A prayer at the Arctic Economic Development Summit

For more than two days, I have not been able to log onto the internet, even though I have been getting bars. And I don't have much time now, because it is 7:29 PM here in Point Hope, Alaska, and the Eskimo dance is scheduled to begin at 7:30 and I don't want to miss a single drum beat.

Anyway, I am at the Arctic Economic Development summit. Yesterday, Elijah Attungana opened it with a prayer.

And here is Elijah, again today, making another prayer. He explained that, in Iñupiat country, everything begins with a prayer, because the great creator made the land, the air, the sea and all the creatures that walk thereon, soar across and swim through.

The Kivilina dancers just walked in. The drummers have taken their seats, women dancers have moved onto the floor.

And there is the first drum beat.

Bye for now.

Midnight: one image from today's (and yesterday's) caribou hunt

We headed out onto the tundra about noon yesterday and arrived back in Barrow at close to 6:00 AM this morning with eight caribou - better known as tuttut around here. I type these words at 7:48 AM and at noon I must be at the airport to catch a plane to Point Hope.

I took many pictures and I think I got some good ones, but it will not surprise you to learn that not only have I not had time to examine my take, but it is still downloading with the majority of it left to go.

So this too falls into the queue of backlogged material yet to be posted.

Who knows if I will ever post it? We will see.

The hunters above are Ernest Nageak, closest to the camera, and Kuunniaq. They are studying a large herd of caribou to see how many big bulls they can spot.

Ernest is the son of Roy Nageak, who headed up this hunt. Pamiuq, another of Roy's boys, also came, as did Frank, his 10 year-old grandson. I was most impressed with Frank and if I ever do blog this, I think you will be, too.

He dropped the first caribou of the day with a single bullet from a .223.

It was a long day, and tough in some ways, because, as you can see, the mosquitoes were thick and relentless, but Frank hung it without complaint.

The picture was taken shortly after midnight.

My face and head are sunburned even worse than they go in India, because even though India is hot, the sun comes up and then goes down again pretty quick - even in late spring, nearing the solstice, not much more than 12 hours.

Whereas this time of year, the Arctic sun does not set.

And there is shade in India. There is no shade on the Arctic Slope.

Thirty-seven years ago, they founded and organized the North Slope Borough; now they are honored by the Borough

Many of their peers have since passed on, but here are a few of those who founded and helped to organize the North Slope Borough: the late Walter Nayakik of Wainwright, founder, represented by his son, Jimmy Nayakik; Frank Matumeak, of Nuiqsut, founder; Lloyd Ahvakana of Barrow, first Finance Director; Jon Buchholdt of Anchorage, special assistant to Eben Hopson, first Mayor; Billy Nashoalook of Wainwright, founder; the late Roosevelt Paneak of Anaktuvuk Pass, founder, represented by his son, Bruce; Fenton Rexford of Kaktovik, founder. Mayor Hopson is pictured in the painting that hangs on the wall behind them.

After oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, the oil companies and the State of Alaska began to negotiate between themselves on how to divvy up the wealth and royalties that would soon be pulled from the Iñupiat Arctic Slope homeland and shipped south through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. They completely left the Iñupiat out of the equation.

The Iñupiat were the original owners of not only Prudhoe Bay but the entire Arctic Slope and all the wealth within it and they had never agreed to surrender or sell any of it. When the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was passed in 1971, Joe Upicksoun, the Arctic Slope representative, shouted out a thunderous "No!" when asked for his peoples' vote on whether or not to accept ANCSA as written.

Billy Nashoalook of Wainwright, Founder.

Still, without Iñupiat consent, the act passed. As far as the State, the Feds and the oil companies were concerned, the $1 billion that would be paid to the 13 Alaska Native regional corporations and over 220 village corporations that were to be formed across the state, was compensation enough.

It was also argued that all of Alaska's Natives had also been "given" 44 million of the 375 million acres that had sustained them and been their's under aboriginal title since time immemorial and that this was enough.

The Iñupiat did not see it that way. In a single day's lease sale at Prudhoe Bay, the oil companies had paid $1 billion for the right to explore for oil - because they knew that from that $1 billion, they would reap billions upon billions upon billions. This single day's lease take equalled the entire sum paid to all the Alaska Native nations -  not just the Iñupiat, but the Tlingit and Haida, Athabascan, Aleut, Yup'ik and every Alaska Native - for the 330 million acres of their traditional homelands that they would not be allowed to claim.

Frank Matumeak is congratulated by Mayor Edward Itta and Assembly President Eugene Brower.

The Iñupiat believed that if oil from their traditional lands was going to generate wealth to benefit the entire United States, a substantial portion of that wealth should be directed back to the Slope to benefit the people there.

Also, they felt that if there was going to be development in the Iñupiat homeland, the Iñupiat must have planning and zoning powers in order to protect environmentally sensitive places important to the animals, fish and birds that sustained them.

And so they determined that they would organize the strongest form of Borough government allowed under state law - one that would give them powers of taxation, planning and zoning. While that government would not receive royalties from oil development at Prudhoe Bay and nearby fields, it would be able to tax the property and physical structures of the oil companies - everything from pipelines to wells to housing quarters.

This would provide the funds needed to improve housing, build schools, medical facilties, power plants, water and sewer facilities, police deparments - the kinds of services that most Americans took for granted, but that scantly existed on the North Slope.

