Thanksgiving--Shishmaref Style

Most of the residents gather for the feast. We made many new friends.


Stew, anyone?


Reindeer stew, spiced just right--Delicious!!


Eskimo Ice Cream--Yum!!!


What a treat!


Beautiful ruffs--not just fashionable, but
a necessity to protect a person's face.


Mary (in red kuspuk) leads the dancing.


Eskimo dancing--each dance tells a story
to the drummers' beat.


Reindeer fawn mukluks made for Mary
by her grandmother when Mary was a
senior in high school.

Shishmaref drummers. Drums are traditionally made of thin caribou skin stretched over a frame. Some may have also been made from seal skin.



The school parking lot.

We celebrated Thanksgiving by attending the village feast. The main fare is reindeer stew. Early in the morning a sled of reindeer carcasses and several boxes of other ingredients were brought to the school kitchen. The unmarried men of the village spent the better part of the day butchering the reindeer and preparing the reindeer stew. Most of the village gathered in the Shishmaref High School gym about 5:30. A large plastic trash can had been filled with cherry KoolAid and everyone dipped out a cup or two. Each table was set with a roll of paper towel, 1/2 box of Pilot Bread, and a loaf of white bread. Families claimed their places by setting out their plates, bowls and spoons. Many also brought pots of stew. I brought a large pan of glazed sweet potatoes. A prayer was offered and serving began at a little after 6. The stew makers also did the serving.
After we had our fill of the stew, which was absolutely delicious, desserts were brought out. The women take great pride in their Eskimo ice cream. We sampled everything. One kind of Eskimo ice cream was made with caribou fat, seal oil, salmon berries and blueberries. Another kind was made with caribou fat mixed with dried and flaked lincod (yes, fish!!) and was very delicious. We also had a scoop of mixed berries (salmonberries, blueberries, cranberries, and crowberries) and a piece of cake made by one of the young girls. Tea accompanied the dessert.
After everyone had eaten their fill, the doxology was sung in Inupiaq and the clean-up began. High school kids do all the cleaning up. As soon as the gym was cleared, the Eskimo dancers and drummers took over and spent the next hour showing us a part of Inupiaq culture the early missionaries had tried, fortunately unsuccessfully, to eradicate. Many kids also came out to show what they had learned or were learning. The evenings entertainment continued until the wee hours of the morning with community basketball games. We felt privileged to experience a Thanksgiving with the Eskimos of Shishmaref, Alaska.

Fresh Fruit!!

Earlier this week we saw a line of people going to the store. When that happens, you know that the store has something special. In this case, the "something special" was fresh fruit: bananas and grapes!! Frest fruit is very rare in the bush. To make life even nicer, yesterday the store received several cases of eggs. Life is good!!

Chukchi Sea Ice

Sea ice. So what? It's a big deal here. Once the Chukchi Sea freezes, the shores of Shismaref will be protected from the storms that ravage her shore. So sea ice is a big deal here. In the two weeks that we've been here, we have watched the Chukchi go from open water to ice as far as one can see to open water with ice floes. No matter--it's always a beautiful view, and we can see it from our window!

CAMPING IN in Shishmaref

There is a shortage of teacher housing in Shishmaref, so when a substitute comes to town, one is expected to "camp in." Most itinerants "camp" in the main school building. They grab an available classroom, find a mattress and fluff their sleeping bags. I, on the other hand, being a 7-week substitute with a husband, have been given the royal treatment. We have a portable classroom all to ourselves--that is, between the hours of 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. During the other hours we share our space. It is a classroom during the day, so we must vacate the room. (Mike wanders aimlessly about the village--more about that in another post.) From 4 p.m. until around 10 p.m., other staff members come to the portable to use the washers and dryers and to take showers. Much of the teacher housing, as well as most of the village, have honeybuckets instead of flush toilets and must haul water--thus no showers or washers in the home. We consider ourselves lucky to have the facilities--even if we have to share them!
We especially appreciate the relatively high-speed Internet! As for cooking, we can either use the home-ec room in the school or use the microwave in our portable. We opt most often for the microwave since the home-ec room is quite busy as there are so many itinerants: school- associated folks, like counselors; government-associated folks, like auditors; and other folks, like the many film crews who come to film documentaries of this island that is slowly washing into the sea. As you have probably figured out, the school serves as the local hotel where non-school visitors literally "camp in" for around $70 per night.

Halloween--Shishmaref Style

Shishmaref kids really got into the spirit of Halloween just like kids everywhere. The school had a costume parade, followed by a fun frolic. Later the kids (and many parents) knocked on doors and seemed to get quite a haul. Mike stood in the street (the packed sand trail called Seaview Lane) and handed out Charm blow-pops, one of the kids' favorite kind of candy.

Winter Magic

We recently experienced several days of high winds and blowing snow. It's amazing what a little snow and wind can do to a playground; the result reminded me of a scene from Dr. Zhivago.

Pilot Bread to the Rescue

Shishmaref has two stores, but they often run out of staples like bread.
When there is no bread, we have found a substitute: pilot bread.
It's like a large cracker, only softer and not salty.