Kivgiq, 2011, part 3, day 1b: A race is run, honors won, a seal oil lamp lit and the dancing begun

Briefly stated, the Kivgiqs (Messenger Feasts) of old took place after a village experienced enough successful hunting seasons that they were able to store up an abundant supply of food and gifts and to invite at least one more village to come for great celebration of feasting, dancing and gift giving.

When the guests would draw near to the host village, the most athletic and swift of the young men of each community would meet and then race back to the Qargi where the celebration would take place. The winner's village would receive special honors.

Kivgiq continued strong up until the beginning of the 20th Century, but then stopped during a time of diptheria, flu and cholera epidemics. The celebration was revitalized in 1988 by the North Slope Borough under the leadership of then Mayor George Ahmaogak. The race was restored in 1991, when runners from each participating village raced from the airport to the high school.

In recent Kivgiqs, the race has been from the Airport Inn to the high school, a distance that I would estimate to be close to one-half mile.

After the colors had been posted, the 14 young men and women who would race on behalf of their villages were called to the stand to be introduced and acknowledged. There, Christian Young of Point Lay raised his hands over his head.

During that race of 1991, I had a bicycle in Barrow and I had imagined that by pedaling that bike along the race route, I could catch the beginning, the middle and the ending. It turned out not to be so easy. The runners covered the distance fast and I had to stop a few times to work my cameras and so I missed some parts, including the finish itself.

This year, I wanted to get the start, the finish and at least a piece of the in-between. I was not sure how to do it. I thought about jumping in one of the vans that would take the racers to the finish line and then to see if I could ride the van back ahead of the racers, but I quickly surmised that this would not work.

Instead, I found a taxi driver wandering aimlessly about in front of the high school. I jumped in. The driver was from Asia and his English was not good, but after putting in some effort, I did manage to explain to him that what he needed to do was drive me to a spot just down the road from where the race would start and turn the cab around and point it toward the high school. Then, I would get out of the car, leave the door open, take a few shots just as the runners took off, then jump back in the cab and he would zoom me straight to the high school, where I would jump out, shoot a couple more frames as the runners drew near and then I would run inside the school ahead of them and get the finish.

I told him I would not have time to pay when I got out, so I gave him a $10 bill. He was very worried about this, but $10 was twice the normal fare for such a ride so he took it and reluctantly did as I asked.

The starting gun was fired. The runners took off. I shot a few frames and jumped back into the cab. For Barrow, it was a very warm day, - 4 F.

The driver took me to the high school, but he could not zoom because there were people all about, wandering in and out of the road.

Still, he got me there in time for me to get out and shoot an image of the race leader as he entered the high school parking lot.

It was Christian Young.

Next, I bolted for the door, hoping to reach it before Young drew too close.

I raced to the door and turned around. Young was dashing up the ramp, followed closely by other competitors.

I zipped through the door and the Arctic entry, turned and saw that I now had no chance of catching Young at the finish line. Still, I would do what I could. I shot this image as he raced into the building as Colleen Akpikleman, the energetic, hardworking woman who had been in charge of organizing Kivgiq, shouted instructions to him and those behind him. 

June Elavgak of the Mayor's Office, who helps me out in so many ways, was also there to encourage the runners.

Christian Young charges down the hallway.

I try to run alongside, snapping pictures, fantasizing that somehow I still might get into the gym in time to catch the finish.

Christian Young enters the gym.

I tried real hard to get the finish, but I failed. All I managed to do was to get this blurry shot right after Christian Young charged through the finish rope.

Christian Young and the legs and mukluks that carried him to the finish rope ahead of all other competitors.

Christian Young catches his breath.

Christian Young is congratulated by Barrow Whaling Captain Eugene Brower, emcee.

Christian Young, who has just taken the Qargi for Point Lay.

Now, the honors go to his village of Point Lay. Village elder Esther Tuckfield lights the seal oil lamp as Christian Young and Lily Aniskett observe.

The seal oil fire is lit. Mayor Itta offers his congratulations to the village. In the past, such lamps would have provided the only light inside the Qargi.

The Point Lay trio pose for pictures from a few of their now many admirers.

Point Lay also receives the honor of being the first dance group to take the stage - thanks to this young man, Christian Spencer Young!

Point Lay dancing.

