Eskimo?

Once in a great while I will send an order from one of my stores over seas. Australia, Ireland,.....Florida.... and other far away places. I love living vicariously through my own tiny packages, as I imagine them being opened in air that is so very different than mine.

A woman in Germany wanted me to send a bunch of stuff to her so that she could sell it in her brick and mortar store, so I send about 10 pieces. She asked for a short bio paragraph. Without really thinking about it I began with...'I am an Inupiaq Eskimo......'

A few days later she emailed me back with notes about this and that. She also told me that her friend who was Canadian was very uneasy about using the 'Eskimo.' Said it wasn't very politically correct. I googled it later and it seems that in Canada it is considered a demeaning and very negative racist word.

I emailed her back that I did not mind one way or the other.....that I would leave it up to her.

But it did spark a conversation. A few thoughts on the matter. I get all excited about these things because it's something I haven't really thought about yet.

Is the term Eskimo racist? Politically incorrect? And why do I find it so easy to use? Why did I even use it in the first place?

I first started thinking about what other terms I could identify myself and my artwork by. The absolutely first title I call myself by is Tikigaqmiut. It identifies where I come from, and it is one of the first things you learn as a child. I'm from Tikigaq, in English: Point Hope. Of course because of the internet my clientele 90% are not even from Alaska, and only about 5% are from the North Slope and would even know what that title would mean. I tried that in the begining, and spent most of my day emailing potential clients explaining to them what it meant. I debated on what my purpose was in selling my artwork online. I settled on it only being half explaining, and half selling. Which meant I would have to find another title.

I also found the same type of problem using the next broadest title: Inupiat, The Real People. too few people actually knew what that was. We span the whole entire North Slope of Alaska and yet the world knows so very little about us, and there is very little information on the internet (yet it is growing). I think the main reason is that we aren't really known for anything spectacular. Not like the more popular Apache or Mohican or any other tribal names whispered in American History for hundreds of years. We are only part of Americas newest history, not even old enough to make it in the high school textbooks yet. Google us and you will find a very small amount of national news or in depth coverage....mostly having to do with oil from Prudhoe Bay.

So what's next? Most artists I know identify themselves as 'Alaskan Native.' But it's such a broad term that it is ridiculous. Alaska is the largest state in the US, and can span from one coast to the other. There are 24 different Alaskan Native tribes in Alaska. Each separate and different from each other. The difference in culture between a Tsimshian and an Inupiat is amazing, a huge gap just as big as the difference between a New Yorker and a Texan. I had a person innocently ask me if I carve tiny totem poles once, and it made me consider changing my description once again.

The next step would be to just call myself 'Inuit'....as it would fit most of the requirements. It's readily identifiable due to the Inuit art movement in Canada, it also describes my Northern arctic culture and my work and materials. But I ran into a few problems with that title also. The first problem that first arose is that everyone assumed I was working out of Canada, as some did not know that Inuits span the arctic. Some people asked me where my stone work was. Some people critiqued me on not using proper traceable records keeping and marking that is common in Canada. In the end I decided that too much information was just as bad. As most do not know the difference between us and our Eastern brothers. I even had people tell me that they would have bought my stuff if I was Canadian Inuit, because Canadian Inuit is collectable and hip. My stuff wasn't 'Inuit' enough.........talk about a downer......

So I moved on to other titles.

The world has treated each group of Inuit natives completely differently. The U.S., Russia, Canada, ect. Each has it's own history and flavor (most of it is very depressing.) Some of it is still depressing. But each area moves at it's own pace and arrives at different things in different ways. And I think it would be wrong to apply one thing, to all the Arctic.....The Arctic peoples, though different, all have one thing in common, we adapt to change and survive. We are flexible and strong as willow branches..... and we hang onto the spare arctic soil just as faithfully.

And so in the end I stick with Inupiaq Eskimo....one word needing a little googling to understand, paired with another word readily identifiable. It's either that or Inuit - American - Alaskan Native - Inupiat - Tikigaqmiut/Nunamiut.......

Storms....

I have come to the conclusion that if winter had a persona...she would be a young, vain, beautiful and fitful woman. Full of temper tantrums.

