After months and months of cold, dark, inhospitable weather; spring is celebrated in royal fashion. This year Spring Carnival hosted by the village happened concurrently with Culture Camp hosted by the School District. About twenty students from a variety of surrounding villages came for the week long event. Days were packed with a many activities to learn about local cultural practices. Each afternoon carnival activities occurred in the village. Then nights were filled with BINGO and dancing. It was nonstop fun all week.
One of my favorite local traditions is the caribou head skinning competition. Each participant gets a knife and caribou head. The first person to skin the head in preparation for cooking over a fire wins.
At Culture Camp we were lucky to have Elders visiting from Fort Yukon, Beaver, Fairbanks, Venetie, and of course Arctic Village. The students were constantly surrounded with elders to teach traditional knowledge, crafts, and skills. Sewing was a big event. Students could make beaded key chains, slippers, or hair pieces. They also worked on moose skin boots or beaver hats to use in the cold months.
Mary enjoys working with patterns and helping students make boots. That seemed to be here specialty, among many other things.
Lillian is our Gwich’in language teacher, and master beader. She created many of the templates used for sewing beaded flowers.
In class students learned about many aspects of old Athabascan ways of living. Gideon taught students about using snowshoes, long before snow machines were around. He also brought several maps to show the boundaries of the tribal land Venetie and Arctic Village own.
The key event each day was learning about caribou. It seems no matter how far we progress into the future, subsisting will still be a part of life in Arctic Village.
Gideon removes the back strap, or as I like to call it, the filet mignon of the caribou.
So many beads, so many colors.
Students spent a morning learning how to make caribou meat. Many of the students have seen family members preparing meat this way, but not many have had the opportunity to do it themselves. The key ingredient is thinly slicing the meat. It can be marinated for flavor, or just used as is. The meat is typically hung over a drying rack for 2-3 days depending on the warmth of dryness of the space. In summer months it is often smoked in shelters with a nearby fire in hunting camps. I was given a package of my own raw meat to try this technique. I will be posting a another story specifically about the process as it was my first time experimenting.
Charlie taught all the caribou butchering classes. He has become upset lately seeing subsistance hunters using less and less of the animal. A quick walk into the countryside and you will find multiple gut piles laying alongside the trail. In most places they are piled alongside the caribou hides, also rarely ever used. So the theme for Charlie’s class was the purpose for everything. He demonstrated a variety of uses for the caribou guts. The final day we had a garbage bag full of legs. Guess what caribou legs are used for? The hide is thickest around the caribous ankles, so the skin is striped and used to make boots. Learning about caribou is a hands on experience. Students always got messy.
Paul Williams Jr., a Gwich’in Language Teacher from Beaver
The final day also meant wrapping up sewing projects. Nearly all the elders got involved helping students put the finishing touches on boots, hats, and various sewing projects.
Despite a week of celebration and gathering, there’s always time for one last dance. The community hall was a rockin’ place nearly every night. Park your snow machine where ever you can find a spot, grab your dancing slippers, and come in.
The gorgeous Brooks Range, still glowing around 10:30pm.
The Arctic Village Band with Wilbert Kendi plays blues, ballads, and jigs into the wee hours of the night. As long as people keep dancing, they keep playing!
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