Where to begin? Sometimes you get lucky and are able to gain experiences available to few. The last week and a half was one such experience. I'm a fan of Nick Jans' writing. His stories of living with the natives of Alaska are unbelievably well-written in a personal way. Well, with the help of one old friend and several new ones, I was able to get my own brief glimpse of a truly unique culture.
I've spent plenty of time around natives in the lower 48 over the years, beginning with summers in La Push in the seventies. The Eskimo culture has some similarities to other native cultures, but theirs is a unique life, based on where they call home, and now, the influences of the modern world upon their lifestyles, like four-wheelers, four-stroke outboards, and cell-phones.
My friend, Doug, is the director for a school in Nome that flies native kids in from their villages and gives them choices of all kinds of technical and cultural courses along with experience of life outside their village. This program is almost precisely the opposite of where the test-crazy politicians are taking our schools. Which means the kids actually gain practical and relevant knowledge and skills.
Doug and his girlfriend, Dar, gave me the chance to head out to her family's fishing camp with them for a couple of days. You would have a tough time trying to find genuinely nicer, kinder people anywhere. I'm sorry, but southern hospitality pales compared to Eskimo hospitality.
Do yourself a favor and read some of Nick Jans' work, he does a much better job verbally describing the culture than I ever could. Here's some pictures. And my biggest thanks to the people of Nome and Brevig that gave me a truly life-time experience.
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