Nalukataq



The Whaling Crew Flag flies high above the wind block wall.



Wednesday, June 13th, was the first Nalukataq or spring whaling festival of the year. After the whaling season is over, successful whaling crews choose the date for their Nalukataq celebration. This year there are 5 Nalukataq celebrations.



Basically the entire town gathers for the celebration which consists of a full day of feasting. It begins at noon, with a prayer of thanksgiving, followed by soups (caribou, goose and/or duck) and meats (whale, caribou, etc) that are distributed to everyone present. Deserts and more snacks are passed out periodically throughout the day. At the end of the day, muktuk (whale blubber and skin) and whale meat are distributed to the community so that they can take it home and stock their freezers.

Nalukataq is best known for the Eskimo blanket toss. At the end of the day a blanket made of seal skins is hoisted into the air with supports. Men and women circle the blanket and hold the edges, and pull out on the blanket to throw the blanket dancer in the air. After blanket tossing, everyone gathers around for Eskimo dancing. The men play a rythmic beat with the handheld drums and sing tunes, while both men and women dance together.

A server passing out scoops of the cooked fruit.

I arrived at Nalukataq at 1pm. I missed out on the soups and homemade rolls, but I did get some cooked fruit, which was basically like peach pie filling. YUM! I also tried some "Eskimo Candy" or Mamauk (I'm not sure how to spell it). It is the white stuff at the bottom of the baleen, comparable to gums between teeth. They cut it into strips and soak it in cheek oil from the whale. It tastes....interesting.

Later in the day there was a church service with lots of singing. We sang songs like "He's got the whole world in his Hands" with verses changed to "He's got the whaling captains in His hands" and other silly verses.



The support beams for the blanket can be seen in this photo



Around 9pm, the blanket tossing began. People were tossed high in the air. Some people did font flips in the air, while others brought bags of candy to throw out the crowd. After the candy was thrown out, the children would hurry to gather up as much as they could. Blanket tossing can be very dangerous. Usually people are caught by the blanket pullers, but some people aren't so lucky. While I was there, I saw one young boy fly off of the blanket and land on his head. I've been told that each year there is at least one broken leg and many sprained ankles. Rose, the vet technician and my roommate, decided to give it a try this year, but ended up spraining both her ankles... Later in the evening, when there were less people pulling the blanket and watching, I decided to give it a try. I was so nervous and scared that I would get hurt, but it was such a rush being tossed up into the air that my worries went away as soon as I climbed up.



Women & men wear their finest parkas for the evening festivities



This person tossed candy to the crowd




Me on the being tossed into the air



Eskimo dancing didn't begin until midnight. The dancing was amazing to watch, especially since it was an authentic event. They were not dancing for tourists or for any special performacne. They were dancing for themselves. The dancing was still going on when I left 1:30 am. I really enjoyed spending the day immersed in the Nalukataq festivities. I can't wait for the next one!

Eskimo Dancing

Nuiqsut

The last village I visited was called Nuiqsut. A new group of volunteers (2 coasties and a USPHS veterinarian) joined Dr. Coburn and I for this trip. We left early on Tuesday morning on an ERA Alaska flight. The pilot, Eric, held the door open for us as we walked out to the plane. I asked him, "Do you have a copilot?" He responded with, "No, do you want to be one?" Of course I said yes, and I joined him in the cockpit.

The small airplanes are not heated or pressurized because they fly so low to the ground (relatively speaking). So during the last few flights to the villages, I stayed bundled up in my winter jacket, hat & gloves. However, in the copilot seat, the sun was shining right through the windows, keeping me nice and warm. It felt like a summer day with the sun warming my face!

Nuiqsut is a medium sized village, with a population of about 400. Once again, we stayed at the local health clinic and set up surgery in the garage. However, the health clinic apartment was full so we got to sleep on random couches in offices and meeting rooms. We also showered in the emergency room shower.....kinda weird.

