Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

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Archive 2008 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #1 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Wonderful words and great thoughts..

Well first let me provide a clearer picture of exactly where we are, from a "different" point of view. Then I will tell you how the "light" works up here.

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I actually had one woman call me a "liar" on one thread. She said: .. "now I know your lying, you said ..." it was Feb. and it was light and then it got dark in the same day .." and we all know that it is six months light and six months darkness."

That is not how it works.!

and since Point Hope is hundreds of miles south of Barrow, it is diffeernt down there than it is up here. I will relate the facts as I know them and have experienced them for 30 years.. I "think" I know what I am talking about here, so lets leave it at that .

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Barrow (only) The sun goes below the horizon on Nov.17th, it will not rise above the horizon until Jan 23rd. That means no direct"sun" light for those 3 1/2 months, but we do get "light" every day, during that "dark" period, it is not direct sunlight ( the sun is still below the horizon) it is "dusk" but it is light. The absolute worst date of the year for the least amount of light is of course Dec. 21st. That is the shortest day of the year. The least amount of light.

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It is 11:30 a.m. in the morning, just before noon. This is what it looks like, in 1/2 hour it will be light - dusk but light for about 2 1/2 hours or less. then it is dark for the rest of the day. Each day, we begin to gain, slowly at first but each day, gets more dusk for a longer length of time, at first we only gain a few minutes more each day, then, as much as 20 miuntes more each day. (March - May)

Once that sun comes above the horizon on Jan23rd, it is only above the horizon for 1 1/2 hours then down it goes, dusk arrives quickly, then darkness, again.

That is how it works in Barrow,
lIn Point Hope the sun always comes above the horizon, just a litle, and goes down quickly.
and in each village, the days begin to become longer, the minutes that are gained each day, after a week, two and more, the hours start to add up. by Feb, we are on your type normal day / light / night but still gaiing quickly now 20 minutes more each day.

In Point Hope, We see the midnight sun in Mid may but the longest day is June 21st, it doesn't get dark at all until the end of August 3 1/2 months of 24/ 7 sunlight = solar powered people, that can go on and on and on, as long as your constantly expposed to sunlight, your all charged up.

You can see the sun & the moon all day long ,each in opposite ends of the sky revolving around, all day long together.

But we never ever have 24 / 7 of darkness, there is allways "dusk" light each and every day no matter how short lived it is. ( 1 1/2 hours).

We have the most spectaular summers you could ever imagine, cookouts @ 4 am chldren playing out all night long in the village, such a secure enviorment for children to play, play and excercise their imagination(s).

I hope that answers your question well enough to understand. how light works up here.

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In March it is not getting dark until 10 p.m. and we are gaining lots, each day, it is noticable. When we move out on the ice in April, it does get dark late at night. it is light early, as in 4 - 5 am. but the sound of the ice, cracking, advancing, is loud and at times disturbing, when you can hear large huge sheets of ice come crashing down on each other, on the other side of the lead opening !!

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I would love to find a way to market this web site and all of the photograps, a computer monitor does not do justice to how they actually look printed up in high rez prints, they are truely quite different.

We had an enormous response from tourists from over 33 countries, and the response from the locals was even more overwhelming. Time and time again, tourists would come into our litle shop on 4th ave in Anchorage, during 2003.

We have been all over this town, to the museum to the Native heritage center, and we learned more and saw ;more in this tiny shop than in all of the places we visited in all of anchorage and beyond.

You can come up here, Kotzebue to Barrow and tens of thousands do this each year. Everyone is equipped with a camera, but you will never see or capture images such as have been seen here...

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Edited on Feb 16, 2008 at 09:25 AM

Feb 16, 2008 at 09:17 AM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #2 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Thanks for all the info and photos illustrating how the light works up there. It was helpful to see the maps, too. I really like the photo of the boats on the racks. Absolutely beautiful. It's amazing that 500 miles makes that much difference, but I guess that would be more and more true the further north you go. For several years I guided ocean kayak trips off the shores of Kauai, Hawaii, and an EMT on one of my trips told me she had moved from southern CA to Alaska. I asked her what kinds of things she treated in AK compared to CA, expecting her to tell me about frostbite and such. She replied, "Suicides." She said they average a call a day during the dark months. I think she was in Anchorage. Anyway, she said it's important to have plenty of full spectrum light in your work place and home to combat that. A different EMT on another trip told me that, in the winter, you can get enough sunlight for your daily dose of vitamin D in 10 minutes in the sun in Hawaii whereas the equivalent amount takes 4 hours in Minnesotta.

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Do you know about the press printed coffetable photo books that you can design and order online? They range between $30 and $40 or so, and you can get them from a lot of different places. I would think you could find out who prints and binds them for those places and you could get them at a much lower cost, especially if you were ordering many copies of the same one. And I've read that a lot of publishers just print on demand as orders come in instead of printing thousands of books and having to store them.

Also, you could get a good quality inkjet printer and archival inks and make your own. I have a friend who makes her own photo books. There's a company that sells the binding equipment for about $300 and the book covers and she prints her own pages with an inkjet printer on whatever paper she likes and she binds them.

For that matter, it wouldn't have to be a traditional kind of book, either. It could be a collection. There are all kinds of options for how to do that.

Edited on Feb 16, 2008 at 07:08 PM

Feb 16, 2008 at 07:04 PM

ontime
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p.4 #3 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

If you presented this story somehow in a book or something, I'd certainly buy it. I am loving this; this is what I want to do with photography + my anthropology pursuits.

