Stories from Our Elders

I was born here. My mom was from here, but my dad was born in Chenega, and we lived there until the earthquake.

We all say the earthquake, everybody around here knows which one that is, it's the '64 earthquake. Lost [tuned] earthquake. Well actually the tidal wave swept them out. And from what people told me about the earthquake, like the birds in the trees and everything like that, everything when all of a sudden quiet. And they said that when that happens, something's going to happen.

There was a landslide underwater and that's what caused tidal waves.

If you really thought all along that it was the glacier, but it wasn't, it was a landslide from the mountain.

He was 11, Kenny was 12. That's the one I was telling you about. That cliff was almost vertical, and to this day he still doesn't know how he got up there. We have a memorial, Chenega memorial every year. And he walked me over, this is the cliff I was telling you about. I mean it’s a... It's just... Nobody could climb up there, so it must have been all adrenaline or something, getting off that cliff.

Oh, my dad, his name was Charlie Salano Sr, and my brother Ken Salano, Kenny was 12. They actually rode. When the tidal wave came, first one came in, they actually rode out to the bay on a log. And on the second tidal wave that was coming in, they managed to get off that log and then they heard screaming here, it was Nancy, she was stuck in the mud. She was eight. And like I told you before, they couldn't -- hey, I'll grab you by the shoulders or something. He had no choice but to grab her by the hair and ran up the hill. And they managed to make it. But from then on, every time there was a tremor, my sister Nancy would cry. She would have all kinds of fits and everything.

Sally, and Willy Evenow, and their granddaughter Joanne, they didn't make it. The tidal wave reached, hit them too quick. Because, speaking with these people, the reason they got swept out is because they froze. You know, you ever see anybody freeze, you know, when there's danger? So that's what happened. But anyway, my mom... My mom sort of blanked it out. Because she lost her son and daughter -- my brother and sister.

They rescued them and took them to Cordova and that night my mom started screaming and screaming for her kids. And I guess that went on for a while. All night there was crying around. From, because we lost 23 out of 92, and a third of them were kids. That's why we couldn't rebuild because there weren't enough kids to open up a school.

-- think they found 3 out of 23...

At night they kept having after-tremors. So, it prompted them to go further up the hill. So, they had to build a big bonfire and that's how my dad heard my brother, Tim, you know, the one that climbed up the cliff -- Tim was lost? He said it was pitch black. He didn't know which direction to go. And he kept hollering for dad and mom.

[interviewer] And he was all by himself out there?

Yeah. In the dark. I mean like, this black.

[interviewer] Yeah.

And then he said he thought he heard something, so he was hollering for dad, and dad finally came running towards him, and he finally got closer to the village. And he was pretty devastated himself, because young as he was, he knew it was bad before he even looked. And then... He said he looked, even though he didn't want to, and there's all this debris in the bay. He said -- our whole lives are in that bay. Everything. Our houses, our kids, our aunts and uncles, our grandparents, our pets. Because when they were doing cleanup they found, I forget how many pets, maybe three.

-- some of them completely blocked Chenega out. Like my sister, Betty, she doesn't remember nothing. And I did myself, I blocked it out until I was about 30, and then bits and pieces would come back and then I would remember this and that. So, I'm wondering why that happened. I don't know if your body's way of defending you, I guess. I don't know.

[interviewer] Surviving.

Yeah. Survival.

-- see, back before the earthquake, before we left, I had this dream. It was two years before I left. Maybe a year. I was 12 and I was going to be 13 in August. And I went to wrangle when I was 14. But when I was 13, I told mom, I said -- mom, I had a real crazy dream. I said, I dreamt I was a brown bear on the shoreline stomping the earth so hard that the earth was shaking. And she looked at me kind of weird, because -- and then I found out many, many, many years later my dad has premonitions. And so, do I.

Dad said when there's something like that happens, you don't have time to go. He was always telling us, whatever you do, just remember, keep your shoes by the door, you're ready to go. And if you have to go, like, if you just have your pajamas on or something, and you don't have time, grab your blanket, and go.

-- I think I told you about Jack, maybe about, he died not long ago, maybe six years ago. And he said he was homesick. Well, he said if he's down Chenega way, like, happened to be on a boat or ferry or something, he said he still looks for his mom and dad. And that's 30 years.