Fenton Rexford, Founder.

The Borough did organize and Eben Hopson, one of the men who led the push, was voted in as first Mayor. He is revered across the Slope and his achievements and legacy are highly honored among the Iñupiat. There were many others who played critical roles in that push, from the Reverend Samuel Simmonds to Charlie Edwardsen, Jr.

Many meetings and gatherings were held in all eight Slope village in the process of organizing the North Slope Borough and those individuals who did the organizing and signed the charter document are now known as the founders. Three who still live, along with the sons of two who are deceased, were honored in person for their achievement by Borough Mayor Edward Itta and the NSB Assembly at last week's assembly meeting.

The original founders present included Frank Matumeak of Nuiqsut, Billy Nashoalook of Wainwright and Fenton Rexford of Kaktovik. The late Roosevelt Paneak of Anaktuvuk Pass was represented by his son, Bruce, and the late Walter Nayakik of Wainwright by his son, Jimmy.

Jon Buccholdt. The ivory eagle on the table beside him was given to Buccholdt as a gift from Charlie Hopson, son of Eben Hopson, first mayor of the Borough.

Also honored was Lloyd Ahvakana, the Borough's first finance director and a close confidant and advisor to Hopson and Jon Buchholdt, special assistant to Eben Hopson, an attorney famed for his ability to innovate and to help advance Borough issues in the face of powerful and often hostile opponents.

While the journey has often been a rough one, on the whole the North Slope Borough has been remarkably successful. In every village there are modern, well-equipped schools, fire-stations, power plants, utilities, clinics, police stations, roads and maintenance and other facilities.

Lloyd Ahvakana, the Borough's first finance director.

Even so, subsistence hunting remains the primary source of sustenance for most of the Borough's Native people and even many of its non-Native residents. The Borough has stood up for subsistence rights, including the financial support it has given the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission in the fight to protect the bowhead whale hunt from a world that once sought to shut it down.

It has a wildlife department that funds and coordinates wildlife science to provide hard data on the health of Arctic animals.

"The Borough has been a fighting force for us," Matumeak said. He recalled that during the process that led to its founding, there were many worrying moments. Unlike a tribe, the Borough would not be a Native government, per se. Would outside forces work their way in and take the power away from the Iñupiat?

That has not happened, Matumeak says. He points with pride to the schools and other facilities that can be found in every village. He still would like to see more of the jobs that go to newcomers filled by Iñupiat and is positive that the Iñupiat can successfully do those jobs.

The three original founders who were honored in person: Frank Matumeak, Billy Nashoalook and Fenton Rexford. Rexford serves on the Assembly.

Billy Nashoalook recalled a moment of high drama in the organization process. He and others were flying back to Barrow after a village meeting in the red airplane with the flat tires when the landing gear got stuck in the up position. As their fuel neared empty and the time to land became imminent, the pilot finally managed to crank the gear down by hand.

One image from today's ugruk (bearded seal) hunt

It was the second ugruk hunt that I have been on this trip and both were successful. That's Bennie Hopson of Barrow ready to shoot the rifle and throw the harpoon. His dad, Roy Ahmaogak, is behind me, driving the boat. I have not had a chance to even begin to look at my take, other than to grab this one.

But I will.

And I will share more and will tell the story.

Might be a few days. 

Shaggy man comes to Barrow to get haircut

I arrived in Barrow as the shaggy man. I had intended to get a haircut from Celia in Wasilla before I left, but at no point in my final week there could I find 30 minutes to go see her - 45 counting the drive there and back. So I went to Point Lay shaggy, hung out shaggy in Wainwright but after I got to Barrow and started chewing on my mustache with every bite, I decided I had better do something about it.

So I wound up on a chair at Barrow Search and Rescue alongside Johnny Adams, who agreed to do the job. It was Roy Ahmaogak who suggested Johnny and it was mighty wise advice.

Here is the "before" shot that I took in another one of my abolutely brilliant self-portraits.

You can see that Johnny looks a little worried. He knows that I want to look good when the job is done, and he is not certain such a thing is even possible, no matter how excellent a job he does.

Bravely, he begins to cut.

I must note that Johnny is a guitar player and singer and he does his own, Iñupiaq version of Woody Guthrie's "This land is your land, this land is my land..." but he does not sing about places like California and the New York Islands, but rather places like Point Barrow, Barter Island, Point Hope and the Brooks Range Mountains.

I have been to parties where he sang that song. Everbody goes wild. They really like it.

As the boys play cards in the back room, he trims my beard and mustache. 

The challenge before Johnny is enormous. He attacks it from all angles.

There is no mirror nearby, so, when the job is done, I have to take another brilliant self-portrait as an "after" shot and then look at the monitor on my pocket camera to see how he did.

Damn! What a handsome devil!

Two handsome devils!

Johnny Adams, you are a genius!

Last time I was in New York City, I dropped into the Worldwide Institute of Master Photographers to see if they would accept me into their ranks.

"No," they said, in collective arrogance. "You will never be a master photographer until you have photographed yourself getting your hair cut by a musician. Frankly, Wasilla boy, we do not think you have the skills to take on such a challenge."

So I think I will email the link to this blog to the Master Photographers and see if they will accept me now.

If this doesn't prove to them that I have the skills to photograph myself getting a haircut from a musician - an Inupiaq musician, no less and I don't think any of them have even accomplished this - then I don't know what will.