Point Lay whaling captain Thomas Nukapigak, who took me into his crew in 2008, the year that Point Lay rejuvenated its hunt after 75 years since it had last landed a bowhead, dances with his village. In the middle part of the 20th Century, the United States government relocated many of the people of Point Lay to big cities in the Lower 48, hoping to assimilate them.

In time, only two people, Warren and Dorcas Neakok, were left in Point Lay. In the 1970's, the people came back, but did not get a bowhead quota until 2008.

The village did not land a bowhead the year that I whaled with them, but in 2009, they did. I made it to the Naluktak, or whale feast.

Point Lay dancing.

The youth of Point Lay dance.

I think they enjoyed it.

View images as slide show

Kivgiq 2011, part 2 - Day 1a: The celebration begins with a prayer and remembrance, the grand entry, and the posting of the colors

As always, Kivgiq began with an opening prayer and a bit later, a moment of silence in remembrance of those elders and others who have passed on since the last Kivgiq. In the foreground is Rachel Riley of Anaktuvuk Pass. Behind her, to the far right, is North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta standing alongside his wife, Elsie, and his sister, Dorcas.

All have gathered in the Barrow High School gymnasium.

Before I continue, I should note that I might need to rethink my original plan for posting Kivgiq. That plan was to post each full day to the day, one week later. Today, Wednesday, I planned to post last Wednesday, tomorrow, Thursday, I planned to post only Thursday and so on. I knew that I could only accomplish this if I made a very quick, somewhat superficial, edit and so I decided that was what I would do.

BUT... even doing that, I have barely managed to take a look at the daytime part of last Wednesday's take. I have not even glanced at the evening. And Wednesday was kind of like a warmup - the action would really take off Thursday, Friday and especially Saturday.

I have so many pictures to sort through that I don't know what to do.

To me, you see, every new beat of the drums also marks a new potential picture and while I do not let myself go quite that wild, at Kivgiq I see pictures every which way I turn my head and if I see a picture I am inclined to take it.

This is fun, but creates a bit of a nightmare for me later, for it takes me at least five times as long to edit a take such as Kivgiq as it does to shoot. Maybe it takes ten times as long.

The truth is, I have still not done a complete edit on my 2009 Kivgiq take or my 2007 Kivgiq take... and there are some other Kivgiq takes out there as well that remain only partially edited.

So the thought struck me that maybe I should spread each single day of Kivgiq over two days of posting - but that would make eight days of blogging Kivgiq.

I do not think this would be a problem for readers who are deeply into Kivgiq. Such readers will enjoy seeing as many Kivgiq pictures as I can post however long it takes. But, as insignificant as this blog is in the larger world of online publishing, it has none-the-less gained a readership that not only spans the nation but the globe and for my non-I upiat audience, eight days of Kivgiq posts might overdo it a bit.

So I have to wrestle with this one.

Also, I can put up a slide show reasonably quickly, but, thanks to the fact that the creators of Squarespace have a knack for making tasks that should be simple as complicated as possible, it is a time consuming, tedious task to take the same images that are already in the slideshow and repost them in this journal.

So my slideshows are going to contain many more images than the blog posts - of which I still hope to do three or four daily.

So those of you who really love Kivgiq - be certain to click on the slide show links. Depending on the size of your computer screen, not only will the pictures appear larger there, but there will be many images in the slide shows that will not show up in the regular post. For example, the slide show link here includes 18 Grand Entry images that are not in this post.

Then it was time for the Grand Entry. As their runner had won the foot race at the 2009 Kivgiq, the Tikigaq Traditional Dancers of Point Hope were the first to enter and led the way onto the dance floor. If it looks like there are many empty seats in the bleaches, it is only because these are the seats reserved for the dancers and drummers as they finish their entry and take their places.

Luke Koonook, Tikigaq's eldest dancer, follows the banner and leads the rest of Tikigaq into the Barrow High School gym.

Wainwright Dancers enter.

In what was probably the most emotional entry, Karmen and Martha-Lee Kagak, granddaughters of the late Warren Matumeak carried one of the pictures that I took of him dancing at a past Kivgiq with daughters Darlene and Mae Ahgeak as they led family and all members of the Suurimaanitchuat Dancers onto the floor. Warren was the Iñupiaq Elder of the Year 2010 and a good friend whose funeral I attended in early December.

After they took their place in the bleachers, Warren's daughter, Darlene Matumeak-Kagak was feeling the hurt of her father's absence, when she had this experience:

"As we were standing there, I felt something touching my hair very softly, I really felt it so I had to touch my hair to see if anyone was touching my head and there was no one! Right away I felt my Dad's presence being right next to me touching my head....that's when I started to cry very quietly....."

