The Elders and Youth Conference Eskimo Dance: At 89, Edith had not danced for 15 years, but last night she did

The elders and youth conference ended last night with an Eskimo dance held at Ipalook Elementary School in Barrow. Among the drummers was Vernon Elavgak, who was featured on this blog in September on Cross Island when he helped to apply the skin from the liver of a bowhead whale to a drum frame.

The first to step onto the floor and begin to dance was Billy Kenton.

Eighty-nine year-old Edith Rowry had not danced in 15 years, but last night she did. She was born and raised in Barrow in the Panegeo family but long ago moved to Santa Cruz, California, with her husband. After she danced, she told me that she had come back to Barrow for a variety of reasons, but mostly because she wanted to dance Iñupiat style again.

"I enjoyed it," she said. "It made me feel so good."

Edith Rowry, feeling good, enjoying the dance.

Afterwards, she accepted a "welcome home" hug from Savik Ahmaogak.

Edith smiles for the crowd - which, thanks to a basketball tournament being held at Hopson Middle School was a little smaller than it otherwise would have been. It was an enthusiastic crowd.

Kennedy Elavgak follows the motions his older brother, David, at right. Freddy Okakok.

Charlie Elavgak motion dances.

Molly Kignak carries a young dancer who has worked up a sweat.

Molly exhanges smiles with Elaine Solomon.

Jane Brower leads a women's kneeling dance.

Molly Hopson during kneeling dance.

Isabelle Elavgak, mother of Kennedy. Isabelle is a founder of Tagiugmiut, a dance group that with the help of doctors Aaron Fox and Chie Sakakibara, has brought life back to a set of songs and dances originally recorded by Laura Bolton in 1946.

Young people enjoy an invitational fun dance.

Christina Aiken and her son, Marchie.

I hope to publish a summary of the Uqapiaqta!! Lets Speak in Iñupiaq Elders and Youth Conference on Monday, but I am having horrendous problems with my laptop computer. Due to flashing lines, images that hop rapidly up and down and colors that reverse themselves, I can hardly see my pictures when I edit and process them, I am finding it very difficult to blog.

It took four times as long to put this up as it should have and the number of images that I had to sort through was small compared to those from the conference itself. Still, I will try. I will come up with something.

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The Kaktovik Healthy Communities Eskimo Dance - and the young artist who envisioned the mural

I have a big task directly in front of me that must be done in a short time and then I have to hop on another airplane, so I will very quickly go through the pictures from the Eskimo dance held on the final night of the Healthy Communities Summit in Kaktovik.

Anyway, after the meetings had ended and supper had been eaten, participants gathered in the community center, along with the Kaktovik drummers, singers and dancers.

When it comes time to dance, some people are not at all frightened and shy.

Always, there is grace and beauty in the dance.

Always.

Much to be seen.

There she is again - in the middle of everything.

Motion dance.

Sometimes, ravens will appear on the floor.

Not all the fun happens in the dance.

Couples dance.

There is something about dancing...

...that makes people smile.

Final dance.

Afterward, there was more gospel singing. Just before it began, someone told me that the mural on the wall behind her had been created by Flora Rexford. I asked Flora about it and she said it was the work of many people in the community. She sketched everything out but then was joined by many other villagers, young and older, in the painting. 

She would instruct them on where to place such colors until the mural was done.

So when she stepped up to the mic to sing, I knew that I had to get a photo of Flora with the whole mural behind her and the musicians.

It was a difficult picture to take, because when I found the angle that seemed to best show the mural, Flora's face was obscured by the mic. Other angles created other problems.

So I shot a bunch, and in the end was not happy with any of them. But here is this one, anyway.

Maybe I should have used this one instead. There are many things about it that I like better than the one I chose, but I don't like the placement of the mic. 

But there's the mural, and here's the artist whose mind it came out of.

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At the Kaktovik Eskimo dance, a young woman took my camera away from me and shot back at me - two Facebook profile pictures

Some people may not believe this, but I am in fact a painfully shy person and the thought of getting up in front of a crowd to dance - any kind of dance - is terrifying to me. Yet, during the welcoming part of Eskimo dance held Friday night in Kaktovik to close out the Healthy Communities Summit, drum leader George Kaleak would call out different groups of people to come to the floor and dance - like those from each village: Wainwright, Anaktuvuk Pass, Atqasuk... and so on.