Feb 16, 2008 at 07:50 PM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #4 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Those are wondeful ideas and suggestions:

I have been awake all night thinking of how to accomplish this membership and subscription type service, but I am full of new ideas, thank you so much.
I see a forum such as this where people can interact with whaling captains, and children and even teachers that are imported into this village to "teach"? these children.

I have no idea which talent pool they reach into to find some of the qualified people that are sent to this village in responsible positions.

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The head counselor for the students, when I met with her suggesting a program of arts & crafts and photography, she replied no! I am going to teach these children how to make "buttons" !. ??

Believe it or not, the photography teachers they send up here, keep saying the same thing, No, that darkroom cannot be used to process color. Hmmm. I was very successfull in the same area with my equipment 25 years ago, but the childish mindset of people in responsible positions, have no vision, no preception of how much damage they are causing the children of these villages.

I lost 3 hours work, on this post, eariler, oh well, no problem, I can reconstruct most of it but not with the flow it had before.

The time today, at 9 a.m. the streets are bright, there is plenty of light even though the street lights are still on, by 10 am the sun was above the horizon, The sun went down below the horizon @ 4:30 and it was dark at ten past five. p.m.
We are gaining 6 miuntes more each day I believe. I will watch more closely, but this is all charted out, someplace on the net.

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I have had some elders from Point Hope visiting here in Barrow for meetings, They are spending most of their off time @ our house here. this is indeed a true pleasure. Everyone knows of the winner for the very first Iditarod in 1973, But no one remembers what happened to Ron Oviok, from Pt. Hope he placed 14th, he had to walk most of the way, his dogs became sick, and they ran out of food, The packages of seal meat and maktak and caribou is all that these dogs had ever eaten. But none of this was arriving in time at the check points, He stayed two days at one checkpoint hoping for food to arrive. All he could find or obtain was a big bag of friskees, he sat down with his dogs and ate the friskees with them, they followed his lead .

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He finally entered Nome, during a white out at 1:30 a.m. No one was at the finish line, he went straight to the bar-room, some women from point hope recognised him and he felt right at home, among close friends. His 21 day journey was over.

I asked him, how do you ever find your way in the blinding white out, he said, you don't yell at the dogs; or the dogs will take you back home.

Suicides ? Oh yes (sob) Notice when I mentioned about Rozella's children I past right by Ricky ? He was a genius in understanding complicated circuitry and the ability to draw them from memory, He could not read or write, even though he had graduated from High School, I know of a lot of people in this village that have graduated from High School and cannot read or write.

In the village it is so tiny and eveyrthing everyone does is known by all, There is no way to escape the pressure, and some resort to the untinkable. Ricky could not handle what he saw, his wife in the arms of another man.

Each village has two PSO's Public Saftey Officers. over the years , more of these officers (imported) have ended up in jail for trying to bribe young girls in the village

Too many of these children spend too much time, in jail. Bored out of there wits, there is little that is or can be done, BUT things need to change, it is has been my dream for 25 years to use the proceeds from these images to help these people. and I have done so many times, in ways they are not even aware of.

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Here are some of my very last images, before leaving Pt. Hope on August 7th.

taken @ midnight !!

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These children live on these 4 wheel hondas
as much as possible, they learn how to drive them at
a very young age. And as you have seen in many of these images,
An entire family of 5 or 6 is loaded onto just one of these vehicles.

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YOu can see the fresh strips of Salmon drying, lots of houses have this hanging up all over the village, fresh fish is plentiful up here and with many different varieties most of which I have never heard of. But salmon is plentiful

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Death is a recognizable site in any village
and it is all too common and frequent for my state of mind.
It disturbs me greatly to see people die at such a very young age.
Especially since I have come to know them so well.

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But there are some good stories also, but always bizarre and preposterous, and even documented by: the Discovery Channel, yes indeed, true story, 1993, before everything was computer data base MYSQL driven or stored.

This was reported and they had to come up here and find out the true facts, when all was established then they filmed the entire sequence of events with Morris in the water of the pool in the school but it was extremly believeable the manner in which they reconstructed the entire events of that day.

This story I saw on TV in Anchorage and I was spellbound, shocked and amazed at the same time. Inupiaq people can survuve tragic deadly incidents with some astounding results that defy logic, defy science and all medical knowledge known to man at this present date and time.

This is a 2 hour movie I am going to type in just a few short paragraphs. Sayers & Morris have copies of this movie, I have tried in vain to obtain a copy by calling the discovery channel and other associated branches of that unit.

The story begins with Morris Sage and Sayers Tuzroyluk returning to the village from hundreds of miles away, hunting caribou, no luck, coming home, almost home 7 miles to go across the lagoon and they both went through the ice and plunged into the ocean, Sayers was able to jump off his machine to safer ice and land. Morris went down with his machine but managed to climb off and grab his 10 foot sled which was vertical just barely sticking above the survace of the water. Clinging on to that sled he was barely able to keep his head above the water. Sayers tried to jump in and swim over but that was not possible as the weight of all your clothing brings you down very quickly. Sayers barely managed to get himself out of that icey water for the second time and decided the only way to get help here is to walk back to the village. He knows Morris is in very serious trouble but what can he do, just standing there.? He has nothing that can be used and the only recourse is to abandon Morris and head back to the village for help and hope that someone is headed this way.

