Parker Arctic Trip

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2009-07-11T11:23:00.003-04:00

So most of us, Matt, Janet and Judy are back in Massachusetts and it's so green! Molly and Amanda are spending a few more days exploring Denali National Park and other parts of southern Alaska and they have promised to return.
Yesterday when we left Barrow it was veiled in heavy mist so we only caught the briefest of glimpses of the town as we took off and then it all disappeared into the gray.
This has been an incredible trip. This blog only captures a tiny amount of what we saw and heard. Barrow and the North Slope Region is unlike anywhere I have been. It is a place of contrast and contradictions, of huge spaces, and tight communities, of subtleties in color and light, of friendliness and warmth,of ice and water, of great history and traditions, of modern technology. We have been drenched in it and its effects will keep us talking and thinking for months to come. All sorts of people have tolerated our questions and shared generously their experiences. We are so grateful to them all. Many thanks to Hal for making it all happen and to you our followers for giving us reason to blog.

Our last day in Barrow

2009-07-10T03:18:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday evening we had a wonderful evening at the home of the Glenn family. We heard lots of stories of life in Barrow and sampled mutuk (whale meat) both raw and pickled . Overall opinion pretty favorable although it doesn't have a strong flavor(except for the pickled version which tastes of pickle). The texture is a bit like eating octopus or squid -sort of chewy. The Glenns also took us out to visit their ice cellar and dressed us up in handmade parkas for fun and to brave the cold in the cellar.

The cellar was quite incredible- hand dug in their back yard, it goes down about 20 feet into the permafrost and at the bottom widens to about 10foot square.You climb down a ladder into colder and colder air.The walls are rock hard -of frozen gravel and mud- and of course stay frozen all year round so they can store the huge lumps of whale meat.The cellar is currently empty because Richard Glenn's crew didn't get a whale this spring.
Here are some of the Glenn family plus a frozen fish in the bottom of the ice cellar.

Today we had a tour of the Barrow Utility company and found out all about the water, sewage and electricity. The cool thing was another hole we got to climb down -this time into the Utillidor system which is the system of tunnels through the permafrost that carry the water and sewage pipes underneath the town.The tunnels are lined with wood from the trees that were downed by the Mt St.Helens volcano.

The tunnels have warm air pumped through them to keep them at about 40degrees so the pipes don't freeze and the water is a continuous circulation through the town also to prevent freezing. Barrow sits on a natural gas reservoir so heat and electricity is cheap but they still have power outages from downed lines and in the winter this can cause big problems if the power is out for long since the water pipes will freeze up since they can't be kept warm and the water moving. They have special heating trucks they use in the winter that blast hot air over the pipes they are servicing to prevent them from freezing. Water comes from one of the lagoons in town and is purified with state of the art equipment.Trash goes into a landfill which used to be just on the edge of town but now is further out.

It rained today and everywhere was mud.The roads are just gravel and are continually being smoothed out by graders.
On dry days water trucks come round spraying the surface to keep the dust down.
There are dumpsters all over the place that are painted bright colors. We learned from Joe who joined us for breakfast today and has lived in Barrow since he was a kid that his daughter had organized the program of dumpster murals painting to involve many of the Barrow kids.
Our final meal out was with Anne Jenson and Glenn Sheehan. We went to the Arctic Thai restaurant and had one of the best Thai meals I've tasted-all freshly cooked and served by just one man. Anne and Glenn entertained us with more tales of Barrow and the North slope region particularly about archaeology since they have been involved with most of the digs in the area including the Nuvuk dig we went to on Tuesday.

