Lena in Kiana

Science and Inupiaq

2009-04-15T00:49:00.001-07:00

Today was a great day - I already started feeling sad about leaving. I really like the students here. They are great kids, extremely respectful and more importantly, curious about stuff. All of the signs in the school are written in English, Inupiaq and Braille. Try saying Illitchuqsriniagvik three times fast (or even one time slowly).

Mr. Nagy and I ran a science lab today to study the albedo effect and the greenhouse effect. We had to go to the home ec room to get enough sunlight for the lab.

Here is one of the students carefully keeping the thermometers out of the sun until the start of data collection:Middle school students hard at work:I visited Miss J's room (1st and 2nd grade) for a bit. A couple of girls read me a story about the sun falling from the sky and landing in the sand on the beach. No one knew how to get the sun back into the sky until a couple of raccoons came along and sang a special song that sent the sun shining back where it belongs. Once the story was over, I was accosted with questions: Do you have a son? a daughter? Why not? Your nose is really big. Or, it's a long nose. Wow, your eyelashes are long! What's your name? etc. until Miss J called them to their desks for the math lesson. They worked furiously for the length of the song "What a wonderful world." Definitely something I'll remember forever: (video coming soon)

I finally saw the Inupiaq class in action.

Viola teaches the entire class in Inupiaq. I was so impressed with the students. niaqunfuruq:

Some of the older students are working on sewing and beading projects. Here is a beaver hat, aatqatik, slippers and a beaded flower.

Don't Give Up

2009-04-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

See Tim's Blog for a moving story from today.

Sunny Sunday

2009-04-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Tim found this little surprise for us this morning. The box was a little nest for Cadbury eggs. The card said "Two mugs for you to drink deeply from this experience" and a dinner invitation for Tuesday night. What a great start to the day!We both worked on school stuff this morning, and then to celebrate the beautiful Easter day, we went for a long walk along the "little channel" of the Kobuk River. It was incredibly gorgeous, but we underestimated just how warm and sunny it was. By the end of our 3-hour walk we both had our coat, hat and gloves off, and were even a bit sunburnt.

Boats are being dug out in preparation for breakup, about a month away:

Did I mention how beautiful it is here? The Selawik Hills lie about 50 miles east.

Lynx tracks!

We only saw tracks going toward the bank, but none going out. Tim bravely followed the tracks to see if there was a lynx sleeping in a den, while I warned of their big paws and sharp teeth. He was able to see the tracks leading behind the 'den' though, so there was no lynx sighting.

Satellite dishes in town:

We saw five other people walking on the river. One pair of kids snowmachined out to see who we were, then turned around and zoomed back to town. Cute. Otherwise it was a very quiet and peaceful day. A nice way to spend Easter Sunday. We are ready for a productive day tomorrow.

Inservice on a Saturday?

2009-04-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

FNSBSD teachers would be up in arms over teacher in-service on a weekend, but all schools in the NW Arctic School District met Saturday for meetings. Tim and I were a bit sleepy after the sleepover madness, but the morning meeting was a very productive one (and thankfully didn't meet until 10 am). The staff first talked about things in the last month that were going well, struggles, things that worked well, evidence of progress, ideas for parent involvement... I was very impressed with how much they were able to cover in a couple of hours, the way the staff stayed on task, and especially the lack of complaining!

A funny photo was taken to send to one of the teacher's moms who keeps the staff stocked with candy and other fun things from Outside.

We even got to meet the legendary Glenn, a 16-year Kianan, 20-year teacher, principal, who now works at the Red Dog Mine. He's a skilled trapper, hunter, storyteller, and he knows a lot about the land and how to survive here.

We stopped by the store to get some cream cheese. (Tim's tub of cream cheese was confiscated by TSA because "it doesn't hold its shape outside of the container" - which I would argue depends on the temperature, but whatever). Dorsey's grocery was an incredibly well-stocked store, and the prices weren't too shocking except for a jar of Smucker's raspberry jam:

The Babtist church has been in Kiana for about 10 years, while Friend's Church has been around for many decades.
We had two wonderful tour guides, 7th grade girls - one from Barrow, one from Thailand originally, show us around town. The view from this lookout is right at the confluence of the Squirrel River and the two channels ("big and little channel") of the Kobuk River - Qayaana!
A plane flew right over us as we approached the cemetery.

