Savoonga and Anchorage

Over the past month, I was fortunate enough to go on two trip. First I went to Savoonga and the next week I went to Anchorage.

Savoonga is a village located on St. Lawerence Island, between Alaska and Russia. This trip was one of my favorite village trips to date. I went to Savoonga to cover a story about the first ASIST workshope in a village. ASIST stands for Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. It is a two day workshop that was brought to Savoonga through a grant. I was unable to go to all of the training but I did go most of the second day. It was amazing to see how many high school students attended the training and wanted to help. The village was going to start a youth council for suicide prevention because the need to get involved among the students. I did get a profile and 2 news stories from that trip. Since a group of friends from Nome were in town to conduct this workshop, we explored Nome. We decided to go on a walk along the beach and we couldn't have had a better adventure. As we were walking, I found a big piece of baleen laying on the beach. Of course we took lots of pictures but as we walked further along, we found a bunch of them neatly lying in a row (the picture above). We decided to continue our walk. A little bit further, we saw a large skeleton. Loren decided to try and pick it up but he could had a hard time. Turns out the skeleton was from a walrus. The spin was alonger than any of us and about as wide as my head. The skull was missing it's ivory, for obvious reasons (natives carve stuff out of them). After realizing we couldn't move it, we decided to continue our journey. Jason looked out to the water and discovered there were a bunch of whales within sight. We stood there and watch the whales come up for breath. There was a bunch of them. Apparently, this is was whale migration season. As we continued our journey down the beach, we saw a bunch of kids running. We asked them what the rush was and they said they wanted to make beef jerkey. Sure enough, there was a whale that was catch and brought onto shore only hours ago and the kids went to slice up their share for afternoon snacks. The name beef jerkey made me laugh, it seemed more like whale jerky to me. The following is a picture of one of the kids getting his jerkey

After that great adventure, we decided to head back to town to go to Eskimo Dancing and a potluck. It was a contempory potluck with Subway and Airport Pizza but fun none the less. I personally was forced to dance by some of the kids who went to the workshop. Another great think about Savoonga, there are many ivory carving artists in that village and they make some beautiful work! I only had $30 on me which was enough to get an old ivory charm for a necklace. I found out that old ivory is found in camps across the St. Lawrence Island. The island used to be covered with camps but a famine and flu struck the island killing about 4/5ths of the population. The remaining population moved to Gambell and then Savoonga. So there are camps from before 1918 with thousands of ivory burried around the camps.

The other great trip I went on was to Anchorage. I had the opportunity to go there through an organization that I volunteer for, Relay for Life. During college, I have always been a huge supporter of it and found they are trying to start one in Nome. As a volunteer, the relay staff decided to send me and 2 other ladies to Anchorage for a training session. The training itself was very educational but the city was a complete culture shock! I've been a city girl so long and then I moved to Nome and grew accustomed to that lifestyle. Once I was in a heavily populated area, I grew nervous and couldn't get over how strange it was to see so many cars on a road.... or stop lights... or skyscrapers... or just about everything. It was interesting to walk around the hospital to go the training and see people in business suits. That is not something I don't think anyone in Nome owns. I never thought it would affect me because I was a business major in college and was no stranger to the professional "looking" world but it really is another world to me now. The city of Anchorage is a lot different than I thought. It was clearly planned out so the city is extremely spaced out. You have to have a car to get anywhere.

It wasn't a bad type of culture shock (if there is such a thing) but it was definately a reality check that there are so many different lifestyles within the World, US, and even the state of Alaska.

