Eunice Glover And Her Mother Mary (Wright) Carteeti

Eunice Glover

Eunice Glover’s Tlingit names are Sow Dah oon and Utch-Cow-dus kooh.  She is Chookaneidí, Xáatl Hít (Iceberg House).  Her Grandmother was Sophie Carteeti and Grandfather was George Carteeti Sr.  “I had a grandma Alice Johnnie, named Costeen, who died at age 117.  She was born the year they built the first school in Douglas.  Her husband was Peter Johnnie.  They were members of the Salvation Army.  ”

“My Mom, Mary, died when I was six years old.  She was a Wright.  She was only 34.  My Aunt Emma raised my younger sister, Marlene.”

Her husband, Everett, was in the Navy from 1966 to 1970 in Viet Nam.  “He wanted to be in the Army but had to join the Navy because his Dad was in the Navy.  His Dad’s name was Seth Gleen Glover.  He ran away from Everett, Washington when he was about 16 so they called him Everett.   He was a crab fisherman.  He grew up and lived on a boat.  He used Dad’s troller to get over here to Hoonah.

Eunice and Everett got married in 1970.  “I met Everett when I was 16, we married at 20, married now for 55 years.  Everett is an auto mechanic, fixes furnaces, hot water tanks and cars.  He does everything.  He fished with John Hinchman on the Alice H.  Then he quit and went trolling himself.  Our son Patrick is a good fisherman; he loves to fish and uses Dad’s old boat.”

Her first job was in the crab cannery.  “I worked with Edith Bean, Elsie Pratt, Mina and Cornelia.  We worked regular hours.  We would shake the crabs and got paid by the pound.  Mostly Dungeness and snow crab.”

Helen Peters was very significant in Eunice’ life.  “Helen Peters taught me how to put up food.  She was my world, she took care of me, and she would watch over my kids, she was like a Mom to me.  She taught me how to get food ready for winter.   Houston was her maiden name.  She married a Peters from up north, an Athapascan. 

“She once had 21 cases of fish.  One of my kids asked ‘Grandma, are you going to eat all that?”  When I looked in her freezer, it was empty, she gave all her food away.   Everett would ask for dried fish, Helen would say ‘This is my last one!’  She said this every time he asked!”

Her father, George Carteeti, taught her how to bake when she was a little girl.  “He would invite his friends to try my baking.  One night when I was young I had finished baking and it was midnight.  I couldn’t sleep and was cleaning up.  I was standing on a Mandarin Orange box over the sink, singing, when I looked behind me.  My Dad was there, smiling.  He tried to be a Mom to me.  He was good.  He had a good sense of humor.  I think my Dad was the mayor before the first ‘mayor’.”

She was born in Hoonah and has lived there all her life.  “My kids grew up here. 

Eunice doesn’t like the fencing around the school.  “They should let the kids roam free!  I was treated badly by a teacher at school for speaking Tlingit.  The superintendent made me shovel the bathroom.  I said no and quit.  I got my GED later.  I was a clerk in the store, cooked in a restaurant, worked in the Lodge as a maid, baked in the school and did day care.”

Her Grandma and Dad taught her how to speak Tlingit.  “Helen Peters didn’t speak it to me, just English.  When Helen broke her hip I went to see her in the hospital.  That was the first time she spoke to me in Tlingit.  I think she was telling me it was time for her to go.”