A lot of the crosses had birth dates from the turn of the century. I can't imagine living here with no electricity, no water, no store, no communication - these must have been some of the toughest people in the world.

Another 7th grader came by on her sno-go with her little brothers. Zipping around town visiting friends and family is the thing to do.

WOO!!

2009-04-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

Friday night was a busy one for the Kiana School with the potluck, basketball camp, singing group, AND it was the night of the 3rd and 4th grade sleepover. Students who came to most of the SBA practice sessions were eligible for the sleepover. 15 out of 19 kids got to come, and only two of those 15 were boys. The kids were psyched! Tim and I were psyched too - we got to play all kinds of cool games and got to know some students really well on our first night:

A self-proclaimed "super duper hyper" girl can both recite John 3:16 and sing "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith" really, really fast, and showed us how she can touch her feet to her head:

A brilliant invention - sled taped to the top of three wheel-board-thingies:

The most fun teachers ever, Ms. J and Mr. Wil:

Bubble Wrap Competition. You can use only your feet (shoes can be on or off). Once you think you have all of the bubbles popped, you raise your hand. However, if there is even one bubble left unpopped, not only do you not win, you lose! Everyone took the competition very seriously. Ready, set,

...Pop!

We ate ice cream, popcorn, played basketball, volleyball, medicine ball, hide the ball, plus some creative games with a big, round, colorful parachute. We had a BLAST and stayed up until almost 2 am! What a great introduction to the school and a fun Friday night.

After an air tour of Alaska, we made it!

2009-04-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

First stop: Anchorage. (thanks, Redoubt)Here's Tim at Chili's in the airport figuring out the fancy recording equipment:Second stop: Nome. This is all we got to see of Nome:Third: Our stop in Kotzebue ("Kotz") was a bit longer, so I took a quick walk around outside the airport. Rusty Toyota truck (which also had cool icicles and some seriously suped up tires):

In the Bering Air airport in Kotzebue, Tim and I read the Nome Nugget and talked to a woman who works for the census bureau. She has visited 84 villages in Alaska and tries to get to each one every year! Although the website for Kiana quotes a population of 401, the actual population right now is more like 320.

We actually flew on a single engine Caravan instead of the Navajo. 8 passengers to Noorvik, 4 stayed on to Kiana. With all of Tim's aircraft experience, he says he doesn't feel totally safe on a single engine plane.

Fourth: We made a surprise stop in Noorvik. We were hoping to somehow see Mollia and Rebecca in Noorvik, but we made a super quick stop before we took off for Kiana. It was an incredibly beautiful flight to Noorvik and then to Kiana. Luckily the census lady sat in front of me. She has a great eye for spotting wildlife from the plane and pointed out two caribou herds plus at least 30 moose bedded down in the trees!

Five: Kiana!

Home Sweet Home:

When we flew over Kiana, we flew right by a graveside service for one of the town's elders. This was the 10th funeral in Kiana this year. The town is struggling with grief from so much sadness in such a short time. The potlach after the funeral service was held at the school, and the school principal said we should just join in. After some deliberation, Tim and I did join in, and the food was delicious and everyone was very welcoming and friendly. First we went on a quick walk and discovered how beautiful it is here.

Kiana Take 2

2009-04-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

We are back on for a flight to Kiana on Friday. Unfortunately George can't go, so I'm stuck traveling with just Tim. Kidding, I'm looking forward to spending some more time with him! He's cool! Although there are only a dozen of us in the same boat in this program - same schedule, same classes all year, we rarely get a chance to talk to each other.