Morris is going to die and he knows it, He is in an impossible situation. He thinks of his daughter, coming home from school and finding out that her father died and the shock and devastation that would ensue, He just could not let that happen, NO ! He was determined, I must see my daughter, I cannot die, I must see my daughter , this must not happen, then he remembered what his grandfather had taught him when he was a very young boy, how to use his mind to control the water and defy death.
And Morris said, to himself and to his mind.. Oh this feels so good and warm this water is just so warm and it feels so good, He went into some sort of trance believing this was true and this was what his body was actually feeling,

Meanwhile Sayers is slowly trying to walk the seven miles back to the village but he is in very serious condition, as his clothes are all frozen with ice, His legs are hurting he can't walk and he falls down and wants to go to sleep, He just cannot get back up. He knows if he falls asleep that Morris will die, he has to get back to the village and with great effort he was able to rise and continue walking slowly toward the village which can be seen on the horizon a geat distance away.

Sayers fell again, and again, several times, and each time, it was more difficult to get up and the time that passed was longer and longer. He had to do something, he had to keep going but the pain in his legs was too much for him to continue.
As a last resort with no other options available he turned around and started to walk backwards, a much slower pace but far less painful.

At some point in time, Sayes cannot remember how long it had been or how far he had walked, someone, noticed something that was not normal and rushed out there to see why this was happening, it didn't make sense. Sayers was quickly brought back to the village and many people with the proper equipment sped out to Morris' location. Morris is unconscious, but still holding on.

They had a very difficult time in prying Morri's frozen hand off that the top of the back of the sled that was sticking up out of the water about 18". It took quite some time to pry his fingers and loosen his grip and get him out of that water.

Morris was submerged in icy cold water for 4 hours !
It was 20 below outside

He was rushed back to the village into the clinic and medivaced by plane down to the hospital in Kotzebue.

When ever anyone has to be medivac to Kotzebue, first they have to send the plane up here, that takes at least 40 minutes. Morris has now had all clothing removed and is now wrapped in many layers of warm blankets.

When he arrived at the hospital in Kotzebue, the doctors were stunned, amazined and bewildered, Morris' core temp was 58 degrees. He recovered fully
with no side effects what so ever !

Want proof ? Morris Sage - General Delivery - Point Hope Alaska 99766

Sayes Tuzroyluk > same info !

Inupiaq Eskimo's think different, they do things different and still today, science has no answers for these peoples unique abilities that defy anything we know of.

-=[WoWoW]=-

Edited by Majik_Imaje on Feb 17, 2008 at 11:54 AM GMT

Edited on Feb 17, 2008 at 08:54 PM

Feb 17, 2008 at 10:19 AM

ontime
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p.4 #5 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Core temperature of 58 degrees? Holy...

Feb 17, 2008 at 04:47 PM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #6 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

David, Your idea about a forum sounds really interesting. I imagine it could become a networking place for a lot of the people who live there as well as us southern "tribes". Maybe Fred Miranda and some other people who operate forums could give you an idea of what's involved and how to set it up.

As far as the self publishing, if that got to be too time consuming, I imagine some of your family and friends who do the craft work for part of their income would be glad to be involved. That way, you could keep creating those wonderful photos and writing about life there. You seem to be doing a pretty good job of networking on the internet, so I imagine you'd do ok with marketing.

Am I right in my impression that you already sell a lot of prints and have a lot of "fans" and friendlies who follow what you're doing? Do you have a pretty big list of email addresses of people who are interested in your work and buy your photos? Once you figure out what you want to do and how you want to do it, you could send out a proposal for what you're wanting to do with the website/blog/e-newsletter and ask them if they'd be interested in subscribing or making contributions, and do they have friends who'd be interested, would they tell their friends about it?

Edited on Feb 17, 2008 at 07:13 PM

Feb 17, 2008 at 07:04 PM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #7 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

I like that sunset/sunrise photo and the ones of the children. The little girl with the Columbia jacket is sweet. What are the temperatures when these kids are out playing in sandals and t-shirts? How warm does it get in the summer? The graveyard with the whale bones - the culture you live in is truly unique.

Thanks for the stories. I remember hearing about the guy whose core body temperature was so low. The article said there have been instances where that actually has saved people's lives where they would have died if they hadn't gotten that cold really fast.

I'm sorry to hear about the failings and inadaquacies of the counselor and teachers and the people who aren't making good use of the grant money to help the children. It seems to me that, anywhere, there are usually just a few outstanding teachers and community leaders who really make a difference, but they make a difference to a lot of people.

Feb 17, 2008 at 07:33 PM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #8 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Now in the summer time, it gets way to hot as in 50 degees.

That is beyond what I am capable of enduring, I can't breathe when it gets that hot, it is just too darn uncomfortable. 80 degees in Kotzeube, we spent two summers there and I will never live in Kotzebue again during the summer time, no wind and it is just too unbearable. I like the wind, and very cool temperatures.

But these childlren will play out when it is zero with shortcuts and sandals and t-shirts. Some of these images are very misleading, when it looks warm out.

Barrow is much cooler in the summer time, and that is another one of the reasons we moved up here, To avoid the heat now that is present during the summer time.
I remember July 4tth 1862 very clearly, I had to wear gloves and hat all day. It was very cold that year. But now.?. it is getting far too hot during the summer months.

I truely hope this is just some cycle we are going through up here now, I want cold / windy days, I dread the arrival of July this year, I sure hope it is cooler!

As long as the wind is blowing, there are no problems no matter what the temp, but if that wind stops, then the heat becomes truely unbearable.

tourists in Anchorage are constantly complaining @ 60 degees, it is way too hot for them. It has to do with the sun being at a differernt angle for us up here than what you experience in the lower 48 states. Our 60 degrees is like your 85.

