In School Near Bearing Sea ~ Ann Arborite's Games Aid Eskimos

In School Near Bering Sea

Ann Arborite’s Games Aid Eskimos

By Mary Jo Frank

Children in a small Eskimo village in the Alaskan wilderness are learning by using Ann Arbor-made games.

Games such as Hi-Q, Triangle, Towers of Hanoi and Cross Up are as familiar to children attending the Kwethluk Day School in Kwethluk, Alaska, as to the many Ann Arbor students using the games created by Ashley H. Clague.

Clague, 71, recently received a letter and photographs of students in the Bureau of Indian Affairs School playing with several of the 20 games he gave their teacher last summer.

The retired grocery store owner and former president of the Ann Arbor Board of Education says he has made 150,000 games since 1967. They’ve been used by teachers throughout the United States and Europe.

Clague, 805 Ivydale, has designed a majority of the 27 different kinds of games himself. Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor furnishes marbles, glue and some other materials for the games and a local lumber company supplies him with scrap wood.

Leigh Anderson, 1120 Lincoln, makes the wood parts for the games, Clague says.

Joyce L. Miller, a teacher at Kwethluk Day School, wrote to Clague, "Many of the Eskimo children have difficulty in abstract thinking because of the language barrier; these games you make are really useful for just this aspect."

She reported the school year started well with additions to the school of music, art and gym programs.

Kwethluk is located 17 miles from Bethel, Alaska, on the Kushkokwin River.  It is near the Bering Sea.

Approximately 450 persons live in the village with 23 students attending kindergarten through eighth grade, according to the teacher.

“We have no roads here so most of these children do not get out of the village until high school age. These games are a real treat to all," Miss Miller wrote to the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor.

She received Clague’s games while a student at Eastern Michigan University.