Friends   ---

You may remember this picture from last January


Here is the same spot in mid-May.  The zoom is different on the camera so the trees in the background are different.

The pictures above were at Creamer's Field.  The next four are also.  There are tree swallows here.  They are about like barn swallows but their breast is more nearly white.

 The bark of paper birch trees is very thin and can be used for paper.  Some peels off naturally and it can also be removed with a knife.

 Creamer's Field also had several mosquito hatcheries!

 The black spruce "candles" are a bright red now.

There is a cat around our apartment complex that has an extra toe on each front foot.

Pioneer Park is about an hour walk from our apartment.  All exhibits were free on opening day.  The first two pictures are from Judge Wickersham's home.  He was the first judge in this area and did a lot to get Alaska recognized as a territory.  Elva's dad had some cylinder records that would have been used on a player like this.

 We are glad kitchens are not like this anymore.

 When I was in school at Cheraw the desks were this type.

 In Alaska it was (and is still) important to keep stored food where animals cannot get into it.

 The caption of this picture says these workers are bringing 1400 pounds of gold dust into Fairbanks.  That would be 22400 ounces.  At today's prices that would be nearly $29,000,000!  The date on the picture was not clear but I think it was 1905.

On our walk today we finally saw a moose, so we brought it home!

This coming weekend we plan to travel to Anchorage, Seward, and Valdez.  We hope to see more wildlife in those areas and driving to and from there.

I think the trees are finally all leafed out.  For those who like to do a lot of work before the sun comes up,  here you would have to be well on your way before 3:47!  Also with the longer daylight the warmest time of day is later than in the Midwest.  It is around supper time -- 6:00 in the evening or so.  This morning we had a lot of smoke in the air from forest fires.  This  winter and spring have been drier than normal so they are expecting more fires.  The total precipitation in Fairbanks this year is only 1.07 inches and normal is 2.04 inches.  According to the amount of precipitation this is actually a desert.

God's blessings to each of you.  Enjoy your part of the world no matter where you may be.  All places have advantages and disadvantages.

Larry and Elva

Hello Friends,

There continue  to be more spring things.  The choke cherries are blooming.  I don't remember when the bloom in the Midwest.  Spring is early here this year.

The tamarack are blooming.  These are the conifers that loose their needles in the fall and grow new ones in the spring.  The first picture also shows some of last year's cones.

Construction season has begun.  In these two pictures they are drilling down through a bridge and the ramp to the bridge to see how far down it is to the bedrock.  The current bridge is not on bedrock but on a system of railroad ties.  They want to do better for the new bridge.  This is the bridge we use most often.  They are testing and planning for the new one now but will not tear this one down and replace it until the summer after we are gone.  We are glad for that.

We had wondered if most of the water birds that arrive in Fairbanks stay in this area or go further north.  We found out that some of the sea gulls stay around.  Even the birds are glad for banks!

Most of the ducks where I have lived in the Lower 48 are mallards.  There are dozens of kinds of water fowl here.  

 

The paper birch has very thin bark that can be peeled off and used in making paper, baskets, and other things.  Some peels off naturally or it can be harvested without killing the tree if done properly.  But it leaves an ugly scar on the tree.

We visited the Cold Climate Housing Research Center.  There are special problems with building homes or other buildings here.  If a building is on permafrost and there is any change in the frost the building will settle awkwardly. The man who directed our tour said that below his house (it seems to me that it was 30 feet down) there was a layer (3 feet thick) of clear ice that was left from some ancient glacier.  Then the top of the glacier melted and left dirt and rocks above the ice layer.  If global warming melts that ice his house  will probably be ruined.  A house needs to be tight here, but if it is too tight it will gather moisture and mold will grow.   The warming of the climate here in the far north is going at about twice the rate of the rest of the world.

We attended the Fairbanks Youth Orchestra Spring Concert.  They did an excellent job.  (Denise F., you would have especially enjoyed the concert.)  We knew one of the performers.  There are many wonderful opportunities for youth here, as there are most places.  Unfortunately, some things here are not so good.  Fairbanks has 600 homeless kids.  Some stayed over night at the Presbyterian church we attend.  That was while a more permanent house was being built.  Now that other place has been finished.