I am headed to the old town site with Rozella, and we come upon this SnowOwl, that accidently stepped into a trap that was set for a fox.

She grabbed a huge near by log and with a big swing and thump. She had to thump that owl 3 times before it gave up, she smiled and said to me . "come on over for supper tonight, Upik Eskimo chicken ! She sees the look on my face and begins to laugh that loud hearty laugh she is so famous for.

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One of the most impressive events I have ever witnessed is Search & Rescue.

I haven't a clue how these hunters successfuly resuce people in the middle of a white out, hundreds of miles from the village, in weather where you cannot see six inches in front of you.

When a hunter goes out of the village to hunt for food, He always tells someone such as his wife or mother, where he is going and when he expects to return.

It does not matter what the weather is like, it does not matter what time of the day or night it is, Nothing matters, except finding the missing person,

I just happen to have a photo of what it looks like @ 3 am pitch black out, wind is screaming @ 80 mph and it is 70 below zero, That is more than 100 below zero with wind chill factors:

There is so much blowing snow, white out conditions exist, and it is impossible to see your hand when it is right in front of you, How do these people cross hundreds of miles of open country to find this individual is something I just can't comprehend.
There is no pay for search & rescue, just volunteers, that are devoted, & extremly skilled. They stay out there, until they come back with that person!!

We are talking about an area, the size of New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and more.. ALL EMPTY. no landmarks, here is the photograph.

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Please.. .. .. .. find my husband !!!

Feb 17, 2008 at 10:18 PM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #9 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

! Great photo! Not to make light of the situation for search and rescue.

Hard to believe that 50 degrees can feel unbearably hot. I guess I'll have to experience it to know.

Feb 18, 2008 at 03:05 AM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #10 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

I have spent 100's of hours, talking with these volunteers, I know them all by name, I see them every day, I have been in all of their homes and they have all been in the many different homes I have lived in, in this village which I call home.

I have been out in whiteouts many times, just trying to attempt something simple like going to a house across the street two houses down, That wind, whipping you around while your trying to walk a simple straight line, is impossible, I often get lost and spun around out there, many times.

How, can you possibly drive hundreds of miles, looking, at what ? that is my first question ? what do you look for, when you can't possibly see anything, (they always laugh), But seriously, how, ?? We have "tricks", is often the answer no matter who I ask. The answers seem more bizarre than the actual task at hand. We find tracks out there, under the new snow, we have to dig for them, and look for tracks hidden under the snow. OK, right ! in an area the size of ?? many square miles !!

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There are only 3 reasons a hunter is not home on time:

His machine is broken down, he is hurt, he is lost.

When that wind is whipping, it is vicous out there with nothing that can be seen, even when you can see, it is just nothing but "white" moving along the ground,

When your lost; one captain told me, just look at the ground ! um ? I can't see my feet, now how do I decipher this simple sentence, I have no idea. He laughs at my stupidity and I wonder at what that meant.. look at the ground.
The strong wind, blowing snow, cuts or carves "ruts" in the hard packed snow all pointing south as the wind is always from the north, Good, that still means notiing to me. It is easy to miss that small piece of village from 50 miles away, to me everything blows into the ocean. that part you can't miss.

I was headed home one day from high in the mountains far up on the Kupak river.

Even though it is well over 100 miles from the village, there are camps up here, small houses, that were transported up here, nail by nail, piece by piece, in small boats. These camps provide shelter for any hunter way out here, as they go hundreds of miles further inland in all directons. More small camps are further out,
these are serious hard core hunters, this is their life.

Coming home on a snowmachine, one of my eyes started to "tear" up and I could not stop it and it froze, I am in trouble, Ice started to build up and up quickly until the eye was iced over and shut and I could not see. I am headed south towards the village and the wind is at my back, full throttle is the only way to travel on this glass smooth ice on the north side of the village. I have one eye left and I am 20 miles from home, I know it is only a matter of time, I haave to get home as fast as possible. I am close to the village when the other eyes starts to tear up, no matter how i wipe it.. I keeps on "tearing" and getting wet. I barely made it home, I was practiclly blind when I came down that final street in the village to get in out of the extremly cold weather, When I came into the kitchen stumbline looking for a chair to sit down on, Irma Oktollik shoulted out.SIT ON YOUR HANDS NOW. sit down, sit on your hands and do not move. She said if you touch that ice. your gonna pull your eye right out. just sit on your hands.
This was easy for me to understand & obey. That was the end of my deep arctic explorations out there @ 50 below or colder.

At least, out on the ocean ice, there was always a big chunk of ice to hide behind when it was time to go. Oh no. !
Absolutly nothing to take photos of out here,in the winter time just white, frozen marshmellow type rolling hills, some high some small some flat areas, Hundreds of miles in every directions equals tens of thousands of square miles. And these people find someone by digging under the snow looking for tracks ?

That statement will never make sense to me.

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In July of 1990 I took my four sons out of the village to raise them in Anchorage for a good while.
Many times, many of the teachers would come to me and ask me in great concern, How come when we ask your children questions they will not answer us.

This is presenting a problem. I asked the teacher, Are the questions your asking them, are they yes or no type questions ? she thought about it and said , why yes! how come.? I smiled very big and said. they did answer you, you just didn't look and see and understand their answer. They meant no disrespect but up in the village, it doesn't matter which village, The answer is always communicated with out saying anything.