The Taġiuġmiut Dancers of Barrow. If I am ever to get through my Kivgiq postings, I must refrain from my inclination to tell stories with the pictures I post, but here is a story that I must tell.

See the drummer right in the middle? That is Charlie Ahkiviana. Back in the early days of the modern Kivgiq (and sometime before I finish posting this series I will take some time to briefly explain the history of Kivgiq, both from modern times and antiquity) Charlie was a little boy and he would often follow me as I moved here and there taking pictures.

He was very friendly and curious.

One time, when I sat down briefly, he took notice of both of my legs and saw that they were real. His eyes went wide.

"You grew your leg back?" he asked.

About the only thing that I could think of is that at some point there must have been a short, bearded, Taniq with an artifical leg wandering about Barrow who befriend Charlie and looked a lot like me.

It was kind of fun to have him thinking that I had grown my leg back, so I let him believe it for awhile.

Ora Elavgak of the Barrow Dancers waves at the crowd as she enters alongside elder Myrtle Akootchook, sister to Warren Matumeak.

Uyaġaġviŋmiut Dancers of Nuiqsut.

Uyaġaġviŋmiut.

The Aklavik Dancers, from Aklavik, NWT, Canada.

Entry of the Kotzebue Northern Lights Dancers.

Utuqqaġmiut Dance Group, from Wainwright.

The theme of this year's conference - Family and Love.

Utuqqaġmiut Dance Group.

After the grand entry, the colors were posted. Veteran George Kingik of Point Hope carried the American Flag and then saluted after he had posted it.

Before I go to bed tonight, I will try to post three more entries from Day 1. Then I will see what I am able to accomplish tomorrow.

To view these and 18 more images from the grand entry in slide show mode, click here.

Kivgiq 2011, part 1 - Getting there: I back up one week in time to my beard trim with Leah, then get on a jet and fly to Barrow, where Roy feeds the King Island Dancers

As recent readers know, one week ago today I flew to Barrow to cover Kivgiq, but did not blog the event as it happened. Not only did I have some terrible computer problems to deal with, but I am finally beginning to learn that it takes too much time away from my shoot to try to live-blog an event that takes place throughout virtually all the waking hours of the day.

It is better to get as many photographs as I can and then blog later.

So that is what I am doing. I now plan to blog each day of Kivgiq, one week to the day later. So everything that you will see on today's post actually happened one week ago. What you will see tomorrow will have taken place pn Wednesday of last week. And so it will be with Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

To get me going, as already posted, I stopped and got a haircut and beard trim from Lean Frankson. I did not say that Leah is a poet and an artist, but she is. She gave me a very artistic beard trim.

I had also made two 13 x 19 inch prints to give away at Kivgiq and I took these to Frames, Etc., in Anchorage and had them framed. I did not want to put them on as baggage because I know from experience that even if you mark something as "fragile" and "glass" the baggage handlers can be very rough.

They seem to like to hurl things - glass included.

So I very carefully carried the wrapped frames across the tarmac and up the metal steps to the back door to the jet. There was snow and ice on those steps and I tried to be careful, but just as I was about to step into the plane with my left foot, my right foot slipped on the ice.

This caused me to drop the framed pictures right into the plane and when I picked up the package, I could hear the tinkle of broken glass. A stewardess witnessed this and was quite horrified and apologetic. She said Alaska Airlines needed to come up with a better system than this, where one must climb snowy, icy. steps just to enter the airplane. She told me to report this to the counter folks after I got and that Alaska Airlines would pay for the damage.

Do you believe this?

Do you think it could possibly prove to be true that Alaska, which, in my opinion, was once the most customer friendly airline in the industry before they changed their philosophy, would actually stand behind a customer in this way?

I was hopeful, but skeptical.

We will see.

Following that little mishap, I entered the plane and took my seat. It was a middle seat. I don't like middle seats, but someone must sit in them. Pretty soon, Maggie Ahmaogak and her grandson, Jacob, came in and took their seats, directly across the aisle from me.

We were all very happy to see each other.

Next, Dr. Edna Ahgeak MacLean took the window seat in the row directly in front of me and right after that, Dr. Chie Sakakibara, who many readers met last spring in New York City, came in and sat down beside her. Just like most Iñupiat people of her age, Dr. MacLean started her education in a BIA village elementary school - Barrow - and then was sent off to boarding school at Mt. Edgecumbe in Southeast Alaska for her high school education.

