May 6, 2004

Hello to you folks living with the heat,

You were laughing at me during the depths of winter when we were enduring 20-30 below weather with wind chills in the minus 50's and more. Now we are having beautiful, sunny days with temps in the 40's to 50's, absolutely glorious. Daylight extends until after one AM. The sound is still frozen with fishing going full out. All roads in town are clear of ice and much of the snow has melted away, although there is still ice piled around. We can get to the beach overlooks although not down the beach just yet but it won't be long. The military has been in town for about a week and a half with Blackhawks and Chinook helicopters buzzing around. The ravens now have company with first the seagulls arriving, and now different migratory birds showing up-including geese which I have seen honking above. The evening sun shines in our living room window and when I am home alone, I like to lie on the sofa basking in it. Sunday I went out onto the ice in front of town and caught five sheefish, the largest of which reached from my waist to the ground weighing between 15-20 lbs. We left them biting as I had enough meat to last quite a while, but I should have stayed as I gave away three of them on the way home.

I spent four days in Selawik last week, a town of approximately 1000 folks situated on the shore of Selawik lake southeast of here. It is a delta like area with a number of streams and a couple of rivers running through it. Much of the town has boardwalks to get over the streams and the fuel and water lines running to the different buildings. There are a couple of bridges that 4 wheelers and snowmachines can traverse to get from the airfield to the village center. On the flight in we saw approximately 500 caribou moving across a frozen lake. Again our transportation from the airfield was a snowmachine and sled with me on the machine and Kevin, a fellow Public Health Nurse, in the sled with our gear. We slept in the village clinic which is a two story affair and is a very busy place during the day. There were about 12 military personnel with us at the same time. Their team consisted of an anesthesiologist, a PE, a nurse, two dentists with their assistants, two veterinarians with their assistants, and all their gear-all transported from the airfield to the school where they stayed via sled. They came in by helicopter and I was going to go out via helicopter on Thursday but the run scheduled did not come in. The pilot on the way home Thursday evening seemed to be in a hurry to get home as he seldom flew above 500 feet. The flight was the rockiest I have ever been on as the sun beating down on the now thawing tundra sent air currents soaring upwards. The view I suppose was worth the jolts to my nervous system as again, I cannot find the words to describe what I was seeing.

I did not plan to write much as I have pasted some things below that may be of interest to you. The first two items are things that were posted on the hospital wide for-sale section of our email system. The second one refers to black meat-Ugruk-bearded seal meat. The next section was attributed to Jeff Foxworthy and if you lived here, you would understand all he is joking about. (Oh, and 18 inches of ice-that's for southern Alaskans-up here it's at least 36 inches, sometimes up to 72.) The last section is an Inupaq story written by an Inupaq, telling about the coming of spring. Up until recently there was no written language here. All history was handed down by word of mouth. In fact if you look at most Inupaq words, they are pronounced just as they are written. They may look hard to pronounce, but when the language was finally written down late in the 21'st century, they were transcribed onto paper just as the word sounded. This story is written like most Inupaq stories, by an elder drawing from memory, from personal experiences, and the stories handed down by word of mouth for centuries. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Carlo

Posted To: For Sale Items
Conversation: Seal skins!!!
Subject: Seal skins!!!

Hello folks, I have 2 very nice and clean seal skins to sell, if anyone is interested you can call Lovie at extension 7695 or 442-3981 home #. Great for making baby mukluks, yo-yo's,slippers etc....

> Posted To: For Sale Items
> Conversation: oil
> Subject: oil
>
> Seal Oil with black meat and whitefish for sale!! for more information call Amos Foster or Teresa at 442-4528..HMMMM,,,Yummy :)

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If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Alaska.

If you have ever refused to buy something because it's "too spendy," you might live in Alaska.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, you might live in Alaska.

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for five months out of the year, you might live in Alaska.

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work there, you might live in Alaska.

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in Alaska.

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you might live in Alaska.

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might live in Alaska

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Alaska.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE ALASKANITE WHEN:

01. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to
pass a truck plowing snow on the highway.

02. "Vacation" means going to Valdez.

03. You measure distance in hours.

04. You know several people who have hit a Moose more
than once.

05. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same
day and back again.

06. Your whole family wears blue jeans to church on
Sunday.

07. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow
during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

08. You see people wearing camouflage at social
events. (including weddings)

09. You install security lights on your house and
garage and leave both unlocked.

10. You think of the major food groups as beer and
Salmon

11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your wife
or girlfriend knows how to use them.

12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot
at Mill's Fleet Farm at any given time.

13. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit
over a snowsuit.

14. Driving is better in the winter because the
potholes are filled with snow.

15. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter,
still winter and road construction.

16. You can identify a southern or eastern accent.

17. You know how to polka.

18. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a
deer next to your blue spruce.

19. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking
age.

20. Down South to you means Seattle.

21. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new
pole shed.

22. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to
frost.

23. You have more miles on your snow blower than your
car.

24. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

25. You actually understand these jokes, and you
forward them to all your Alaskan friends!

“Bug”

By Vernetta Nay Moberly, Inupiat Iilitqusiat Coordinator

June 2004

Ignivik is the month of June means “birth time” for all animals of our country. The fowl flock up North to nest and later in the fall time they flock back down south with their young. The first time they arrive would create a certain change of character of our hunters; a “strong feeling to hunt” something happens as the season’s progress. The first “bug”, cabin fever is the overwhelming feeling is to go out to the country and itchuq. Itchuq means waiting patiently - hunting game, the first itch is during the first crack of spring, are hunting for the ducks and geese. A long waited time to bring home a springtime diet of different kind of fresh meat, one that occur only once a year.

The hunters know the time to hunt ducks and geese before they go in pairs and nest. But then later on another fever begins, the feeling to go and piqiisraq, meaning to go egg hunting. This knowledge is known by food gathers, is when and when not to hunt the birds and also a time to leave the eggs alone. But then again, the hunters are aware of the juveniles that still fly in flocks; they are still good to hunt. Tommy Douglas once told me “during the end of July the flying bird’s isha, meaning they loose their wing feathers and are unable to fly and are very fat. Also another time fouls are hunted is during the fall when they are in flocks.

Being sleepless during the springtime may seem like a strange behavior around here for many; but the excitement to gather many different games is a common practice, planning precisely all the right material needs and so forth. Basic knowledge of hunting different game and fish while following the changing season is a skill one learns over time. The reward is a freezer full of different kinds of food that we prepare and store professionally, that can last for months to come. Then when the cook takes over and creates the best dishes for good eats, that’s another story.

PS Again try to remember that it is just in the last 20-30 or so years that modern groceries were plentiful and affordable to the locals. Hunting and gathering was, and still is for many, a matter of survival.

Carlo