Voices from the Community: I am Maangaq

I would like to give an inside view of being an Alaskan Cup’ik Eskimo student going to a Western-based boarding school outside of our village such as in Bethel, Anchorage, or Kenai in the late 1970s and how I have applied all that to my family life after high school graduation and kept my personal Cup’ik values and customs.

My name is Neva Mathias. Maangaq is my Cup’ik name after my fraternal grandmother. I was born in Chevak in 1957 to my parents, James and Theresa Mathias (Ciimaar and Nauyugaq). I was the fourth of their eight children, but their firstborn son died when he was just an infant, so I have one older sister and brother, one younger brother, and three younger sisters. Both my parents have passed away and so has our youngest sister. I have six children and the two youngest are adopted. My son, Derek was born in 1980, my daughter Erica in 1983, Eddie in 1991, my baby John in 1994, Joseph in 2002, and my precious baby girl, Theresa Rena in 2015. I have two grandsons and three granddaughters, Dirk, Ali, and Reagan (Derek’s children) and Novely and Baby James (Erica’s children).