It took me a very long time to understand this and how some things are communicated without saying anything, I would always look at the person, to whom the question was directed at, to see if I could figure out how this is communicted, I could never see or understand how this was done. It drove me nuts, how did she know if he wanted coffee or not ? That person never moved, never looked over at the person, but the answer yes or no was always understood and I could not see or understand how this was accomplished.

Either could the teachers in the civilized world here in Anchorage. I had to tell my sons and teach them the old ways.. ha ha.. open your mouth and speak it !!

In any village, to say yes to a question, just open your eyes just a bit larger.
to say no, just wrinkle your nose.

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Feb 18, 2008 at 05:36 AM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #11 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

An Ulu (oo-loo) is just the most wonderfully designed knife I have ever used.

It is a feminine knife, it is used by women exclusively.

The design is most unique that no other knife in the world has this design.

they are very safe to use and it is virtually impossible to cut yourself using one.

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These knives are usually home made, using the metal from an old skill saw blade.
they are quite sharp and can effectively cut, slice, butcher any size meat or food.
I was often puzzled when entering homes in the village, for in every kitchen is a good size rock on the kitchen counter. It is usually placed in a strategic placement as when the woman of the house is working, she will flip her arm out in a huge arc and bounce that ulu off the rock she uses to sharpen her ulu knife.

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In addition to using a huge flat rock to keep the ulu knife sharp, another familiar item in your kitchen that is used to sharpen an ulu knife, is the bottom of a porclean coffee cup. that flat edge is all they need to put a keen sharp edge on this workhorse tool !

They are made in all sizes from huge ones to cut up a caribou or seal or walrus, to very tiny ones that get lost in the palm of the hand being used for sewing.

Now for all you women that work hard in your kitchen, I ask you this. How difficult do you think it is, for these women to cook for 15 people 3-5 times each day for two months. How do you think you can do under these conditions @ 30 - 50 below zero, for two months ??

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I think I am going food shopping today, I am going to take it a bit easy and just sit here and wait, for a polar bear to come by so I can show him whose boss around here out on the ice.

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with my luck he will come up from behind me, well this joke is over, time to get down to see what is going on in other places.

One of the most important items in each and every tent area, is a must to have, these cooks can not funtions with out this one important item.

See if you can figure out what this important item is .. .. ..

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Every tent has at least one, but these are not allowed down near the edge of the ice. For obvious reasons.

Edited by Majik_Imaje on Feb 18, 2008 at 11:38 AM GMT

Edited on Feb 18, 2008 at 08:38 PM

Feb 18, 2008 at 04:17 PM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #12 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

The hunters who are two months out on the ice - do they go two months without bathing? Among other things, like the cold, you said water is scarce. Also, what is your water supply in the village? Abundant or ?

Feb 18, 2008 at 08:17 PM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #13 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Water is everywhere out on the ocean ice pack, but it is frozen.

For washing / cleaning we melt snow. For drinking and cooking we have to get the salt out of the ice, and that is easily accomplished. We have no shortage of water camped out on the ice pack. 700+ people need a lot of water each and every day.
There is no problem in obtaining the water we need.

In the village, any village they all have water purification plants. there is no shortage of water in the village, but it is very expensive, we have to pay for it.

In Barrow each household is allowed 2000 gallons of water per month at a very low rate, if you exceed this amount then it is 14 cents per gallon.

Heat is free in Barrow, electricity is very inexpensive, water is expensive and it is more than my electric bill each and every month.

In Kotzebue we had to pay 800 a month just for electricity. Water was free.

Point Hope, electriciy is very high and so is the price of water.

I have lived in a lot of these villages, Kotzebue, Kivalina, Pt. Hope Pt. Lay, Wainwright & Barrow.

I move around too much, I have lived in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Delta Junction, Healy, Valdez, Glennallen, Juneau, Coldfoot, Prudhoe Bay & Deadhorse.

Jouneyman Electrician is what has taken me to all these places throughout the great state of Alaska !

I am finished with moving around, we are building a house here in Barrow and hopefully a 20 room hotel also.

The money that this hotel generates will all be given away, to the childrens fund(s) in each and every village of the North Slope Borough, Someone has to something for these children, The filthy rich corporations that give out millions each year in dividends will not do anything for these children. We will - "because we care" !

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Edited on Feb 18, 2008 at 09:50 PM

Feb 18, 2008 at 09:41 PM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #14 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Most people will understand what I am saying or understand what I am talking about when I admit my failures and type the phrase "my X" but I have bet you have never heard this phrase, ( I have to reveal my failures, for you to understand this next story). The phrase: ; My X-Y-Z, yes I am a 3 time failure. Ashamed to admit this. but this next story is so bizarre, so wierd, I must tell the truth.

1970 I got married for the very first time. I had a daughter whom I miss so much.
This marriage lasted just under 10 years.

during our second year of marriage I was constantly, expressing how much I wanted a son.

Nothing but negative insults poured forth out of her mouth. I was depressed and saddend very much. I wanted a son.

In my darkroom, my place of solitude, I took some gold leaf foil, and wrote his name on the wall of my darkroom Isaiah that was 1973.

It looked wonderful and the mere sight of that made me very happy and smiling

I wanted to add more, because it looked so nice on that white wall.. so I added my daughers name below his.

Isaiah
..............Eves
Vanessa

It looked so wonderful. that is the end of the story about X

now we advance to Y... 1982, I married an Inupiaq Eskimo, she gave me four incredbily beautiful Inupiaq sons, end of Y.