An interesting thing happened to a pilot and his plane.  This is the before picture (the top one.)

And this is the after picture.

The pilot landed out in the bush at a usual stopping point.  Near the plane was a shed where some moose meat had been stored.  A grizzly had broken into the shed and had a good meal of moose.  The pilot fixed the shed, making it bear proof.  That night the bear returned for another meal and could not access the meat.  They theorize that the bear was angry about not having the moose meat and attacked the plane.  To repair the plane required two new tires, a horizontal stabilizer, industrial strength plastic, and 25 rolls of duct tape.  They then flew the plane home to make permanent repairs.  The plane is now back in regular service.

We continue to enjoy Alaska and Alaskans.  We are all people who are far more similar than different.

Thanks for your interest.

Larry and Elva

God is love.

P.S.  To our Eicher friends, we join you in grieving the loss of Clinton.  We pray regularly for you, and now especially for Wanda.

Friends of Alaska,

Some days feel like summer (temps in the 70's) and some are cooler.  The warmest so far is about 75 degrees.  Other days are cooler.  The hours of daylight are strange, at least for the two of us who have lived in Iowa the previous 40 plus years.  The sun came up today at 4:34 and will set at 11:02.

We participated in the Chena River Run/Walk along with some 800 other people.  It was 5K or 3 miles.  In my age group I came in third, of course there were three of us total.  Elva was sixth of eight in her age group.  This is the first time we have done such a thing.  The first picture is before the race and the second is after the race.

Not really  --  they were both taken after the race.  My time was 44 minutes and some seconds and Elva's was 50 minutes and 6 seconds.  We were sort of proud of those until we heard that our granddaughter, Claire, age 10, that same day in Iowa City ran a 5K in 29 minutes and some seconds.  We were proud of her but less proud of ourselves.

There was a flute concert with 20 flutists.  I thought a flute was a flute.  Little did I know!  Some were longer and some shorter.  Some had a u-turn in them so its player did not have to reach so far.  There were alto flutes and bass flutes.  We looked them up on the internet.  There are also contralto and contrabass flutes, but not in the local concert.  The various kinds have different lengths and diameters.

This time of year most people are doing out-of-doors things like boating, walking, fishing, sitting in the sun, etc.  So there are fewer things for us to report.  We continue to walk.  We have walked every day except while we had company from Iowa.  All have been outside except one which was around and around in our little apartment.  If I remember correctly one hour walk in our apartment was 220 times around.  The weather here this winter was much nicer than normal.

Thanks for keeping track of us while we are in Alaska.

May God bless each of you.

Larry and Elva

Friends,

About six weeks ago the blog had pictures of many memorabilia and animals our friends Mark and Denise Wartes have in their home.  I asked if he would kindly write some of his experiences for a blog to send to our Mid-West friends.  He obliged.  Thank you very much, Mark, for writing this.

 I met Elva and Larry at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Fairbanks Ak. Since then we see each other quite often around town.  During dinner a few weeks ago Larry asked if I might share a little of my back ground and a story on his Blog.   So here.

    Inupiaqsin Itqiliuraq assii tuniqaqsina Mark A. Wartes.  My Inupiat name is Itqiliuraq and my white given name is Mark Wartes.

    I was raised in Barrow Alaska as the oldest son of Bill and Bonnie Wartes.  My dad, Rev. Bill Wartes was the called pastor to the Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church in Barrow and supported by the old Board of National Missions to serve the total North Slope of Alaska and N.West Canada as a flying missionary.

     I attended the Bureau of Indian school in Barrow until the end of 6th grade, that is far as school went in Barrow in those days.  My whole generation had to leave Barrow at our parents expense,  if we wanted to continue our education.  I attended high school in Seattle Washington, started college in N. Carolina, served in the service during the Israeli and Vietnam wars.

     In time I ended up back on the N. Slope as a confused young man, returning to the native training I had been taught as a boy growing up.  I went back to a subsistence/nomadic life style that I was comfortable with, learning again from the elders that continued to share their knowledge of life in general.

