My Grub Box

Agrub box, or, in Yup'ik taqurvik, is the container in which we pack food and other items when going on hunting, camping, and other trips. A grub box can be a discarded cardboard egg box or a simple wooden box.

My parents' grub box sits in the living room of our home when it's not being used by one of the family. My mom and dad are experts at preparing a grub box because they are always going on camping and hunting trips. Their grub box contains a standard list of items, including sugar, salt, tea, coffee, matches, a knife, a knife sharpener, bathroom tissue, snuff, and candy. Other items are added as needed.

Some of the items in grab boxes are intangible things, that are passed on from parents to children, such as a sense of who you are and how to survive. They are things that are basic to living, things a person relies on when she is taken out of her environment. My Dartmouth experience is basically a story of being out of my environment and how I survived by relying on my grub box and the things I learned from my childhood.

Before I left for Dartmouth College, my dad told me that because I used to go on these trips to Black River to pick salmon berries or out into the Bering Sea to hunt seals and whales, I would be different from others at the College. He said, "You are going to stick out like a sore thumb." He was right.

College expanded my way of thinking about things. I developed a "global" perspective by being exposed to people, places, and ideas that were different from what I had known. I saw places like Boston and New York from bus stations and windows. Before this, I had only read about such places. I had never seen a person steal from others until I watched a pickpocket in Boston's South Station. Basically, what happened to me was that I went beyond the physical and figurative boundaries expected of a young Eskimo girl from rural Alaska. It has taken a long time for me to make sense of these experiences.

During my freshman year, my grandpa sent me a grub box. He sent me a care package'prepared by my Aunt Babe. It contained dried salmon, tundra (Labrador) tea, Sailor Boy crackers, Royal Cream Boy crackers, tuna, peanut butter, jam, and chicken sandwich spread. My favorite food is seal meat smothered in onions; looking back, I don't think it would have been possible to send that to me.

My college experience wasn't a simple trip. It was a hard, long, and somtimes lonely adventure. Lucky for me. there was more in my grab box than food. Looking back, I believe that my strength to meet the challenges at Dartmouth came from my family and the contents of my grub box.

A Yup'lk Eskimo,VIVIAN JOHNSON is an administrator withYukon-Delta RegionalHospital and 'an advocate for regional education, small business, and cultural interests. For ten years she has worked toward opening the Lower Yukon River Museumin Emmonak, Alaska.