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Isaiah Eves was born in 1983.. Ten years after I placed his name with my daughters name on my darkroom wall.

2003.. Pt. Hope Alaska, the end of this story ... My son Isaiah gets married to this girl..! actually she is all grown up when they get married 30 years later after I wrote his name on that wall. 30 years !!!

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That girls name .................is Vanessa !!!

Little did I know, when I wrote his name; and my daughters name; on that wall, that I was actually writing the name of his future wife, Exactly 30 years later. There is only one Vanessa in all of the villages of the entire north slope !!!

My, my, my,. Someone? sure has one marvelous sense of humor !!!

and.. this isn't over yet.. there is something else most unusual about my 4 sons.

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The dates of their births.. Wife Y (Clara Oktollik) everyone in her family is born on the 14th of the month.

Except Clara & her father are both born on the first. October.

We were in Boston when Isaiah was about to be born, The doctors were all excited and amazed,when they learned they had an Inupiaq Eskimo as a patient in St. Margrets Hospital in Dorchester Ma.

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The doctor told me, she said.. ' the baby will be born on Nov22, that is her due date", I laughed and shook my head no, very hard, the doctors anger was very apparent as she sarcastically said.. Oh, is there something you know, that WE don't?? I chuckled and said yes, he will be born on the 14th, I had some inside information that I wan't sharing with anyone (no pun intended).

The doctors exclaimed and shouted when Isaiah was born, and they saw the "mongolian spot" Every Inupuiaq has this spot on the buttocks. Big dark blue
denim blue it is dark and it covers most of the buttocks.There it is .. they shouted.. Over time, it fades.. but it is very dark blue and large motteld colored skin.

Isaiah was born on the 14th of the month!! November, to be exact!

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Mark was three days late, He was named by his Great Grandmother, He was born on "her" birthday (my side) She is the one who gave him a middle name that made their "logo" work.

Jesse was three days early, The "smurf". He is without a doubt the best of the four, making Ivory bracelets, His bracelets sell for $600.00

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Khristopher was born.. .. on the.. .. 14th !! The youngest, the one who catches the most "flak" from his brothers. He can make 5 inlaid bracelets in just one day. It takes Jesse 3 days to make one bracelet.

These boys own Kotzebue, Pt. Hope & for the last 8 months Barrow. These boys are well known all through the Arctic. for that is all they do, day after day for the last 4 years.

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Shop #1 2004 - Kotzebue Ak

A very small Qanichaq (cunny chuck)- Arctic entry way. barely six feet wide. this is where they sat(on a couch) and learned how to make bracelets, their first ones sold for $20 bux. they looked like "rocks" that Wilma Flinstone would wear. They were purchased by the local gun / pawn shop in Kotz. We want to purchase them back next time we are down that way.

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They sold over 1,000 bracelets in Kotzebue.
shop #2 - 762 Tasiq St. Pt. Hope

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I am about to do something so preposterous, that no one has ever done, My intentions are to embarrass these corporatons that "waste" billions on greed and graft. Shell Oil, just announced that they will give $250,000 for the villages, as a grant, (they are trying the same thing John Denver did). Here... .. 30,000 for each of the 8 villages, furp.. they are taking a very tiny speck and pretening to enlarge it to some massive huge "gift". "CHUMP CHANGE.!

Meanwhile 60 miles out on the ocean off the coast of Point Hope is a huge tanker, "thumping" the ocean floor for oil.. We have not had walrus in two years because of this. Surprisingly the whole herd moved and settled off the coast of Russia on the opposite side of the ocean.
Shop # 3 Barrow - Jimmy Sieliks house.

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My plan is simple and very do-able. I am going to use 3 high school drop outs, that I have trained, to open this hotel, and generate the necessary funds to keep all of these 8 YOU-niversities open 24 / 7

Shop #4 Ahmauks house $1000 a month for this one room.
$800 per month for a one bedroom apt. We stayed four months.

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Log Cabins are very cheap money, and we intend to purchase one with the proceeds of our bracelets, this summer as the tourists arrive.

You can be part of this, and have a room at the hotel anytime your in Barrow!
details are being worked out.. stay tuned ..
Final current work-shop

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Photo excursions, safari's to the TOP OF THE WORLD.. - The Arctic !

hmmm. ?? you all have me thinking very seriously..

Hey .. ! whass dat ??

This little guy sure made me laugh oh so hard.
It is pretty darn cold out, you can tell by the way he is dressed.
hands are kept tucked up inside the sleeve to warm up quickly.

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My only concern is the children, That is why I had to take my sons out of the village for 14 years, I had to put my character in them and to do so, I purposely stayed out of work and we sufferened greatly,(homess 7 times ) but I didn't want no baby sitter or day care teaching my sons........"different stuff".

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Edited by Majik_Imaje on Feb 18, 2008 at 09:26 PM GMT

Edited by Majik_Imaje on Feb 18, 2008 at 09:34 PM GMT

Edited on Feb 19, 2008 at 06:34 AM

Feb 19, 2008 at 05:15 AM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #15 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

5 images in your last post don't show up. Just a box with a red X.

I knew rent was high in the cities in AK, but I didn't think it would be high in the villages.

You sound like quite a strong willed individualist.

Did you create the cartoon?

Edited on Feb 19, 2008 at 05:44 AM

Feb 19, 2008 at 05:40 AM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #16 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

The cartoon was created in a 3d program called 3d studio max, yes I created those images and each of those characters are all rigged with bones and controllers.

