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Entries in Nuiqsut (29)

Wednesday
Aug282013

Logbook: Wasilla to Nuiqsut, ultimate goal, Cross Island, final entry: caribou cooking 

I arrived about three hours ago and came over to the house of Edward Nukapigak and entered to the tantalizing aroma of caribou frying. Qipi was cooking. It proved as delicious as the aroma suggested. Edward showed me harpoon head, made by brother Jonah and Eric Leavitt. They landed a bowhead with it 'in 98. Here, people live from the land and the sea, as their ancestors have for millennia. Tools and methods adapt to time and circumstance, but the fundamental need for the food that nourished and formed them remains the same. Very weak, unreliable, cell reception trickles over to Cross Island from Prudhoe Bay. If you stand on top of a cabin you can sometimes pick it up and sometimes you can't. I am certain it is not going to be strong enough to transmit Instagram or blog posts so after we leave here, probably Friday according to the latest marine forecast, my posts will stop for awhile.

Wednesday
Aug282013

Logbook: Wasilla to Nuiqsut, ultimate goal, Cross Island, entry 5: approaching Nuiqsut

Approaching Nuiqsut. Kuukpik River (Coleville) below. 

Friday
Aug162013

Farewell, safe travels, may we meet again

On the final night of dancing, with all the dance groups seated in a half-ring around the gym, a lot was going on in different places and I missed a special moment that took place between Canada and Nuiqsut. Nellie Nukapigak of Nuiqsut presented Aklavik dance group leader Andrew Gordon Sr. with an ugruk hide (bearded seal). Eva Gordon, Andrew's wife, then gave Nellie her dance parka. That's Eva on the left with Nellie next to her wearing her new Aklavik dance parka. Then there was a gift exchange between Eric Leavitt and Eva and Andrew's son, Alexander. That's Eric standing next to Nellie in the new parka that Alexander, with his arm over Eric's shoulder, gave him. 

Just before the Canadians boarded the plane that would take them to Fairbanks, from where they would drive east into Canada and on north towards home, a very long drive, much of it over gravel road, they posed for their Alaskan friends. Now that he had the dance parka Alexander had given him, Eric felt like he was a Canadian, too. He pranced into the picture.

Woodrow Oyagak is originally from Nuiqsut, but is living in Atqasuk with his wife Sherlene and their young son Mark. She was returning to Atqasuk but Woodrow was remaining behind to be of assistance to his ailing father, his family and whaling crew. Woodrow and Sherlene say their farewells.

Before the Canadians left, Bernice Kaigelak gathered everybody present at the airport together and all joined hands in a circle. She offered a prayer for their safe travels. This ends my iPhone/Instagram/blog coverage of Kuukpik Corporation's 40th Anniversary celebration for the village of Nuiqsut. There will be much more comprehensive coverage of the celebration in the 96 page document, shot with my "real "cameras, I will make for Kuukpik. I expect it to include a much better picture of this prayer. I still must post my "Logbook" entries of my travels from Nuiqsut to Anchorage, via Barrow, and then on home to Wasilla. The Logbook entries will be up before the day ends. 

Friday
Aug162013

Caroline sang to her comatose son

Nearly two years ago when Margie was recovering from surgery at the Alaska Native Medical Center, I stopped to check in on a friend in the Intensive Care Unit. There I saw another friend, Caroline Cannon of Point Hope. Her adult son, Leroy Oenga, was in a coma - word was that he had been declared brain dead. Caroline was not giving up. She was praying and asking for prayers. I recall looking at Leroy as he lay comatose in bed and feeling so bad for him and bad for his mother. The situation appeared truly hopeless. Yet his mother clung to hope – futile hope, it appeared. On this night in Nuiqsut, Caroline recalled the ordeal of being told Leroy was brain-dead and that she should pull the plug. Instead, she sat at his side, prayed, and sang hymns to him. Here, she sings one of those hymns: "We've got the power in the name of the Lord..." While he has some health problems to deal with, Caroline told us how her son recovered mentally and physically and today is building a life with his wife and young family. 

Thursday
Aug152013

Marie, Annie and Saaniaq sing gospel at the closing singspiration

Marie Rexford, Annie Tikluk and Elizabeth Saaniaq Rexford of Kaktovik sing gospel at the Nuiqsut singspiration, broadcast across the Slope by Isaac Tuckfield of KBRW. This singspiration was the last event of Kuukpik Corporation's 40th Anniversary Celebration to commemorate the founding of the new village of Nuiqsut. There was, however, another singspiration held in the Presbyterian Church to welcome the guests the night before the celebration began. I am going to post one image and story from that singspiration shortly.