Time to Reflect

"The question you always have to ask yourself is:
'What's behind the things we see happen?'"
~Traditional Chief Peter John

Chief Peter John was born in Rampart and lived to be 102 years old. He lost his parents when he was young and was sent to St. Mark’s Mission School in Nenana where he learned reading and writing. He lived a subsistence lifestyle and married Elsie Silas when he was 25. Peter and Elsie had ten children and adopted another four. Today they have three daughters of their children living. Peter was a disciplined student of his own culture and he has also studied the Bible. He held the post of Village Chief on and off since 1945 and he was a central figure in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. In the early 1990s, he was named Traditional Doyon (Chief) for the Interior Athabascans, a post he will retain for life (from The Gospel According to Peter John, 1996).