After settling in, we headed out to the village, going door to door vaccinating dogs for rabies. For dinner, we went to the local hotel, which has a restaurant/buffet that is open to the public for $20 all you can eat. The food was amazing (grilled salmon, homemade mushroom soup, steamed veggies, and peach cobbler). I think it was the best food joint in all of the Arctic, even better than the restaurants in Barrow.

On Wednesday, we had a few surgeries scheduled. It was a pretty exciting day, Dr. Renee did her first spay of the trip and the coasties, Josh and Nathan, learned how to properly wrap an IV catheter on a dog (its much different than people because of all their fur!). Later in the day, we split into two groups and  vaccinated the rest of the dogs in town. Thrusday consisted of spays and neuters and visiting any houses that we missed on the first 2 days since people were not home. On our way back, we stopped and chatted with a guy who was working on preparing a seal hide to dry. Once it was tanned, he was going to make his son a hunting pouch with it, to store all of his hunting supplies.

Our flight left on Friday afternoon, so we had the entire morning free. It was a gorgeous sunny day so we went for a walk down by the river. The ice was just begining to break up, leaving large chunks of ice stranded on shore or floating downstream. We had a blast jumping from iceburg to iceburg and taking rediculous pictures. While there, we even saw some beautiful tundra swans floating in a pool of water between the iceburgs. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Most of the snow had melted by the time we returned to Barrow. I spent the 3 day weekend relaxing and getting myself better acquainted with the various things that Barrow offers. For example, I checked out the local gym, called "Piuraagvik," which offers Zumba and other workout classes, has a rock wall, basketball court, sauna, etc. I went to the library and got myself a library card and signed up for the summer book reading program. (I get a prize if I read 8 books during the summer, I'm already halfway there!) I also attended church on Sunday at the Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church where they read the bible passages in both English and Inupiaq.

On Saturday morning, there was a polar bear spotted out on the sea ice, just outside of town. I am sad to say that I did not hear about it until it was gone and that might have been my only chance to see a polar bear in the wild. Oh well....

However, I did end up  meeting my grandma's brother, "Uncle George" who was in town that weekend. He lives in Anchorage, but also has a home in Barrow. I also met up with my dad's cousin, Richard, who was also in town. I really enjoyed meeting up with them and getting to know more about my family history and about my other relatives living in Alaska.

On Monday, I went to a circus performance. Yes...they had a circus in Barrow. There was a 2 week circus camp in Barrow that local children could participate in. At the end of the camp, the instructors put on a show for the community. Most of it was juggling and other circus tricks. However, the girl performer did some amazing stunts on a trapeze. Apparently she will be joining cirque de soliel in the fall! I never expected to see such an amazing performance in the middle of nowhere, AK.

Point Lay

We left Point Hope on Tuesday and headed to Point Lay, a village with an estimated population of 200 or less. The town was only about 5 blocks long. Our lodging this time, was at the health clinic. Each village has health aids that work on a 2 week on 2 week off type of schedule. During their 2 weeks on they can stay in the apartment at the clinic. The two Coast Guard corpsmen (Betsy and Polo), Dr. Coburn (the Barrow vet), and I stayed in the little apartment inside the clinic that is used by health aids. Dr. Q (USPHS Vet) and Scott (Coast Guard Lieutenant) slept in the dental room, I think Scott actually slept on the dental exam chair!

It was a beautiful sunny day when we showed up, and the ice on the little inlet right next to town was breaking up. What a breathtaking site! As we took in the sites, we were greeted by little children, most of which ended up following us from house to house as we vaccinated the dogs. It was like our own little parade!









We performed 4 or 5 spays/neuters in Point Lay, where we set up our "surgery suite" in the garage of the health clinic. I'm learning so much about surgery and becoming more confident in my knowledge by getting to work with Dr. Coburn and Dr. Q. It's been so great getting to ask them questions about the drugs used, the different surgical techniques, etc.

