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A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

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Wasilla

Wasilla is the place where I have lived for the past 29 years - sort of. The house in which my wife and I raised our family sits here, but I have made my rather odd career as a different sort of photojournalist by continually wandering off to other places to photograph people and gather information, which I have then put together in various publications that have served the Alaska Native Eskimo, Indian and Aleut communities.

Although I did not have a great of free time to devote to this rather strange community, named after a Tanaina Athabascan Indian chief who knew Wasilla in the way that I so impossibly long to, I have still documented it regularly over the past quarter-century plus. In the early days, my Wasilla photographs focused mostly upon my children and the events they participated in - baseball, football, figure skating, hockey, frog catching, fire cracker detonation, Fourth of July parade - that sort of thing. 

In 2002, I purchased my first digital camera and then, whenever I was home, I began to photograph Wasilla upon a daily basis, but not in a conventional way. These were grab shots - whatever caught my eye as I took my many long walks or drove through the town, shooting through the car window at people and scenes that appeared and disappeared before I could even focus and compose in the traditional photographic way.

Thus, the Wasilla portion of this blog will be devoted both to the images that I take as I wander about and those that I have taken in the past. Despite the odd, random, nature of the images, I believe they communicate something powerful about this town that I have never seen expressed anywhere else. 

Wasilla is a sprawling community that has been slapped down hodge-podge upon what was so recently wilderness of the most exquisite beauty. In its design, it is deliberately anti-zoned, anti-planned. In the building of Wasilla, the desire to make a buck has trumped aesthetics and all other considerations. This town, built in the midst of exquisite beauty, has largely become an unsightly, unattractive, mess of urban sprawl. Largely because of this, it often seems to me that Wasilla is a community with no sense of community, a town devoid of town soul.

Yet - Wasilla is my home and if I am lucky it will be until I grow old and die. Despite its horrific failings, it is still made of the stuff of any small city: people; moms and dads, grammas and grampas, teens, children, churches, bars, professionals, laborers, soldiers, missionaries, artists, athletes, geniuses, do-gooders, hoodlums, the wealthy, the homeless, the rational and logical, the slightly insane and the wholly insane - and, yes, as is now obvious to the whole world, politicians, too.

So perhaps, if one were to search hard enough, it might just be possible to find a sense of community here, and a town soul. So, using my skills as a photojournalist and a writer, I hope to do just that. If this place has a sense of community, I will find it. If there is a town soul to Wasilla, I will document it. I won't compete with the newspapers. Hell no! But as time and income allow, it will be fun to wander into the places where the folks described above gather, and then put what I find on this blog.

 

by 300...

Anywhere within a 300 mile radius of Wasilla. This encompasses perhaps the most wild, dramatic, gorgeous, beautiful section of land and sea to be found in any comparable space anywhere on Earth. I can never explore it all, but I will do the best that I can, and will here share what I find and experience with you.  

and then some...

Anywhere else in the world that I happen to get to, such as Point Lay, Alaska; Missoula, Montana; Serenki, Chukotka, Russia; or Bangalore, India. Perhaps even Lagos, Nigeria. I have both a desire and scheme to get me there. It is a long shot. We shall see if I succeed.

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Entries in Fourth of July (6)

Sunday
Jul052009

July 4 in Barrow: Two who fought in Iraq and expect to fight in Afghanistan led the parade

DateSunday, July 5, 2009 at 10:19PM

Alaska Army National Guard soldiers Steven Kaleak Jr and Owen Nowpakahok led the parade. Both men served together with the Guard in Iraq, both men reenlisted and both expect to be deployed to Afghanistan in one year. "I love my job," Kaleak said of his reenlistment. Kaleak is Iñupiat of Barrow and Nowpakahok is St. Lawrence Island Yup'ik, and comes from the village of Gambell, 40 miles from Russia.

And truly, back in his hometown, he can walk out the door to the house and see Russia.

Kaleak and Nowpakahok were follwed by veterans of Barrow, many of whom experienced combat in Vietnam and elsewhere. Alaska Natives and American Indians have the highest rate of military service of anyone in the country.

The parade works its way past the Chukchi Sea of the Arctic Ocean.

There were many games and races and I'm afraid eggs got broken.

With some encouragment from her Aaka, four-year old Jacklyn Sceeles dashed to third place.

And Amaya Williams won first in the same category.

All contestants over the age of 60 won first place. Knowing that they were going to get in the money did not stop them from competing full-force.

Spectators, including the very famous and athletic Spiderman, watch the Elders compete in the gunny sack race. Well, three of them watch. The fourth admires his own new face in the driver's side rearview mirror.

Many other things happened, including a baby contest, Miss Teen Top of the World and an Eskimo dance to close out the day, but I have not had time to do anything but barely touch the photos that I took.

I may still try to add in some of this material. If I succeed, I will not pile it on top of this in the usual blog fashion, but will run it below. This because I want to keep the American Flag at the top of any Fourth of July material that I post. So if you come back looking for babies, pageant contestants and Eskimo dancing, be sure to scroll all the way down past this entry that you have already read.

 

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