Then I heard another drummer say to him, "photographers! photographers!" Now I was really terrified. There had been another photographer at the summit, but she had left earlier in the day. If George called out "photographers," I would have to do a solo.

But George was nice, and he used a more general term, but one that did include me. Still, I was trying to think of a way out of it, but I looked at the drummers and singers, where I saw Katheryn Aishanna, a graceful and accomplished dancer, look at me, smile and nod her head toward the floor.

I had no choice. I had to dance.

So I stepped onto the floor and began to dance in my awkward, clumsy way. As I danced, I held my camera in my right hand.

I had barely started when Ruby Rexford ran up to me and took my camera away.

Next thing I knew, Ruby was crouching on the floor, shooting pictures of me.

I glanced at her a couple of times as she worked and she reminded me of someone... who??? Who???

Hmmm... me! She reminded me of me!

Afterward, I looked at the pictures and saw that she had done an excellent job. She could be a photographer. Yes, she could.

"You must put it up on Facebook as your profile picture!" She laughed.

I promised her that I would.

So here is the frame that I chose. As soon as I post this, I will post it again as my profile pic.

And here is Ruby - in her own Facebook profile picture.

Now, I have broken all my own rules (I never cared much about rules, anyway) and I have a made a post that I didn't even take a single picture for. I did not even photograph Ruby's picture of me - which is what I am supposed to do when I put pictures in here taken by photographers other than myself.

I have just been too tired today to edit pictures, that's why.

Tired and lazy.

And with Ruby shooting for me, there was no need to.

Thank you, Ruby!

I needed a day off.

I should note that later, George called me out by name, along with some other people, so I danced again. This time, a young man from Point Hope by the name of Jeff Kuwanna took my camera and photographed me again. 

I was terrified, alright, but you know what?

I had fun.

The story of an Eskimo drum, part 1:* When she gets sung to on her birthday, Nannie Rae hears the drumbeat of the bowhead whale

Nannie Rae Kaigelak on her 22nd birthday. Originally, after I posted Friday's preview, I said that I would post this story on Monday, yesterday, but I am running behind.

The last image in my entry of September 15 was this one, of Nuiqsut Iñupiat whalers pulling hard on some ropes as they butchered one of the four whales they had landed on Cross Island. This is what the ropes were attached to - sections of maktak that whalers, such as Brian Nukapigak, were cutting away with flensing knifes.

The Iñupiat have hunted bowhead whales since what is known in these parts as "time immemorial." When Jesus walked the earth, the Iñupiat hunted whales - and they prayed before, during and after each hunt. When Christopher Columbus set sail for India and wound up in the Americas, the Iñupiat hunted whales. When the Russians first sailed along the shores of Alaska... well, you get the picture:

The Iñupiat have been hunting whales for a very long time. Tools and methods have been adapted to the times, but the bowhead remains the most important element in Iñupiat diet, culture and way of life. The Iñupiat teach that a whale gives itself only to a worthy crew, one that will freely share it with his community.

This whale gave itself to the crew of Billy Oyagak, who will keep a relatively small share of it for himself, his family and crew and will give the rest of it away. Other than their physical help in the landing, butchering and distribution of the whale, no one will pay him for their shares. And those who are too old, ill, or incapacitated to help will still receive their shares, just as if they had worked hard.

And all who show up for the feasts of Nalukatak, Thanksgiving and Christmas will also be fed generously and will take home shares, whether they participated in the original hunt or not.

As they worked on the whale, I saw Maniksak Nukapigak, left, begin to cut the skin of the liver away from the meat. Others joined in to help. Soon, the liver skin had been removed from the whale and taken to a safe place.

Eric Leavitt had brought this Eskimo dance drum to Cross Island during last year's hunt, but had forgotten to take it home. Now, it needed a resonant new skin to cover it.

After cutting away a properly sized section of the liver skin and placing it on cardboard, Vernon Elavgak, who came from Barrow to whale with the crew of Edward Nukapigak, Jr., double-checked the fit.

Vernon then scraped the skin with a plastic spatula, so as not to tear holes into the skin. 

Vernon and Eric check out the scraped skin. They decide to scrape it some more. Afterward, Vernon takes the skin out into the darkness of the night to wash it off in the salt water of the Beaufort Sea.

Then Eric molds the skin to the drum frame.

Vernon double-checks the fit.

They bind the liver skin to the frame with twine.

Vernon pulls the bind as tightly as he can.