Working Hard

Time seemed to be flying by lately. I've been continuing my regular duties at the radio station and been taking on a few new ones as well. For example, the Sounding Board season started in September. Sounding board is our version of a talk show. Once a week, an employee heads up an hour long talk show about a topic of their choice, preferably one that would encourage people to pick up the phone. This show can be as controversal as the state putting limits on the subsistance license salmon catch or as fun as people's names. The last few weeks I had the honor of holding 2 of my own talk shows. Since I am still learning about Alaska and the people, I decided to take the fun approach to Sounding Board. My first show was about TV in Western Alaska and the changes it has taken. Since TV still doesn't have a strong presence in Bush Alaska(in comparison to the Lower 48) I thought it would be an interesting subject to hear how tv first came to villages and how it has changed. News Director Paul Korchin was my cohost. To fill up time between calls (we were a talk show but we were a talk show for Western Alaska to call and express concerns, opinions, or experiences about the topic) we aired audio clips. I got a clips from a man who is the station manager at the only Bush Alaska tv network and a man who works for an Alaskan Media network. The second Sounding Board I hosted was Potlucks. Leah Radde was my cohost and I got audio clips from the individual who was in charge of the Nome Community Thanksgiving Dinner and from a local pastor who has regular potlucks at their church. I didn't need most of my audio clips because there were so many calls and emails. It was a huge success.
Outside of Sounding Board, I've created a few profiles, been on some village trips, and have been writing the stations annual Christmas Play. The play is a production that is done every year and is aired on Christmas day after the 12:15 and 5:15 hotlines. It should be exciting... more on that later!
Besides all of these wonderful projects, on top of my daily duties, I have changed air shifts. I am now the 12 to 2 Lunchtime Deejay. All shifts have music that is placed into your air shift but the noon deejay creates their own shows. Each day has it's own guidelines to follow for example Monday is Monday Limelight where I feature an artist of my choice. Twofer Tuesdays have two songs back to back by the same artist. Tuesdays could also be Decades where I play songs for a chosen decade. Wednesdays are the hardest day. Music genres are wednesday's theme. Not only do I have to think of a new music genre that hasn't been done before, but I have to make sure we have music for it. Thursdays are my last and favorite day. Theme park Thursday is what they are called. I love them because I can be more creative. For example, Thanksgiving's theme was Thursday of Thanks. Next weeks theme will be either songs written for a famous person or songs that will give you good directions (drivin directions not life directions).
After thinking of all the wonderful things I've been able to do and the flexability my job has, I couldn't be more thankful for all the experiences I have and have the resources to learn.

2nd Village Trip to Teller

I was able to go on my second village trip a few weeks ago. It was an amazing experience. Teller is one of the few villages that you can drive to from Nome. It is a 2 hour drive northwest of Nome. The picture above is a view of the village from the landing strip.

The trip was to cover the 5th Annual Teller Cultural Festival for the station. The festival was a 2 day long event. I flew in on a Friday morning. Since the event didn't start until Friday evening so I had to figure out things to do until then. Walking around town, I tried to find out other story ideas to bring back to the station. I came across the story of a man who created a class that taught the tradition of building a utility dog sled made of traditional elements. Joe Garney, a thought to be a sort of local hero, is well-known for his racing days in the Iditarod. He now trains dogs for others to run. He is a wealth of knowledge of traditions pertaining to building. He felt obligated to create this class so I interviewed him and created a KNOM profile on the class he created that is still in the works because they received the wrong materials.

After talking with Joe, I went on a walk with his daughter. She was a few years older than myself and is a councilor in town. She talks works with a wellness group in town to encourage people to express their feelings, particularly towards depression. Depression and pressure is a huge issue in the villages. Villages typically have a few suicides every year. This year was particularly hard for Teller. The village already had a suicide during the fall and had someone hang themself earlier that week. Ages of those who commit suicide are typically in the early to mid 20s. This girl was telling me the effect that this has on her 8 year old child. She says the high amount of suicides are getting the younger generation used to it, thinking that suicides are common. It was a very eye opening conversation.

After insight, I went to my room (i slept in a book closet at the school) and waited til the funeral was over for the recently deceased. I couldn't believe how right after the funeral reception, these people had the festival. It was indescribable. Since people were morning, and understandably so, the festival started with some inspirational singing. After the introduction, some prayers, and singing, the Eskimo dancing started. Cultural festivals are basically a great way to get local villages and "tribes" together to perform and share their culture through dance. There were four groups, King Island Dancers (from Nome), Golovin Dancers, Brevig Mission Dancers, and Teller Dancers.

During the second day of the festival, there were workshops and a potluck, in addition to more dancing. The workshops include Eskimo games (like the Seal hop), beading, and a wellness video. The potluck was interesting. Typical food found at the potluck includes: salmon eggs, dried fish, balooga, reindeer soup, tundra berries, fried bread, and other food that I could not identify. There were some food that I could identify, such as salad, Pilot Bread, and pasta salad. One of the elders saw my plate and saidI had too much "White People food." After the potluck, we had more Eskimo Dancing. That lasted til about 2:30 am.

