Bratva Mother

Her People

Being back in the village after so many years was refreshing. These people know each other inside and out. Your full name, who your parents are, grandparents and if you have siblings. They know what you like and don’t like. Everyone knows she is the granddaughter of Sesi, a previous medicine woman of the tribe. They now know that she has taken on her grandma’s name with her native name to make it harder for her ex to find her.

Thanks to the elder who greeted her at the airstrip, they all know she is pregnant. They are all making it easier to be here while pregnant. The women gave her tips and ideas to do while up at Sesi’s camp. The men were proud that Junior and a few other guys went up there to make the camp both safer and comfortable for her. She will also have eight of the best sled dogs the village has trained. The older generation knows Sesi taught her grandkids what she could about survival, hunting and fishing.

Picking berries, well, Carol picked while her brother and another guy stood watch with rifles. Making sure any wild animal left the women alone while they harvested berries. Carol also learned the words the dogs responded to while hooked up to a sled.

It was good to be back and not treated differently. The women learned from Junior how Jessica acted around Carol. They swore to make sure to send good things up to her during her stay at the camp. The men also mentioned helping her out with hunting or checking in on her. Carol felt loved and cared for. None of these people were blood related to her, but they treated her as one of their own.

She felt truly at peace for the first time since finding out she was pregnant. This was her home, these people were her people. This land, reliable and most part predictable for them. There was no urgent need to go go go. There weren't sirens, horns honking or loud people. It was mostly quiet here. You could hear the wind through the trees. See the leaves on the mountain start to change color. With the rainy season coming you can feel the humidity in the air, clean and fresh.

It is like being back in her native lands has helped put life back into her. While spending a few days in the village she has talked to the women and the elders about her idea of medicinal farming. Of growing plants and using them for healing. The younger generation liked the idea, however some of the elders had concerns they wanted addressed before telling her their opinion.

How will the plants be harvested? Will she mass farm and destroy the crops with machines and chemicals? How many plants did she plan to grow? Plus a few other questions. Carol answered them all. She didn’t plan to use chemicals or machines in the crops. Maybe build a watering system with ravines or something. But she wasn’t going to destroy the land or the plants. That isn’t what grandma Sesi taught her to do. She was planning to teach a few locals to harvest her plants how she was raised to do. It would grow the economy and the people wouldn’t be looking so hard for work. She was honest and told the elders about her idea for two farms, one in Alaska and one somewhere in Seattle, having a decent size plot of land to get her started. It isn’t like many people besides natives will come to her for natural medicine to begin with anyway. It could be a good start to see how it all would work out.

The elders were intrigued with her ideas and her plans. They wanted to think about it for a while longer. However they couldn’t see her using the land or the plants wrong, she was honoring her grandma with traditional medicine. They just wanted to sleep on it longer. Which Carol was happy to grant time. She jokingly told them that it isn’t like she will start right away when she is pregnant and planning to be a nomad for a bit.

Junior and Carol stayed in Dagàii Oozrii՝ until Friday morning. With that, Junior loaded the boat up, which would take her further up river. It wasn’t big or flashy, just your typical jon boat. A flat bed with two rows to sit on. He would bring her up first with one of her lead dogs, Misriha. He would slowly bring the others or recrute the other men to help with it later.

She brought with her some clothes and of course food and cleaning supplies. The men were worried about finishing construction on the property more than the cleanliness of the place. She wouldn’t mind that, it’ll give her something to do while she learns about her grandma’s land again. The boat ride was long as expected. Junior stopped often so they could stretch their legs and move. They were both in heavy winter coats, she was wearing a life jacket. Her brother was being stubborn about wearing one.

The wind on the open water was colder than under trees. Going fast up river was another thing about it too. She noticed they passed the fish weir not too far out of the village. It is like a fence across the river. There are little areas you can have a boat travel across, but no fish could go up stream. In the middle, there is a cage-like area that is the only place fish can travel north. People would sit on the cage, counting the number of salmon going upstream and the different kinds. If it was a king salmon, they would catch it, tag it and release it. This started when she was a teen near Fairbanks. The state wanted to know how many salmon make it upstream to spawn. So they created these areas throughout the major rivers to count the amount of fish going upstream.

It felt good to know these studies were still important to the state, to know that they weren’t being shut down. To know the rough estimate being caught in the ocean versus the amount making it upstream to make baby salmon. She needed to know the amount of data the weir was collecting. It would be good to know if their time on the river counting fish all day helps. If the numbers increase, it means they're doing something right, if it goes down, something is not right. They would have to steadily go back down the river to see if it is too much fishing below, or if it is too much ocean fishing.

Anyway, Carol would have to make a mental note to also keep track of the progress the fish were making. Because if she cannot fish for her pups, She’ll have to ask the village people if they have Salmon they don’t want.

Once at the camp Carol got out of the boat and looked around the property. The main cabin was in front, there were 3 other cabin like areas to the left and an open field to the right, she knows behind the shrubbs there is an outhouse there too. Looking at the cabin, her grandma did well in having it built.

Growing up, grandma had ‘Spirit week’ with the school. All school age kids came here for a week to learn to live off the land and use natural resources to make things. The high school kids had to do a lot on their own, while the younger kids were provided materials and told where to find what they needed. The high schoolers understood they were of age to forge on their own and figure it out. But they didn’t like it.

She remembered the three cabin-like area’s were just a floor and sides, no roof. However, today two of them have roofs. She looked to her brother for an explanation. He smiled then showed her what he and a few guys did. One cabin they turned into a shower/sauna-like area. Hence the roof now on top. She’ll have to boil water with a barrel outside using a fire under it, if she wants a shower. However with a sauna all she would have to do is wait for the fire to be warm. She could pour water onto the rocks and let steam do the rest.

The other cabin turned into a generator area. She has solar panels. She'll have to keep snow free, but just in case the sun hides, she’ll still get power. The guys made sure she would be comfortable out here mostly on her own. She’ll have the occasional visitor from either her brothers or the local village to see how she is doing and dropping supplies off. However, they made sure in her pregnant state, she does little heavy lifting.

On the main cabin stairs, there is a ramp like thing, it is too steep for wheels but there is some kind of pulley system over it. She asked her brother about it, he smiled again but instead of explaining, he showed her what it was. It turns out they engineered a little contraption thing so she wouldn’t have to carry wood or water; all she has to do is put it in a little wagon or sled and hook two of the dogs to the top of the stairs and they will pull it inside for her.

All these things, she is only pregnant, not invalid. She wants to be annoyed with everyone but then again it is all really sweet they are thinking of her comfort while pregnant. When was the last time someone thought about her comfort while doing chores? Will this pampering of her last the whole pregnancy?

Again she was in awe with the amount of thought and work went into the property just to make her more comfortable. They went inside where not much changed from her memory of the cabin. Kitchen area on her left with a stove directly in front of her, with the beds further in the back of the cabin, there was a ladder leading to the loft, it was a storage area. She’ll not have to go up there with beading already laid out for her on both beds.

Her tribe made sure both her and baby were comfortable. They gathered extra food for her and agreed to share their hunt with her. They got this camp ready for her use as well. She will have little excuse to head back to the village let alone Anchorage any time soon. Unless her pregnancy requires her to go back in. The doctor agreed that a few sessions could be conducted with the equipment Ray sent, but if she sees anything she doesn’t like from the results sent via letters, then she will insist Carol come in during her seventh month to wait for labor.

Carol has already started to keep a log of heart rate, temp, weight and everything else. She needed to look at the machines to know what she was dealing with. It turns out it is equipment meant to be portable. Carol will put a belt like thing over her belly, waiting to hear a whooshing noise. Once she finds it, she’ll stop moving the belt and lay on her side. This machine will measure the baby's heart rate and activity while in the womb. Another is an ultrasound machine, she isn’t sure what she is supposed to measure for ultrasound during her 18-22nd weeks. So decided she’ll take a picture of what she can and the doctor can figure it out once she has copies of it all. Plus a few others she isn’t sure why is here.

Looks like she will have to find a way to get a hold of Ray and ask her. However her brother wasn’t done with the tour. He went over to the extra bed and pressed a button near the head of the bed. The bed moved up and stairs appeared under it. He brought her down with a flashlight. It was a cold space, she could store things she needed to keep cold, without attracting wildlife to the property.