Anaktuvuk Pass: remembering loved ones who have passed on
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 10:52AM ;)
This is the post that I had planned to put up Tuesday morning, but I could not get online.
I arrived in Anaktuvuk Pass on Memorial Day afternoon with several friends and relatives of Ben (B-III) Hopson the Third and Nasuġraq Rainey Higbee, who would wed the next day.
There was much good food in the house - caribou stew, caribou meat, fresh rolls and such and I had already fed myself a good sampling of it when I learned that the community was going to gather at the cemetery at 5:00 PM, to remember loved ones buried there and to feast in their honor.
When the time came, I joined several members of the wedding party and we walked over together.
When we arrived, I saw a group of people gathered just off the southern edge of the cemetery, the mountains of the Brooks Range rising behind, in front of and all around them. They were praying.
The man leading the prayer was Dr. James Nageak, an Iñupiaq hunter, scholar, retired university professor and Presbyterian preacher. That's James to the left, wearing the green coat.
He thanked the Lord for the lives lived by all those buried here, and for the beautiful land and the animals that had sustained them and that continue to sustain the people of Anaktuvuk Pass today.
After he finished, the Reverend Keith Johnston, right, who now serves as pastor for Anaktuvuk's Presbyterian "Chapel in the Mountains," read scripture.
;)
Then the feasting began. Although I had already eaten, I ate again. I had more caribou soup, I had fish, wild berries, Eskimo donuts; I made certain to get some of the bowhead maktak that had been boiled into uunaalik, seen here just to the right of the spaghetti.
The spaghetti, by the way, is caribou spaghetti. It was superb.
;)
Rachel Riley asked me how my shoulder was healing up. Rachel was in the Barrow High cafeteria on June 12, 2008, when I took my fall, shattered my shoulder, got loaded into a Lear Jet ambulance and was flown on a $37,000 + ambulance ride to Providence Hospital in Anchorage, where I went through two surgeries and had my natural bone replaced by an artificial, titantium, shoulder.
I told her that it had healed well and I was doing good, but that it would never be what it was before. For all it's technical medical wonder, this titanium just cannot match my natural bone. Yet, I am greatly thankful to have it.
Rachel then explained to Ada Lincoln exactly what she had saw that day when I fell off the rolling chair while taking a picture (and Rachel, by the way, is in the last frame that I shot just before the chair rolled out from under me).
;)
A boy walks through the cemetery, looking at the graves of relatives and friends.
;)
Raymond Paneak took me to the grave of his brother, George, who died on September 19, 2009, at the age of 60. George had been Mayor of the village and was an active leader in the Healthy Communities movement, a grass-roots effort to stem the harm and damage that the abuse of alcohol and drugs has caused in the Far North.
;)
Freida Rulland, left, showed me the grave of her father and my friend, Paul Hugo. A good twenty-years ago plus, Paul took me to many places in these mountains, by snowmachine, eight-wheeled Argo, depending on the season, and on foot in search of caribou.
We found a few, too.
He had also kept me as a house-guest in his home. We had eaten pancakes in the morning, caribou in the evening.
Although I of course knew that he had died, it none-the-less shocked me to see his name stenciled into the cross that marks his grave.
He passed away on October 9, 2009, at the age of 49.
I told Frieda and her sister that I would stop by and say "hi" to their mother, but my trip was short and I was busy every waking minute of it and I never got a chance.
I expect to be back in Anaktuvuk before too long, though, and I will then.
Freida's sister, Amanilla Hugo, stands to the far right.
;)
Two little ones, growing up in Anaktuvuk Pass.
Reader Comments (14)
what a shame your friends died so young but what a great way to remember them.
love the children
Thank you for sharing glimpses of a world so very very different from mine. Caribou spaghetti, interesting.
Beautiful photos Bill and such a nice story. Such hearty and sharing people, those of the North. Do you find many similarities in the Apaches that you visit in Arizona and the people in the North of Alaska? There seems to me to be many shared traits between these communities that we don't enjoy here in our suburban world.
It's like a breath of fresh air to be allowed to glimpse at your travels and the people you meet on the way.
Thanks always, glad your travels were safe.
Mr Hess YOU MADE THE ADN! very cool! I feel like I know a quasi celebrity! Good for you!!!