I got some good stories and good experiences from this trip. I wrote 5 news stories and created a KNOM profile from the trip. Over all, I think it was successful. In addition, I have some crazy memories. For example, I was walking along the harbor side of the village and I saw a boat with red stuff streaming to the water. I walked closer to see what it was.... it was blood. Someone killed a seal and left it laying right next to the boat. Naturally my first reaction was to take a picture, so the picture is below!

Gold Mining and Bath Tubs

There has been some pretty exciting events the past few weeks.

First of all, I discovered someone wrong with the radio station. Since I work solo on Sundays, I saw some readings that didn't seem right on the transmiter. We have to periodically record the numbers and one of the numbers that should have been around 50 was at 1. I immediately called Ric, the station manager. He came over right away. It turned out that we had a cable break on the transmiter and we had to turn the station off for almost 4 days. It was the longest we have ever been down. It was such a valuable experience because we received so many phone calls and emails from listeners who said they missed us. Bless their hearts, most of them thought their radios were old and they weren't getting the station so they called the station to see if it was us or them with problems.

Another eventful Nome activity that I participated in includes gold mining. One of my friends is a miner. His fellow miners were out of town and he needed a deck hand so I volunteered. It was certainly an experience. When we were launching the gold dredge, the waves were so high that I was splashed head to toe with water. Good thing I had a water proof outfit on! I tried to drive the boat but the motor was too much for me to understand. Andrew, the miner, added a tube to the motor to make it easier to steer. If you ask me, it was a little more complicated. Once we got to the location they were working on. Andrew jumped in the water with a large tube that served as a vacuum. It was made of metal to prevent it from floating up. While he got the gold, I was on the dredge pushing big rocks out of the sloose box. While on the water, the waves got so high that I got sea sick. After that, Andrew and I decided it was time to go back and the current was getting to much. Once we got back to land, we went through the sloose box and tooke out the gold carpet. Since gold is so heavy, it feel in the carpet and didn't get pushed out like all of the rocks. We emptied the gold and other stuff mixed with it into a container. We went to Andrews camp and filtered out the bigger pieces. I got to keep the flakes while Andrew go the gold dust. After going through the gold, I got to shoot a 44 Magnum gun. Andrew has the gun just in case a bear comes by. It was fun to shoot but I can't see myself ever owning a gun.

The final exciting event to report was the bath tub race. Every Labor Day, the town has a wacky tradition of having a team of 5 people race bath tubs down main street. KNOM was of course more than eager to participate. We strategically selected our team captain, a 6 year old girl who is extremely light. We threw here in the tub so it was lighter to push. The race has all kinds of rules. One of them is there has to be a bar of soap, wash cloth, towel, and bath mat with every team. Kind of unusual event. It was a lot of fun though! We came in last place and got a trophy for it. It was great! There is a picture above with our fabulous team and our tub!

Gold Mining and Pilgram

There is a gold mining camp just down the road from Nome. Unfortunately, you have to drive on the beach using a 4 wheeler or truck to get there because there are no

roads and you have to cross a river. The camp is by the mouth of the Penny River. GPAA is associated with this camp, which is a big gold mininging organziation. People all over the US come to mine here. It is a cute place in a beautiful location. The camp itself is modeled from the old west. As you can see from the picture, the saloon is a big common area for everyone. There is also a cafeteria, church, and trading post. The camp opens up to the public on Friday nights. They serve free spagetti to anyone who can get to the camp and the night ends with a night of karaokee in the saloon. It is pretty fun. I have been there twice. The campers also divide their gold that was found that week. It is interesting to see all of the gold they have gathered.

Another adventure that I recently had is my first trip to Pilgram Hot Springs. This little town is located about 90 miles away from Nome. It was created in the early 1900s to house children. During this time, many people were getting sick with the flu. They wanted to protect the children so they built an orphanage and a church near these hot springs. No one lives there now but it is a popular tourist destination. Walking into the church, the first floor is an annex and what can be assumed to be a kitchen and dinning area. The worship part of the church is on the second floor. Another house out in this abbandoned village is the old orphanage. This is a sad building to walk into. The building is empty except some small rooms and closets with school desks shoved into it. It is also condemed. The first half of the building is fine to walk into but the other half looks like it fell from the posts that it was standing on to protect it from permafrost. If you leave the little abandoned village, you come across a path that will take you to the springs. There is so much sulfer that it smells like rotten eggs. Apparently someone had the idea that these springs would make a great hot tub. Near the springs, they build large 3-4 foot deep tub and had the springs pour hot water into it. We tried to get in but the water was so hot that your foot would turn red after 5 second of being in the water. I'm sure the water would be wonderful in the fall.

