Farthest North by Northwest - AKA AK! series pt. 4

Map of Barrow, Pt. Barrow and surrounding oil reserve.

At the airport in Fairbanks, we boarded the Alaskan Airlines' plane and took off.  We headed north, to 71 degrees latitude.  As we flew over the the low-lying mountains of the Brooks range, the clouds cleared up and we saw the sparkling land of the North Slope.  It was sparkling because every few feet there was another pond or lake.  This is the land of the caribou and it was beautiful from above.  I found out later that we were very lucky to have a clear day - Barrow is the cloudiest city in the US.  As we came in for the landing, we flew over the ice sheets of the Artic Ocean, it was fantastic - so white you couldn't look at it because of the sun.  We landed on the only pavement in Barrow - the place where the first tourists came in the 1950's.

Not lingering at the one-room Will Rogers - Wiley Post airport, we staggered out into the cold.  It was very very cold.  My winter cold.  I was wearing my biggest coat, my mittens, beanie, and scarf and was still freezing.  But we wandered around the city, eventually circling it.  It's pretty small, but it is the biggest in the North Slope borough.  It is not the most beautiful city, in fact, I thought it ugly at first.  It was flat, with dirt roads, broken-down machinery, and rough-looking houses everywhere. As we walked, we realized that the dirt roads and dirt lawns would be covered in snow for 9 months out of the year.  In front of every house was at least one of the following: ATV, truck, boat, snowmobile, and sled.  The houses all stood on posts.  This was not a city of beauty, it was a city designed to withstand the freezing winters and white-outs and dense fog and polar bears.  This place experienced true cold.  This was a city of survival.

I'm cold, they're not. A matter of perspective.

We came upon the beach where we could see the sea ice just a few hundred yards from the shore.  A bunch of little girls around the ages of 7 to 9 were playing in the sand, bare feet and t-shirts.  I felt ridiculous wearing my 5 layers and a big coat plus accessories.  I went up to one and asked "Aren't you cold?"  She looked at me and laughed and said "It's WARM out today!"  Severely diminished in my pride, we wandered until we caught a ride to the Tuzzy Library, where we found a map of Barrow and the point.  We caught a taxi driven by a Korean (how did he end up here?) and were unceremoniously dropped off at the NARL facility.  NARL stands for Naval Artic Research Laboratory, where the Navy used to have a research facility.  The Navy left the property, and so now it is partially owned by the Ilisagvik College.  Anyway, they have a hotel sort-of deal for researchers, scientists, and students (of which we were none) and is the cheapest place in town.  Note:  you don't want to go camping for two reasons, A. the cold, and B. the polar bears.  We passed out despite the ever-present sun.

Captain on Ice

The next day, Kirk got up before me (as always) and went to explore the NARL facility.  He found a guy who repaired ATVs and snowmobiles.  Charlie, the owner, agreed to lend us an ATV once he fixed it, so we arranged to pick it up the next day.  Charlie then dissuaded us from hiking to the Point, the furthest North of the US, telling us tales of the polar bears.  Point Barrow is the dumping ground of the unusable raw meat of whales and seals and such.  It attracts polar bears all the time, so we decided to definitely go there.  Charlie told us of a time when his ATV broke down and he had to walk back to town with a buddy - a polar bear followed them the whole time. Humans are a delicious snack to polar bears.  Anyway, Charlie drove us to the end of the road and back to town - I gazed at the iced ocean the entire time.  Very hypnotizing.  He dropped us off at the post office, where I mailed the necessary post card to the parents and we headed to the center of the excitement, Nalukataq - The Blanket Toss. 

Nalukataq was the primary reason we were in Barrow.  When I was 7 or so, I read the Julie of the Wolves series by Jean Craighead George, which formed a deep impression on me.  It taught me love of wolves, the tundra, deprivation, cold, conservation, and community.  In the second book, Julie has returned to her town, and she participates in the blanket toss.  When Captain and I were looking up places to explore before coming to Alaska, I remembered Barrow and the Blanket Toss.  We went to the gathering in the center of town; they had put up a linen fence to keep the wind down and laid blankets and plastic for people to sit on.  There was a lot of dust, and a lot of people. Many were dressed in the traditional garb, we learned later that the wives of the captains who captured the whales made these garbs for the whole family and the other shipmates.  There were some fantastic ones.

A pic of a pic. An oomiak.

We met up with a couple from the UK, who coincidentally were in the same van ride as us up to Fairbanks.  They were vegetarians, however, so none of the food appealed to them.  But I tasted everything, from Artic goose stew to caribou soup to the heart of the whale.  Whale is the reason for the celebration - they kill Bowhead whales in the spring in small boats made of sealskin (called oomiaks) holding about 7 people.  They have harpoons with bombs on the end of them and brass guns.  I am an animal lover and conservationist and while I was in Japan I refused to try whale meat, but I am not perturbed by the Inupiat killing whales.  They have done this from time immemorial and there never was any problem until the white whalers of the 19th century came along and massacred everything.  Now the Inupiat are only allowed to take six or so whales a year in a relatively humane way using methods from the 19th century - which consist of bomb harpoons and the brass guns.  There is only one company in the world that still manufactures them and it is in New England.  I can only imagine the cost of buying them for the Inupiat.  The whale keeps them alive throughout the year - it is "liquid sunshine" and the only reason that they can stay healthy when the world turns dark.

Nalukataq

So the Nalukataq is a celebration of the Captains who brought home whales.  It is an extremely dangerous job and many people die from the whales tipping their oomiak.  This year, an Inupiat was sitting by the edge of the ice and managed to kill a whale from the edge - that was the most impressive kill of the year.  He did it all by himself.  When they kill a whale from the oomiak, they have to bring it to the ice, where all the people from Barrow come and help drag the whale up and butcher it.Once they have the whale on the ice, they pray to God for thanks, and it is very emotional and poignant.  They prayed during the Nalukataq before dishing out 50 pounds of whale to every single person.  Every crew member has a jacket with their captain's emblem on it.  One said "...And God created the whale." 