Friday we fly to Anchorage, then Kotzebue, via Alaska Airlines. In Kotzebue we hop on a smaller plane - probably a Navajo which seats 6-8 people - for the quick flight to Kiana. Bering Air serves 11 villages from its Kotzebue hub:

I'm trying not to get too excited because Redoubt could be going for a few months yet. Also, the later eruptions do not have seismic precursors... so it can erupt at any time with no warning. But I'm still pretty excited!

Thar she blows

2009-03-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- Mount Redoubt volcano in southern Alaska has erupted again, shooting ash as high as 45,000 feet in the air on Saturday, experts said.

Photo: Associated Press

(Anchorage Daily News) -- People around town reported that "snow went from white to gray in a matter of a few minutes as the ash started to fall on the ground," said Rick Wessels, a geophysicist at the volcano observatory.

By 6 p.m., the ash cloud had spread across Anchorage. The Weather Service classified the ash fall from the afternoon eruption as minor, between a trace and an eighth of an inch.

"For normal, healthy people and for your cars and things like that, it will have small, minimal effect," Ludwig said about the first ash cloud to coat Anchorage. "It's an annoyance."

...but, the Anchorage International Airport is officially CLOSED. Such a bummer as I am all packed and ready to go! Tim and George and I are hoping we can be rescheduled for Monday morning. Fingers crossed.

Redoubt raises doubt

2009-03-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

It looks like we will fly to Kiana if Mt Redoubt keeps quiet for the next 15 hours. So why is a volcano located south of Anchorage possibly delaying or canceling our flight to northwest Alaska?

Well, we have to fly on Alaska Airlines to Anchorage (due South, 400 miles), hop on a plane to Kotzebue (northwest, 550 miles), and then get on another plane to Kiana (60 miles east). Kiana, as the crow flies, is only 300 miles northwest of Fairbanks! There are no direct flights from Fairbanks to Kiana, but there are two smaller airlines that fly directly to Kotzebue.

Mt. Redoubt is an active volcano, 10200 feet high, which has erupted about five times in the last century. The last eruption was in 1989, which lasted for 4 months and caused significant concern about air travel over the ash plumes from the eruption. Volcanic ash causes serious damage to jet engines, and can actually lock up the jets and take a plane down. Here is a photo of the ash plume (about 50000 feet high!) from the eruption last Monday, March 23, 2009.

More information, alerts and photos of Mt Redoubt - or any other Alaskan volcano - can be found at the Alaska Volcano Observatory website.

I'm very excited for our trip out. With all the preparation and anticipation, I sure hope the volcano sleeps for the next week. Rock-a-bye, Redoubt...

Qayaana, Katyaak

2009-03-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

Photo Courtesy of Kay Kennedy Collection, 91-098-337, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks

As part of the Kiana Village History Project, there is a recorded discussion among several local elders about the naming of the village of Kiana.

The word Katyaak means "together, rivers meet together", so "there's lots of Katyaaks in this area all over. Up the river, down river," Roger Oteruk says. The word Qayaana means a point, "that point across the river", Oteruk goes on to explain. "The white people when they come here, the miners, I guess, -- they hear the Eskimos talking about Qayaana and they call it Kiana for that Qayaana. That's the way I understand it. That's how I understand Kiana got its name."

In fact, Kiana is a place where only two rivers meet. The Kobuk river splits in two just east of the village and meets the Squirrel River as two tributaries, so it appears as two separate rivers at Qayaana.

Map and satellite image from Google Maps at http://maps.google.com/

A little bit about Kiana

2009-03-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

Kiana, Alaska
Coordinates: 66°58.3' N 160°25.8' W
Borough: Northwest Arctic Borough
Population (2007): 401
Total area: 0.2 sq miles

Located about 60 miles from Kotzebue, Alaska, Kiana lies near the junction of the Kobuk and Squirrel Rivers. Kiana was settled hundreds of years ago as the main village of the Kobuk River's Kowagmiut Iñupiat Eskimos. In 1909, it became a supply center for mines along the Squirrel River.* A post office was established in 1915, and the city government was incorporated in 1964. The Northwest Arctic Borough was established in 1976. **

* Information from the Northwest Arctic School Borough District website
** Information from the Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs