Jesse Sanchez: the Barrow Whaler who showed up at the championship game wearing pink

Jesse Sanchez of Barrow wore pink gloves onto the playing field last Saturday when the Barrow Whalers met the Nikiski Bulldogs in the state championship game.

Sophomore starter Sanchez did it to remind spectators - and anyone who happens to see this photo - that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and to encourage them to support both the battle against cancer and the women afflicted by it in any way they can.

His own mother has had two bouts with cervical cancer, so Jesse knows what the fight is all about.

So does his sister, Mariska, a Barrow cheerleader, who got into trouble for wearing a t-shirt in support of breast cancer patients emblazoned with the words, "I love boobs" to school.

As readers know, the Whalers lost that championship game.

Yet, even within that loss, they scored their little wins here and there.

Jesse's pink gloves was among those little wins.

Now, as for me, my time is so full and I have so much that feels so impossible that I must accomplish over the next four or five days that I am putting this blog on "one picture a day" mode. Don't be surprised if I miss a day or two altogether - like I did yesterday.

Once everything is out of the way, I anticipate having a brief period of time when I can go at this like it is really what I do.

On the night before his surgery, Larry Aiken joins in a singspiration at the Alaska Native hospital

As I write these words, my friend, Larry Aiken, Iñupiaq whaler and artist of Barrow, is undergoing a six to eight hour surgical procedure to remove a radiation and chemo-killed cancer tumor that extends from his throat through his esophagus into his stomach. The surgery is extremely complex and a specialist has come up from Phoenix, Arizona, to assist.

Last night, I drove into town to visit Larry and when I went in to see him, I left my camera in my car, thinking that we would just have a quiet visit, I would wish him my best, we might share a prayer and then I would go home and leave him to the surgeons.

Indeed, that is just how the first hour of our visit went. For the past couple of weeks, since the second scheduled surgery had to be postponed due to a throat infection, Larry has been staying at the Quyana House, which is attached to the Alaska Native Medical Center hospital. 

It is a short walk down the hall from there to the reception area and foyer of the hospital, where music was being performed. So we walked down to the foyer, to see who we might see and listen to all who would sing and perform. Paul Wilson, a well-known Iñupiaq gospel singer originally from Kotzebue but now living in Anchorage, was leading the singing.

Among the other singers was Ada Lynn Negovanna, originally of Wainwright, and her 15 year-old son, Tagalak Negovanna. So I went back to the car and retrieved my camera.

That's Paul in the background with the guitar, Ada to the left of Larry, Sarah, also of Barrow to his right and Tagalak sitting at the right.

As Paul sings and another patient or guest at the hospital raises his arms to feel the spirit, Larry explains his tumor and the surgery that he faces to Ada and Sarah.

After his surgery, Larry is expected to remain in intensive care for about two weeks. He will have a feeding tube down his throat and will not be able to speak. For most of that time, he told me, he will not be able to recognize any who might come to see him, due to the effects of the medications he must take to get through this.

Ada joins in the singing.

Tagalak, Larry, Ada and Sarah. Many songs were sung, such as Arigaa, Tell Me Why You Love, Jesus, How Great Thou Art and several others.

The spirit and feelings were strong in this room.

In the singing, one feels both joy and pain.

As all humans must, all present have known the horrific pain of deep loss, but in getting together to sing in this place where so many come both to heal and to die, they share it - among themselves, and with any stranger who might happen to wonder into the room.

And in the sharing, and reaching out to faith and belief in beyond, there is comfort to be found.

Along with Sarah, Larry lifts his right hand to feel the spirit.

As anyone would, he has felt a great deal of fear as this day has approached. He has gone many nights with little or no sleep.

"I am ready for my surgery now," he says, when the song ends.

On her Facebook page, Ada has posted a video of her and Paul singing.

Larry then returns to Quyana house, where another visitor, Leo Kaleak, who has hunted with Larry in the crew of George Adams, comes to visit him, and to share whaling stories.

Up in Barrow, the whalers are getting ready. They are cutting trail through ice that this year is very rough, with pressure ridges that I am told reach as high as 60 feet. The other night, Larry's captain called him to seek a little advice on stocking and organizing the camp.

The CD's that Larry holds were made by Ada and Tagalak. I have one of them, too. Later, I will see if I can add a song or two from that CD to this post. This is something that I have not yet done, but, hopefully, it will be easy to do.*

*Okay - I downloaded the CD into iTunes, but have so far been unable to find a way to upload a tune to here.

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Some good news! Larry goes home to Barrow, I get a free cup, Raven sits upon a pole; driver of the ric

There has been much sadness in this blog lately and I believe that sadness is going to linger for some time, but I have some happy news to report today. Larry Aiken has gone home to Barrow. His radiation and chemo therapy was painful beyond anything he would have believed, but did succeed and killed his tumor.

So, the day after I took this picture, Larry got to board an airplane and head home for Barrow. There, he will spend about one month learning how to eat again and to regain his strength and weight. Then he will come back to Anchorage for major surgery to remove the killed tumor.

His fight is not over, but he has completed a huge part of it. "I am absolutely going to beat it," he told me.

He gives a great deal of credit to his sister, Ruth Aiken, who called him everyday from Barrow to say, "Larry, don't you dare give up on me."

Earlier on the day of this photo, Larry received a certificate of graduation from the radiation therapy staff that gave him his treatment. 

The certificate declared that:

"Mr. Larry Aiken has completed the prescribed course of radiation therapy with the highest degree of courage, determination and good nature. We appreciate the confidence placed in us and the opportunity to serve you."

I pulled up to the window of Metro Cafe where Shoshauna informed me that, once again, an anonymous benefactor had bought me coffee and a cinnamon roll.

Thank you, Anonymous.

After I drove away from Metro, sipping and chewing, I came upon this scene on Shrock Road. If you look closely, you can see a whale in that cloud.

And here is a raven, sitting on a pole in downtown Wasilla. That raven does not care who the mayor is or ever was. That raven knows Wasilla like no mayor ever will.

That raven is very intelligent.

Moon over Pioneer Peak.

And this one from India:

This is the man who was driving the auto rickshaw at the time I took the picture that appeared in yesterday's post about the cold, empty, streets of Bangalore.

He was driving the rick when I took this picture, too.

He tried to charge us more than he should have, but Sandy would not let him get away with it.

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Warren Matumeak, Iñupiaq Elder of the Year, completes his life journey

Late yesterday afternoon, I learned that Warren Matumeak of Barrow had just passed away. I last saw Warren on November 19, at the close of the Uqapiaqta Elders and Youth Conference where he was honored by the Iñupiat History and Culture Commission with the Iñupiaq Elder of the Year Award.

Two younger people were also honored then - Jana Harcharek and Josiah Patkotak, who received the Iñupiaq adult and youth awards respectively. In time, I will introduce both of them here, but today I want the images in this blog to focus solely upon Warren. In the image above, his name has just been called and he is about to go to the front to receive his recognition.

Tomorrow, I leave for Barrow where I will attend his funeral. I have been forced to miss many important funerals lately, from Mabel Aiken in Barrow to Soundarya in Bangalore, but I intend to be there for Warren's. After I arrive in Barrow and get a chance to talk with a few of those who loved him and worked closely with him, I will try to write a little more and to communicate a bit about who he was and how people saw him.

In my opinion, he was one of the great men of the Arctic. He will take a treasure to the grave with him - the knowledge and experience that he possessed.

For now, I am going to say little and just let these pictures of what I believe to have been his final appearance before the public speak for themselves.

Over the years, I have photographed Warren in many situations - directing the North Slope Borough Wildlife Management Department; drumming, singing and dancing from Barrow to Washington, DC - leading the choir and preaching in church and at many singspirations. I have photographed him feeding Russian Yup'ik and Chukchi dancers in his home and being fed by them in their Chukotka homes.

But my very favorite photograph that I ever took of him is a black and white that shows him sitting in front of a piano, looking a little weak and pale but grateful, with his arm around a young boy who holds a frozen fish and grins broadly.

That young boy is his grandson, Tommy Akpik, who you can see as an adult standing here behind him in the gray sweatshirt. Tommy was nine, and had gone through a grueling ordeal out on the tundra far from the nearest help and had saved his grandfather's life after Warren suffered a heart attack.

If I can find that picture before I leave for Barrow, after I get to Barrow I will put it in this blog and I will tell the story behind it.

Warren moves to the podium.

Warren receives his award, along with a hug from Patuk Glenn.

The gentleman smiling from the left, by the way, is Wesley Aiken, Larry Aiken's father. Warren and Wesley grew up together and served in the Army together.

Warren receives the mic from IHLC's Ethel Williams.

Warren expresses his thanks for this award.

Warren Matumeak.

Warren acknowledges the applause given to him by members of the board of IHLC.

He then returns to the audience, where his family and friends await him.

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Margie votes; new barista at Metro; my daughters and Charlie join me to visit Ethan Berkowitz, Diane Benson and Scott McAdams; Larry Aiken

Thank you, Margie, for voting. Our candidates lost, all the way across the ballot. But damn, they were the right candidates to vote for and you stood strong for them. It was a pleasure to go to the ballot box with you.

Let's do it again next time.

We cast our ballots during our afternoon coffee break - which, naturally, took us to Metro Cafe. Carmen has a new barista there, by the name of Elizabeth.

Don't worry - Shoshana is still there. Carmen told me that Shoshana had been working hard since very early in the morning, serving all the voters who swung by. Her shift had ended before we got there.

Congratulations on your new job, Elizabeth.

For some reason, you appear a little angelic in this image.

Diane Benson had called me earlier in the day to invite us to what we all hoped would be the Berkowitz/Benson gubernatorial victory party. So come evening, I headed over to the Snow Goose, where I thought she had said the party was going to be held.

At the goose, I found Joe Miller signs and supporters everywhere, but not a one for Berkowitz and Benson. It seemed very odd to me that both campaigns would be celebrating in the same building, but as long as I was there, I asked a Snow Goose employee if by chance the Berkowitz party was also there.

He did not even know who Ethan Berkowitz was.

"You might look upstairs," he said. "Maybe he's up there."

I left, then went outside, pulled out my iPhone and began to see if I could track down the real location.

Soon, I got a text from Lisa. She, Melanie and Charlie were at the Snow Goose, surrounded by Miller people. So I went back and we got together.

We decided to walk down to Snow City Cafe, and see if maybe the party was there.

So here we are at Snow City and, as you can see, it is bustling. There is a party going on. It looks like the kind of party a candidate for governor would throw.

But where is Diane? Where is Ethan?

Here's Diane's son, Latseen, inside Snow City, standing and talking to Tony Vita, Diane's special friend and the man who has in so many ways served as father to him.

"Standing..."

How good it is to see Latseen standing, looking strong and fit.

For those who do not know, Latseen lost both legs to an IED in Iraq.

Here they are, Ethan, Diane and supporters, inside Snow City. For anyone who might not know, that's Ethan Berkowitz at left. The fellow on Diane's right is Jeff Silverman, the filmmaker and producer with whom she did the Elizabeth Peratrovich documentary, For the Rights of All - Ending Jim Crow in Alaska, about the Native struggle for civil rights in Alaska.

That's Nellie Moore to the left. Melanie and Lisa were very happy to meet and talk to her. Nellie is a well known and highly respected public radio journalist and commentator in Alaska, and played an instrumental roll in making National Native News a hit in Indian Country nationwide.

We decided to run over and pay a visit to the McAdams for Senate camp. When we arrived, I was surprised to see that the very first person to greet us was Angela Cox, who readers will recall from the Anaktuvuk Pass wedding of B-III Hopson and Rainey Higbee - Angela's sister.

Angela has been an active campaigner for McAdams and joined a group of other Native youth in making a video promoting his candidacy - and she has been taking an active role in many Native leadership activities, encompassing both tribes and corporations.

I think that she is someone who we will all hear from in the future.

Just a couple of months ago, Scott McAdams was a name that few people knew, even in Alaska. In recent weeks, his name, face and message have become known all across the nation. He has been sought out for interviews by all the major news and propaganda media and, unlike some who have tried to hide and avoid any media that might be all unfriendly, he had the guts to be interviewed even by the biggest and most potent propaganda machine that the world has ever seen - Fox News. 

Part of his message had always been that, "despite the odds, we will win this."

At this moment when he stepped before supporters who had gathered in the hope of hearing a victory speech, the numbers had become clear. He would not win this race.

Before speaking, he paused for a bit, but when he did speak, he did so with strength and eloquence.

He promised those gathered that, whatever the final numbers might be, what they had begun with his campaign would carry on into the future, that a new movement had been born and it is a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Supporters listen to Scott McAdams.

In turn, Melanie and Lisa congratulated McAdams for a campaign well run and let him know they would remain among his supporters. I had hoped to get a picture of the three together in a place with decent light, but there was almost no light in this spot.

Some may wonder why I do not put on a flash at such moments, but, when documenting things, my basic philosophy is that I document events as I see them. If the setting is dark, I am going to leave it dark in the picture. 

A flash casts deceptive light upon the scene.

The lady with the recorder in the background is Ellen Lockyer, reporter for Alaska Statewide News. It always gives me a good feeling to see her on the job, because I have been seeing her on the job, anywhere in the state, for nearly 30 years now.

She keeps going. It gives me that much more hope that I can keep going.

