The Wild West or The Native Village

3 August 2012
8:34 PM

Sunrise at	5:00 AM	in direction	43°	Northeast
Sunset at	10:52 PM	in direction	316°	Northwest

Duration of day: 17 hours, 52 minutes (6 minutes, 57 seconds shorter than yesterday)


Teresa, my daughter, is home from field work in the arctic tundra located in northwest Alaska near the Bering Sea.  She and co-worker and friend, Amy Breen, spent two weeks outside of Nome and then Kozebue gathering samples from areas previously burned in tundra fires.  


The trip was not without adventure.  East of Kotzebue, a grizzly came up directly across the river and charged them.  It was slowed down by the river, but Teresa had the shotgun loaded and ready as it kept coming.  Then it caught wift of them and suddenly turned and raced away without looking back.  They figure it didn't see what they were and thought they were dinner.  But once their odor was clear, it appeared to have enough knowledge of humans to think better of it.


Teresa mentioned a book that she'd heard about recently, Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kanter, that provides a clear view of Alaskan village life.  She was especially interested in that she and Amy were struck by the difference between Nome, a village settled by miners from outside of the territory, and Kotzebue, a native village.  Teresa told me that Nome - the houses, the boardwalks, the cafes and mostly Anglo population- felt like what we would think of as the "Old West".  Being from Colorado, she probably saw similarities to Georgetown, Leadville, and small mining towns above Boulder.  


Kotzebue was a different matter entirely.  The cities are separated by a distance of 183 miles as the crow files. There are flights between them daily.  But one was settled by the determined miners venturing into the northern parts for the sake of profit and the other has been occupied for thousands of years, home to people who still know how to live off the land.  


I took a quick look at the map offered by Huno Travel, trying to get an idea of the geographical obstacles to travel.  The villagers do travel to nearby villages in winter by dog team and snow machine.  But a trip from Kotzebue to Nome, for example, would be a major undertaking.  It would require negotiating the sea ice across Kotzebue Sound, then anticipating survival needs in arctic conditions on the tundra until reaching Nome.  Summer travel would be largely restricted to boat along the coast, up rivers and over fens.  Even though Kotzebue boasts a population of 3000, a campus of UAF, and state agencies, it remains at its core an Inupiaq village.  Alaskan villages persist as remote enclaves with minimal contact from the outside world.


I need to go see these places.