Trip 3 - True Day 1 in the North

{Pictures still pending due to internet speeds}

I woke up this morning to a thick dusting of frost and ice covering the earth, its a good thing I brought my coats. The sun rose at about 9:30am and school began at 9am. I began my day by introducing myself to the new tribal administrator and talking to her about who I was and what I am doing here, happily many people recognized me though! They did receive my latest letter, but it arrived two days after the tribal council met so no action had been made on it yet and as she is new, the administrator has been busy. Then I went off to say hello to everyone. Everyone is as good and outwardly as friendly as I remember. I spent sometime at a friends house and talked and caught up, and got to play with his son's new puppy...

So puppy update (but w/o pictures for now). My friend's puppy was the cutest, fluffiest Rottweiler mix, who was full of energy and wanted nothing more than to be pet and to play tug-o-war. I also saw a litter of cute little two or three week old puppies, but I wasn't able to say hello. Finally, there was one adorable little puppy hanging out around the school for a while that I was able to say hello to. Otherwise the lack of packs of puppies is noticeable this time around, but I think it is just the season.

After talking to my friend I stopped by to say hi to some elders who worked with me before, they were surprised and commented on my beard but said it was good to see me and that they'd be willing to work with me again, just call. I also stopped by the store and said hello to some people I know who work there and saw some people around the village and meet some new people.

I spent most of the afternoon with the administrator trying to find an elder who might be willing to put a roof over my head if even only for a week or two, as I can't stay at the school. Basically, there were a plenitude of reasons why it wouldn't work, even if I paid nightly and bought my own food (I somewhat wonder if that offer was seen as rude however, and I don't know how to find out), but either way who can blame them? On the upside I now know the names of a handful of elders who speak Kotlik Yup'ik, and I understand the structure of the village a bit better perhaps. Now, I just have find a way to learn from these elders. Well, the tribal administrator will continue helping me out in the morning, I am deeply grateful to her for all her work in helping me. For the rest of the afternoon and evening I get to work on prepping my materials more and planning the next trip (seriously, grant applications never end). [Well, actually I wrote some ethnographic stuff down and then researched the archeological record of the Eskimo-Aleut people to compare to what I already knew. It was a good time.]

A final note, the frost finally melted at around 2pm, well after the sun came out. I have been told that just a few years ago the river would have frozen over by now and there would be snow on the ground. But for the past few years it has been warmer and that the river won't freeze likely until November and that winters are now typically cold and rainy which make travel (by snow machine) along the rivers tricky. For now people are still out on the boats fishing. I also got to talk to a guy about way-finding and about how for him and many of the elders, they just know where home is, even in a white out, at night they are able to go out and find their way back again without GPS or anything. The have a point in their heads, and they know where all the rivers are and even when the rivers are frozen over they know which way is upriver and down-river based on the land (which is just flat...except for the mountains (short hills) about 30 miles north-east(?) of the village) and the trees... basically what I am here to study, but in Yup'ik instead of English. As such, it was a great conversation and fascinating and I can't wait to have more! Still the day was a bit disappointing, due to the housing crisis but it is only day 1 really and I have 8 weeks to hopefully meet with the elders just a few times (I won't start asking until later this week though, for now I just want to say hello and let them get to know me for the first or third time in different cases.) So hoping for the rumored Yup'ik hospitality to work out for me tomorrow, I now go to write a grant application :( [or not].

-Piurra