2009-07-08T21:28:00.006-04:00

Yesterday Molly and Judy went out to the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) with undergraduate science students. To get to the station, we walked about a mile over the tundra on boardwalks. We started the work at a little shack, well equipped with computers, heat and other tools. There are several different studies being conducted so the external devices collecting temperature, wind speed, water level carbon dioxide and methane gas data is collected by the computer throughout the year, and can be sent to any other computer. One of our worker bee hosts, Sarah, needs to make sure the permanent instruments were working properly each day
before she goes out to collect other data.
Out in the field, Molly got to wade into one of the 3 lakes where data is collected to help replace an instrument that measures radiation. Much of the work with instruments has to be done without gloves in the cold weather with wiping wind! When the instrument was put back together, we moved over to another lake for human collected data. We used a steel rod with centimeter marks to measure the water table depth and permafrost. For the permafrost, we just threw the rod into the ground as far as we could. Mostly, it only went about 18cm, or about 8 inches! It was fun to get to take part in the data collection. We also got to talk to another student, Janelle, who uses a pretty cool machine that latches onto the tundra and measures the amount of carbon dioxide.

more on our day as archeologists

2009-07-08T20:49:00.009-04:00

Here are a few more pictures to round out Amanda's commentary on our trip to the Nuvuk dig site.
Loading up the fourwheelers in the morning.

Janet and Amanda bundle up

Learning how to dig holes

Fragile existence-a small patch of plants manages to take hold in the gravel. From the archeologists view point this patch suggests organic remains may be underneath so it will become an important dig site by the end of the day.

The convoy sets off home at the end if the day.

Perry our bear guard. Most of us also got a wild ride around the point on the back of his four wheeler past the place where they bring all the whale bones ( often a favorite spot for the polar bears) as well as Perry's favorite spot to hunt seals and the place where the salmon pass close to the shore so can be caught with a net strung from the shore.

Point Barrow Dig!!

2009-07-08T14:15:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we had one of our more exciting days, as we got to join one of the archeological crews at Point Barrow, the very tip of Barrow between the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The dig began in 1998 when (around) 800 year old human remains were discovered. It was then realized that Point Barrow provided a burial site that contained remains that could be tested and traced to the local community. The two groups that were at the dig had two different agendas: 1) The archeologists are trying to recover and move the burial remains in town before erosions wipes them all out to sea, and 2) the geneticists want to gather samples from ribs that can allow them to test and trace DNA. (Did I say this yesterday? Is anyone actually reading this, or are you just looking at the pictures? Blink once if you are reading this ; ) )

Anyway- getting to the good stuff- we got to bundle up in ski equipment (long underwear, sweaters, fleeces, face masks, gloves, etc) and were also told to grab gigantic red jackets

because apparently the point would be 'colder than we could imagine'. (Having skied in northern VT, I find this hard to believe). However, wee got lucky and it wasn't that windy, which minimized the cold. (I still wore long underwear, a fleece shirt, a fleece a jacket, and the big red jacket as well as a face mask/ hat.) So we all piled on to 4 wheelers, accompanied by two Bear Guards to protect us from polar bears. After an awesome caravan ride out to the point, we began digging and labeling anything we found. Janet, Judy, Molly and I found a lot of 'faunal remains' (which means non-human remains) mostly seal and caribou bones. Nothing archeologically significant. But the archeologists uncovered a HUMAN SKULL of a 6-8 year old child underneath some sort of animal pelt. We weren't allowed to take

pictures of any of the human remains but we got to watch them carefully brush things off with little brushes, just like they would on crime tv like "Bones" or maybe Jurassic Park. AWESOME!