Aqavic

So we started eating.  First we had goose stew (which contained the head of the goose in my bowl) and then some caribou soup.  Both were OK.  Then the whale meat (aqavic) came.  First we got a sampling of the parts of the whale - intestines, heart, tongue, whale muscle, and kidney.  I tried everything but the intestines, which looked the most gross.  The heart was super tough and I chewed and chewed until I realized I wasn't going anywhere and then just swallowed it whole.  Apparently it is their chewing gum.  The tongue was the best part of the selection.  The whole time we were freezing, and a kid was constantly kicking up dust near us.  We were sitting near the cut-up bits of tail and it was cool to see the guys cutting it up with what looked kinda like scythes or big knives on the end of a stick.  We tried some of the blubber, after a long struggle of trying to cut it.  A friendly grandmother came up to us and offered us some of her cut blubber and showed us how she used her knife (ulu) to cut up the blubber.  It was tasty and delicious and chewy.  Whale has this very distinctive, kinda greasy taste to it.  After the dessert (cake and such) we went to the gymnasium where they had the traditional dancing, which was super cool and with great drumming.  We caught a ride from a student at the Ilisagvik College back to NARL and explored a little around the college.  There is a football field (funded by a football mom in Florida!) and whenever they win a game they jump into Arctic Ocean!  We passed out with the sun beaming into the windows.

Palm trees...north of the border.

It was foggy and cloudy again the next day and we rented the ATV from Charlie.  It was my first time on an ATV and was fun except that it was soooooo cold. We drove out to the whale graveyard and past it towards Point Barrow, the farthest north in the US.  We saw the dark sand and bright sea ice with a bunch of black trashbags caught in it. Captain and I walked a little out onto the sea ice.  I didn't go far because I was scared, but Captain went a fair way. There are some summer shanties built on the Point, where the people of Barrow come to hunt tons of waterfowl.  They had "palm trees" out front - made of big driftwood and the baleen teeth of the whale posing as fronds.  No polar bears or seals, and we resolved to try again the next day. 

The whale graveyard

We went back to the Nalukataq, which was in its second day, and finally saw some real blanket tossing.  The blanket is pretty big and made of sealskin from the oomiak that caught the first whale.  It is sewn by the wife of captain.  It is tough and hard and there are big ropes attached to it that connect to boards to make it one big spring.  The best jumping lady was smiling the whole time and she looked like a grandmother.  She and many others went really high and one girl hurt her foot when she landed badly.  They would throw candy everywhere when they were at the peak of the jump.  They get over two stories high sometimes!  One kid got launched off of the blanket and almost landed on someone!  I got super nervous and decided against doing it and focused on collecting candy (essentially stealing it from the kids).  We talked to an Inupiat who described the difficulties of whale hunting.  "When I was younger a crew harpooned a baby whale.  Its mother attacked and flipped over the kayak.  My brother was on that boat.  He drowned."

CANDY!!! plus...Nalukataq!!!

After that sobering tale, we left to go back to NARL.  The next day we had ramen and added whale to it which was pretty tasty.  We took another ATV ride, this time to the National Petroleum Reserve and saw tons of birds, including the elusive Snowy Owl (2 of them!) and some Arctic Swans.   Lots of ducks.  They were fantastic and beautiful.  The tundra is made up of very tough grasses and lichen, and is flat as far as the eye could see.  We went to the point again and saw a couple of seals which were very far away chilling on the ice.  No polar bears :(  We returned the ATV and headed to Nalukataq again, where we ate the DELICIOUS miki-yuk, which is...alcoholic with whale in it.  It looked absolutely disgusting but tasted really good.  We then participated in the blanket toss!  You have to have a lot of people help pull the blanket so that the person gets LAUNCHED into the sky.  I made friends with a Whaling Captain, his name was Herman (Melville jokes anyone?) and he threw me up on the blanket.  The advice I got was to not keep my legs stiff and keep my eyes on the horizon.  The original point of the blanket toss was to see what game, like caribou was around in the distance.  Anyway, I was launched super high and completely collapsed like rag doll on return to earth.  They let me go a couple of times but I was not able to maintain standing position, much to my disappointment.  It was still fun and a few minutes later they let Captain try and he did really well, I was very proud.

Herman and his Harpoon.  His wife on right making parka with wolverine trimming.

Then Herman invited us back to his house so he could show us the tools of the trade.  We were so excited.  We went inside his house, which was very warm and cozy and clean, met his twin kids and his wife and sister who were making the traditional fur coats for the crew and family.  He showed us the harpoon and brass gun, both of which are very heavy and unwieldy and showed us his pictures of the whales and his home movies of catching the whales, which were incredible.  He drove us back to NARL and told us a polar bear had been wandering around the area, which got us all excited.  He told a story about how a young man and his pregnant wife were walking home and they noticed a polar bear following them.  The man sacrificed himself so that his wife and the unborn child could survive.  The polar bear is no joke.

The next day we got a free ATV ride and rode to the peninsula again, not seeing much.  The sea ice was gone a few hundred meters to the south...Very scary how fast it left.  We went to Nalukataq again but had to leave early for our plane ride.  Ah well.  We left without seeing any polar bears but with great memories of a strong and friendly culture on the edge of the world, 320 miles north of the Artic Circle.

Have YOU seen this research buoy?

Ukpeagvik: the place to hunt snow owls. Barrow's original name.

Nalukataq