Along the way, the educational system did all that it could to hammer her Iñupiaq language out of her and to make her a proficient speaker and writer of the English language. As to the later, they succeeded. She speaks and writes English very well. As to the former, they failed - she held fast to her Iñupiaq language. After earning an MA in bilingual education from the University of Washington and her doctorate in education from Stanford, she returned home and played a lead role in creating and developing bilingual education programs for Iñupiat school children.

She also served for many years as President of Ilisagvik College in Barrow.

Her son, Andrew recently made a new film, "On the Ice" which was featured at Sundance and is now about to open at another film festival in Germany.

As for for my good friend Chie, Dr. Sakakibara, she and Dr. Aaron Fox are the ones who have repatriated many Iñupiaq dance songs back to the people of Barrow. You can read about it on this blog right here.

Directly behind them is Allison Akootchook Warden.

My middle seat placed me right beside Allison, but as it happened the aisle seat would not be filled until we got to Fairbanks, so I shifted over to give us both a little more space. During Alice's senior year at Barrow High School, I had rented half of a quonset hut at the Old Naval Arctic Research Center that now houses Ilisagvik College. She and her mom, the Reverend Mary Ann Warden, rented the other half.

One of my earlier neighbors in that hut had been a bootlegger and drug dealer and every now and then life in that hut just got completely out of hand. So Allison and her mom were a great relief. They were excellent neighbors. Allison was into drama, liked to act and to write poetry and create her own plays.

Now she is making a career of it. "Time Immemorial," the play that she created along with Jack Dalton, has been a major success not only in Alaska, but in Outside venues as well, including New York City and, very soon, the west coast.

Allison brought her brand new Macintosh MacBook Air laptop computer onboard. She had personalized it with pictures of her ancestors, including, on this side, Adam and Eve.

Although they had Iñupiaq names as well, the names Adam and Eve were bestowed upon them because they were the earliest members of the family to come into serious contact with people from the Outside world coming into the Arctic.

She had many suggestions for me on how I might raise money to carry out this blog and advance some of my other projects.

The stewardess played with a little girl, whose name I learned, but, I am sorry to say, have now forgotten.

I saw Lorraine "Lolo" Ahmaogak from my Wainwright family, a few rows ahead. As I get into my Kivgiq pictures, you will see Lolo dancing. It will be beautiful.

Then Chie stood up and started to take pictures.

She even took my picture. I then took this picture of her with my picture.

So the other thing that Chie and I always do when we see each other these days is we each take studies of ourselves, in this pose. This is the study I took. These are fun studies to take. I wouldn't mind taking one such study every day, if I could.

Then we could put out a book, jointly: Studies of Dr. Chie Sakakibara and Photographer/Author/Blogger, Bill Hess - Compendium #438, by Dr. Chie Sakakibara and Bill Hess.

Shows of our portraits would be hung in museums and galleries all over the world and The New Yorker magazine would be all gaga over them. The resources that I need to do this blog and my electronic magazine would flow in and I would buy a new airplane with big fat tires, skis and floats as needed and I would fly it all over Alaska and northern Canada and Russia, too.

But she lives and teaches in North Carolina now, so Chie and I cannot pose for such a portrait every day.

So it isn't going to happen quite this way.

I'm writing too many words, taking up too much time. I've got a whole Kivgiq to edit, which I figure is at least a 20 day job to do right, but I must come up with something workable for this blog each day for the next four days. So I had better drop this verbosity, get right to it and move along.

Here we are, on the ground in Fairbanks, where the Killigmiut Dancers from Anaktuvuk Pass are boarding.

Rachel Riley of AKP  puts her bag in the overhead above Chie. The fellow standing by the bulkhead looking wryly at the camera is Andy Mack, who works for North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta.

I would write Andy's entire life history, and Rachel's too, but truly, I must move this blog along.

Both histories would be fascinating.

Dr. Aaron Fox of Columbia University in New York City also boarded in Fairbanks.

And so did two of his students - Lauren Amsterdam and Trevor. I'm not a very good student and I have forgotten Trevor's last name.

When Maggie learned that Lauren and Trevor were from New York, she told them how she and her husband, George Ahmaogak Sr., then Mayor of the North Slope Borough, had been in New York City on September 11, 2001. George had been scheduled to attend a morning meeting with people from the financial world, but the airline had lost his luggage. He had no suit to wear to that first of several scheduled meetings and so did not go.

