In the northernmost city in North America

Tag : Women's Pullover

Trying the local fare in this 4,000-resident city, 330 miles northof the Arctic Circle, was a necessity.
A festival of sorts, Nalukataqs do not fall on a specific date, andit's a rare treat if a tourist's schedule coincides with one.
Usually there are two or three Nalukataqs in the endless sunshineof Arctic summers, their scheduling determined as much by whale asby man.
The native Inupiat and residents of Barrow had caught nine out ofan allotted 22 bowhead whales this spring in the icy Chuckhi Sea.
"This is our Thanksgiving," said 86-year-old Arnold Brower, whosefather was the first white settler in Barrow, and who is halfInupiat. "The Nalukataq has been passed down. We are a sharingpeople."
For more than 1,000 years, people in Barrow have made a home onthis inhospitable land, where temperatures dip into the negative30-degree range during the three-month darkness of winter, byhunting whale, seal, walrus and caribou.
The whale meat, which is eaten raw in most cases, is an acquiredtaste, possibly born out of the necessity to eat something,anything, to survive.
I chewed and chewed on my small piece, pickled in a secret sauce,as a local smiled and laughed at my persistence. It wasmusky-tasting, and stringy, getting caught in my teeth as I workedto break it apart.
I was polite, but thank goodness I had a bag of Fritos in mybackpack to curb my hunger.
Aversion not widespread
I seemed to be the only one, however, having a hard time chokingdown the whale.
Hundreds of people sitting patiently with their families in a largecircle waited with empty coolers and plastic bags for their shareof two whales being distributed the day I was there.
It comes in many forms; frozen into brick-size chunks that arehauled in cardboard boxes, glopped out of 5-gallon buckets by hand,and served in small fermented pieces.
The crews that caught these whales - the Arnold Brower Crew and thePatkotak Crew - were responsible for organizing this Nalukataq,which was the first of the season.
(The bowhead is considered an endangered species by the AlaskaDepartment of Fish & Game, with only 7,800 animals reported in1990, less than half of the pre-whaling population, but hasrecovered to about 14,000. Alaska Natives are allowed to take smallnumbers in subsistence hunts each year. "This level of harvest{25-40 animals annually} is not expected to affect the stock'srecovery," the department says. )
According to Inupiat tradition, the meat of the whales is sharedwith the community as a way to feed the elderly, disabled, poor,and, more recently, average citizen who can't afford the expensivegrocery-store fare that must be flown into Barrow because there areno roads into the city.
"Sometimes, they say, whales give themselves as an offering to thecommunity and I think that is what this whale did," said PearlethaPaulina, a member of the Patkotak Crew, who broke tradition as awoman by jumping in a seal skin boat to help catch the whale.
"This is very important to the community. We are here to serve thepeople."
Side trip
I hadn't come to Barrow for the Nalukataq. I was visiting to writea story about a Florida International University research teamconducting a global warming experiment on the tundra.
But on the 90-minute plane ride from Fairbanks to Barrow, I heardabout the Saturday event and was told it was the "only thing to seein Barrow."
That's about right, too. Barrow, besides its designation as theNorthernmost city in North America, offers little else to thestandard tourist.
Birders can spot the more than 100 species - including the snowyowl - that flock to the tundra to mate each year, and the InupiatHeritage Center has an extensive exhibit detailing the area'swhaling history.
The city itself is a collection of weathered homes, many no morethan unpainted plywood, which sit on stilts to keep from sinkingeach summer as the top layer of soil melts over the permafrost.
The roads are dirt and mud, as are the yards, which collect allmanner of broken-down vehicle. Because it is so hard to getanything into Barrow, everything is scavenged for parts.
Even giant shipping containers that come in on the occasional bargeonce the Arctic ice melts are turned into offices.
While summer offers never-ending days, it can still be bitterlycold and I needed long underwear, fleece pants, and a parka to staywarm.
"A lot of people think this is a great exciting place, but really,it's just another place on the map," said Lewis Brower, one ofArnold Brower's 17 children, and a leader of the Arnold Browerwhaling crew.
Arctic sport
But it is a unique place, and that shows during the Nalukataq.
After the serving of the whale, residents assemble the traditional"blanket toss," where a seal skin is stretched between four woodenposts and used as a trampoline.
Men scramble onto the skin - very few woman play this game - andjump as high as they can, sometimes throwing out candy like beadsat Mardi Gras.
It is one of the highlights of the evening, and on my visit, thesun was still bright in the sky well past 11 p.m., children stillran on the black beaches, and my stomach rumbled for acheeseburger. There are no fast-food restaurants in Barrow either.
If you go
The native Inupiat speak Inupiaq. The following are some Inupiaqwords.
Umiaq - traditional seal skin boats used to hunt whales.
Mikigaq - a mixture of fermented whale meat, skin, blubber, tongue andblood.
Maktak - the skin and blubber of the bowhead whale, eaten in a variety ofways.
Nalukataq - a celebration where whale meat is distributed to the communityfollowing a successful hunt.
Paglagivsi - 'Welcome to everyone.'
Quyanaqpak - 'Thank you very much'
Tanik - a non-native person.
Ulu - a crescent-shaped knife, traditionally used by women.
Atikluk - a hooded pullover dress with deep side-cut pockets worn bywomen.
Aarigaa - 'How nice!'
GETTING THERE:
Barrow is only accessible by air for most of the year. There areusually two Alaskan Airlines flights per day from Anchorage andFairbanks. In winter, ice roads may be created by the oil companiesby pouring warm water over long stretches of land, but these roadsare not for public use.
STAYING THERE:
There are very few hotels in Barrow, and they fill up quicklyduring the summer months. Airport Inn, (907) 852-2525 Top of the World Hotel, (800) 882-8478 King Eider Inn, (888) 303-4337
THINGS TO DO IN SUMMER: Visit the Inupiat Heritage Center, entrance fee $5, www.north-slope.org Go birding with Tundra Tours, (907) 852-3900 Eat at Pepe's Mexican-American restaurant, (907) 852-8200 Attend the weeklong spring festival in April, which includes aparade, igloo building, dog mushing and geese-calling contests. Fordates call the City of Barrow at (907) 852-5211 Stay up all night in the 24-hours of sunshine. Become a member of the Polar Bear Club by completely submersingyourself in the Arctic Ocean.