Potlatch-The Traditions of a Historic Culture

Well, this weekend was, for lack of a better word, UNBELIEVABLE!!! I learned so much about the culture of these people that I have been living with this year. I learned about how they make different parts for their ritual Potlatch as well as a lot about the Potlatch itself. It was a very big learning experience for my roommate, who was allowed to participate in her first dance this year and had a lot of things to do to prepare for this event. 

Many of these fan-like things were hanging from the ceiling

Let me back up a minute. Potlatch is the biggest event of the year in the Yup'ik villages. It is where mostly children have their very first dance. I've mentioned Eskimo dancing in other blogs, but this one is the one where you become a part of the community; sort of like a rite of passage into becoming an adult. The typical age to have your first dance is around the age of 10. Of our staff of sixteen teachers, only three had participated before this year, and one of those is a native man, so he did it as a child. This year, another teacher joined this rare group. She has told me a lot about it and how mentally and physically exhausting it is not only from learning the moves for your specific dance, but also for all the preparation one has to do to be ready for this dance.

Boots made mostly of seal skin

Each dance represents something. The words and movements go together to tell a story. Unfortunately, many of the young people don't understand the words and many of the stories that the dances are telling have been forgotten. My coworker and I tried to figure out what the dances meant as we watched, but it was quite confusing to us. 

Fans, made of caribou fur and owl underarm patches. 

The Potlatch goes on for three nights. The first night is the longest. Everyone does their first dance as well as many dances added in for the community who has already danced. The second night is a little bit shorter because it is just the first dancers dancing. One of my students informed me that first dancers from other villages would come dance at our Potlatch on the second night. The third night is where anyone can dance. The new dancers are allowed to dance to any song they want, as opposed to the specific ones they danced the nights before.

Headdress, made from wolf fur and wedding dress embroidery

Night one started out with a speech from one of the elders. It was all in Yup'ik, so I was't exactly sure what he was saying, but I'm pretty sure it was something about the traditions and customs that go along with Potlatch. Then we had a prayer by the Priest from the Catholic Church. Then the dancing began. People wore their headdresses, Qaspaks, belts, boots, and had fans in their hands. Qaspaks are fancy shirts, the boots are traditional style, mostly made from seal skin, but occasionally cow. The belts are not like our belts in that they don't fasten in the front. I've been told that any time other than Potlatch you wear a belt to show that you have had a family member pass away recently. The headdresses are my favorite because of how unique and beautiful they are. The picture of one I have here belongs to one of my students. 

Handing out gifts to the people, better gifts go to elders 

Before a person is allowed to do their first dance on the first night, they must hand out gifts. These gifts include candy, soda, akutaq (Eskimo ice cream) dishes, paper towels, and things for elders like shovels, seal skins, and buckets. They have their family members and friends that have already danced help them pass out all of these things. The first night is the biggest amount of these items, so it takes the longest. Then they begin the dance by singing through it once without doing the movements. Once they have gone through the song one full time, they dance. The dances are beautiful and rhythmic. I think my favorite thing is how after you go through your dance one full time by yourself everyone else who has already had their first dance is allowed to join you. A massive crowd envelopes the dancers, their family members standing closest to them and friends fanning out around them. It is wonderful.

My roommate's first dance. People joined
her after she did it once through by herself

Something else I found very interesting is how many times they repeat a dance. The elders sit in the front rows. They watch very closely. If someone messes up during the dance, it is believed that an elder who has passed on is "being mischief" with them. If this happens, the present day elders will have them do the dance again until the passed on elders stop toying with them and allow the dancers to do it perfectly. I thought this was a very interesting concept.

This was called a stand up dance. No one used fans,
 instead they all had gloves on
 and the boys were standing as well instead of kneeling on padded floors.

On the second night, things were a little different. The dancers began by handing out all of the things they brought first at the same time. This made the night flow a little more smoothly because we weren't stopping every so often to get more things. They also had two dances called Stand Up Dances. In a normal dance, there is a pad on the floor in front of the women dancers that the men dancers will kneel on to dance from. The drummers are behind the female dancers. However, in the Stand Up Dances, there was no pad on the floor and the men dancers stood among the women dancers. Also, instead of folding around the padded floor, they had about four rows. No one had on their headdresses or had out their fans. They had on gloves, instead. It was so very interesting to watch. After they did two Stand Up Dances, the first dancers began to do their dances again. Everything else was pretty much the same as the night before. 