There was also a group of local high school students who work at the dig site during the summer months. We had lunch with them in the tent and chatted about what teenage life is like in Barrow, Alaska. Pretty similar to the lives of Massachusetts teens actually- similar music, (on their ipods they were listening to Disturbed and Fallout Boy) similar taste in reading, (one of the girls walked me through the whole plot of the 4th Twilight book, Breaking Dawn- they even nicknamed the child skeleton remains after a character from the book) and similar past times. (When asked what the biggest downside of living in Barrow was, one of them answered, 'there is no mall'.) However, they are lucky to have a whole world of experiences that the environment does not provide for the teens in Massachusetts. From a young age, most children have their own 4 wheelers that they will use to roam around town and over the beach and tundra landscape. Additionally, most kids get to hunt in some capacity. The kids we talked to had all taken part in a variety of hunts- duck hunts, caribou, seal, and of course the infamous whale. Only men and boys are allowed to participate in whale hunts however, and I also learned that a man can only be a whaling captain if he is married. Super interesting social systems, I could do a lot more research on the gender roles and social constructions of the Inupiat! Fascinating!
One highlight for me was my ride around the perimeter with one of the Bear Guards as he made his patrol. He pointed out an artic fox that had been hunted for it's tale (sad), a giant pile of whale bones that generally attracts the polar bears (cool!) a few seals bopping around in the water (cute!!!) and a marked grave site from about 200 years ago.

Finally, after about 8 hours at the site and bathroom breaks in a tent on a small bucket filled with Pine Sol, we headed back into town to pepare for our community talk at the library.

Most of our audience was from BASC but they had lots of great questions and gave us a lot of good ideas for how to help teenagers think about climate change. Over all, a busy and invigorating day!!!!

Another Day in Barrow

2009-07-07T00:12:00.008-04:00

Today, Day 3 in Barrow, we went to the Barrow Heritage Center where we saw a special exhibit about whaling. Something which stood out the most to me was that the Inupiat believe that the spirit of the whale chooses to give itself to the hunters based on how well the people will treat the whale, treat their space, homes, and each other. As stated to the left, "While men may hunt the physical whale, the spirit of the whale gives itself to the women. The women maintain the sanctity of the home, feed the needy, and care for others. The spirit of the whale tells other whales of the kind of treatment it received and convinces themselves to the men the following year." To the right you can see the Inupiat core values listed. As we have learned, each native Alaskan culture seems to have core values (similar to the 10 common principles) which they aim to follow. Respect and attention to nature is one that I have heard mentioned a few times up here by natives, particularly how it is their responsibility to notice climate change.

We also got to check out the science lab and talk to a few of the archeological anthropologists who we will be accompanying on a dig tomorrow. Their work is

to date and test the remains at a sinking burial

ground to trace DNA connections between local Inupiat and their ancestors. There is a lot more that they are doing but you will have to talk to the science teachers for further explanation on that! Or tune in tomorrow and we will fill you in on our participation in the dig!

Finally, we got to stand on some sea ice which made the whole trip look really authentic and made Molly really happy! (Below- obviously)

Here is a teaser for tomorrow: This is Molly trying on her full facial covering for the ride out to the windy dig site on 4-wheelers. Another important logistic for getting to the site is planning for enough Bear Guards so no one gets attacked by a polar bear. I think even polar bears would be afraid of this get-up.

4th of July in Barrow

2009-07-05T12:21:00.012-04:00

We all piled into dusty trucks (everything is covered with dust here) to take the 2 mile bumpy ride into town from the research station/college where we are staying to see some of the July 4th celebrations, starting with the parade.

This comprised an assortment of trucks, buses, ambulances, fire engine, snowmobiles, horns and sirens blaring, most decked out with balloons and decorations and all showering the bystanders with candy,(Amanda's idea of heaven). All the kids and many adults in the crowd had bags and were picking up whatever fell close to their feet and getting some pretty big bag fulls. The parade wove its way from the center of town out to the beach front where tents and awnings made an events arena. Lots of hot food available including caribou stew which was very welcome because the arctic wind was very biting. Events proceeded at a very leisurly pace with plenty of opportunity for chatting and hanging out.The umiat boat race was postponed for yet another day because the wind was too strong but we did get to see the beautiful baby contest. This was more a contest of which family could make the more stunning outfut for the baby and often the mother too. They were quite amazing, made from different furs and fabrics decorated with embrodery and clearly taking many, many hours to make.

