Barrow Alaska - Top Of The World

[Majik_Imaje]

In Prudhoe bay . on some far out installations and Gas Compression plants, when you come out of a building. your in a cage, with 2 " thick steel bars. to protect you .. just in case.

In 1997 In Prudhoe bay. A polar bear wandered up to a huge break shack with a big window on it. all the construction workers could see it.. One worker was stupid enough to walk up to that window and hit it with a newspaper .to scare off the bear, That bear jumped through the glass.. One worker was injured.

These bears are nothing to play with. they are extremly danerous and very unpredictable.

that person in Anchorage that went to the zoo and jumped into the water to swim with the bear ? that is pure stupidity and he got what he deserved. You cannot play or tease these animals. you must show great respect and just stay away .

[mongazid]

I remember seeing that post Rance had about the bears hiding under the steps waiting for people to walk out. Seems like they can adapte pretty well to a new enviroment. I seen a picture of a polar bear around Noorvik that was walking threw some spruce trees. (Awesome Picture)
And I think they said Noorvik was 75 miles form the sea.

[mongazid]

Majik, your stories are great and I really enjoy reading them. The fact of me believing them all does'nt matter.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by mongazid

What time of year do the bears come into the village. Seems like it would be realy hard to spot a white bear in the snow when its dark 24/7 for the time during the winter when the sun never rises.

That depends on local conditions. Here in Barrow, because we are so far north, there can be bears around at almost any time of the year. Generally though, late fall through mid-winter are when they wander into town most often.

But conditions vary and at Hudson Bay (with lots of bears trapped on shore near Churchill) the bears wait for ice to form to get away from towns rather than approaching towns as forming ice gives them access.

The circumstance you mention relative to darkness and a white bear in the snow is precisely true! Moreover, polar bears do tend to stalk humans, and they use the same techniques that are successful in stalking seals. Hence it isn't likely that a person will directly see a polar bear in the center of their vision! Instead it is a quick movement at the edge of one's peripheral vision that gives away the bear's location. They don't move if you are looking at them... And they often set up an ambush in any place where they notice repeated traffic; hence, they hide next to doors or in parking areas.

Originally Posted by mongazid

Do barren ground grizzlies make it that far north.

We had one approach Barrow some time ago. Everywhere south of here sees them. Interestingly enough, in areas where grizzlies and polar bears mix, the much smaller tundra grizzley is the top dog. If six polar bears are munching on the remains of a bowhead whale on the beach and one little grizz comes along, the grizz gets close and lets out with a grunt or two and the polar bears all get well out of the way!

Polar bears are wanderers too. It is not uncommon for a single bear to meander several hundreds of miles across the Arctic Ocean icecap. They've been spotted more than 100 miles south of Prudhoe Bay along the Dalton Highway. But the most dramatic example happened just this winter when a polar bear was killed near Forth Yukon, south of the Brooks Range!

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by mongazid

Majik, your stories are great and I really enjoy reading them. The fact of me believing them all does'nt matter.

Keep in mind that most of what you can find on the Internet about Eskimo people and culture is not accurate. Western observers attempt to make judgments about what they see based on their own value system, and it simply does not provide appropriate results because what they have observed was done based on the Eskimo's value system. Typically there is a great deal of exaggeration of things that in fact have little relevance.

The worst example of that is well documented in history. For literally centuries not a single Western observer recorded any indication at all that Eskimo culture had some form of government. Indeed, the usual observations were something like, "These simple people are so primative that they need, and have, no form of governance at all." There is not, up to about 1970, one single record of a Western observer noticing Eskimo governance, but since perhaps 1980 it is very widely recognized that they had and to some degree still use, an extremely sophisticated and complex form of governance!

It only came to light because in both Canada and the US the government sent all the kids off to boarding schools. They grew up without traditional education, and when they became young adults the elders were faced with an entire generation that was not prepared to carry on! The only answer, as they could see it, was to have it taught in the Westernized schools, so they hired anthropologists, sat them down, and explained it for the first time ever, in detail.

Eskimo governance differs greatly from Western governance, most obviously in a way was recorded more than 100 years ago by a Moravian missionary on the Kuskokwim River. He wrote that a shaman in the village is Napaskiak spoke against adopting the White Man's ways, because he claimed "Everything they do and everything they have is accompanied with noise" and called us "The Children of Thunder". Eskimo governance produces no light, no heat, no noise, and does not require an standing army to enforce it either!

