High in the Arctic !! Eskimo....

[newrmdmike]

very cool, when can i come visit!?

 

[Majik Imaje]

You have heard of the word "IGLOO" and you probably THINK you know what one is. Well truth is. In Alaska,, Above the Arctic Circle an Iglu is not made out of ice! No! that is false! Inupaq 101 there are no O's in the Inupaq language! IGLU = 1 DWELLING, IGLUT = 2 DWELLINGS IGLUK = 3+

An Iglu is made out of whale bone & sod. Now add snow.. and it looks sorta like the ice block thing.. We dont do that up here. Although the Inupaq peoples do not live in an Iglu any longer. there are some remains.

-=click=-

In fact, this dwelling once had 'electricty ' see on the left side.? The service drop! Inside view coming next post!​

 

[pickypics]

I am definetly keeping track of all your posts.... This is great, reading and looking at your photos... Keep it up!!!

 

[PNA]

Incredably interesting......

Thanks for sharing.

 

[pantherlax]

Wowwwww. Your pictures are great, but you are also educating us greatly, culturalizing us.
I definitely admire you.

 

[Majik Imaje]

Quite a large family can live in an Old sod house = IGLU.

THIS is where they would gather every evening.. seal oil lamp..warm

this is home.! now where is the DVD player ?

 

[Majik Imaje]

Home sweet Home, this is where we live.. for two months! April - May and longer . depending on ice conditions!

This is the greatest time.. whaling! but a whole lot more happens than just whaling.. Lots of animals.. Lots of ducks.. lots of FOOD!

Out on the ocean Ice.. this is home.. sit and wait.. for the animals to arrive. Sometimes.. 3 weeks. just sitting and waiting, watching, no excess noise. but alot of laughs and stories. and good hot food! the lead opeining is just starting to open up.. that ice pack on the other side is moving. slowly.. and it is very very easy to hallucinate out here.! Just stand there and watch that ice move. and.. .. and.. whoa.. that ice WILL STOP..and you will head in the other direction! The wierdest sensations happen out here..for instance.One side of your face is sweating, and the other side is being frost bit! The sun reflecting off all the ice is BLINDING and due to all the 24 hour sunlight and white ice relecting. you get quite "dark" in as little as just 2 days! Wait a minute ? "HOT MEAL"? HOW? WHERE? ha ha.!! There are lots of "tricks" . A hunter will go hunting and walk on the other side..(seals) polar bears, ugruks (bearded seals).. he has his food with him. Frozen fish or frozen caribou.. and food.. that is being cooked. As he walks. for hours.. at some point. he will reach down into his mukluk (boot) and bring out a fish that has been wrapped and prepared and placed in his boot. The body heat he is putting out from eating quaq. will cook that fish ! it is steaming hot when it is taking out. time for a picnic!

How do you get delicous fresh water way out on the ocean ice ? Where does it come from ?
here is a piece of "baleen" that has been etched on by a very good friend "Hanko" (far right) of mine.. (next door neighbor)
Native Ars & Crafts are a huge business in the Arctic. Tourists from all over the world visit Alaska, and one thing we noiticed in our gallery when speaking to people tourists.. This is my 8th trip to Alaska. This is my 5th trip. Once you experience Alaska. two things happen.. either you come back.. or you decided to stay!

 

[df3photo]

Very nice. I'm ready to move up there with you... keep up the stories and PHOTOS!

 

[Majik Imaje]

Back out on the ocean ice. The entire village is out here. 750 people, children, elders, everyone.

The village is basicly empty. At certain times of the month. women have to get off that ice! Go home.!

Whales & Polar bears have a very unique sense of smell for blood!

The last thing you want out here. is a polar bear. They are very clever. and some times very stupid!

The hunters, sleep, eat, watch. Right at the lead opening. This is home. 18 whaling captains are spread out along the ice pack at about 1/2 - 3/4 mile intervals. Some families stay closer together in a group

1/2 - 3/4 a mile IN BACK of the hunters are the cooks. The women.! and the "boyer"
YOU WILL never ever believe this! See the boy. with the binoculars.?

That is a boyer.! I will show you the boyer of our crew!
you will NEVER BELIEVE THIS !!

-=INTRODUCING=-​

-=JIMMY NASH=-​

=-AGE 3 =-​

when the women go to sleep at night in the tents. It is the boyers RESPONSIBILITY to keep the wood stove fired up just right. In othre words.. hand a three year old your lighter and matches and go to sleep!
ha ha ha ha ha ha!​

Now for a tremendous story that will just blow your mind..
hand a 3 year old matches & an axe and have him chop wood and keep the fire going all night while you go to sleep!!! THIS IS VERY COMMON here in the village when we are living out on the ocean ice.!!!
The person who does that.. and so much more.. is called a "boyer"
Go to a book store (any good one) look for the book Alaska's Arctic, you will see this photo and many more starting on page 128.


This is what a "boyer" does.. out on the ice.. his job is one to keep that home made wood stove (inside the tent) fired up just right.. and it takes a lot of wood.. and "sicpun" seal oil which is extremly flamable,
chopping wood, keeping the fire going, melting snow/ice for water.. ice is for coffee/tea and such.. making the beverages and filling all the thermoses and bring them down to the lead opening where the hunters are.. (at the edge of the ice) no tents.

gather clean snow, to make water for washing dishes, do the dishes.. make breakfast for the women in the tent..
the "color" red is NOT ALLOWED.. anywhere near the lead opening.. white, sky blue.. but no bright colors.. and .. sssshh!!! no noise..!!!

the "boyers" responsibility EVERY NIGHT is to watch the WIND.. IT CAN SHIFT at any moment and out on the ice so far.. this is extremly dangerous.. watch the ice.. for cracks around the tent area 1/2 mile back from the hunters at the lead.