The drum is nearly done.

Vernon examines the inside of the drum skin in the beam of a flashlight held by Eric.

The drum is skinned. As Eric checks it out, Thomas Nukapigak, brother to Edward Jr, passes through with one of the darting guns used in this year's harvest. Eric Leavitt, Jr, "Sonny Boy" observes.

The drum is hung to dry overnight. Everyone who stays in the Nukapigak cabin is expected to leave their autograph on the wall. I would leave mine in two places.

In the morning, Eric checks the drum. The skin has dried. He is ready to put it into action.

Throughout the hunt, every hunter in every camp, every boat and at the Com Center are linked to each other via radio. Captain Edward Jr. puts out a call to Nannie Rae up in the Oyagak cabin. Everybody wishes her happy birthday - but Eric goes a little further.

He sings the traditional American "Happy birthday to you..." song, but accompanies it with the beat of the newly skinned drum.

So when Nannie got her song, it came in part from the bowhead whale that for so long has supported her people.

Remember this, next time you see the Iñupiat of the Arctic Slope dancing to the beat of drums made in the traditional way - that powerful, powerful, drumbeat that you hear is literally the sound of the bowhead whale.

In the evening, I ate a big meal with the Nukapigak crew and then hiked up to the Oyagak cabin, thinking that it was time for Nannie to blow out her candles. I arrived a little bit early. Everyone had just sat down to dine on caribou soup. Nannie ladles out a bowl.

I ate again, and found a huge piece of delicious caribou tongue in my soup. I do not joke or exaggerate - it tasted so, so, good. I have eaten at some fine restaurants in places like New York City, Washington, DC, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Bangalore, India and I have enjoyed every bite.

But there is nothing in this world better than Alaska Native food, caught and prepared right. Many people who don't know better shy away from it, but that is just because their palette's have not yet learned. After I finished the first, I downed a second bowl.

When I overeat the kind of food that I generally eat when I hang out down here in Wasilla and elsewhere in the "mainstream" world, I always feel rotten the next day.

On this trip, I overate again and again... whale, caribou, moose, salmon, white fish, polar bear, seal, duck and geese... and not once did it leave me feeling anything but good the next day.

Finally, it was time to light the cake. Nannie joined in the lighting. 

The banner above Nannie's head was hung last year... Cross Island has become the place where she celebrates her birthday. The gentleman standing to the far left is whaling captain Billy Oyagak, who accepted the gift of the 51-foot bowhead that provided the drum skin used on this day to sing "happy birthday" to Nannie Rae.

And then she blows out all of her candles. I wonder what she wished for? I didn't ask, because such wishes are supposed to be kept secret.

*As noted in the title, this is part one of this Eskimo drum story. There might be one more part, maybe two, possibly even three - I am not certain. But for now, I am not going to post them, but will save them for Uiñiq magazine.

One day, well after the next Uiñiq has been published, I will post those parts either here or in whatever this blog has evolved into by then - so, to those who do not have access to Uiñiq, stick with me until then and you will get to see the full series - plus much more that for now I will hold back.

I do plan to put at least two more Cross Island related stories on this blog over the next two or three days.

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During the Eskimo dance, the sound of the bowhead whale filled the space where the Arctic Development Summit was held

It was a most interesting day at the Arctic Development summit, as Iñupiat whalers and oil company execs got together to express very different viewpoints on whether or not there should be oil exploration and development in the Chukchi Sea. It was a frank, but also very civil and respectful exchange.

Last night, the sound of the Chukchi's largest and most powerful resident, the bowhead whale, filled the gym at the Eskimo dance that followed the day's summit sessions. See the skins on the drums? They come from the stomach lining of the whale, which is the way Point Hope drummers still make them.

Many drummers use nylon these days, but not Point Hope. In Point Hope, they keep their dances close to the whale.

This is Phyllis Frankson, dancing to the sound of the bowhead whale.

Drummer Ron Oviok, a veteran of the Iditarod sled dog race. I haven't the time right now, but I hope to post some kind of explanation of the Arctic Development Summit Sunday night, so it will be ready for viewing Monday morning.

If I can do so, I will try to follow it up with some of the subsistence hunting essays that I have done lately, but have had no time to post. I have been kind of frustrated about not having the time to post any of these stories, but to have them come after the summit will add context.

If I can find the time. This summer streams past me, fast, with no breaks between one event to the next.