By CIRI Historian Alexandra J. McClanahan

Rika Florence Murphy's recipe for kippering salmon - canning it in jars - in the manner practiced by the Kenaitze Indians of Cook Inlet is being preserved and honored by her daughter Hazel Felton.

Like ripples in a pond, Rika Murphy's legacy continues to touch people in the Cook Inlet region. Her traditional Cook Inlet salmon preservation techniques have been documented by her daughter Hazel Felton in "Putting Up Fish On the Kenai: A Guide to Processing & Preserving Salmon in the Cook Inlet Tradition." "This has been a labor of love for me," Felton said, explaining why she is making the techniques and recipe available through the guidebook. Cook Inlet Tribal Council's Youth Enrichment Camp participants first used the guidebook last year. Felton, special projects manager for CIRI's Real Estate department, hopes that the tradition will be made available and accessible to anyone with the eventual publication of her guidebook. Murphy was born Oct. 4, 1920, in Kenai, and died April 12, 1990, in Anchorage. She was born Fredrika Florence Mann to Virginia Mishakoff of Kenai and John (Shorty) Mann. Her father was an immigrant from Finland who arrived in the United States via San Francisco where, for a brief time, he made his living as a bare-knuckle boxer in the waterfront area known as the Barbary Coast. Her mother was a homemaker and assisted Kenai's midwife, Fiona Miller, with delivering many of the local children.

Murphy and her 12 brothers and sisters were raised in Kenai. They lived in the center of town, were active in the community and heavily involved in the Russian Orthodox Church. On the south side of the Kenai River was the family's summer home, which was simply and affectionately referred to as "Waterfront," and is still called that today by her descendants and other locals.

Felton said her mother left school after the eighth grade. When she was 15, a marriage was arranged to George Hunter of Seldovia, with whom she had four children. She was widowed at age 21, but later remarried and raised seven children in Kenai.

Murphy was a thoroughly modern woman, according to Felton. "In the late 1940s she officially changed her first name to Rika, an act of independence and individuality," she said.

While Murphy was raising her children, the family led a subsistence lifestyle. In the mid-1950s, non-Native homesteaders on either side of her homestead tried to squeeze her out, but she went to court and won the five acres she lived on.

An avid hunter and fisher, she could shoot, skin and dress-out a moose and take it home for the winter supply of meat. She also liked to fish for hooligan in the spring.

In the mid-1960s, the Native land rights movement had begun, the formation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was in the discussion stage and a strategy had to be developed to outline the needs of Alaska Natives. The Kenaitze Indian Tribe was formally established during the 1960s to include all of the Kenai people. Murphy was the first recognized chief of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, and she served in this capacity for several years. During this time, Murphy worked with Kenai Native leader George Miller and attorneys such as Stan McCutcheon, Cliff Groh, and Edgar Paul Boyko to develop the framework for ANCSA and the establishment of Kenai and Salamatof villages.

After ANCSA was passed, Murphy was appointed to the first interim CIRI board. She was also a founding member of the Alaska Native Health Board, which still exists today.

Felton said that throughout her mother's life Murphy always found time to embrace the culture she knew, a mix of Russian and Indian ways, with a little Finlander thrown in. "She was a wonderful cook and loved to make perok, a meat or fish and rice pie, from her Russian side," Felton said. "The Scandinavian side came out when she would serve her lutefisk on Christmas Eve." She was also known for her preservation techniques of bear, moose meat, fish, clams and vegetables.

Felton described her mother as a driven berry picker. "She made wonderful jellies and jams, as well as a few pretty stout berry liqueurs, and she was known for her legendary 'ba-leek,' hard-smoked salmon," Felton said. "It was the best around. She used a secret combination for the brine, which she did not divulge to anyone until her later years."

Felton's sister Mary Ellen (M.E.) Perrizo has taken on the responsibility of preserving that technique. Murphy preferred working with king salmon, which were more abundant in earlier years, Perrizo usually uses red or silver salmon.

"Her secret for the brine was to heat it, to dissolve the ingredients and to add a handful of pickling spices wrapped in cheesecloth. The heat seemed to do several things - the brine would require less salt and would dissolve easily; it would enhance the flavors of the various ingredients and draw out the flavor of the pickling spices."

In her book, Felton explained why she believes it is so important to preserve her mother's methods: "The efforts to preserve the language, dance and customs of Alaska Natives have been successful to this point. It is gratifying that these efforts continue. However, the actual practice of preserving fish and game continues to be handed down orally. This guide is aimed at documenting this most treasured practice."

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