Note: Due to satellite troubles, the internet here in Barrow has been going in and out and seems to have been off much more than it has been on. This is my first chance to post, but the net is expected to vanish again at any minute. I have placed my photos, but, if you should come upon this and find that one or all of the pieces of the narrative is missing, it is because the net went out again. I will try to make a save right now and if it succeeds, I will continue until I am done or the net vanishes again:
This is Lillyanna with a ceramic cat that belongs to her Aunt Sharene, who used to have a real, live, cat that I photographed a few times - it even appeared in my book, Gift of the Whale.
Sharene has another niece, older than this one, who was curious about the ceramic cat.
Sharene told her that it was her real cat and that she had had it mummified.
"I just couldn't bear to give her up," Sharene explained.
The niece believed this for a couple of years and then one day Sharene told her she had just been joking.
The niece did not want to believe this, but the ceramic cat had an accident and one ear broke off. Then the niece saw that it was ceramic. She believed.
As I walked around the lagoon in a stiff wind, I saw these kids playing.
Scrimshaw artist Gilford Mongoyak Jr., the son of an elder who had been very good to me and who died a number of years ago gave me this sample of his work the other day. He had invited me to stop by the Iñupiat Heritage Center, where many artists come both to create and sell their work and so I did.
I did not expect him to give me anything, but he did. I have been photographing several artists, as I plan to include a section on artists in my next Uiñiq magazine. It is tough, because there are far, far, far more artists up here than I can even begin to include.
I wish I could include them all.
This is the first flag that I saw flying half-mast for Senator Stevens. Everywhere I go in Barrow, people are talking about his sudden, tragic and unexpected death. I have not heard one negative comment. What I keep hearing, over and over, is how much Senator Stevens was instrumental in bringing into Rural Alaska.
That would include modern health facilities, such as the old hospital here in Barrow and the new one, still under construction, as well as this housing complex for doctors and other health care workers.
Hey! It looks like I made it all the way to the end.
I've done a lot more photography over the past few days than this blog even hints at, but this is all I have time for right now and I am saving much of it for other uses.