    In time I married a beautiful girl from Michigan that had been my little sisters best friend. We honeymooned in a skin tent miles out on the Arctic Ice Pack as I shared my love for the animals and land that God had provided for my subsistance.

    A changing world and the need for formal education for our children brought us to Fairbanks, Ak in the 80's.

    God had made it clear that he had other plans for me and if I only made myself available, he would use me in ways I could never dream of.  Denise and I have been blessed by God using the gifts he gave us, among my Inupiat people, and it continues to this day.

    I'll attach a short story of a few days in our life along the Colville River on the N. slope.

Living With Oral History #3

If you enjoy listening to stories, you would certainly be entertained by the reciting
of many Inupiat oral history stories. I have slowly come to understand the importance
given to history through the retention of oral history. There is great honor in being
trusted with pieces of our Inupiat history, entrusted with stories and treasures of our
people and how we came to be the people we are today. It is through oral history we
carry the memories of what makes us Inupiaq. I often question, what good is knowledge
if you don’t share it, and if you don’t share it is it still history? The rehearing of oral
history stories often is a way of reliving something from the past.

It would have been much easier, to have just written down what my elders taught
and stories they shared, but there is a different responsibility, a trust given, an ownership,
when you are expected to put a story to memory. The story would not have been shared,
if there was not a felt need to pass it on. I am not one to question the wisdom or success
of oral history, for has it not withstood the test of time. The fact that our people are “a
people” today is all the proof I need.

To read information in a book, as we did in school, doesn’t guarantee that you
will remember it, when the need arises. Your mind says, “I can look it up again if I need
it, or have forgotten it.” The difference with oral history is that you practice it in your
mind, until it becomes part of you. Oral history was some times shared as a way to pass
on our Inupiat value system, then sometimes as an instructional tool. I can remember
our elders using oral history as a means of entertainment, as a story, and often very
humorous.

I’ll take you back to when I was a young boy living on the Colville River
Delta. I sat spell bound, listening, as Old Man Tukle told me about the Kuukpikmiut (Kuukpikmiut: Those that come from the Kuukpik River), the people who came long before him. I was never sure if Old Man Tukle knew how old he was, but he had spent most of his many years living along the Arctic coast. He was a walking, talking history book. His knowledge of the coastal land, names, families, and
relationships was all recorded in his mind. He explained that the people that lived on the
other side of the Kupigruak (Kupigruak: Main channel of a river) channel, at what he called the first Nuiqsut (Nuiqsut: New home or a place of new home) site, had wintered there, because the water coming from the Miluveach River ( Miluveach: Place where you miluk or suck, like nursing. There are sucker fish in this river) sometimes kept the ice thinner there and they could net fish longer into the winter. The Colville River Delta
is over twenty miles wide, and the Kupigruak channel is on the far eastern side of the
delta. As he told the story, I could visualize the islands, river channels, and mainland
although I had never been near there. It was easy to remind myself there could be thin ice
by the remnants of the old ivruliks (Ivruliks: Old sod houses), where the Miluveach River emptied into the
Colville. This would be a good spot, if I ever needed to try and set nets under the ice in
early winter.

It was over twenty years later, and I was now living on the eastern side of the
delta with my wife. I had built a home on Anachlik (Anachlik: White fish, big round nose) Island within sight of the old ivruliks. I had shown them to my wife and we used the old sod blocks as a blind, concealing ourselves while hunting seals. As we hid there, I repeated to her the history I had long
sense memorized.

(Mark had a picture of him standing on the track of a yellow John Deere tractor.  I could not get it into the blog.  Sorry!)

That winter we were visited by Neil and Annie Allen, as they were heading back to Kaktovik (Kaktovik: Barter Island) from Nuiqsut. The Allen’s were a nomadic couple that thought nothing of traveling for miles along the coast just to say “hi” or visit with someone they missed. They never passed our house without coming in and sharing news from others they had been visiting. In a very soft voice Neil said,
“Maybe there is going to be some cold babies in Nuiqsut soon, for the village is very low
on stove fuel.” This was the way the elders talked when they didn’t want to make you
feel obligated. I immediately borrowed a John Deere Tractor, so I could haul some spare
drums of heating fuel to Nuiqsut. Some of these half full drums of helicopter fuel were
abandoned and left scattered across the tundra by the oil exploration crews, and I would
haul them home as I worked my trap line. I left that night, so I could get there for the
brief morning light. After unloading the fuel, I started right back home, for it had taken
me over nine hours to get to Nuiqsut and now the wind had started blowing up a storm.
As I turned off the Niglik (Niglik: Place of the Brant) channel past Putu (Putu: Hole, puncture)
 and started up the Kupigruak channel, I lost the tracks I had made coming up river. Driving a tractor in the dark with the wind picking up the snow, it becomes very hard to navigate.