We have been experiencing big and bad snow storms. Which play havoc with the internet and prevents any outdoor activities. So for a couple of weeks now we have focused on making sure the dogs are comfortable, making sure nothing important gets buried till spring and trying our hardest not to succumb to cabin fever. My tactic is to go broke by downloading absolutely horrible and embarrassing Fantasy novels.

Sometimes though...the sky clears for a moment and we get to stretch our legs and enjoy the reprieve.

I don't have a date yet set for my knee surgery, so at this point it's a waiting game. I'm have high hopes that I might be able to go out and camp and hunt by late spring or early summer....that is if I have surgery in time. Till then I will hobble about the world.... writing bad poetry about my woes and cursing the woman Winter in her bi-polar attitude.

Some pictures!

As an artist I experiment with materials and techniques alot. I decided one day to play with caribou fur and learn about tufting, which is a technique usually used by Northwest? Alaskan Natives with moose hair. I made an AbSOLUTE mess....but it was fun! It looked like a caribou exploded into tiny piles of fur in my living room. for more pics and info: www.salmonberrydreams.etsy.com

I also have made a 'for me' lip balm....made with Salmonberries......and have listed it up for sale at: www.salmonberryorigins.etsy.com
My dog Nuna peers around a corner, surprised, on a briefly sunny morning...as I have emerged from the house.
The view from my window on one of my flights to Fairbanks for knee appointments.
Sometimes there is no real difference from the sky and the snow covered mountains......but sometimes for a moment a difference appears and takes our breath away. I always find it so humbling to know that great beauty happens...wether we are there to see it or not.

Frosted Sunlight...

Some photos.

I bought me a new lens, and have only just started becoming familiar with it's personality. I look a bit silly hobbling here and there ....but it's fun!

Before I messed my knee up we bought full sets of skiijoring equipment. It was going to be our winter project, and would keep the dogs in shape for our spring through fall camping. Our dog 'Bullet' has the right instincts for the job so Ben went and tried him out. He was fine with the harness. Stayed on track, Pulled smoothly for about 300 yards, but was not sure after that of what Ben wanted. A good start and it lets us know what we need to work on!

The frost is a living thing in the winter. Here it is covering a drying caribou skin in our backyard.

The sun has finally gotten high enough to peek over the nearest mountains...here it struggles to burn away a blanket of fog.

Couch surfing....

It surprises me sometimes to realize that I am getting older.

That my mind and my body are different things.

I have been recovering from a re-injury of my knee. In college I had a ACL replacement, and apparently my knee decided it wanted attention again. So since New years I have been sitting on my couch, nursing a swollen knee, and traveling to Fairbanks for doctors appointments. The doc thinks I will have to have surgery again....

It has taken me a few weeks to go through the seven stages of acceptance of a major injury: denial, anger, annoyance, chocolate, depression, chocolate, and then realization that it will suck but it will pass. It always can be worse.

A few good things have come out of it though. I can't run away from my muse and apparently she has me in a headlock. Too many ideas can be as bad as no ideas though and so my laptop and sketchbook and ipad are littered with half thought through literal and digital notes to myself of ideas that will probably never be seen. I have read a few books since being couch bound, which has it's pros and it's cons.... I have caught myself staying up till the wee hours of the night with my nose glued to a virtual book and have suffered from the few hours of sleep I have gotten.

The bad part I guess is the mash of ideas and images and notes I have....that I have yet to arrange into anything coherent. The lack of completion gnaws at me. Eventually it becomes a sort of guilt, for doing everything only half way through....

So I thought that maybe for a few posts I can reveal my piles of notes in a random way....maybe it will strike some and maybe it won't. I do apologize to my high school speech and debate teacher Mr. Bartley, who has hammered into me the importance of organizing ones thoughts so they are coherent and rational..... I would also like to apologize to him because he has become THAT voice in my head.

This pile I call...'Being civilized'....

In a documentary I saw recently there was a section where an Inupiaq Elder sat talking to the camera guy, around him sat his family, he paused during his recounting of the history of the area and smiled as he tried to find the words that would describe the meeting of the western world and of his ancestors. After a few seconds of silence and contemplation....he replied... "I guess that's when we became 'civilized'"....and he smiled a tight little smile.

