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. 

With no explanation, a pilot dropped Gordon off in the middle of nowhere

Gordon Matumeak, brother of James "Matu" Matumeak who I often have breakfast with at Abby's Home Cooking in Wasilla, did not come to Nuiqsut with the original group when they came and pitched their tents. He was a high school student attending Mount Edgecumbe Boarding School in Sitka. After he finished at Mount Edgecumbe he returned to Barrow and later headed out to visit his mother and family members who had come to Nuiqsut and were still living in tents. He thought the pilot was flying him to Nuiqsut but instead he dropped him off at an empty airstrip built by the oil industry about 13 miles upriver from the village.

The pilot did not bother explaining any of this or even to speak to Gordon. He just dropped him off, along with a few boxes. No one else was there - just Gordon. He had no idea where he was or how he was going to get to Nuiqsut. After a couple of hours, a man, David Kasak Sr. came in a boat to pick up the boxes. He was surprised to find Gordon there but was happy to give him a ride to Nuiqsut, where the ice airstrip built on the river had melted. Gordon had not known Kasak had a young daughter. In a later year, he was hanging out with some friends in the community center. All had girl friends. Gordon did not. He told his friends that the next girl to come walking down the road is who he would choose to be his girlfriend. That girl was Alice Kasak, the boat driver's daughter.

I don't know exactly how long they have been married now, but their children are grown and their grandchildren are growing. When Gordon took that first flight he did not intend to make Nuiqsut his home, but the animals convinced him - the whales, the seals, the polar bears, the grizzly bears, the caribou, the moose, the wolverines, the fish, the geese... Pictured on the cup is Alice's grandmother Harriet Kasak, Patsy Tukle and Abe Simmonds, Jr. Before I left, Gordon handed me a cup just like it, still in the original packaging. "Merry Christmas!" he said. Instantly, I had a new favorite coffee cup. He also gave me some smoked salmon strips he got from a friend in Holy Cross.

Hiccup comes in the middle of my interview with Archie

I spent most of the afternoon doing an interview with Archie Ahkiviana, who told me about his history and how his and 26 other families snowmachined over from Barrow to make anew the village of Nuiqsut in their ancestral homeland, lived in tents for 18 months but loved it and thrived in temperatures that dropped into the -60's. As a small child, he and his family had to move from their home on the coast when it became law that all children go to school, so off to Barrow they went.

Suddenly, I heard a flutter of wings. It was Hiccup, the cockatiel. Archie told me about two parrots he said drowned after they got dirty and then were given a bath. His daughter who is an EMT was present. She put a straw down each of their throats and performed CPR on them. "Then they were alive again," Archie recalled.

Six ball about to drop

Well, seeing as how I already picked the one picture I would post tonight to represent this day but then went ahead and posted a third to announce the pending arrival of grandchild #4, I might as well go ahead and post this one I just now snapped and make it three for the day. I still have a significant task to accomplish before my midnight quitting time so, maybe if Squarespace doesn't act up too badly and my slow internet connection holds up, I can post all three and still accomplish all I need to accomplish. This is Makayla playing pool with two friends at the Kuukpik Hotel and that's Josette, hotel manager, watching. 

Number 4 has begun the journey

I've picked the picture I'm going to post tonight, but maybe I can get in two. I have an announcement to make concerning family far away and since none of them are nearby for me to photograph and no one can substitute for them, this mid-afternoon shot of the Kuukpik Hotel (left) seems like just the right photo to use. The family threw a double birthday party yesterday for Rex and Lisa. There, Rex and Cortney announced they are expecting. Grandchild Number 4 is on the way. I was not certain I should post the news but it's hopping around Facebook so I see no reason to keep quiet about it any longer.