Her aunt gives Heather a helping hand with her Thanksgiving maktak

Today at the Thanksgiving whale feast in Nuiqsut: Her Aunt Doreen spotted Heather struggling to cut her frozen maktak with an ulu, so gave her a helping hand. I just returned from the feast and I am stuffed - and I have a pretty good-sized box of maktak, frozen meat and frozen fish to take home. I took a picture of it but the internet here is extra slow today and Squarespace 5 falls apart with a slow net. I can't face this struggle twice today so this will likely be my only post this Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This will be part of today's Thanksgiving feast - maktak, from a bowhead that came to Edward Nukapigak's EMN crew in September when I was in the boat with them. They completed all the cutting before I arrived, so I missed that, but I am here for the feasting and the Eskimo dance that will follow tonight.

I doubt I will post much. Between all the misfires of my Squarespace 5 bloghost acerbated by my weak internet connection that often cuts out on me altogether mid-post, it can be quite a struggle to put up a post. I'll put something up, though. 

The indispensable knife: how it came to me

At the end of August, as the EMN crew gathered in the home of whaling captain Edward Nukapigak to eat before boating to Cross Island, Isaiah handed this knife to me. He said I could use it through the whole trip. If you want to eat with the Iñupiat a good knife is essential. That flimsy thing they call a steak knife in mainstream America? It just won't cut it up here - literally. Try it on a piece of frozen maktak or caribou - it just won't cut it.

I used to always carry a good knife, but after 9/11 I kept losing them to airport security. I quit carrying. Before 9/11, I was in New York City and I ordered a pretzel from a street vendor. To get to my wallet I had to pull my knife out of my pocket. The vendor's eyes went big and he let out a fearful gasp. Not everybody looks at knives the way folks up here do.

Anyway, Isaiah's knife served me well all the way from Nuiqsut to Cross Island and back - and then - I lost it! I looked every place I thought it could possibly be but could not find it. I felt terrible. I told Isaiah I would replace it. "It's ok. Don't worry about it," he said. "I've got lots of knives."

Just before I left Wasilla this time, Margie found it in one of the extra pockets of the heavy-duty overpants I wore. Yesterday afternoon, I dropped in to visit his parents. Isaiah woke up and came out. I pulled out the knife and returned it to him. He handed it back. "You keep it," he said. In Iñupiat culture, you cannot turn down a gift. I accepted it back but first took this picture. Isaiah's niece, Caitlyn, suddenly decided she wanted to be in the picture, too.

Now I must be certain to always pack it away and never let airport security get it.

Dinner with Leroy Oenga Jr. and family, part 4 of 7: appetizer

Dinner with Leroy Oenga Jr. and family, part 4 of 7: appetizers. Tiny cuts of caribou and bowhead blubber - eaten together. 

Very tasty!

Text added at 11:26 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 57 and counting.

Dinner with Leroy Oenga Jr. and family, part 1 of 7: When you hear the traditional Iñupiat drum, you hear the sound of the bowhead whale

On Thursday, those who read my blog met Leroy Oenga Jr. and learned how his mother refused to pull the plug on him when the doctors told her it was time, but prayed and sang hymns for him instead. Leroy invited me over for dinner with his family this afternoon. He had heard his mother, Caroline Cannon, call me, "my brother," so now he calls me "uncle" and I call him "nephew," and her, "sister." Leroy is a Dallas Cowboys fan and was catching up on the day's football scores when I arrived.

Very shortly, he pulled out a new drum Joe Sage had made for him. The skin cover came from the liver membrane of a bowhead whale landed this fall by Edward Itta and crew. When you hear Iñupiat people singing and dancing to the beat of traditional drums made in this way you literally hear the sound of the bowhead whale.