Hello!  My name's Alaska, and I live in Umiat, Alaska, with my family.  I'm ten years old.

I have my mamma, my father, my grandmother, and my twin brothers, Saqaq and Siniq, who are two.  I had a little sister, Gemma, but she died three years ago.  She had cancer of the blood.  I miss her so much!

I like to listen to the radio, read ("American Girl" or easy readers mostly; I'm not that good at reading yet, but I am getting a little better; mamma's been helping me), and draw.  I also like to try to write stories or poems; I write mostly about my family or my life here in Alaska.

Where I live it's cold a good part of the year.  Summer does come here, but it doesn't last long.  It seems our winters go on forever; even in July or August we have to wear jackets to keep warm.  If it gets above sixty degrees I am sweating; it's way too hot. 

I like spring and fall the best, I think; it's when Aurora Borealis does her magic dance in our skies; she reminds me of a moving rainbow.  I like the aurora; I like to think our ancestors are up there, dancing, having a wonderful time. 

I don't have an exciting life.  If I'm not going to school, I'm watching out over my twin brothers.  They are okay, but they can act up sometimes, cause a lot of trouble.  They are very mischevious (I had to look up the spelling for that one!).

I'm not crazy about school:  the kids still tease me (the non-Native kids, that is); they call me "Igloo-Mama", "Eskimo", or worse; sometimes the name-calling gets so bad I cry, and then they call me a cry-baby.  I'm happiest when I'm not in school; that way, I don't have to put up with the other kids making fun of me.

Well, I am going to go.  Have to watch over Siniq and Saqaq; mamma and father are going to run to the store to get food.  We're running low.  I will write in here again; until later, this is Alaska Quiilliiaaq saying bye-bye!

~Love, your Inuk friend in Alaska, Alaska Maniq.  :)