BACK TO FRANK'S HOME PAGE - - NUNAPITCHUK TIME LINE - - BOOKS ABOUT THE AREA
Nunapitchuk, Alaska; The Heart of Akulmiut Country Akulmiut refers to a place and to a people. The place is that part of the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta located inland from Baird Inlet and between the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in southwestern Alaska. The people are Yup'ik Eskimo, and technically, anyone else who lives in the Akulmiut area are called Akulmiut. The climate of this area is cool to cold and usually windy. The rivers and lakes are frozen by November and thaw in May. Winter temperatures stay around 10 degrees F with occasional weeks of minus 30 and other weeks of above freezing when it can rain and create an ice glaze over the snow. Generally speaking, the snow is fine and packed into drifts so that some parts of the tundra remain bare most or all of the winter. The wind blows year-round with common storms of 45 and 50 mph gusts together with blowing snow and very cold wind-chills. Summers are also windy, but more predictable; the wind almost always blows the hardest around noon and late evening with calms in the early morning and late afternoon (mosquito times). Summers also tend to be cool and rainy with temperatures in the 50's and 60's, but sometimes (especially in July) the weather can be very nice for days on end with just enough wind to keep the mosquitos down, clear skies, and temperatures in the high 70's and even into the 80's. The landscape can be strikingly beautiful in the summers. The Akulmiut people have lived in this area for over 500 years and, perhaps, for thousands of years and have never lost any of their traditional rights to the land which is now mostly mixed with the land of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge (one of the largest wildlife refuges in the world). The traditional life of 100 years ago, from all accounts, was one of difficulty and, often, discomfort. The people lived primarily in extended family groups or small villages built of sod and driftwood huts. Because there are no trees in Akulmiut the logs to frame the huts were transported up the Johnson and Pikmiktilik rivers from the Kuskokwim by pulling them with small skin covered canoes or kayaks or even by hand. The trip could take several days. The villages, often called camps, were used seasonally based on where food was to be found. Primary foods were muskrat, beaver, mink, rabbit, ptarmagan, whitefish (several species), blackfish, northern pike, salmon berries, blue berries, tundra black berries, tundra tea, waterfowl eggs, and ducks and geese. Seal oil made from seal fat may have been a major trade item between the Akulmiut and the coastal Yup'iks. There may have been herds of caribou in Akulmiut during the 1700's, but there is no documented evidence of large caribou heards until just recently. Missionaries in the late 1800's reported cases of starvation during hard years, but some people beleive this to be an exageration due to the missionaries' culture shock and for the most part people were able to dry, ferment, or otherwise preserve plenty of food to last through the six month winter when food is most scarce. Morravian and Russian Orthodox missionaries were the first outsiders to visit the Akulmiut in the 1890's seeking to convert all natives to christianity which was 100% successful as everyone now professes to be a member of one Christian church or another and nearly all of the traditional religious stories and beleifs have been eleminated from the peoples' memory. Some exceptions are traditional customs or beleifs such as the "little people" of the tundra which occasionally haunt people, especially children, that wonder out onto the tundra alone. Ghosts and spirits are very real and scary to people (even adults) here. Other traditions such as lip peircing, seperate houses for men and women, and the "feist of the dead" are non-existant now. Today the Akulmiut live in one of four permanent villages; Nunapitchuk, Kasigaluk Akiuk, Kasigluk Akula, or Atmautluk. All of these villages are within sight of one another. Atmautluk is about 8 miles east of Nunapitchuk, Kasigluk Akiuk is about 2 miles west south-west of Nunapitchuk, and Kasigluk Akula is just over 2 miles south south-west of Nunapitchuk. The people all live in wood frame houses, have electricity, appliances, aluminum motor boats, and snow machines for winter travel. 4-wheel ATVs are becoming very popular and some families have cars or pickup trucks that they drive on the river in the winter. There are a handful of people who still have sled dogs, but these are mainly for recreational racing. In the last two to three years (1999-02) the "honey bucket" (raw sewage bucket with toilet seat) has been phased out in favor of the more convenient "flush & haul" system. The sewage bunkers that were all around town when I first moved here (1994) have all been dug up and filled in. Houses that have the new sewage system have two heated and heavily insulated tanks piped to a flush toilet, one with water for flushing and the other for sewage which is pumped out at regular intervals for a small utility fee. People that still have the bucket system dump them in special containers placed at convenient locations on the boardwalks. The sewage is pumped out of these containers and delivered to the new sewage lagoon. Running water is not piped to the houses because of freezing problems, but many people have water storage tanks with pressure pumps to supply running water in the homes. The rest use plastic trash cans for water storage in the house and almost everyone brings trash cans full of ice in their homes for winter water. The storage tanks must be filled frequently by hauling water from the village washateria (public laundry and steam bath building with a well) or chipping ice. People tend to be very conservative with their water for this reason. Grey water is usually thrown out on the tundra. Few houses are equiped with showers or baths, but most do have a steam bath building seperate from the house. The steam bath (probably introduced by Russians) is by far the most popular method of hygien. A hundred years ago the people used a very hot sweat bath and a urin rinse to clean themselves. Historical accounts often approach the unbeleivable when compared to modern standards. The diet of the Akulmiut has also changed. Most young people have developed an affinity for chips (any kind), coke and pepsi products, spaggetti (sauce from a jar), piza (frozen), and bread (white only) and a dislike of some traditional foods such as muskrat, but fish of all local varieties are still very popular. Seal oil to dip dried fish and meat in is still very popular and in high demand. Snow machines and boats have brought big game within reach of local hunters so that moose, caribou, and bear have replaced muskrat, beaver, and mink as the staple red meats. A traditional desert called aguduk (spelled to sound out in English) is now made with sugar and crisco shortning mixed with tundra berries. If you were to go to someone's house for dinner you could expect boiled fish or boiled meat with a handful of rice and possibly some salt added, white bread and margerine, strips of dried fish or meat with seal oil, and tea (either tundra tea or store-bought depending on the family). What I describe as a "fishy" smell is mouth-watering to local people and what is bland and tasteless to me they describe as delicious. I can garauntee that Yup'ik food will never become a popular fad like Mexican or Thai. Cooking, at least as I know it, is not a part of the Yup'ik culture yet. Life here is mainly very quiet and peacefull with the occasional exception of problems due to small town gossip or someone breaking local no-alcohol laws and getting drunk. Community activities with the exception of school activities are very rare and subdued events with generally what appears to be unenthusiastic participation. Appearances can be deceiving here because when I ask people with the most blank and bored expressions, out of pure curiosity, I am most frequently told that they are having great fun. The vast majority of the time everyone is very polite, friendly, and helpful to each other as well as outsiders. Sometimes outsiders feel like people are being rude, but it is usually due to cultural differences in comunication style . The best thing about Nunapitchuk is that there are no roads, no traffic, and no rush hour. Visitors are limited to people who know someone here or have some business here as there are no facilities or interest in promoting tourism or small business. There is definately potential for eco-tourism if current attitudes ever change. I enjoy both winters and summers here in the village. It is very nice to be able to walk home from work for lunch break. Life is so different here that it really does feel like a foreign country. New people who are thinking of coming to live here should come with the attitude that they will be in a foreign country. It really helps when you are trying to come to terms with the inevitable culture shock. Remember that our culture is not what we do or eat, it is the way we think at the most basic level. By
|
||