The Little Things

There are a lot of little things about Alaska that I would love to remember. For example, muskox are very typical to see around here. You are not allowed to get close to them but there is a short hunting season for them. They are like the cows of the north. They just wonder around the tundra and eat grass. It is always fun to see them in the most random places you can think of. We've seen them everywhere from near White Alice (the weird radio thing on top of Anvil Mountain) to eating grass near the correctional center. I remember reading somewhere that these animals are the closest animals we have from before the Ice Age. There is a picture of muskox above... clearly I don't have a good zoom function.

Another aspect of Alaska that I love is the ability to walk out to the tundra and pick berries. It sounds silly but it is a lifestyle. Many people pick enough berries for the winter. Typically berries go into Eskimo Icecream, which consists of seal oil, crisco, berries, and maybe some other things. It sounds nasty but it is pretty good! I typically make jam out of the berries. Pancakes are another good use of the berries. Between Leah and I, we have enough to last all winter. There is something very peaceful about picking berries so we always try and find an excuse to pick more berries.

Fireweed is another thing that is big up here. It is a flower that grows just about everywhere. It is so pretty and brings a lot of life to this part of the world. This purple flower is used to make honey, wine, and jam. I haven't made wine but my attempts at the other two are pretty good!

My First Village Trip

This picture is of Sarah Palin and myself.

This past week was a nice steady week. I was very proud of myself because I was able to gain permission from a publishing company to use their book. Another big event this week was KNOM's 38th birthday.

Finally, I got to go on my first village trip. A village trip is invaluable to KNOM members. They help us learn more about our audience and their lifestyles. Since Nome is more of a city, it doesn't fully portray the lifestyle of these villages.

Friday was my first trip. I flew to Unalakleet, one of the larger fishing villages, to attend a bill signing. Sarah Palin flew into Unalakleet to sign this bill into a law. The bill was about the cost of oil for rural Alaska. The bill stated the cost to heat a home in Anchorage is approximately $2,200 and in Junaeu it costs about $4,440 but in rural Alaska, it costs about $6,600. The bill is going to put limits on the cost of fuel oil to heat homes so it will be more affordable.

Sarah came in and spoke for a while and had the mayor speak as well as the people who made the event possible.

The event still amazes me. The entire town helped make this possible. Everyone brought in their best salmon (mostly king salmon) or entre and make it a potluck. There was so much food. We had king crab, pink salmon, chum salmon, king salmon, salmon dip, fried bread, cheese and crackers, pasta salad, and even eskimo ice cream! Eskimo ice cream is a combination of seal oil or crisco, sugar, and wild berries. They used seal oil in the stuff i tried and it was amazing! This sweet old lady kind of adopted me because my coworker ran off to talk to other people. She kept throwing food on my plate and told me to put some meat on my bones.

The lady, who seemed to adopt me for the afternoon, introduced me to her entire family. She told me all about the IRA and how important it was to her. In addition she introduced me to half of Unalakleet's IRA. No village was recognized by the state of Alaska, in the time of the indian land act, unless it sent in a petition to the state to be a town. After they were approved, the town had to have a mayor and various other parts of a local government. The town maintained their old ways sort of a tribe leader through the IRA. The IRA and local government work together but some of the elders don't always respect the government because they believe that the IRA should run the village. In some villages, there is a huge rivalry, but there didn't seem to be anything to bad in Unalakleet.

After the wonderful Sarah Palin/Potluck event, I went to Summersize. That is a summer "camp" program for local children. Since this event is a Nome event, it was a big deal to have it in Unalakleet. I went to see if there was a story. There wasn't but I did get some children to record their youth dreams for a spot we have.

After this, I walked to me with Jessie and the mayor saw me and picked me up to take me to his work. The mayor is also the manager of the commercial fishing company in town. He showed me around the building and introduced some of his employees. He has people working for him from age 18 to 80. Jessie arrived and we interived him on building activity going on during the summer. After the interview Jessie and I relaxed and had a smoothie at "Peace on Earth" pizza parlor.

This is a picture of me next to my first bush plane flight. The flight wasn't that bad. There wasn't too much turbulance on the 9 passanger plane.