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!

If Only My Eyes Were Tiny Cameras...

Huge store!

Seal meat, moose fetus, Yup'ik name, basketball games, and a trip to another village by snow machine, what more could you ask for when living in an Eskimo village in Alask? What a week we've had!

Yum! Fresh produce :)

On Monday afternoon, right after school, a few of the other teachers and I got all bundled up, hopped on the snow machines and drove about thirty minutes away to visit the AC store in a neighboring village. Their store is bigger than ours and has more fresh produce and frozen foods than our store does, so it felt like we were in a huge store, like a Sams or Costco, but really it would have been viewed as a small store by any outsider. It took us around thirty minutes to get there and forty to get back, but it was only eight or nine miles away. There was a bit of overflow, which is melted ice, that we had to be careful to go around, but really it wasn't too bad of a trip. I wanted to take more pictures, but it's hard to do that while riding on the back of a snow machine that is only meant for one person.

At the store after a nice long ride

Cutting into the brain

Wednesday one of my aides went around finding out what all of my students' Yup'ik names are. She wrote them all down, then made them look very pretty and laminated it. It looked very pretty. She was almost done when she came back in and asked if I had been given a Yup'ik name yet. I said I hadn't and so she named me. She asked if I was the oldest, and when I replied yes, she named me Alqaq, which means big sister. It was exciting. I feel a little bit more like a member of the village.

moose fetus before surgery

A student's mother had caught a moose and when they were cutting her up, they discovered she was pregnant with twins. They decided to bring one in for the school to dissect. The science teacher allowed my class to come join. Not many students have ever seen a dissection here before, so they really enjoyed that. They were all impressed by how small the fetus was, because of how big moose are and they were also impressed with how similar a moose is to us when it comes to the intestines.

Spirit Line

Our crowded parking lot

That was on Friday. Friday also brought a basketball game to our gym. It was a lot of fun. The gym was packed! Many people showed up from the neighboring village to watch the game. In fact, two young men from another village came up and recognized me from our teacher dance. Seeing and meeting people from so many different places was a lot of fun.

Yummy seal meat!
Tastes like beef, smells like fish

Bright moon one day

I doubt next week will be as interesting as this week, but I do hope you enjoyed reading about the wonders of our village this week. The pictures are just a hint at how much fun it was to experience. I wish my eyes had tiny cameras in them so that I could have even more amazing pictures to show you. Keep yourself entertained until next week.

The Wonderful Life of a Teacher in the Village

I think that is a great title for a book about my experiences here. Well, not much to tell about this week, it wasn't very eventful.

I wanted a picture of the snow so clean and soft...
of course, it would have been helpful if the sun was up

We had parent teacher conferences for the second time in my career. I had seventy percent of my parents show up, which means Woo Hoo! I had two great experiences with that this time:

1)One of the parents of my student is a really sweet lady. She is very kind hearted and everyone loves her. She spent an hour in my room telling me stories about her family and life, it was great! She also invited me to come to a sauna with her some time. She told me the Yup'ik word for it, but I don't remember how to say it. She also invited me to her house sometime to make authentic Yup'ik earrings and pins and things. I'm excited to take her up on the offer, but she is in Anchorage for the next few weeks.

A protective barrier during breakfast
 making on Saturday morning

2)Another parent I interacted with was such a great parent! He wanted to know everything about how his child was behaving as well as performing in my class and what he could do to help the student do the best that he could. I loved getting to talk to him because this is a student who really struggles with math and is smart, but just needs a little extra time on his work. The parent was understanding and so involved in his child's life. I loved seeing a parent that devoted to their child.

Our amazingly delicious beef stew

This weekend we had a grand ole time making beef stew pretty much from scratch. It was delicious! The other teachers and I ate dinner, watched a bit of television and just talked. It was so very nice and fun. I love my village. I love my life. Hope you enjoyed reading, and sorry it wasn't very interesting this week!

Snow Play in the Sun

Christmas break is over, it's time to hit the ground running and get things done! That's what it felt like when we got back from break, anyway. All of the teachers came into the village on the 31st of December to enjoy the New Year beginning in our quaint little village. There were fireworks on the river, which were beautiful to watch, but by this time we were all so exhausted from all of our traveling that we went straight to bed afterwards! 

School started up again on the third of the year which means we were able to see all of our students' bright shining faces again. Most of them had a great break. Unfortunately for them, the quarter wasn't over yet, so we picked up on work right away, trying to get as much done before the quarter was over. 

It was also the warmest week in a long time. We got more snow, although it was more like rain than snow. However, it was very fun to play in. We took the snow machines out and slid behind it in tote boxes. It was a lot of fun, but it was a lot of work too. You had to hold on really tight, and it my back is still a little bit sore from it. We had a great time playing all evening.

Another fun thing that we did was lessons on how to drive snow machines. They are super easy to drive and a lot of fun as well. I didn't drive for very long, or go very fast, but I can tel why people like them so much. Another teacher was also learning to drive her brand new snow machine. Her machine is a two up, so it was a little different than the one I was driving, but ultimately the same idea. We both had a good time.

A few days later we went outside and built a snowman, a couch, and the bottom part of an igloo. It was so much fun! The part of the igloo that we did build is very solid and keeps the inside quite warm. The couch was for the babies, but I took advantage of the nice comfortable seat in the snow. We also buried one of the other teacher's in the snow. The babies sure had a lot of fun with that one! They threw the snow right in his face! They had a very good time playing in the snow. We taught one of them how to have a snowball fight. Oh, he sure loved that new game!

Merry Christmas from Alaska

These are the time out rooms

Hello all! This will be my last post of the year, seeing as how a week from today I will be heading to the lower 48 to visit my lovely family for the holiday season. There isn't a whole lot to blog about this week. I think everyone is getting very anxious for break time. We did, however get to go and have another tour of the new school. It was a lot of fun and they have done a lot of progress since Labor Day, which is the last time we went to check it out. There were a few new things that we noticed now that they are actually getting walls up.

Time Out Rooms: There will be two very small rooms with windows into the principal and assistant principal's offices that will be very helpful. A lot of the time kids may need to just get away and out of the room for a while and these are perfect little rooms for that.

Library and Computer Room: From the looks of things, the library will be nice and big! It will give us  a lot of room to move around and fit classes into.

A view from the top looking down at the gym

Teacher Break Room: Since our current facility is so close to teacher housing, having a break room wasn't necessary. But now the school is a lot farther away, which means we can't just walk home for lunch. Because of this, we will have a break room. I think this will be very interesting and I'm excited to get to use it.

Gym: Above the gym will be a little open area where people can stand and watch games and things. After seeing the NYO events here last week, this seems like a really smart idea because more people will be able to watch our events.

One thing that happened this week was that the heat went out in our classroom. Fortunately, it was found before everything frozen and it was just for my classroom since it's out in a portable building. My  kids and I had class in the library in the morning and then worked with the other classes during the afternoon. By 3:30 the room was all heated up again and the next morning the smell was gone too, so it only lasted one day like that, thankfully. Our maintenance guys did an awesome job of getting out there quickly and fixing the problem for us. I appreciated it a lot.

Well, that's it for this semester. Next time I write it will be a New Year. Hopefully next year will be just as amazing as this year has been. Have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Here is the library and computer rooms

P.S. If anyone would like to see more pictures of the new school, feel free to check out some of the other teachers' blogs: http://sammyjotakesalaska.blogspot.com

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