Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Day 35
Up early. Heard hard rain again overnight, but none right now, thank goodness. I hear only train whistles in the distance as early morning tourist trains head out for Denali up north. Dozens of these trains go north each day, coming back late into the night. People told us we wouldn?t like this RV park in the center of Anchorage because of the trains, but they haven?t bothered us at all. In fact, the sound of trains is muted and very nice.
I?ll read a few pages of Michener over coffee this morning, then head out for a walk before we go to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.
Also, I?ve fermented my cloves in alcohol for enough days now, so it?s time to strain the cloves out and add some baby oil and see if my concoction works to repels mosquitoes. It smells wonderful, I must say. Much nicer than the repellants with all the DEET in them. Still a bit alcohol-y but very nice clove odor. Mosquitoes must hate cloves. Let?s hope!
We set out early for the Alaska Native Heritage Center, arriving just when it opened at 9. Don headed for all the displays and exhibits while I sat down and listened to presentations by natives: Explanation of native cultures, demonstration of native athletic prowess and ?games?, drumming and dancing, and finally, storytelling. The narrator this morning was a young Yupik woman who grew up in Anchorage, attended college at the Univ of Anchorage, and is in the process of learning her native language from her grandmother and aunts, some of whom still live in Tetlin, the village of her ancestors, near the Canadian border.
I?m really fascinated by the varied tribes in this vast land, consisting of 11 distinct cultures speaking 21 different languages: The Native Heritage Center organizes these into 5 cultural groups: The Yup?ik and Cup?ik (pronounced choo-pick) in the central western coastal areas of Alaska; the Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik in the far north of Alaska (where we in the south generally think of the Eskimos as living), who have always been and still are the renowned whale and seal hunters, using their magnificent invention, the kayak (spelled qayaq in their language); the Athabascans with their 5 or 6 different cultures and 11 completely different dialects, who occupy the enormous inland areas of central Alaska, live off the land as hunters and gatherers and are the ancestors of the Apache and Navajo tribes that migrated south; the Tlingit, Haida, Eyak and Tsimshian fisherpeople who occupy the southeastern islands and coastal areas of Alaska, and carve the well-known huge totem poles that tell great stories and are adorned with magnificent carved and painted designs; and the Unangax and Alutiiq (pronounced ahl-ee-yoo-teek --more commonly known as the Aleuts) who occupy the Kenai peninsula, Kodiak Island and the string of volcanic islands jutting far out into the Pacific ocean, known as the Ring of Fire, had no trees at all and depended entirely on whales, seals, fish and driftwood for food and life. The Unangax and Alutiiq, too, used kayaks, but theirs were distinguished by an advanced design feature called a split bow that aided in navigation.
Watching the Alaska Native Games demonstration was amazing. Different cultures have different athletics, depending on how the group obtains its food and traverses the land, the rivers, the oceans, or the mountains. Children are taught to play these games from infancy, and many old people also still play them, kicking their legs high into the air to kick a tiny ball on a string, for example. Four high school and college age youths, 2 girls and 2 guys, showed how the emphasis on power, strength, balance and focus enables people such as the Inupiaks or Cup?iks who live on the Bering Sea or the Arctic Ocean to jump with great agility from an outcropping of one ice chunk to another when the northern seas are frozen solid in winter while hunting seals, without falling into the ditch between the bergs and possibly drowning instantly in the freezing water, never to be seen again. The enthralling act of standing on one hand while holding one foot in the air and kicking high overhead with the other foot to touch the ball suspended 8 feet in the air is breathtaking ? the skill and balance involved exceeds what I?ve witnessed in many Olympic sports. Very impressive!
Dancing by both men and women resembles closely Hawaiian dancing, in both hand and foot movements (on non-movements). Dancers use symbolic moves as well as storytelling moves, very graceful for the women, strong and aggressive for the men. Meanwhile, drummers and singers chant story-music that is hauntingly beautiful. Most songs are very short. The sauyaq (drum) is a long piece of bent wood over which is stretched an animal skin. Note how the word for drum ? sauyaq ? resembles qayaq, for the boat made of bent wood pieces laced together and covered by animal skins to make it float. These drums were about 28 inches in diameter, and were beaten with whale baleen sticks in the old days (bamboo sticks now). Very powerful sounds.
The Center has six representative villages constructed around a small lake to show how the various cultures lived. At least 6 of the cultural groups constructed shelters partly underground for insulation, and covered with earth or with sticks covered by animal hides, furs and skins. The Athabascans and the Eyak/Tlingit/Tsimshian/Haida groups often built wooden and log houses, since their areas of the land had many trees. One of the narrators at the earlier presentations had told us that all of the natives now live in modern houses, whether in cities or in their native villages. No igloos or hide-covered shelters used any more?they were all destroyed. Ridiculously, the Bureau of Indian Affairs came in during the 1940s-50s and required all native Alaskans to live in modern frame houses, usually built on stilts in their towns, but our narrator pointed out that these houses in native villages are almost always very drafty, poor at retaining heat, and not nearly so effectively insulated as were the earthen homes built partly underground. Makes little sense in a sub-arctic environment where temps drop to minus 70 degrees F pretty often.
We headed downtown and walked around a bit, visiting a few shops and feasting on a wonderful reindeer hot dog served up at an outdoor stand just outside the downtown Anchorage Visitor Center. M&As Reindeer Dogs has been written up, which is what sent us there, and rightly so. Deeeee-licious! They top their juicy reindeer dog with a heap of saut?ed carmelized onions. (Their secret of carmelizing the onions is to add Coke to them!) Yum! We sat outside in the brief sunshine (though cold, blustery winds) eating our dogs, just as if we were in New York or Chicago. Fun city stuff.
Back at the ranch, we napped, read books, showered and changed, preparing to meet our friends Dean and Linda at 5:30 for dinner at the upscale Simon & Seafort?s to have their famous halibut cheeks. Probably will be the only time on this trip that we ?eat fancy??we are enjoying not doing anything fancy, in fact. A lifelong friend, Dave, told us we just had to have the halibut cheeks at Simon & Seafort?s in Anchorage?he just loves them. They are indeed, the actual cheeks of halibut?they come off the fish in long thick strands, more like the grain of a pork roast than the typically flaky meat of a fish. Quite tasty, fixed with a bread-crumb-and-cheese coating and saut?ed til crispy. Fun to have had such a unique dish while in Alaska, but not sure I?d go back 6 more times.
Our waiter at Simon?s told us that when people come here and go halibut fishing on charters, they often have NO idea that they have to specify to the charter owner that they want to keep their halibut cheeks when the fish is processed for the customer, to ship home or to take along in a freezer. Hence, most charter operators are accustomed to keeping the halibut cheeks and selling them to restaurants like Simon & Seafort?s, with the person who caught the fish never knowing the difference.
Well, I can tell you that if I go fishing for halibut, I will definitely specify that I want to KEEP my halibut cheeks! Nice piece of information to have!
The winds had calmed and the sun was out by the time we left the restaurant at 8 pm. Typical day in Anchorage: morning rain/cold/clouds; afternoon more clouds and brisk winds, sometimes sun breaks through for brief moments; dinnertime, some blue sky, clouds break up, wind dies a bit, sun comes out more clearly, mountains are visible, temperatures quite nice for the first time all day. Interesting patterns.