Fisherboy

We spent the weekend at Ivik. Ivik is a group of camps on the northeast shore of Kobuk Lake (Hotham Inlet). While we were there Uyaana did some fishing. He caught his first Northern Pike with a reel. It was a very small pike.




He is making this face because a mosquito landed on his face right between his eyes and he couldn't wipe it off.




Can you see the mosquitoes swarming around him in the pictures?

Dwarf Fireweed

Miss Arctic Circle

Sorry for the delay but here are a few more pics from the 4th of July festivities. These are from the Miss Arctic Circle and Miss Teen Arctic Circle Contest.




This contest is more than just a beauty pageant. Judging takes into consideration accomplishments, community service and knowledge of the contestant's native culture.




Miss teen arctic circle is open to girls ages 14-18 and Miss Arctic is to women age 18-25 who are at least 1/4 native (of a federally recognized tribe).




This contest is always a favorite part of the local festivities. Everyone loves to see these ladies dressed in their best traditional regalia, many of which are family heirlooms.



This year's winner of the Miss Teen Arctic Circle was Denali Whiting.




Here is Denali's mom, Northwest Arctic Borough Mayor Siikauraq Whiting (in pink), cheering in the bleachers.




This Year's winner of Miss Arctic Circle was Stacey Harris.




Stacy will go on to represent our region at the Miss WEIO contest at this year's World Eskimo and Indian Olympics in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Rural Alaska's Uncertain Future

When I ask you what you see in this picture you would most like say "I see a gas pump". When you ask me what I see in this picture I would say "I see the slow death of rural Alaska."




The first gas barge of the shipping season has arrived and the price of fuel for the first shipment has been set. The price at the pump is now $7.25 a gallon.

Crowley Monopoly Maritime Services is the only supplier of petroleum products to Kotzebue and therefore to most of the Northwest Arctic Borough of Alaska. We get our gas barged up once at the beginning of the summer and once at the end of the summer.




The gas is stored at Crowley's tank farm that you can see in the lower right hand side of this picture. That means that even though the price of fuel was already raised with this first barge shipment, the chances are when the second fuel barge arrives the price will be raised again.

The price at the pump is always more than the price at which you can buy fuel in bulk directly from Crowley. Prior to this first shipment gas was $4.20 a gallon and heating oil was $4.33 a gallon for a minimum of 53 gallons purchased. Before the barge came the price at the pump was around $5.50 to $5.70 a gallon depending on which store you went to. After the barge arrived Crowley increased their bulk fuel price to $5.80 a gallon for gas and $6.09 for heating oil. So basically it's $305 for 53 gallon drum of gas BEFORE taxes. That same drum filled at the pumps at the store pictured would be $384.25.

In addition to the increased price of gas and the more devastating increase in price of heating fuel locally here in Kotzebue is the increase of fuel prices that is affecting all of the United States and particularly Alaska. That increase is being reflected in the cost of food here at the stores. As I stated in an earlier post milk is $10.49 a gallon. A "cheap" loaf of bread is almost $3, 5lbs of potatoes is $7.99. We eat a lot of subsistence foods around here but that all takes gas to go out and get, and no one eats only caribou, fish, and seal anymore.

When I really sit down and think about it, I fear for the future of rural Alaska. If the price of fuel keeps increasing people are not going to be able to afford to buy food and heat their houses. I don't know about anyone else, but I my pay scale is not increasing to match the increased cost of living. The poor are going to be the hardest hit first. If things continue the way they are there is going to be a mass exodus of low income people out of rural Alaska and into the more metro areas such as Fairbanks and Anchorage.....and those areas just aren't going to have the infrastructure to handle such an influx of people. A crisis is looming around the corner waiting for the first cold snap of winter to rear it's ugly head.

2am

These photos were taken this morning at 2am.

Wordless (almost) Wednesday- Pokey

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Vote for Lance

For the second year in a row dog musher Lance Mackey has been nominated for an ESPY award in the category of Best Outdoors Athlete. The ESPY Awards is an annual sports awards event created by ESPN for individual and team athletic achievement.