These were heirloom works of art but many of the local people wear handmade parkas that are stunning too. The womens are big enough so they can fit a baby inside on their backs.

Whale bones and the wood frame of an Umiat(the seal skin whaling boat) in the foreground, the Artic Ocean and sea ice in the distance.

The Arctic Ocean,sea ice in the distance.

Barrow

2009-07-04T14:15:00.005-04:00

The flight up to Barrow was fascinating – and Hal said it was as clear as he has ever seen it in his 10-15 trips to and from Barrow. The pilot flew right next to Denali (Mt. McKinley) and circled it so we could see all sides of it – it felt like a cruise rather than a commercial plane flight! We could also see the dramatic changes in geography, from the abrupt rising of Denali and the other mountains in its range and the glaciers that filled many of the valleys (one of which is many miles long), to the heavily forested and green areas around Fairbanks, to the completely flat and water-pocked north slope on the north side of the Brooks mountain range. We had a short stop in Fairbanks, dropping of some people adding a few more, and then landed in Barrow around 7:15pm. There were some interesting characters on the flight to Barrow, and it made me wonder about the types of people who come here and live here. One very friendly couple was moving to Barrow, in part to be with their daughter and in part because they can earn higher salaries here than they could in the lower 48 states. They had bought boxes full of food and supplies at Costco and Wal-Mart and were brining them to last 3-4 months because the price of food and everyday goods is so much more expensive in Barrow. In Anchorage, much of the produce was close to twice the price as it is at home – I’m curious to see the prices in Barrow.
I have been through my first night of constant light, and it was weird but not too hard to sleep, probably because I didn’t go to bed until 11:30pm and I was tired out. I actually had my best night of sleep thus far. I took some photos before I went to bed (including a scenic view from my window ;)) but they weren’t very interesting because it just looked like early evening in terms of the light – I need to remember to label them or else I will have no idea why I took them.
Barrow is incredibly flat and barren, which also means it is very windy. It isn’t too cold (in the 40s yesterday and today, and without much variation in temps because the sun is always up), but the wind chill is noticeable. It is also very foggy, especially this morning, and you can’t see very far – it makes me see what Hal was saying about us being lucky with the views we had during yesterday’s flights. The town is pretty small, with a couple of large (five or six stories being the tallest) municipal buildings and corporate buildings, and then single family homes ranging from mobile homes to five or six-room, basic construction houses, and a couple of larger apartment complexes. There are three main sections to town – Barrow Center, (a big triangle which has the airport to the south of it, the ocean to the north and west and a lagoon to the east), Brower’s Center (a smaller triangle to the north and east of the lagoon), and NARL (the former Navy Arctic Research Lab, where BASC, a local college, and other US government agencies are located). There are no trees and everything is dirt (which supposedly becomes mud with rain and/or melting snow). The town is built close to the ocean, which still has some of the winter ice off the shore. Because of the wind, anything not held down tightly will blow through the air – this seems to be a major issue with trash, as papers and other garbage is lying all around.
We are here as part of BASC, though actually staying in a privately-run “hotel” in the NARL complex. This NARL area reminds me of an X-Files episode. The buildings are a mix of 1940s and 1950s Quonset huts and small buildings that are modified mobile homes, with a couple of larger buildings probably built in the 1970s and 1980s – very plain and simple rectangular designs, all one-story high. The buildings are surrounded by elevated pipes for water and gas (so they don’t freeze in the ground) and all sorts of old vehicles, machinery and leftover parts. From the outside, everything looks barren and discarded in an eerie way, but inside things are warm and comfortable in a homey way. The labs and living space reminds me or RMBL (where my sister Molly did her PhD research in Colorado) – basic facilities with a layer of dirt or mud on the exterior, and that have been personalized by the people who work and live here with there art work, posters, comic strip cutouts, etc. My room is like a small dorm room, with random pieces of furniture, most of them at least 10-20 years old. There is a satellite TV and a free washer/dryer unit, not to mention large bathroom and shower facilities, a water bubbler and other small comforts. We ate at a Japanese/Korean restaurant called Osaka last night – we mainly had sushi and other Asian foods, though they also had maple syrup on the shelf for breakfast pancakes and things like burgers, fries and BLTs on the menu – and met Steve, who has been doing science work up here for over 30 years and now is one of the logistics managers for scientists.