My husband traps in the winter. Many people believe trapping to be a cruel practice. But most people I think believe that because in their minds animals are very dumb. Very predictable. Very driven by things they cannot control. Like auto-minals, programmed by nature, unable to fight against our vast human intelligence. But I would argue that in order to trap an animal, you must love that animal. Love it Beyond. You must see their intelligence, intelligence granted by natural selection and thousands of years of survival. I see it in the way these animals become such a big part of my husbands world. I see it it the time and thought and respect and awe I see on his face. Last night he sat at the dinner table and told me about the wolverine. About how many babies the mother has, and how long they stay with their mother and what they meant and how it affects their borrowing practice. He told me about how they protect their food source. About how fierce of a creature they are, fighting grizzly bears and polar bears and fending of packs of wolves. He talked about the diamond pattern on their backs....and I wondered if any person who wore leather ever talked with such love about about where that leather came from...or even if anyone knew about what a cotton plants life consisted of....and even now I have the urge to google everything about cotton plants.....

An older friend mentioned to me once about how her and her gang of happy brown faced children went and visited a small village somewhere far west and south of us. They were visiting another family. They had harvested a caribou and had prepared a large pot of caribou soup. The two families sat around the table, watching their children laugh and play. When the food was done a woman from the other family went to the freezer and pulled out boxes of pizza pockets and hot pockets and started heating them in the microwave. She turned to my friend and assured them that they had enough for her extra kids, which my friend then replied, "my children will want caribou soup!" The woman was visibly stunned and told her that no young person ate caribou no more, that it was only for the older group as the young people did not like it. The visiting children gathered around the caribou stew pot and dug in with hunger, completely ignoring the pizza pockets. She was surprised to see an elderly woman at the table crying......

I got into a debate once with a loved one (who lives in a native village) about the practice of subsistence hunting. He believed that in this modern day and age there was no need to hunt anymore. That we were now 'civilized' and can get passed all that. I was mostly fascinated by his use of 'civilized.' I argued that being civilized had to do more with how we treated each other has human beings, than to the distance we are putting ourselves from nature. He argued that separating ourselves from nature was a sign of higher civilization, of evidence of evolving. I still am trying my darnedest to understand where this idea came from.....

What's-her-name Palin .....she said on drilling in ANWR: If a caribou needs to be sacrificed for the sake of energy independence...I say 'Mr. Caribou , maybe you need to take one for the team.'

I always find it puzzling when people talk to me about saving the wolves of Alaska. For one thing their population is stable and even overcrowding in some areas which is causing problems for those unfortunate to live nearby. They tell me it's because they are 'beautiful' and relate to me how they feel when they see an animal as powerful as these wolves are. But when I think of wolves I think of them in a completely different way. When I saw a tall lanky black wolf off my front porch, eyeing my dog in heat, iI saw how unafraid he was. I felt his intelligence. When we were out in the wild on a cold winters night, our snowmachines cooling. And the sound of wolves howling surrounded us, and fear burst bright in my chest, I did not think they needed protecting. Even the best hunters fled when a pack decided to surround them. I guess in a way I see them as equals, as part of the cycle, as a fellow predator. And that in itself is pretty different. I guess I don't see myself as dominant of them..... and to me the problem is a human one......

Random thoughts.

But they will probably change tomorrow....and the next day......who knows....

Savoonga...

This time of year we Alaskans are the most vulnerable. The cold has no mercy or thought, and any small thing that can go wrong can have long lasting effects. As some of you have heard the village of Savoonga lost power, long enough to do massive damage and to leave many families in need.

I received a note in Facebook with a call to help those in Savoonga and I just want to pass this along.

ERA aviation will ship any goods that you want to send for FREE, they can be found in pretty much any and all villages and in the cities. All you have to do it drop your gifts off, packaged securely, Labeled to the People of Savoonga, to the cargo department and let them know where it's going.

They are requesting mostly non-perishable food items. Some ideas are: boxed milk, canned milk, cereals, pilot bread crackers, canned pasta, canned meats, instant rice, cup o' noodles, instant oatmeal, granola bars, canned fruits, tea, coffee, sugar, koolaid juice mix, cookies...etc. Anything would help I am sure of it.

If you live in Anchorage you can contact Yaari Kingeekuk by emailing: Yaari30@yahoo.com who is making some arrangements.

update:

You can drop off stuff at the Alaska Native Heritage enter in Anchorage.

You can also send donations to

City of Savoonga

PO Box 40

Savoonga, Alaska, 99769