Last year Lance lost out to somebody, can't remember who. For two years in a row Lance has won both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year. If you would like to vote for Lance go to ESPN's ESPY Awards site. You have to sign in to vote but it only takes a few minutes and it is FREE.

See the vote for Lance Video

Thanks to Ish at Kodiak Konfidential for the heads up on the voting.

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Pain in the Foot

The blog has been quiet for the last couple days. I feel kind of guilty because I know people come and check here every day, but life interferes. I have been busy working on my Ugruk, cutting and drying the meat, rendering oil, and getting it all put away. Plus it has been so nice out that I just don't want to stay inside. AND....to top it all off is my foot.

On the 3rd of July I got a splinter in my foot. Nothing serious, just a little piece of wood. I dug it out myself, cleaned it up, put some ointment on it and slapped a bandaid on, end of story, right? Nope. Yesterday I had to have an abscess lanced on my foot. The local anesthetic for the procedure was one of the top ten most painful things I have experienced ever.

So, I apologize for my absence. I have a few posts in the works that will be coming up soon, including a couple more posts with pictures from the Kotzeue's 4th of July celebration.

I Love a Parade, Part 2

I think we left off with the girls on a firetruck. Here is another view of them.




Here is the Sisualik Float. It looks like Maija is trying to throw a handful of candy at my head.




Yay Sisualik!!



We got lots of candy from them.




This is the Kotzebue Electric Association's truck (KEA). I'm sorry KEA that my electric bill was only $48 last month. It is not my fault that there was something wrong with your meter. I am sure it will go back to the usual $225 a month now that you have changed the meter.




Here is the Kotzebue Fire Department's rescue boat. It can maneuver over ice and water. It is especially useful in poor ice conditions when other modes of transportation are unsafe.




This is the Northwest Arctic Borough School District's bus. Yep, Kotzebue has a school bus, however it is used only for children eligible for special education services. Everyone else has to walk or get rides from their parents.




Here is a truck from the Alaska Commercial Company (AC) store. You know, the place where we pay $10.49 for a gallon of milk, $11.39 for a 12 pack of Pepsi, and $8 for a bag of chips? Yeah, that place. Anyway, those are some of the Kotzebue High School's cheerleaders on the back with the Husky mascot.




And here are the Alaska State Troopers float. They are towing a boat full of kids and their furry mascot which loosely resembles a squirrel...or maybe it's a bear. You be the judge.




Here's the Park Service's truck. It was decorated to look like a tiger. Very cute. I LOVE the mammoth.




And here is the political message for the day. This is a difficult topic and it is hard to find unbiased information about it. As a matter of fact I don't think there is any unbiased info about the proposed Pebble Mine out there. It is a very touchy subject. It can be hard to balance the environment with the economic health of the state.




And here is the Native Village of Kotzebue's float.

Well that's it for the parade.

I Love a Parade...

...the tramping of feet,I love every beat I hear of a drum. La la la la I love a parade, when I hear a band...ok, so we have no band, but we have sirens! Lots and lots of sirens and a parade route a mile and a half long.




We staked out our usual spot over by the First Baptist Church. The tan building you are looking at in the distance is the "Eskimo Building". It houses the Native Village of Kotzebue offices and the Post Office. We like this spot because it has a nice view of the water and it is relatively close to the start of the parade which means the floats haven't run out of candy yet.




You can hear the parade for a long time before you can see it coming around the corner.




The parade was led by the Boy Scouts this year.




The Grand Marshal of the this year's parade was Elsie Adams. Elsie was one of the original city council members when the council was first formed in 1959.




Here is one of our lovely police cars, driven by one of our lovely law enforcement officers.




This is the State of Alaska Department of Transportation firetruck that is stationed out at the airport.




This is Maniilaq Associations's float. I swear it looks exactly the same as it did last year. Maniilaq Association provides health and social services to residents of rural Northwest Alaska.




Here's the back of the float. The girls you see in the fur parkas are contestants in the Miss Arctic Circle and Teen Arctic Circle contests. More on that later.




This is a firetruck. Yup.




I think that this is NANA Regional Corporation's float. NANA is the regional native corporation.




And another firetruck.



Ok, that's all for this installment. There is more parade pics to come but it is late and I am getting sleepy.


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