Culture

Ptarmigan Telegraph	Picking Blueberries in August	Muskoxen

Communication
Radio: In addition to the modern methods of communication, Ptarmigan Telegraph (pronounced 'tarmigan') is a way for people to send messages to others over the radio. People call the radio station to make an announcement. When you hear, "It's time for Ptarmigan Telegraph," you know the announcer will read things like, "Don't travel over the ice in this area. The ice is rotten," and "So and so, please call home," and "Congratulations to ....for...."

Eskimo stories told over the radio communicate cultural values. Bring a radio, cassette recorder and tapes to record the stories. The radio also broadcasts cultural events, like the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, a well-known speaker's visit, the Iditarod Sled Dog Race and banquet.

The language you'll hear most is English. The Eskimo languages in the area are Inupiat, Yupik, and Siberian Yupik. It's usually the older folks that know their native languages. Most of the younger folk don't know it. Other than these three languages and English, there are a few other languages from a few other small cultural groups and individuals. You'll also hear other languages from international tourists.

Food
Food Sources: In addition to some smaller stores, there are a few main competing grocery/department stores, and about a half a dozen restaurants in Nome. Oftentimes, the store is the only place to go (out of the house) at the moment, so some people plan to have enough food and goods on hand in case of an emergency, but not too much that they don't have an excuse to go to the store. Many people also get together with others to bulk mail order food and goods from a business in Anchorage.

In the summer, many of the Natives from Nome and surrounding villages "go to camp." This means they set up camp or go to their cabin way out yonder near other cabins to live while they catch and preserve food. Fishing and hunting and gathering wild vegetation and domestic reindeer are many options.

Berries: In August, the wild vegetation we gathered near town were blueberries and blackberries. The blackberries up there, while black, aren't really blackberries. They're actually mossberries or crowberries. They're small and smooth. Since the blueberries there are really rich, if you want to bake a pie it's best to combine half blueberries with half "blackberries." These "blackberries" don't have a lot of flavor, but they have more flesh than the blueberries, so they complement each other well. There are also salmon berries (that look like salmon-colored raspberries) and cranberries.

Tasting whale and Eskimo Ice Cream: In my son's preschool class, he got to taste whale and eskimo ice cream. The piece of whale that was served looked like a very thin domino, with no dots and solid black on the left side, solid white on the right. It was really chewy and didn't have much of a taste. Later I learned that the Narwhal whale skin is high in Vitamin C. The preschool didn't have seal oil for the eskimo ice cream, so they used shortening with their homemade blueberry ice cream. Improvising is not shameful.

Song and Dance
Drumming and dancing go together. Many of the Eskimo dances that I saw were done sitting down or standing up. A drum is round, wide, shallow and held in one hand. Movement is in a small area - like a stage. Many of the local Eskimos knew that when a particular drummer was on stage, that drummer, when the performance was over, would make a funny face just to make them laugh.

Clothing
A Parky (not parka), is a homemade winter Eskimo coat you sew yourself. A parka is a coat you can buy in a store. For a mother of very young children, a parky is made with an extra wide back panel to make room for carrying her baby between her back and the coat. A strong, long scarf that she doesn't mind getting stretched or a belt, (wide, fat person's belt is best), is centered outside the parky and below baby's bottom and tied or fastened above the chest. (That's one way of carrying baby). I tried both belt and scarf and preferred the scarf as it was more versatile, and I didn't have to worry about it breaking due to extreme cold or touching the metal while readjusting where the metal part of the belt goes into which belt hole, or the belt putting a crease in the baby's leg if carried too long or if the baby got too big and heavy. A popular fabric pattern for a parky is a solid background with lots of tiny flowers close together. Metal zippers for up the front of the coat are recommended as the extreme cold can wreck the plastic zippers.

Muskox hair is gathered from the snow drift fences and bushes and whatever else a muskox might rub up against. Then it's hand-spun for clothing.

The Human Spirit
After I gave birth to my daughter, I was talking to my hospital roommate who was from one of the villages in the region. It turned out that on the same weekend we both had the same experience of thinking that this particular weekend would be a good time for our babies tso be born, and that weekend both our labors started.

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