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A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

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Wasilla

Wasilla is the place where I have lived for the past 29 years - sort of. The house in which my wife and I raised our family sits here, but I have made my rather odd career as a different sort of photojournalist by continually wandering off to other places to photograph people and gather information, which I have then put together in various publications that have served the Alaska Native Eskimo, Indian and Aleut communities.

Although I did not have a great of free time to devote to this rather strange community, named after a Tanaina Athabascan Indian chief who knew Wasilla in the way that I so impossibly long to, I have still documented it regularly over the past quarter-century plus. In the early days, my Wasilla photographs focused mostly upon my children and the events they participated in - baseball, football, figure skating, hockey, frog catching, fire cracker detonation, Fourth of July parade - that sort of thing. 

In 2002, I purchased my first digital camera and then, whenever I was home, I began to photograph Wasilla upon a daily basis, but not in a conventional way. These were grab shots - whatever caught my eye as I took my many long walks or drove through the town, shooting through the car window at people and scenes that appeared and disappeared before I could even focus and compose in the traditional photographic way.

Thus, the Wasilla portion of this blog will be devoted both to the images that I take as I wander about and those that I have taken in the past. Despite the odd, random, nature of the images, I believe they communicate something powerful about this town that I have never seen expressed anywhere else. 

Wasilla is a sprawling community that has been slapped down hodge-podge upon what was so recently wilderness of the most exquisite beauty. In its design, it is deliberately anti-zoned, anti-planned. In the building of Wasilla, the desire to make a buck has trumped aesthetics and all other considerations. This town, built in the midst of exquisite beauty, has largely become an unsightly, unattractive, mess of urban sprawl. Largely because of this, it often seems to me that Wasilla is a community with no sense of community, a town devoid of town soul.

Yet - Wasilla is my home and if I am lucky it will be until I grow old and die. Despite its horrific failings, it is still made of the stuff of any small city: people; moms and dads, grammas and grampas, teens, children, churches, bars, professionals, laborers, soldiers, missionaries, artists, athletes, geniuses, do-gooders, hoodlums, the wealthy, the homeless, the rational and logical, the slightly insane and the wholly insane - and, yes, as is now obvious to the whole world, politicians, too.

So perhaps, if one were to search hard enough, it might just be possible to find a sense of community here, and a town soul. So, using my skills as a photojournalist and a writer, I hope to do just that. If this place has a sense of community, I will find it. If there is a town soul to Wasilla, I will document it. I won't compete with the newspapers. Hell no! But as time and income allow, it will be fun to wander into the places where the folks described above gather, and then put what I find on this blog.

 

by 300...

Anywhere within a 300 mile radius of Wasilla. This encompasses perhaps the most wild, dramatic, gorgeous, beautiful section of land and sea to be found in any comparable space anywhere on Earth. I can never explore it all, but I will do the best that I can, and will here share what I find and experience with you.  

and then some...

Anywhere else in the world that I happen to get to, such as Point Lay, Alaska; Missoula, Montana; Serenki, Chukotka, Russia; or Bangalore, India. Perhaps even Lagos, Nigeria. I have both a desire and scheme to get me there. It is a long shot. We shall see if I succeed.

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« Kalib causes us to go into town late | Main | Colony Knights Marching Band feeds us spaghetti as part of its quest to march in the Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama »
Thursday
Jan082009

Suurimmaanitchuat of Barrow: Another group of Alaskans headed to DC to march in the Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama

DateThursday, January 8, 2009 at 10:22PM

I have many pictures of Suurimmaanitchuat dancing, mostly in Barrow at the Kivgiqs that have taken place over the past two decades. Kivgiq, also known as the Messenger Feast, is a great Iñupiat Eskimo celebration of dance, gift-giving and feasting on the real food of the north. Kivgiq was revived in 1988, but its roots are in antiquity.

So I intended to find some of my Kivgiq photos of Suurimmaanitchuat and post them here with this little note about their upcoming trip to Washington, DC where they will march in the Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama. So I typed "Suuri" into my computer's search engine to see what might come up.

None of the Kivgiq pictures appeared - I must have them all stored on disk and out of the computer now - but these five of Suurimmaanitchuat performing at the dedication of the National Museum of the American Indian in September of 2004 did.

This seemed even more appropriate. 

The dancer above is Lia Sakeagak. The temperature at the time was in the 90's - somewhat warmer than it would have been in Barrow.

And this is Alunauq Hepa. 

Darlene Kagak.

This feminine Elvis wearing mukluks is Mae Ahgeak, who spotted the face of the King of Rock 'n' Roll in the mask section of a big store in Anchorage. Now she is the most famous Iñupiat Elvis impersonator in the universe. Dancing to her right is Darlene Kagak and to her left, Molly Pederson and Marie Neakok.

Iñupiat dance always involves invitationals, when all are invited to come and dance with the performers. I am not quite certain how everything will come together in DC, but if they get a chance at any time while they are there, be it immediately after the parade or at some other time, I am certain Suurimmaanitchuat will call up everyone who wants to come up and dance.

So, if any readers happen to be in DC for the Inaugural, keep your eyes and ears open. You will be welcome to join Suurimmaanitchuat in dance. The young man at the forefront is Robert Akpik, Jr.

I'm planning to follow the dancers to shoot some pictures. I will use the images in a Uiñiq magazine that I am working on, but I will also post a few here as well.

 

 

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment3 Comments |
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Reader Comments (3)

Lovely pictures! I can hardly pronounce "Suurimmaanitchuat" right :-)

January 9, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterVarsha

Thank you, Varsha. Many Iñupiaq words that I have become familiar with remain very difficult for me to pronounce correctly - to my great embarrassment! As for "Suurimmaanitchuat," it is one that if you sound it out phonetically in your head, what you come up with is actually comes pretty close to correct.

January 9, 2009 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

What fabulous pictures! I hope there's national TV coverage of these events the day of the inauguration -- I'd love to see the dancers.

January 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterKaJo

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