As things continued at the McAdams camp, I hurried back over to the Berkowitz/Benson party. Before I reached the door, I saw Berkowitz doing an interview with Channel 2 as Diane took a break to be with her family.

Shortly after my return, Berkowitz got up to publicly thank his campaign staff and to give a speech. By now, it was clear that his Republican opponent, Sean Parnell, would remain governor. Berkowitz also promised his supporters that the work they had put their heart and life into would continue, and that a better day for Alaska was coming, a day where people of great diversity would all be made welcome at all levels of government and society.

Here, after introducing and saying something positive about all of the campaign staff that stand in front of him, he singled out a man in the crowd.

He said that young man would become well-known in Alaska. I should have written his name down, because I have forgotten it.

I am not even quite certain which young man it was; I think it was the fellow in the green, but I could be wrong.

I was struck by the fact that these people had all come to know each other very well. They had worked hard toward an objective, but the vote had not gone their way.

This caused me to wonder about myself. I could have been out there, slugging away in one, two, or three campaigns, but, politically, despite my convictions, I stayed low key. I justified this by the fact that Margie and I have just been hit too hard these past couple of years. I can afford neither the time or money to get heavily involved in any campaign.

Plus, ultimately, despite my lapses, I see myself as a person, who, sooner or later, must become a conduit to place the images and thoughts of many people - left, right, middle, and scattered - out there.

I can't get too partisan.

And yet, I am partisan.

Diane followed Ethan and spoke to supporters. Emotion overtook her. She paused for just a little bit, then continued on.

After she spoke, Diane received a hug from Mara Kimmel, Ethan's wife.

Karlin Itchoak and Monica Garcia.

I then rushed off to see if I could find Charlie, Melanie and Lisa again. Along with the entire McAdams party, they had ventured to Election Central at the Egan Center. So I headed there, too.

Just ahead of me, I saw these young supporters of Joe Miller doing the same.

As I walked alongside the Egan Center towards the main entrance, I saw that a homeless man had found a quiet place inside, where he could escape the cold and sleep in the warmth.

I wondered what he does, on nights when the Egan is not being used as Election Central?

And how long would he get away with being here on this night? When the candidates and their parties left, would he have to go, too?

Or would someone have already booted him out by then?

I entered, and found an enthusiastic crowd cheering Scott McAdams, but I could not find Charlie, Melanie, and Lisa. So I just started photographing other people.

Suddenly, Melane and Charlie were in front of my camera, smiling, waving a sign and flag.

But where was Lisa?

There she is! When it comes to her politics, Lisa is passionate. She is gung-ho.

Scott McAdams, onstage, cheered on by Lisa, Charlie, Melanie and a host of others.

I could not stay long. My friend, Larry Aiken, had undergone cancer treatment on this day and I had told him I would stop by. I would give him and Mona a ride to the store, to pick up needed supplies. So I headed toward the door, looking for other candidates such as Lisa Murkowski, who appears to be headed for victory in the Senate race, and Joe Miller.

I didn't see either of them, but I did see this group of young Miller supporters. I shot three or four frames.

"That picture will probably be in the paper tomorrow," I heard one of them say to the others as I stepped away to exit through the door. I stopped. "No," I said. "I don't work for the paper." I was trying to think how I might tell them of this blog, but I could think of no quick and easy way to explain it. I need to get some cards made up.

"You'll probably sell the picture and make money," one of them said.

"If I do," I said, certain that I would not be selling the picture, "I'll share the money with you."

Okay, they laughed.

Does someone want to buy a copy of this picture from me? Or perhaps usage rights in a major publication? To hang on a museum wall?

If you do, you will complicate my life, because then I will have to track these kids down and share the money with them. Plus, it would set a bad precedent for me, to pay these kids for having been in my picture. It's hard enough to make a living, already.

So I don't think I will sell this picture to you even if you ask.

Well, if you offered a million, I probably would. That way, I could give the kids a token something and then I could fund this blog, probably for the rest of my life.

When I saw these kids last night, their enthusiasm, their spirit of fun, their commitment to a cause I soundly believe to be wrong and misguided, I found my feelings toward them to be kind. I felt a desire that they find success in life. I want their spirit and enthusiasm to ultimately be rewarded with good things - but not with Joe Miller in the Senate.

Then I drove over, picked Larry and Mona up at their hotel near the Alaska Native Medical Center and drove them to Carr's.

Afterward, I was too exhausted to do anything but drive home. Mona said she would get me a cup of coffee from the hotel. I was going to take a picture of her bringing the coffee back to me but, somehow, I zoned out and then found the coffee in my hand, Mona going back into the hotel.

Thank you, Mona.

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