Uvlaalluataaq Bill, so great to read about your visit to beautiful AKP ... and big hello to all the beautiful and familiar faces in the mountains. Aaron Fox, Fannie Akpik and I had a great time visiting the village last summer for our community-partnered music heritage repatriation project, and AKP immediately became a very special place on the earth. Please pass our greetings to Ada Lincoln, Rachel Riley, and Raymond Paneak along with everyone else. And of course, I cannot wait to read about Rainey & B3's wedding. Congratulations to the beautiful couple! Last but not least, I admire what you do in the Inupiaq homeland, Bill. Welcome back.
I first got hooked on this blog after you shattered your shoulder. I couldn't believe you continued to photograph what was happening around you immediately following the accident...you must have been in a lot of pain...but you still documented it. another great post today.
Hi Bill,
I just found your blog - this is great. I love the photos of Rainey's wedding. She grew into such a lovely woman, Tuzzy is smiling big, I'm sure.
Thanks for still doing this photojournalism work - I always appreciate your perspective on the North Slope. It's honest and reeks of the love and affection you have for the people and the place.
Keep up the good work,
Connie
Twain - I agree.
Alicia - While their ways of life are very different, there are similarities, particularly in the ties they feel toward their lands and the sharing sides of their cultures. Sometime within the next couple of days, I plan to put up a post that will directly make a direct tie between folks you met from Arizona and in Anaktuvuk Pass.
Rocksee - As they say, LOL, :)
Chie - Thanks. It's good to be back. I did answer the email that you sent me in Arizona, but then it came back as undeliverable to the Columbia address. I will communicate with you shortly.
Dahli - Well, something good came out of my shattered shoulder, then. Thanks.
Hi Connie!
Your comment popped up in front of me just after I posted the comment above.
I'm glad you found the blog. I hope you will come by all the time.
Yes, she did and I have thought about Tuzzy many times during this process. Except for the image of Rainy and B-III standing in front of the mountains, my photos of their wedding have not yet been seen. The ones she put on facebook were taken mostly by Jana Harcharek. But stay tuned. Sometime this week, I will post mine right here.
What wonderful smiles on those children! Beautiful.
I just got onto yopur blog via a friend of mine who I taught with in AKP back in the mid 70's. She sent me a message that there was a Memorial Day wedding and service article in the ADN.
Although I haven't perused your blog too much yet, I plan to do so. I did read your explanation about your blog's name and have to agree with your summary of the physical virtues and vices of Wasilla. My family and I would always stop in Wasilla while heading North after grubstaking for the long winter. Our major stop was the Goodwill store that was up off the highway to find some great bargains in children's clothes for our growing family. We looked at Wasilla as a great and rich town for our poor backcountry family to shop second-hand in.
I really enjoyed seeing your pictures of Rachel Riley and Ray Paneak.
I was up in AKP 5 years ago to see old friends. I had gotten a letter from Sue Hugo that her husband and my good friend Danny had died so felt that I would have to get to AKP before all of the people who I knew were gone. I stayed withj Riley Morry and his family and saw Bob and Rhoda Ahgook, George Paneak, James Ahgook and so many others. So GLAD that I was able to get there, though for too short of a time. Now Riley and Bob are gone and I am so sorry to hear that Paul Hugo (a student of mine) is gone. Sorry that I missed seeing Ray Paneak, who introduced me to how to butcher a caribou when soon after arriving in AKP I came onto Ray a few miles south of the village after he had shot a caribou. I became friends with patriarch Simon Paneak, who influenced me in my adult life. Simon died in the Fairbanks airport,of hemorrhaging as the result of the effects of TB earlier in his life, taking English translations of folk stories that he told my class in Inupiaq to the Barrow Historical Society.
So many memories of joy and sorrow from the beautiful Nunamiut village of Anaktuvuk Pass.
Thanks so much for precipitating some of those memories again through your blog!
Hello Bill,
So glad you made it back to Anaktuvuk Pass to take pictures of Rainey and B3 wedding. I love the photos you took of Memorial Day. Great photo!! I hope you will return we start to have our Museum grand opening in May 2011!!
i m from anaktuvuk, my mom an some others were remembered that day. she passed away last april, i am only 22 it s unbelievable, for the 1st time in my life, i m completely on my own, talk about growing up too fast, anyways i like the pic of my nephew harlon an my niece krysta, the two little tots.
I was principal in Anaktuvuk Pass in 1988/89. I have many fond memories of the school and the people. So good to see Rachel Riley! she went with some of the students and me on a wonderful trip to New Mexico.