Amelia Hill was the resident nurse for the Episcopal Church Mission at St. John’s-in-the-Wilderness, Allakaket. From the early 1920's until her retirement in 1953, she worked as a nurse along with Bessie C. Kay who was a teacher and church layperson, holding church services and teaching Sunday school. From 1948-1950, Miss Hill was the Postmaster of Allakaket.

Commentary on the Captions, by Wendy Arundale and Eliza Jones Fairbanks, Alaska, February 1, 1993

The captions were compiled largely from a series of interviews with Susie Williams, a Koyukon Athabaskan elder from Hughes. The interviews were conducted in June 1988 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks by Eliza Jones, a Koyukon linguist from the Koyukuk River area and Wendy Arundale, an anthropologist who has worked in the region intermittently since 1982. In 1992 the tapes made during the interviews were indexed and the segments relevant to the photographs transcribed by Mary Odden. Odden, a graduate student in English with considerable interest and experience in oral history, also compiled the captions. Her work was supervised and edited by Jones and Arundale.

Notes made during the interviews and during indexing and transcription also contributed to the captions. Some photographs were identified through additional unrecorded interviews conducted at Allakaket in November 1992 by Wendy Arundale with Sarah Simon, Jennie William, Elizabeth Bergman, and Ann Edwards. Where information from these other sources is used, their initials appear in parentheses. In some cases photocopies of the original photos that we worked with were incomplete or in such poor quality that identification was difficult or impossible. For some photos, we have noted these difficulties. We express our sincere appreciation to all of these elders for their thoughtful and helpful contributions to this project.

Since Susie Williams may not be well-known to many people using these materials, a few words about her life are in order. She was born in 1905 at what is now Allakaket. Her parents were Leon and Ida. She had three younger sisters and two younger brothers. Her father died before she was ten years old, and she spent many of her growing up years helping her mother raise her siblings. Nevertheless, she managed to finish fourth grade at the mission school in Allakaket, and her ability to speak, read, and write English has continued to grow over the years. St. John's-in-the-Wilderness Mission at Allakaket was founded in 1907-08 by Hudson Stuck. The mission played an important part in Susie's early life, and the Episcopal church continues to play an important part in her life today.

As a young woman, Susie married Frank Simon, who also was from the Allakaket area, and they had three children before Frank died in the late 1920s. Two of her children also died during this time. In the early 1930s, Susie married Levine Williams, and they moved downriver to Hughes. Susie and Levine had 8 more children and adopted two others. Over the years, Levine sometimes was gone for the entire summer working in one of the area mining operations or doing other wage work. Like many Koyukon women whose husbands had to leave home in the summer to find work, Susie carried on taking care of the children, fishing to feed people and dogs, and doing all that was necessary to keep the household going. Susie was well-known for her ability to raise and train good sled dogs.

As of early 1993, she is 87 years old. Although Levine's health has forced him to move to a foster home for Native elders in the Fairbanks area, Susie's health is remarkably good, her mind clear, and her memory sharp. She lives in Hughes, but travels to visit friends and to attend various social events including potlatches and funerals where her knowledge of traditional ways and her singing ability are highly respected and greatly welcomed. She is an important cultural and historical resource for the people of her area.