I could see less than 50 yards, and had to keep bumping into the east side of the
riverbank to make sure I was traveling up the correct channel. To stay awake, I would
repeat to myself different “oral history” lessons I had learned. This is when the history of
the Kukpikmiuts that had lived in the ivruliks at the first Nuiqsut site, came to mind. Thin
ice and I was driving the tractor right up the east bank of the Colville River, with no idea
of how close I was to the mouth of the Miluveach River, with the real possibility of thin
ice.

I had been turning the tractor left and right, it seemed for hours, trying to pick up
some sign of my trip up the river the night before, and now I had lost track of how far
down river I had actually traveled. I would turn all the lights off on the tractor and stare
out into the blowing snow, hoping to see a glimpse of a light. I knew my wife would
have a Coleman lantern hanging in the kitchen window, reflecting its bright rays through
the many, many tiny facets of frost crystals that covered our windows. On a clear night I
have seen that light, from over ten miles away.

It was right then I saw what appeared to be a small camp fire flare up off to the
east. As I tried to make sense out of what I was seeing, a small light left the fire and
moved out and stopped in front of me. I headed the tractor straight at the strange light,
and as I got closer, it looked like the flare pots we would put out on the runway, to help a
pilot land his plane in the dark. Just as I got to the light it disappeared, suddenly another
one was visible off to my left. I looked behind me and I could not see the light I had just
passed, but I could still see the small fire back where I first spotted it. I could see what
appeared to be a small figure passing back and forth around the fire. As I traveled toward
the second flare, I had to keep heading straight toward it, or I would lose sight of it. The
third light turned me more to the west, and it wasn’t until the fourth or fifth light that
I was again headed north. Next thing I knew, the light shining in front of me, was the
lantern hanging in our window.

After I put the tractor away I stopped at my sister’s house and yelled in the door at
my brother-in-law “thanks for the flares.” My sister gave me a strange look, as I backed
out and closed the door.

As I walked to my house I thought it strange that all the snowmachines were still
in the same location, as when I left the previous day. I asked my wife if anyone had gone
out with a snowmachine in the last few hours and she said “no.” As I had been up for
over 24 hours, I just went to bed. When I awoke, my wife asked if I was okay and if I
wanted something to eat. I told her I was okay, but before I could eat I needed to check
something out. I started my snowmachine and followed my tractor tracks back the way I
had traveled the night before. I could see every place I had made a major change of
direction, but I could find no sign of any reason that would have caused me to turn. I
knew before I gotten far what I would find. There was no sign of any camp fire or of
anything having been burned, but my tracks had abruptly turned and traveled out and
around the thin ice at the mouth of the Miluveach River.

When I got home again I had a big smile on my face. I told my wife that I was
taught when I was young, that sometimes when you were helping others and you needed
help yourself, the Inuguluurak (Inuguluurak: The little people.is to just keep looking for ways to help others)
 would appear. The only way you could ever thank them, is to just keep looking for ways to help others.

Thank you.

Written by: Itqiliuraq  (Mark Wartes)


Denise has Marita as a new born on her back and son Marwan out leading the way.

Tent used while seal hunting in spring 1971.  Traveling tent, which can be set up in just minutes.

This is inland in the fall.  Marwan is learning to crawl.

Denise with first caribou.

We used seals skins for all our spring mukluks, we also mixed the fat and oil with our dog food.

Thank you very much, Mark, for sharing your story with all of us.

If anyone sends me questions or comments for Mark I will forward them to him.

Thanks, readers, for your interest.

Larry and Elva