On the last evening, Dr. Coburn (who prefers to be called Sarah) and I went for a walk down by the beach and then up into the tundra. Two girls, Amy and Khaleah (I love that name!) came with us on our walk. We walked on the beach to the seal skin boat that was used to successfully hunt the bowhead whale. Point Lay is allowed one bowhead whale during the spring whaling season. The boat of the successful whaling team is then placed on shore with the whaling teams flag flying from it to indicate which team was successful. In Barrow, they can have somewhere between 10-20 whales each season and the beach is lined with about 15 boats!

Walking on the tundra was amazing. There were tons of little birds flying around. The Ptarmigans were my favorite. They make a funny sound, which sounds like they are super annoyed. We also found a couple caribou skeletons.

More about Point Hope

I just want to describe a little more about my experience in Point Hope:

 It was pretty evident that the community still highly relies on sustenance whaling as a major source for food. The locals kept saying how proud they were of their whaling crews for already bringing in 5 whales and lots of beluga. In fact, Joe, the restaurant owner cooked us a meal of beluga and bowhead whale (muktuk) on our last night in Point Hope. It was very chewy....

Point Hope is also know for their baleen baskets. Baleen is the filter-feeder system inside the mouths of the bowhead whales that catches the krill. Local artists utilize the baleen by making not only baskets, but pieces of jewelry, wall hangings, business card holders, etc. I bought a basket with some of the cash my father gave me (thanks Dad!). It was handcrafted by a 4th (or was it 5th?) generation basket maker, the 12 year old son (James Omnik Jr) of the very skilled artist James Omnik, Sr. The baskets are made of weaved baleen and walrus ivory, and usually run about $100 per inch, unless you can barter really well! 

Point Hope

Last Thursday, I left for Point Hope on a flight by Era Alaska Airlines (yes, that's the one from the tv show, Flying Wild Alaska). I went there with the Barrow veterinarian, a US Public Health Veterinarian, and 3 Coast Guard people. Our plane was a small cargo plain that held 8 passengers. Era does not follow the rules of normal large airlines. We did not have to go through a TSA security check point, there were no stupid rules about sharp items or liquids, and there was no use of photo ID or boarding passes. Finally, the airport at Point Hope consisted of a parking lot and two trucks.

Point Hope is the second largest village in the North Slope with around 1,000 people. We stayed in the Whaler's Inn, one of two lodging options in town. Conveniently, the only restaurant in town was also located in the same building. The hotel was pretty basic, individual rooms, with shared bathrooms and a lounge room with cable tv, a microwave and a refrigerator. Instead of checking in to the hotel at the front desk like a normal hotel, we had to check-in at the local grocery store.





The North Slope requires all dogs to be vaccinated for rabies each year, rather than every 3 years. Since there is no local veterinarian in the village of Point Hope, the veterinarian visits once or twice a year and goes door to door and vaccinate all the dogs for rabies. This year we were also able to perform spays and neuters on some of the local dogs. In the end, we vaccinated almost 200 dogs and spayed/neutered 13 dogs.

We set up our clinic in the local police department's garage. The dogs were sedated with injectable anesthesia for the surgeries. I was the surgical assistant/anesthesia technician for most of the surgeries. I helped place catheters, prep the dogs for surgery and monitor heart rate and respiratory rate and inject more anesthetic if needed.








Most of the dogs in the villages are outdoor dogs that spend most of their lives chained up outside. Many dogs end up becoming pregnant and having puppies during the winter that often freeze in the cold or end up without a home, adding to the stray dog population. I was happy to help prevent unwanted puppies from being born by helping out with the spays and neuters.

Stay tuned...

Stay tuned... This is my last evening in Point Hope. I fly to Point Lay tomorrow and return to Barrow on Friday. I will write a post about this trip when I am back in Barrow on either Friday or Saturday. (It's difficult to blog from an iPhone)