2009-07-03T02:52:00.005-04:00

The first picture is of the top of the Byron Glacier. Later we hiked up to the bottom of this glacier. Matt and his cast made it to the first ice (see fifth photo). The second photo is of the Portage Glacier which we viewed from a boat. Notice the line of grey debris where the two sides of the glacier meet and push up the sediment. In the third picture Molly and Amanda suit up to defy the cool wind blowing off the glacier. The fourth picture shows Judy on the deck of the boat watching for the glacier to calve (that means a part of it breaks off and falls into the water). Unfortunately we didn't get to see that happen today.

2009-07-03T02:20:00.004-04:00

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday. We went to a dogsled rodeo. The drivers and dogs all compete in the Iditarod, a 1150 mile race from Anchorage to Nome. It is a grueling race for the drivers, who get about two hours of sleep each night, after spending at least four hours caring for their dogs.

The first picture shows a team of five dogs driven by one of the youngest women to run the Iditarod. In the Iditarod the teams have 16 dogs. We watched a team of 16 pull a pickup truck across the rink.

The second picture is of Dallas Seavey. When he was 18, he was the youngest musher to run the Iditarod. He and his lead dog, shown in this picture, came in sixth place in this year's race.

Images of Anchorage

2009-07-01T22:55:00.003-04:00

I have attached two photos - both from out a window on the 14th floor of our hotel, one from about 9 pm and one from 1:30am. The night one shows the extent of darkness here in Anchorage - it reminds of about 30 minutes before sunrise or after sunset at home, dark but not pitch black. The daylight one shows how Anchorage is located in a valley/bay surrounded by ragged mountains on the side not facing the water. The city reminds me of other western towns I've visited - very flat and spread out (much more land available than back east!) and laid out in straight lines. It would be a great town to have a bike and commute to work!

2009-07-01T20:50:00.008-04:00

First Full Day in Anchorage

Today, our first real, awake day in Anchorage, we all got up very early and went out to breakfast at the Snow City Cafe. After that, we headed over to the Alaska Native Heritage Center to learn about the traditional and contemporary ways of Alaska Native cultures.

Website: alaskanative.net. Check it out! We learned about the Athbascan, Yup'ik and Cup'ik, Inupiaq (the culture most present in Barrow), Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and more. I chatted for a long time with an artist named Doug who engraves clan crests. (see below) He explained to me that one is born into the clan of their mother's heritage (matrilineal) and a clan is a large extended family which connects communities. Doug is Tsimshain and Haida and is of the Killer Whale Clan. You can see a print of his Killer Whale Clan 2-D Totem below. Or check out his website for more info on his art at www.douglasyates.org

Next, I met and talked to a high school student who was part of the high school program at the center. High school students can spend a certain amount of hours at the center learning dance, legends, crafts, etc about their and other native cultures. They can receive credits for this. The idea is that the younger natives, who don't have as much opportunity to learn the culture from the highly respected elders, will be able to learn their culture and pass it down. The student I spoke with was very excited about this and felt he had a really important role in his community and the world.

Here is a picture of a group of 15-23 year olds performing a native dance:

Here is a video of one of the dances (don't know if this will work!):

<---- Spirit Mask from the Museum

Me, warm in the sun in downtown Anchorage:

Below: The crew: Molly, me, Janet, Hal, Diane Hirshburg who had dinner with us to share her research about education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (the BIA), Matt, and Alanna. Poor Judy was sleeping in the hotel with a migraine!!