I loved Potlatch. It was a lot of fun and a very interesting experience. I look forward to watching it some more next year. I hope you understand a little more about the culture and these people. They have a very beautiful history. Their way of life that they have had for the past four thousand years is truly incredible.

The Beauty of Snow Drifts

I don't have an awful lot to post about this week, even though it was a holiday. But the three main things I would like to tell you about are Valentine's Day, power and water outages, and snow drifts.

Gifts from all my family members

Valentine's Day has always been my least favorite holiday. I don't think it makes sense to devote one day to love. If you truly love someone it should be every day. This hallmark holiday is just something I see as a day to force couples to be romantic and make single people feel sorry for themselves. My students saw it as an opportunity for a party. My coworkers and I celebrated with dinner at the cafe. I also received gifts from  my parents and grandparents. I still don't love the holiday, but I truly love my students, my coworkers, and my parents.

Happy Valentine's Day- Heart made out of candy by one of the teachers.

Another thing we dealt with a lot this week were power outages and water outages. In fact, on Thursday we had to let the students out early because of not having water. It never fails that when I'm told the water or sewer is out in the village, I have to go to the bathroom immediately. Fortunately for me, so far, the water hasn't ever gone out for a very long time. But we did have our longest bout of power outages this weekend. The power was out for almost an hour on Saturday morning. My roommate had walked to pick up buckets for her potlatch dance from the store and had to wait around for nearly an hour before she was able to head back with her purchase. Hopefully, as spring comes along, we will have less and less of these outages.

Lovely drift outside of our assistant principal and counselor's house.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about how much I love the way the snow forms snow drifts out here. It makes me laugh to walk in the village and see one spot with tons of snow right next to a bare space. The houses are the worst. It piles up right next to them. Of course, we can have loads of fun with that. I haven't done much playing in the snow, but I feel as though snow drifts are the best to play in.

This week was semi eventful. I'm still really looking forward to next weekend when we will have our village potlatch. Pictures will be plentiful! May the Lord bless you and keep you over the next week!

Moose Catches, Cold Catches and A Couple Days of Snow

It's been a while since my last post so I figured I would update my readers on the last two weeks of my life here in the good ole frozen North. It certainly hasn't been anything too amazing for me, but my friends, the other teachers have had a few awesome events happen.

My beautiful snow angel that I made

"Mmm, this snow is so yummy!"

The first thing that happened with two of the other teachers was a week ago, on Super Bowl Sunday. You see, instead of sitting around watching people tackle each other over a pigskin like the rest of the world, two adventurous women set out on a journey to capture a mighty northern beast. Their adventure began with their native guides, one of which was a student from my class.  They set off along the path southeast of the village. While the world was waiting for power to return to the most important game of the year, shots rang out across the tundra. Two girls from the Lower 48 took aim and shot a moose each! Their very first catches ever meant a tremendous victory for each of these women. And while the exhilaration of their first kill pumped through their veins, they began the work of cutting up these magnificent animals. 

"Help me! I can't get out!!"

Your first kill in the village means donation time. After cleaning and cutting, the meat is distributed around town to those who need it; elders, families, what have you. The task at hand is not easy, but the girls managed to pass out all of their meat by eleven o'clock the following evening after having worked all day at school. It was a very exciting accomplishment for both ladies and I am proud of them.

My roommate getting her things together for her
first official dance in Potlatch this year.
She has her hat, belt, and boots here in this picture.

 Unfortunately I've been suffering from a head cold for the past few days so I wasn't able to embark on another adventure with some of my coworkers. However, they were able to go on a twenty mile drive down the river to cheer on our high school boys basketball team. Four teachers found themselves in another village, much smaller than ours. They had a wonderful time, and I was very jealous I missed out. On their way back, they almost missed the path, but thankfully made it home all in one piece before the storm blew in.

Practicing for Potlatch

We also had a visitor this week. It is always a good time when the tech guy comes, especially when we break out the dog toys. The video below is of our tug-of-war competition. The snow goggles are a safety precaution. Unfortunately I didn't get much of it because I'm still getting used to my camera, but it is a combination of tug-of-war and the Native Youth Olympic stick pull. I dare you to have as much fun as we did playing this crazy game!


 That's about it for this week's blog. I'm looking forward to two weeks from now when our village has Potlatch. I'm  sure it will be very exciting, I will have lots of pictures of that events and hopefully many more stories. My roommate will be dancing at Potlatch, which is an extreme honor. For my prayer warriors out there, please pray for me that I will get over this cold ASAP! Thanks, and God Bless!