The Nome Nugget

Mrs. Betty Alexander Finishes Two
Weeks With 300 Eskimo Guardsmen

SEATTLE, Nov. 7—One woman and approximately 300 men, most of them Eskimos of the 1st Scout Battalion, Alaska National Guard, have spent two weeks at Fort Richardson, Alaska, attending the battalion's annual training encampment.

While the Guardsmen occupied temporary type buildings in the Camp Denali area, the woman stayed at the Fort Richardson guest house. She is Mrs. Betty Alexander of Nome, Alaska.

Betty is a civilian clerk in battalion headquarters and made the trip to Fort Richardson to help with the service, medical and pay records of the scouts.

Amid parkas, rifles and olive drab clothes she almost looked out of place in her gaily colored dresses. She isn't, tho, for she has held her job for more than a year,

and has been working with Eskimos since her arrival in Alaska in 1939.

Jack Jefford, her brother and a veteran Alaskan bush pilot, introduced her to the territory. He has been flying in Alaska since 1936 and is one of the 20 pilots who have portraits hanging in Anchorage's International Airport as one of the pioneer pilots who contributed to the progress of Alaska flying.

The natives are wonderful people, she claims, and the only trouble she has is trying to pronounce their names correctly.

"For example," she said, "how would you pronounce these: Ahnanngnatoguk, Nokapigak, or Ningeok?"

During summer vacation, her husband, who is employed by the Civil Aeronautics Authority in Nome, operates a small gold mine.

"We don't make much money at it but it is fun," she said. "We do find a substantial nugget every once in a while, though."

To prove it she showed a large nugget about the size of a quarter she had hung from a golden chain around her neck.