That's it for now, but stay tuned in and write us your comments, questions, feedback, etc! That means you, div 1 students- hopefully you will be learning these dances and art next year! Now I am off to bike on the coastal trail until 10 pm, when the sun will be getting lower in the sky.

~Amanda : )

Arrival

2009-07-01T00:01:00.002-04:00

We have safely arrived in Anchorage, with some interesting adventures along the way. We arrived at Logan for our 6am flight, but we stuck in line at security for about 45 minutes - it wasn't clear what happened, but the entire was shut down for that period. All of the flights were delayed, and that meant that we landed in Chicago with only a few minutes to spare before our next flight departed. Judy ran ahead to the next gate, and we were the last passengers to get on the plane for Anchorage. Unfortunately, our luggage did not make the flight (but it came on a later flight and is back in our possession).

Anchorage is a very spread-out city. It is flat, being located in a valley surrounded by mountains, and would be a great city to own a bike in. There are a handful of tall hotels and corporate (mainly oil/gas companies) buildings but otherwise it is a very manageable scale. It was beautiful weather this afternoon - sunny, in the 60s with a slight breeze. You can see, feel and/or hear the water as you walk through the city, and the air feels fresh and clear. It is very bright now (just past 8pm) and it will be interesting to see how difficult it is to sleep in such a light environment (supposedly sunset is 11:30 and sunrise is 4:30 - in Barrow it will be 24 hours of light), but we are all so tired that we should overcome that challenge!

Weather update

2009-06-28T15:29:00.002-04:00

Today's weather in Barrow: partly cloudy and 30 degrees, but feels like 22.

(I am definitely packing long underwear!)

Today's weather in Anchorage: Partly cloudy and 59.

Today's weather in Ayer, MA: Cloudy and 68.

Preparing for the trip

2009-06-27T15:38:00.001-04:00

As I pack for the trip, I have an extra challenge because I fractured my fibula last week and I am in a walking cast. On the one hand, I only need to bring footwear for my left foot; on the other hand, I need to bring garbage bags for the mud and I need to figure out what pants I can wear. The main advice we received was to wear layers, so I am planning on bringing underlayers that keep me warm while also releasing heat and moisture, and then fleece and wind/rain jackets for warmth and bad weather. I'm also packing some vegan-friendly snacks, in case there are limited options in Barrow, where I have read about their delicacies of whale blubber and caribou meat ;-).

Our destination: Barrow, Alaska

2009-06-25T11:57:00.003-04:00

Barrow is 330 miles above the Arctic Circle, the most northerly place in the USA. The sun never sets for 84 days from May to July. Of course the opposite happens in the winter when the sun doesn't rise at all for 84 days.

2009-06-25T11:15:00.008-04:00

Welcome

2009-06-16T21:10:00.000-04:00

Hello all, thanks for visiting our Arctic Trip Blog, feel free to leave your comments and read all our posts.
The story so far: 5 Division 1 teachers will leave for Barrow, Alaska on June 30th, stopping over in Anchorage for a couple of days on the way, and spending a week in Barrow. Our goal is to find out all we can about Barrow, the people who live there and how climate change is affecting their lives. We will be meeting with residents from the Inupiat community and research scientists working up in the area. We plan to come away with ideas for curriculum we can use in our classes and share with other schools.
The whole trip is being funded by the National Science Foundation thanks to a great deal of work securing the grant by Parker parent Hal Salzman whose work as a research sociologist takes him frequently to Barrow .
The lucky Parker teachers making this trip are Matt, Amanda and Janet from Div1AH and Molly and Judy from Div1MST. None of us have been anywhere close to this far north before .
Check out Barrow on a map-its the most northerly bit of America up above the arctic circle.
We hope this blog will serve as a journal of our trip but we are also keen to hear from you.
What do you want to know about Barrow, the Inupiat culture, the arctic, sea ice ,polar bears,permafrost, no sunset, whales... ?
Blog us you questions and we'll try to get answers for them