Well $1000 for one room a month sounds expensive, and it is, but it only cost us one bracelet per week, We make 5 a day, 7 days a week. so it was chump change. Rent is not high up here. We just had to offer incentives to get what we needed to generate funds.

but to get into a house when none are available. some have to resort to creative financing. 5K a month for the first two months.
We lived with a 71 year old alcoholic, who had been in this "state" since he was 14. It was a very rough two months, but we made it through that and finally got into a quieter place but still too expensive. Now we have a 12 room house for 1000 per month.

Next step is to get our Log Cabin kit modules up here on the barge and erect and construct our Hotel @ the Top of the World.

The village life is very close and everyone gets along extremly well. but there are two other things up here, that bring some people closer together, in a special sort of way and that is Your Uma & Your Attik

Anyone having the same name is you do, is your Uttik,your namesake but usually addressed as "Ut" ! But (drop the B). Hello Ut !

Your Uma is a bit more difficult to explain, your uma is your sweetheart, even though you are married, there is no physical contact this is just a "special" person. I have many uma's and one is a man. (His momma named him before he was born and kept the same Eskimo name for him.) Some of my uma's are children, and it is a joy to hear them say with excitement.. Hi Umah ! (OO mah)

Hello uma is a common sound in the village. in the store, or in the post office. a way to address some one in a more special way, because your mate has the same name as someone else in the village. so in essence your other half's Attik is your uma.

Lets go back to the ocean ice.

Lots more to show & tell.

This must be boring one might ask. after all, just sitting, waiting and watching must get old, after ten minutes when it is freezing out standing there in that wind. It is the culture / lifestyle to provide food for your family and for others also.

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Food for your family, that is what this is all about, and if your neighbor has need of food, hunters go out and hunt for families that have no hunter,

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The first time a hunter is successfull in obtaining any animal, that is given over to an elder. These elders possess a certain uncanny sense of being able to see into the future, as they utter things to their family during the later years of their life. Things that always turn out to be true.

Kaukauk is a very experienced hunter, His grandmother once told him, you will never catch a wolverine, not until after I have passed on, Year after year, he hunted, and although he was successful in catching every animal out there, he could never see or catch or shoot a wolverine. then his Akka died.
A week later he got 3 in one week which was a village record.

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This is the manner in which we obtain most of our food. How does it get retrieved far out in the ocean? the typical manner is to use a niksit. Every hunter has one, they are home made,

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It takes great skill and much practice to learn how to throw this accurately 20 - 30 yards or more to snag a seal, or ugruk.

All this is exciting but not much to what you are used to, especially when you want to have "eggs". Well to do that, we have to travel 40 miles and scale sheer cilffs 600 feet tall, with birds attacking us, dropping rocks,

10's of thousands of birds migrate to Cape Thompson each and every year for many thousands of years.

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Want to take a trip up those cliffs ? It is still very cold out.

Edited on Feb 19, 2008 at 08:49 AM

Feb 19, 2008 at 08:13 AM

Darell Harmon
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p.4 #17 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Fantastic! Each and every pic!

Feb 19, 2008 at 02:10 PM

Thats Fresh
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p.4 #18 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

GREAT. thanks for sharing (=

Feb 19, 2008 at 06:43 PM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #19 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Welcome back and lets take a journey and visit Cape Thompson, this is the place the Government was going to detonate a nuclear device without ever telling or informing the people of Point Hope. Nah !! .. its only 400 people.. !! THEY ARE NOT IMPORTANT... Isn't it splendid how people make decisions,

Without knowing what they are even doing, no research, just nuke the whole region.

John Denver went to great lengths to "help these people". When the whaling captains would not let him bring a tv crew down to the ocean ice. John had every imaginable drug and alcohol imported into the village. The whaling captains were all drunk and they wanted more. Mr. Denver said let me go down to the ice and I will bring you more, they agreed.

Mr. Denver on Television tried to gain the audiences sympathy in announcing that his tires on his private plane had been smashed and all of the windows broken.

He left out the part, that the teenagers did this, because of what he did to their parents !!

Back to Cape Thompson, there are 3 ways or methods to get their, actually four.

you can use a boat to access this area,

you can drive a honda / snowmachine

you can walk......... 40 miles ! No body is in a rush to do anything up here and I like that. I have had enough of the rat race..

Oh, I almost forgot, you can take a taxi !

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Sorry I just couldn't resist an excuse to use this image !!

There are no taxi's in Point Hope but many people have tried and tried to get this service started or established, there is just not enough traffic to warrant this luxury. The villlage is only 1/2 x 3/4 of a mile square. children love to ride in vehicles and gaze out the window as though they are in some strange land that they recognize.

Gazing out any window in the village of Point Hope, looking south, this is the view, of Cape Thompson. 40 miles in the distance.

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Cape Thompson is a very erie looking place, If you look at a globe or a map you can easily see where the opposite side of Russia neatly fits into this area perfectly as a puzzle piece.

When ever you leave the village and go out into the vast wilderness, there is a tremendous feeling of freedom, that cannot be put into words, however when you re-enter the village after being out in this "free" zone. You can literally feel the "net" drop upon you as you enter the village again as familiar burdens that were briefly forgotten, are drapped all over you once again.

So, lets get ready to climb straight up, 600 feet, a sixty story building made out of rock & birds will attack.
You need an Eskimo parky for this journey, Zippers are not good out here. the wind will go through that zipper and will constantly keep you very cold. You need a pull over parky, a hunting parky.

