Volunteers help bring subsistence foods to elders

When the tide is low, the table is set.

Sandy Churchill, a teacher at Tlingit & Haida Head Start in Wrangell, was referring to the ocean's banquet of sea cucumbers - known as yein in Tlingit - plus kelp, hooligans, beach grasses and fresh fish.

Harvesting the banquet is difficult for about a hundred elders in Wrangell.

That's why Churchill and Kassee Schlotzhauer, branch manager at Wells Fargo, organize a subsistence proxy program to help elders who can no longer subsistence harvest from the land themselves.

The program assigns a more able-bodied person to forage and hunt on behalf of the elders. Wrangell's Subsistence Giving Project also depends on volunteer donations of foods to share.

Schlotzhauer started her efforts last year, grinding deer in a lone KitchenAid mixer. Then the pandemic opened up an opportunity to secure grant funding to process larger quantities.

With that funding from Juneau-based nonprofit Spruce Root, she purchased mass-processing items like a commercial vacuum sealer and processing tables for fish - materials Schlotzhauer could not afford.

Working with Churchill, they put together bags for Native seniors in town.

Churchill, who is Tsimshian, Tlingit and Haida, is vice president for the Alaska Native Sisterhood in Wrangell, and the first grand vice president for ANS in the state.

She said traditional foods are delicacies.

"If you lose the food, you feel like you lose the culture," Churchill said.

Proxy hunters go out and get deer and moose; a couple others go out and hunt seals. Women gather berries like cranberries, huckleberries, blueberries, thimbleberries and salmonberries when they're in season. They also gather fireweed and make honey and jellies.

This year Schlotzhauer is hoping to offer venison. She'll gather the proxies and hunt, similar to what she did with the 20 sockeye salmon she harvested last year. She processed the catch and donated bags to the Wrangell Cooperative Association and Native elders in town.

"It's something they've eaten their whole lives," Schlotzhauer said.

State law allows residents to harvest fish, shellfish and game on behalf of residents who are 65 years of age or older, legally blind or physically disabled.

The senior apartments are full of elders, Churchill said. "Being born and raised here, we know where everyone is."

Last year, they surprised the elders with 30 baskets of food, and extra fish that went to 15 more people, benefiting 45 in all, which Churchill said they appreciated. And there were more people to reach.

They hope to have a similar distribution this year in October.

Churchill said helping elders is a big part of tribal values because "they took care of us."

"I'm almost an elder," Churchill said, laughing. "'Practicing' elder," she added. "I have a lot of work to do."

Anyone interested in donating subsistence foods can drop off items for Schlotzhauer at Wells Fargo or Churchill at Tlingit & Haida Head Start.