I am currently able to see into the future, because I am one day ahead of all of you. I literally just crossed the international dateline and am currently floating in Russian waters. This morning we cruised past the deserted King Island, where the remnants of a stilt village can still be seen. Most of the islands this close to the artic circle are inhospitable, rocky and steep. This one was no exception, but the people choose to live there in the winter, no less, because the hunting was good! It is abandoned now because they didn’t have enough children attending the local school there, so the Alaskan government, said we won’t pay for it anymore, bring the kids over to the mainland schools.
Next we moved onto Little Diomede. And island named after St Diomede, because Bering sailed past it on his saint day. It is small, steep and inhabited by about 140 brave people, 95% Eskimo. There have their houses shored up, by stilts, and rocks to keep the floors level on the side of the island. They have walrus and seal hanging out to dry, and dogs everywhere. There are whale bones littering the ground, and burnt out snowmobiles littering the other side of the helicopter landing site. These people were captivating, and a first hand look at how modern culture and traditional ways clash, and clash hard. They still subsist mainly off of the sea, but a young girl walked past me with a plastic bottle of Mug root beer.
The don’t have cable tv, but they do have internet, two computers worth at the community center. The whole village is dry, meaning no alcohol of any kind. Every Sunday they get together for the Eskimo dances. It was interesting to watch how the older villagers embraced the dancing as they performed for us, and how the kids dress in their sneakers and sweater shirts, giggled and shyly looked away as they followed along, looking over their shoulder occasionally to remember what move came next. Of course, in my typical fashion, when the elder invited us to participate in the Community dance, I jumped right up and joined in waving my hands about in rhythm with the drums.
It is obviously a tight knit community, with only 140 and limited contact from the outside world. Our guide, Robert Sookooks, was a local hero of sorts, since he had gotten out and traveled around the world, he had been to New York and Leningrad, yet he choose to come back to his family and live on the island. He looked kinda like an Eskimo leprechaun.( and yes those are walrus tusks behind him!) Oh and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that St Petersburg hasn’t been Leningrad for quite some time;)
The whole experience was surreal, seeing a boat full of walrus tails and blubber (not pictured because it began to Rain!), a polar bear pelt, and a walrus skin boat, all next to houses with aluminum siding.
Next stop Russia!
Next we moved onto Little Diomede. And island named after St Diomede, because Bering sailed past it on his saint day. It is small, steep and inhabited by about 140 brave people, 95% Eskimo. There have their houses shored up, by stilts, and rocks to keep the floors level on the side of the island. They have walrus and seal hanging out to dry, and dogs everywhere. There are whale bones littering the ground, and burnt out snowmobiles littering the other side of the helicopter landing site. These people were captivating, and a first hand look at how modern culture and traditional ways clash, and clash hard. They still subsist mainly off of the sea, but a young girl walked past me with a plastic bottle of Mug root beer.
The don’t have cable tv, but they do have internet, two computers worth at the community center. The whole village is dry, meaning no alcohol of any kind. Every Sunday they get together for the Eskimo dances. It was interesting to watch how the older villagers embraced the dancing as they performed for us, and how the kids dress in their sneakers and sweater shirts, giggled and shyly looked away as they followed along, looking over their shoulder occasionally to remember what move came next. Of course, in my typical fashion, when the elder invited us to participate in the Community dance, I jumped right up and joined in waving my hands about in rhythm with the drums.
It is obviously a tight knit community, with only 140 and limited contact from the outside world. Our guide, Robert Sookooks, was a local hero of sorts, since he had gotten out and traveled around the world, he had been to New York and Leningrad, yet he choose to come back to his family and live on the island. He looked kinda like an Eskimo leprechaun.( and yes those are walrus tusks behind him!) Oh and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that St Petersburg hasn’t been Leningrad for quite some time;)
The whole experience was surreal, seeing a boat full of walrus tails and blubber (not pictured because it began to Rain!), a polar bear pelt, and a walrus skin boat, all next to houses with aluminum siding.
Next stop Russia!
1 comment:
Damn that public education! They always have to ruin things...
Loving the blog Miller..and I must say, I am super jealous...
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