now, we must attempt to preserve the memory of life as it was lived half a century ago.

As a resident of Kipnuk from 1978 to 1980, I had the privilege of photographing in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. My primary objective was to record and preserve the faces and lives of these two remote villages.

I have created this website for the people of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, as well as their friends from around the world. The photographs were taken between August 1978 and June 1980. They depict the two villages and their people as I remember them. The images are available for you to remember as well.

As time permits, I will add additional photographs to these pages.