Thursday in Kwethluk

Dorothy showing Franklin how to preserve a rabbit pelt.

This morning we woke up to Ms.G's ring tone. "Oh what fun," I thought while laying on my make shift chair bed (it was not soft).  After we were dressed one of the Yupik elders showed Franklin and I how to make sure his rabbit fur would spoil. First she pulled the rabbit's skin tight, then she put strips of scrap paper on the bloody parts so it would absorb the blood and dry the fur. We thanked the elder and headed off to have some breakfast.

Getting ready for ice fishing.

When we got to the gym breakfast was already put away so Franklin and I turned around and started walking back to the library.  It wasn't even 5 seconds until Kwethluk's generous principal offered us cereal. We each ate 3 boxes of cereal! We needed the extra energy before heading out for a day of ice fishing.  We all met up in the library to get ready for fishing, or as they call it here, manaqing.  We put on a ton of layers so we would not get cold while riding in sleds behind the snow machines.

Kwethluk "school bus"

They don't have school buses here, so field trip transportation involves rounding up as many snow machines as possible and making sure there are enough spaces in sleds or on the back of the seats to fit everyone.  By the time we were all organized we had at least 6 snow machines and 30 people.  It was fun riding the snow machine, especially when it hit the bumps, but I'm sure I will be sore tomorrow.

Showing off our jigging skills and smiles.

We snow machined over frozen lakes, tundra, different rivers and summer fish camps that are now all closed up for the winter. We arrived at the Y in the Kwethluk River which is about 30 minutes from town and supposedly has the best fishing right now because all of the fish like to feed where the two parts of the river meet.

Patiently waiting for a pike to bite. 

It was nice and sunny out so we grabbed our manaq sticks and found a hole.  There were already holes drilled through the ice from people fishing there over the past few days.  We brought an auger just in case we had to drill a hole which we ended up drilling two.  Traditionally they would make the holes using an ice pick which could take 30 minutes to an hour depending on how thick the ice is.  Right now the ice is 2 feet thick with about 2 feet of snow on top. The way you ice fish is first you clean out your hole of ice using a scoop which looks like a giant cooking ladle, then you choose the right lure for the fish and the day.  Pikes usually like yellow and orange lures with feathers.  You drop your line in and make sure it is about a foot above the bottom of the river.  You then pull up on your stick every 5 seconds or so.  That technique is called jigging. During the four hours we were out fishing only one person caught a fish and she was a elder named Aggie.   Well you know people that have lived longer than you do stuff better. She was excited to boil the fish for dinner for her and her husband.  The fish was about 1 foot long and her son Preston pulled out one of its eye balls to use for bait.  She caught the fish with a red lure so afterwards everyone switched out the color of their lure and thought they had a good chance of catching one.

Showing off the "big" catch for the day.

After 3 hours of fishing I went sliding at a nearby hill with Kristen, Kyong, and Jillian. I went back to my fishing hole but still no luck.  We were pretty cold by that point so we were grateful when they pulled out the lunch.  We ate tuna fish sandwiches, soda, corn nuts, meat sticks, fruit, and ding dongs. Its a pretty typical lunch now in the village, but they never would have eaten it traditionally.  Traditional foods are salmon, rabbit, pike, white fish, and caribou.

Using the eyeball from the Northern Pike for bait.

Aggie, the only successful fisherwoman for the day.

Franklin figured out how to fish and sun bathe at the same time.

Nobody else caught anything the rest of the day.  Some people said it was probably because a west wind was blowing.  The elders also told us stories of people catching 80-100 fish in a day.  The fish were biting so quickly they had to use two poles at one time.  Many of the families in the village live a subsistence lifestyle and its a pretty big deal when they don't catch enough fish to feed their family, especially after you paid a lot of money in gas to get out to the fishing grounds.  Nowadays, they can always buy food in the Native Store or the Sports Store but that food is expensive and isn't healthy for you.  It is a lot of processed foods, microwavable food and canned goods.  The diet in native villages has changed so much that many people are coming down with diabetes.  There is too much sugar in the food they eat whereas before they ate mostly meat, berries and other things they could gather or trade.

The old orphanage

School is in session for Jillian and Zeke.

Buildings on the orphanage property.  The church was built in 1907.

We left the river around 2pm and on the way back to the village we stopped by an old orphanage that housed children whose parents had died of tuberculosis and the flu between the years of 1924 and 1970. When explorers or fur trappers first came to the area they brought with them diseases that nearly wiped out the native population.  Native were just not resistant to the illnesses and it left behind many orphans.  Some of the Kwethluk kids have relatives in town who used to live in the orphanage. The old buildings were left abandoned with a lot of the stuff still inside them like desks and books.  They have been vandalized over the years and now have a creepy feel to them.

A rabbit snare and chew marks on the branches.

At 7pm it is bright and sunny out on the trap line.

When we got back to school, our butts hurt from all the big bumps on our snow machine ride.  We took off our wet clothes and warmed up with blueberry tea and snacks and then we walked to the Sports Store. It sells camping stuff, food and some clothes. It is also where you pay for the gas for your snow machine.  We played football for a while outside with the local kids while Ms. G went with another teacher to check their trap line. The teacher had just learned from the locals how to set traps for rabbit and has gotten about 8 in the last two weeks.  No luck tonight though but luckily we already tried rabbit last night.

Native dinner food party.  On the table is Yupik donuts, dried king salmon strips, beaver and beaver tail, dried ptarmigan and pilot bread with peanut butter.

Kristen and Vasila are excited to eat dried ptarmigan that Vasila's family prepared.

Jillian and Kyong making aqutaq with salmonberries picked from last summer.

Tonight was our Native food dinner party.  Many of the locals donated food for us to try.  On the menu was beaver and beaver tail, Yupik fry bread that looked just like donuts, smoked salmon strips, dried ptarmigan still on the bone, caribou stew with veggies and rice, seal oil that you eat by dipping the salmon strips or ptarmigan into, and aqutaq.  Aqutaq is also known as eskimo ice cream.  Kyong, Kristen and Jillian learned how to make it from Cindy, a really nice woman in town who has helped us sew kuspuks and brought the beaver.  The best part about making aqutaq is that you can only use your hands.  You mix together Crisco shortening, mashed potato flakes, sugar and whatever berries you have.  We had salmonberries that someone collected last summer and froze.  It sounds gross but once it is all mixed up it is delicious!  It tastes like a fresh berry jam.  Before the Yupik had shortening, aqutaq was made with whitefish.  There are some taboos surrounding making it, like you can only stir in a clockwise direction and you can never play with your food while you are preparing it.

Kristen modeling her ptarmigan tail feathers.

We all stuffed ourselves silly at dinner.  There wasn't one thing any of us didn't like.  After dinner I played football outside with some of the boys and the others played Would You Rather? It was an awesome day and all of us are beat.

Write more later.
Zeke