The location where the meeting was taking place?

The 88th floor of Tower 1, World Trade Center.

The time? When the jet crashed into the building.

Once in awhile, when an airline company loses luggage it proves to be a good thing.

My host and friend Roy Ahmaogak picked me up at the airport and brought me home. I unwrapped the pictures, hoping that maybe only one glass pane had broken.

No such luck.

This story will continue.

Then I followed Roy over to the Iñupiat Heritage Center, where a large room has been set aside for the people of Barrow to use for cultural activities, from creating arts and crafts to skinning their umiak whaling boats and food preparation.

On this night, Roy, left, and TJ, right, as well as Billy were cutting up part of the tail from the bowhead that had come to them in the fall for the Kivgiq feast.

In the very next room, the King Island Dancers were practicing. Roy sent Billy over to deliver a bowhead snack to them. As soon as there was a break in the drumming, that snack would be quickly and gratefully devoured and relished.

I stepped out on to the back porch and looked off into the distance, in the general direction of where Kivgiq would begin at 9:15 AM the following morning.

The birthday party that I missed

While the wind did not quit blowing, it eased off enough that the Alaska Airlines jet did make it into Barrow last night and so I boarded that jet and headed south, toward Anchorage.

During our Fairbanks layover, I turned on my iPhone and this picture came in as a text message from Lavina. It is from Jobe's first birthday party that took place on Saturday, February 12, as I was busy covering Kivgiq. Please take note of the places where the frosting is missing from the cake. The larger patch to the right was made by Jobe's butt when he sat on the cake and the small ones in front of that by his feet.

I am told that he did not like sitting in the cake. Both he and Kalib did enjoy eating it.

I hated to miss my grandson's first birthday party, but I so loved being at Kivgiq and I could not miss the final day. I will make it up to Jobe before the week is over.

The plane was packed leaving Barrow and did not get out until about 45 minutes late. Margie picked me up at the airport about midnight. Since breakfast, I had not eaten anything other than the two tiny pretzel and soy beans snack bags Alaska Airlines has used to replace the steaks, fish, chicken, rice, salads, fruits, cakes and all those things that they used to feed to their customers.

I was hungry, so we stopped at the McDonald's in Mountain View and we did not get home and settled down into bed until 3:30 AM. I had not slept much during Kivgiq and I had worked hard and been on the go constantly, so I wound up sleeping in today until nearly 1:00 PM.

It felt good, but I have a headache now.

Margie and I had planned to go back to Sakara Sushi this evening to celebrate our 37th anniversary, but we wound up eating a huge, afternoon breakfast at Family Restaurant and neither of us are up for a big meal tonight, so we will have to find some other way to celebrate.

I have so much work to do now - got to start putting my Kivgiq pictures into my home harddrives and then I face a huge amount of editing.

For now, though, I can't do anything.

I am wasted - no, not that way - just worn out and in need of a little downtime. 

Kivgiq is over, I missed Jobe's first birthday, the weather is getting bad, but I hope I make our anniversary

Just at quick note so that readers will know this blog is still alive and active. Murphy's Law went into overtime for me this trip and I had to deal with so many incredibe glitches that I had no time at all to post even the simplest entry the past couple of days - but, the most important thing is that I succeeded in working around every problem, with the help of friends like Marie Itta, Alex Demarbin of the Arctic Sounder and my host, Roy Ahmaogak.

So I have a huge Kivgiq take to edit and sort and will do so after I get home. As I do, I will make a series of Kivgiq posts - late, but better than they would have been had I tried to do it while Kivgiq was in progress - and it was a wonderful and magnificent Kivgiq.

I am scheduled to leave Barrow for Anchorage on tonight's flight and, as I walked across the small lagoon back to Browerville from Pepe's and took this picture, I was optimistic that would happen.

I just poked my head outside, however, and the snow was blowing so thick and heavy that I could not see across the lagoon to the main part of Barrow, so I don't know if the jet will be able to get in tonight or not.

Tomorrow is Margie and my anniversary, so I hope that jet gets in.

Yesterday was Jobe's first birthday and I missed it.

I don't want to miss this date, too.

We'll see what happens.

Now I have much sorting out to do if I am to be ready for that jet, should it come, so I have no more time for this blog today.