Questions: p.38-39

10. What happened when Velma and Aunt Nina tried to keep Baldy's bootlegging business going? Aunt Nina started drinking the alcohol and they ran out of money.
11. What did Velma find in the cache? A dress, a lock of hair and some other personal belonging in a cloth.
12. What's the invisible boundary between elders and youth? Youth had no emotional claims on elders. Physically close but spiritually apart.
13. What was the hardest thing Aunt Nina ever had to do? Bury her young daughter.

Activity 3 – Reflection and Journal Writing

• Reflect on how Aunt Nina felt when her only daughter died of typhoid fever. Write a letter to Aunt Nina expressing your sympathy over her daughter's death.
• Write an obituary for Baldy.

Activity 4 – Discussion and Extended Activities

Discussion

• How was Gwich'in life slowly being destroy?
• Why was Aunt Nina a source of mystery?
• How did the epidemics affect the Gwich'in people? How was Aunt Nina affected?

Extended Activities

• Add to your timeline: 1910s Gwich'in wearing trousers, white shirts, shiny black shoes (Western clothing)
• Research the different epidemics from the early 1900's: measles, smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculosis and influenza. Choose one disease and research it on the Internet. Write a one page essay on the history of the disease. Make sure you the answers to the following questions in your essay:
  
  
  • Give an overview of the disease.
  • Where does it come from?
  • How is it transmitted?
  • What are the signs and symptoms of the disease?
  • Why was the disease so deadly in the early 1900's to Aboriginal people?
  • Have they found a treatment or vaccination for it? When?