When you read grand stories on web forums written by random observers who are not careful about accuracy... what you "learn" is often just a fantasy. It's much like governance, and if it is accompanied by a lot of noise, great heat, or much light, it probably has little to do with anything other than Children of Thunder.

[Majik_Imaje]

Lets look at the area.. .. .. and the amount of people involved here.



As you can easily see.. .. this is a vast huge area !! Point Hope is perhaps at least 500 miles from Barrow. In this huge area. many states can be easily placed. all empty, except the coastal villages and 3 other inland villages.


What happens in Barrow is not the same, as in Point Hope. the language is different. the customs are different. Having married into an Inupiaq family In 1982 and have lived here for the majority of that time . .. I have some unique insights into the customs of these unique people. I speak from first hand experiences.

Pt. Hope has a population of some 800 Inupiaq (give or take)

Pt. Lay has about 250 (if that).

Wainwright has about 600.

and of course Barrow.. .. well over 4500 (approximately).

that's it.. for the coastal villages Pt Hope - Barrow 3 inland villages and Kaktovik to the far east of Barrow.

The ice road is created and maintained each year, I have photos of it all I will dig them out, created in 1991 in Barrow - Prudhoe !

As far as polar bears.. out on the ice. yes they can hide very easily. they are very unpredictable..
this animal is never to be underestimated.. ..

Women are not allowed on the ice during certain times of 'their month' go home.. you present too much of a danger out here.. this is well known.

When walking through the village at night.. the elders and others allways told me.. be carefull .. always keep your eyes moving looking at the different dogs in the village.. Keep your eyes on them.. they will alert you if a polar bear is near by. .. there is just so much we do not know about these magnificent beasts. Scientists have much to study and learn about their migration patterns.

I agree 100% with what Floyd states about most of what is writtn out there on the internet is full of errors and mistakes. Recently we got an e-mail from some people who were in Barrow last year, they went whaling. they posted a photo essay. the words they used give a different indication than what really happened. Another person from Holland posted his 9 day experience of this village. he posted 4,523 photos .

Perhaps the best way to find out more about Barrow is to read the book that Bill Hess published The Gift of the Whale. he has been here for more than 30 years also ..



yes !! Polar Bears, are always a major concern, your life depends on it !

[Majik_Imaje]

There is not, up to about 1970, one single record of a Western observer noticing Eskimo governance,

No comment !

[Floyd_Davidson]

There is not, up to about 1970, one single record of a Western observer noticing Eskimo governance,

Originally Posted by Majik_Imaje

No comment !

Unfortunately it was long gone by the time you got to Point Hope, though some very strong remanents of it still exist in many places. The village of Kipnuk, where my oldest son lives, is still very much functioning under the old system, though of course there have been many changes to adapt to modern times and to interface with Western culture and legal systems.

In Point Hope the formation of the North Slope Borough almost totally eliminated the last vestiges with the single exception of the way that whaling crews function and the influence that has on the community in a social sense (which is not small...).

Point Hope, however, was at one time perhaps one of the more interesting examples! The Tikeraqmuit (people of Point Hope) were always a very strong nation because the location where they live is so bountiful, which put all of their neighbors at a very significant disadvantage in trying to defend themselves! As a result, from oral histories it has been determined, virtually all of the nearby people who were distinct from the Tikeraquit had formed a confederation of nations to provide for self defense (basically telling the people of Point Hope that if they raided anyone that all of the others would combine strength and attack them together).

The existance of that confederation was not discovered by Western anthropoligists until modern times (Ernest Burch, Jr. did the research that turned it up). It had been totally destroyed by the devastation European whalers brought, mostly in the way of diseases, when they discovered Bowhead whales in the Arctic in the mid-1800's.

[Tikigaqmuit]

I find it very bizarre, than when one member asked you to post a pictrue of an umiaq being covered. your reply was you have not been able to capture one.

yet you say you have lived in barrow for 10 years

I am a person from Point Hope Tikeraqmuit is wrong

You are obviously copying information from books that other people have written and made mistakes in.

One book written by a woman states that Pt. Hope was moved 3 miles south that would put my village in the ocean.

the truth is it was moved 2.2 miles east.

I find it sad, that the one person postiing image of my home was banned and you continue to make so many mistakes Fuel in this town for the NSB trucks is 5.35 cents per gallon, the flawed logic is wrong stating that the barge journey to barrow would make point hope cheaper than barrow is absurd.

One person from New york came to barrow last year, he stayed 9 days he posted over 5,000 images

they can be seen at whalehunt.org

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by Tikigaqmuit

they can be seen at whalehunt.org

Your link doesn't work.