Yvonne Adams:
CLASS OF 1980
East High SchoolClass of 1980
Anchorage, AK
Merriline A. Kangas SchoolClass of 1980
Ruby, AK
Yvonne's Story
There were just a few of us interior Athabascans allowed to attend school in Anchorage under the boarding home program. We were told that if our grade point average was not up to par, we would be shipped back to our tiny village of Ruby. Most of us Native kids were super home sick and thanks to Coach Darrel Peterson and his wife Jean (school nurse) and also Brenda Coffee and Mrs. Lopez we started a Native Culture Group in Room 4 of East High. We brought our Native cooking and provided opportunity for others to experience what we could share of our culture. Many other tribal people joined and even some Hmong students. We did a lot of tutoring and most of us had to catch up in high school since it was common our families in our villages took us out of school to go to winter camp and hunt/trap subsistence style. Some of my peers from my village have already passed on such...Expand for more
as Joyce Honea and Laverne Dozette. Many thanks to Robert Reimer (Yupik) who ran the school paper and provided so much good reindeer meat. I am still in touch with some people I met at East High like Ray Dennis and I do remember his younger sis Emma. If you remember me, please say hello. After getting married, raising up adult kids and sadly divorcing, I ran businesses all over Europe and China too. Unfortunately my younger brother committed suicide and I knew I had to make it back to the tribe and help my elderly mom keep going. So here I am in Ruby, Alaska running the Tribal Transportation Program. I have missed any 1980 East High Class Reunions but I do hope to touch base with folks as high school has a special place in my heart. No matter what life throws at us, we can always remember those days we were young and full of dreams. Funny how that comes full circle.
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