He is armed with many different types of rifles in case of polar bear attacks !!!
THIS IS A 3 YEAR OLD CHILD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Majik Imaje]

We have been here since the second week of April.. nothing happening yet. SSDD

-=same snow different day=-​

​

See that "white stuff" on the ice? You probably use the word "snow" for the white stuff. In the Eskimo language ( Inupaq) there are more than 100 different words to describe the EXACT type.. of "snow"!


But how do you get delicious fresh water way out here. certainly not by melting clean snow? Nope.. clean snow is melted and used for washing purposes ONLY! .. yuk.. snow taste's terrible !

But lots and lots as much as you want is available way out here on the OCEAN ICE. but how? where?​

​

 

[Majik Imaje]

This is how we wait in the check out line!! ha ha ha ha.!!

 

[Majik Imaje]

It was a lot of work walking from camp to camp to obtain different photos from different camps. I was walking with 3 cameras a huge tripod . I was tired, but then I heard some "giggling" going on behind some walls of ice. I walked around the cornner to see these 3 girls "Playing out",,,As I raised my camera. to snap a moment of Arctic History. the girl on the far left said.

Wanna see me eat snow ?...everyone laughed! it is 30 below zero. These girels have been outside.. for days! So next time someone tells you Alaska is a very cold place! ha ha ha.! yes it is.! Just look at how cold it is ! It is a very common site in Anchorage when it is zero degrees outside.
To see students walking with just a t-shirt and short cuts on!

Put it this way. Up here. the cold just "gets on you".. it never penetrates

Back east coast in Boston. It doesn't matter how much you put on. the cold goes right through all your clothing into your bones. It penetrates deep. We cannot use Vaselilne up here. it is too dry. When you put it on. It will evaporate and flake up and fall off like candle wax.

But stay outside in the sun.. and you can EASILY STAY awake for days and days and days...you become "solar powered"! it sure is a lot of fun.

 

[Antarctican]

I'm enjoying this thread... such interesting info is included with the photos.

 

[Majik Imaje]

Yuummy donuts. @ every camp. when the ducks arrive it is fresh duck soup, daily! SOUP?? where does the water come from ? snow ? no ..snow is only used for washing. Delicous drinking water and water for cooking and coffee and tea and other hot beverages is absolutely delicious!

Making donuts from scratch .. miles out on the ocean ice and it is / was 60 below that day. that is why some people are warming up, in the tent.

How do you ever get the dough to rise? after the dough is all mixed, then it is put inside a plastic bag. and the bag is put up inside her back after she puts her parky on!

Just like children are carried

 

[Majik Imaje]

for all you women out there. or husbands or whoever you are. Next time you do the dishes. I want you to remember this image. you will never complain about dishes again.

We had to evacuate the ice. Killigvuk " get the hell outa there as fast as possiible. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES....

The direction of the wind is ctirical.. If that wind shifts to south wind. the ice is headed our way. and it will run right over you and crush everything in its path. 50 foot high mountains of ICE. are formed when it advances.
(Photos soon).

It takes 8 hours to correctly set up a whaling camp.
If we have to Killivuk (kill e vuck). it takes less than 20 minutes to be gone out there with no trace, or anything left behind. We simply vanish!

In the olden days.. they had no way to evacuate. they didn't have snowmachines and 4 wheel hondas.. so when the wind would shift.

They would grab a new born son and stip him complety naked and hold him into the wind and move to the direction needed to survive.

We are back on land and it is very very very cold. the tent has been taken down of course and everyone is huffing and puffing from the evacuation.. it is a mad dash .. with everything you got.. your exhausted when you get back to safe ice. yes we are still on the ice. but land fast ice. very close to land.. EVERYONE IS THIRSTY .. we have to wash dishes.

The whaling captain is in charge of his crew and umiaq ONLY. The Captians wife is in charge of the ICE, she tells him where to set everything up! SHE IS BOSS OUT HERE.

and she.. is doing the dishes.! right here she is cold. that is why she is warming up! Where? How? she has her back to the wind and she is warming up INSIDE of her parky!

Fresh hot tea, coffee is about to be served.. we need clean cups.. Where is all this fresh delicous water coming from ?? We are on OCEAN SALT WATER ICE!

IT IS ALL AROUND US. Everywhere.!

how can you find delicous fresh water out here.? where is it ? how do you obtain it? you can't drink SALT WATER! we don't bring it out here .

coka cola we bring out there. we can't find that out on the ice.!

BUT WE DO HAVE OCEAN ICE EVERYWHERE.. now we need Eskimo technology to get the water.. !! so we turn to the SUN!

TAKE A HUNK OF ICE.. it won't be hard to find. it is every where.

now stand it up.. brush the snow off.. and .. .. .. wait!

whistling a tune of music.. waiting.. as the day goes on. the sun will expose the top of that piece of ice.. and the SALT.. WILL SETTLE.

the longer you leave it there.. the more clearer the ice becomes. then you can see through it. NOW CHOP.. HORIZONTALLY from the top..

fill your tea kettles.. this stuff is delicous.. there is also another way.

bring sand out here.! we use that.. to cut giant holes in the ice.!

placing a block of ice on the sand will speed up the process of sucking the salt down down into the ice.. when that ice is very clear. then it is ready for drinking!