European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 14, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Fiddling along the Yukon by Dean Fosdick associated Pressi n the chill and darkness of Alaska win Lar. In fans along the Yukon River gainer to keep alive. A adding tradition that owes As much Vornail of incr Cata logs Aslo Lur radars. Hudson Bay fur i rappers info diced violin music la the Athabasca is of Interior Alaska in to 1830s with. Tha music Cama dancing Light hearted reels jigs Square dances and Waltzes Wilh roots in Scotland French Canada and the Orkney islands. But it wan Sears Roc Bucks co. And Montgomery Ward Ilia a Century Laler supplied phonograph a records and Iddles in Exchange or lure. And i hat brought country and Western music by Steamboat to the Yukon. "1 was raised in the wilderness where my dad used to Hunt and  says Bill Stevens s3, from fort Yukon. We d come into the villages or dancing which was . Prei by soon i eak fed my Mother to be me a Fiddia and she ordered one irom a scars Roebuck Catalon i was Abums Ihen Andl Learned top Layit by ear. Where i was there was no formal training. No teachers. It was t until years Laler in California thai Learned twas holding re wrong. Since thai time Stevens has won scores of trophies in fiddling contests. He has Cut an album and traded his Sears vow to for a Blue plastic Model an Alec Ric instrument similar to the kind used by Many professionals. That a sizable improvement Over some of he instruments once carried in dog sleds Topo latches festivals and dances. The people along the River found it easier to pack a violin or guitar or their travels than anything else Stevens says. And they were easier to repair. Lynx or Marten gut was used Whan violin strings broke. Rabbit snare wire was wrapped around battered instruments to hold them together. Stevens talked Wilh a reporter while Indian musicians representing More Ihan 25 villages i Alaska and Canada played in groups of iwo or three on the Slage of the eagles Hall in Fairbanks. No Penguin garbed musicians on this stage. The majority wore baseball Caps plaid flannel shirts suspenders and Hunting boots. Each played in 15-Toso-Minuls sats turning out a wend of foot stomping hand Clappin music hat had scores of couples whirling and Wheeling on the dance floor. Many of the men and woman wore beaded ankle length Moccasin dancing shoes Worth hundreds of dollars. Others wore foam insulated Moon boots and jogging shoes As hey rounded the door in Lime to the music the occasion was the Institute of Alaska native arts fourth annual fiddling festival three Days of Jam sessions workshops and Danang in Lale november. It s lha waiting time Between fishing and trapping for these performers Moat of whom live in Road less villages near the Vukon diver North of Fairbanks. But one had returned Home from Maine and two others showed up from Tuktoyaktuk a Canadian Village on an Island in the Beaufort sea whal you see out there on the dance floor basically Are Erma Bombeck  Yukon Alaska Gothia Onttko seat 15 when til Mother ordered on from a  people who de simple tunes says Gordon Olin an ath pascan who had grownup in the Korines an area of Tow Hills frees Hunting and fishing Camps near the Yukon the majority of the people Don t like to hear music they Don t understand says Olin who now lives in Millinocket Maine. And they want to be Able to dance to it Joe Wilson is a blues and gospel musician who has attended the Estiva Lor two of us four years. The first Lime he came As an observe r for the National endowment for the arts Wimch had supplied seed Money to hip gel the festival going Thesa cond Lime he came Asa consultant paid by tha festival to document the music and help maintain the irad ton. Somebody told me thai 30 percent of the music was scottish some from Orkney some this some that Wilson said in a Telephone interview from Elkhorn miss., where he was performing with his group. Actually a Large part of it was Learned from old Sears Roebuck 78s there was a time when you could Send skins Down to Chicago and they d Send Back Crank Type phonographs and  you can gel an idea of what part of the River the musicians Are from by watching Ihler feet Wilson says. Some of them do a fool dog that s where a tiddler beats accompaniment with both feel. Alt the old French voyageurs played thai Way. By Here s a difference in the music As you go Down River he says. There s More blues and country Morel a Modem influence. And you see them keeping Irna with one fool. English is really Tho Only thing they have in  Wilson who grew Upin the has an hollows Oless Tennessee says the Athabasca is Are developing a new kind of music from the strains passed Down Mouth to Mouth ear to Earo Martha decades. Ii sparkles he says it has a wild wonderful Quality toil "thcsepcoploarofhjnters.ltrtinktheyplaymueic. Sometimes the Way they Hunt. I hear an untamed qualy about them. Two horse does t havea bridle on ii. There s discipline there but the boundaries Are  the Way it was pitched to me was the elementary school my kids attended needed a Lew Good women to uphold the tradition of excellence on the playground they needed a group of volunteers who would preserve and Delend to the woman the order and discipline of Lite at lunch. The Lew. The proud. The play found aides. My decision to Volunteer was to alter the course of my die never again would i View children As trolls of innocence. I was to learn that As few As six of them could bring a country to its Knees armed Only Wilh a split baseball Bat and a plastic water Psiol the experience added another dimension and a fourth r to the educational process of Reading riling arithmetic and rehabilitation. Ii was something that was never talked about and i figured All of us would pass into history and no one would Ever know of our sacrifices and Battles not True. A Lew weeks ago i read where a school system was going to cancel recess Page 16 the stars and stripes because funds could not be found to hire aides to police the playgrounds. A spokesman for the school said it would Cost $300,00 a year to hire one or two playground aides Tor the District. A spokesman far the teachers Union said they could t pay is enough to do  a spokesman Lor the parents said what do we do now we be got �6,000 in playground equipment that now Sils  obviously someone talked. Some Mother somewhere broke the tradition of the corps and leaked to the press the conditions of supervising children who have been sitting in a warm room ail morning listening to someone lecture on the social effects of soybeans on the Western world. I Don l think i la Ever forget my first Day in combat. The chill Factor was to below. Not one of the children saturday March 14,1987 being bodily pushed out of the door really believed fresh air is Good for  they made the Bestol it. A group engaged in a game of keep away kept one of the supervisors airborne for 20 minutes. An Lher group used the soup Lafi in their thermoses to make ice patches just oils de the doors to make it interesting or those who followed. Another band engaged in extortion where they backed a classmate against the Wall and demanded empty your  to the school i d say for $300,000 you re getting off  to the teachers i d say hold out for combat  to the parents who worry about s6.00q Worth of unused equipment i d say. If i had l had the Jungle bars to climb and hide out in unlit recess was Over i would t be alive today