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We are headed straight up, if you get dizzy or scared, pick an egg and suck on the contents, this will help you from getting dizzy while we climb.

Not everyone in the village comes out here and makes this dangerous climb.
The amount of eggs taken is very minimal, tens of thousands of birds are here, and less than 100 eggs are taken each year, We only have one time per year, to harvest eggs.

Your X-tra large eggs appear as a jelly bean next to these huge eggs that are cyan/ light blue in color (turquoise). They are the size of a large pear !

They are delicately carried inside the parky when we descend, and with a bit of luck they will be safely carried back to the village.

In many houses you can see these eggs, hanging on the upper wall, as decorations, being strung together using a piece of dental floss. The contents are taken out of a small pin hole at each end. The inside of these eggs are the exact same as your eggs and tastes just like yours, Exception: only one of these eggs is needed to make a giant omlet.

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This is a very erie place, There is something about this place that just looks evil, The scars & marks on the rocks.
These birds don't seem to mind at all, They are quite comfortable here, year after year.

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This is a scary place and the noise of the birds, well, you know what I mean, this place is perfect for an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

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Edited on Feb 19, 2008 at 11:18 PM

Feb 19, 2008 at 11:02 PM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #20 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

What kind of birds are they?

Feb 20, 2008 at 06:21 AM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #21 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

The birds are called : "plentiful" I jokes,

that is how it is said, when someone tries to make a "joke". They say "I jokes", as soon as the punchline is out with no hesitation.

I will have the name of these penguin type birds, soon, All know about these birds is that they fly and try and drop rocks and make "deposits" as they are flying by.

I have some images coming up of them on the ice and they almost look like little penguins, standing there. Well let me dig a few out and post them here.

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There are so many thousands of different bird types up here, well I guess you wuold have to google or wiki for that exact info: Birds of the Arctic.

ha ha ha.. I did manage to go hunting for ptarmagin, once. I was lucky to survive that event. I tried so hard to have that photograph created, but Joe Oktollik would not press the shutter, he did not want to touch it. too confusing he said. no I don't want it.. as I am sitting in a huge wet puddle of water, with a shotgun across my chest, just like in the cartoons, with the barrel of the shotgun peeled back like a bananna.

I was on Joes sled, and that is a bad place to be, in the Arctic, because all of the stuff the snowmachine kicks up, end up right on you. even though you are 10 or 12 feet away.Even if that snowmachine has flapps, and most do, Too much of that ice and snow is blown back at you, Joe tried to keep me on the sled, he took turns wide and graceful, but I kept falling off. Usually he would notice, and look back and double back and pick me up again, This is called hunting for birds. food, I call it falling off a sled,while trying to hold that rifle and prevent anything from entering the barrel such as snow or ice. Hey I ain't so dum sometimes.!!
but this last time. I went flying off that sled into a huge puddle of ice / water and mud, I looked well, plain wet and awful, I noticed that Joe was unaware of me "lightening the load" on the sled. He kept on going, Luckily I raised the rifle far above my head, closed my eyes, ducked and pulled the trigger, Man that was loud! Joe heard that, and he is heading my way. I am sitting for the classic pose.
He was pissed alright, Not that I had ruined his shotgun, but that I got 5 of them and he only got 2.
I sure wish I had that photograph.!!

Feb 20, 2008 at 07:22 AM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #22 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Cool photo of the birds.

Feb 20, 2008 at 07:47 AM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #23 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

.literally !

Feb 20, 2008 at 08:29 AM

Majik_Imaje
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p.4 #24 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

I can't make out, what that bird is trying to say, but I know that bird wants us out of here.
This "condo" seems just right for these birds

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Some very precarous views up here, This climb is not for people, afraid of heights.
I have never heard of anyone being hurt, trying to clmb up here, and get some of these wonderful huge eggs.

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Oh oh, here they come, put up your hood, splat delivery crew is airborne.
I gotta put the camera away for a few minutes, until we get past the bomb squad.!!.

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The beauty of the Arctic is all around us. Up here this is the only world that does exist. Far far away.. .. from the madening crowd.

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Looks like we will up here, all night. No problem. We have everything we need. to stay and have fun. alone!

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The Arctic is harsh, unforgiving, and the length of the brutal winters is 9 months long. When the snow is gone, the ice is melted, the beauty of the Arctic is revealed.

All types of flowers & berries grow on this fragile tundra, Cranberries are plentiful in the Arctic and the cost is $200. for a 5 gallon bucket.

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Well , I don't think, I have anything particularly important to do, this month. Lets just stay up here, for a while, we have food... .. and plenty of time.. just to enjoy!

(chuckle) the nearest people, are 40 miles away.!!

Gosh is just so beautiful up here, so quiet. peaceful, In fact, looking back towards the village, it is out of sight.
The point is barely visible, way far away.

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I often think of the old Eskimo's how they loved this land, to settle here, for over 3,000 years, this one spot. For thousands of years, and hundreds of years in modern times.. .. no one knew, these people had been here, livinig their life the way they want to live, in such a beautiful setting.. HIGH in the Arctic.. ESKIMO!

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Edited on Feb 20, 2008 at 10:36 PM

Feb 20, 2008 at 08:20 PM

Brian Lingle
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p.4 #25 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero!

Beautiful, fun, fascinating and with great descriptions! So, why don't you just take these photos and stories and descriptions along with the ones on your website and start putting together some fabulous photo books? What's stopping you? Or is that something I and some other people came up with and not necessarily something you ever wanted to do in the first place?

Feb 21, 2008 at 02:38 AM


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