The Last Days of Shishmaref

DANA LIXENBERG

Paradox / episode publishers

ISBN 978-9059731103

9 789059 731103

THE LAST DAYS OF SHISHMAREF

Shishmaref is disappearing. The village on an island off the coast of Alaska is slowly but surely being swallowed up by the sea. Global warming is causing the island’s protective permafrost layer to melt; the Chukchi Sea is freezing later in the season, leaving ravaging waves free to batter the island. It is estimated that the community of 600 Inupiaq Eskimos will have to leave their native land before 2020.

Photographer Dana Lixenberg stayed in Shishmaref for several weeks during the winter and summer of 2007. She explored the intricate relationship between the inhabitants and the rough, bleak and beautiful landscape that surrounds them. Using her 4x5-inch field camera makes the act of photographing more formal than hand-held photography, resulting in an intimate collaboration between the photographer and her subjects and in carefully composed still-lives. By combining portraiture, details of interiors, village tableaux, sea- and landscapes, Lixenberg creates a nuanced and complex portrait of this close-knit community, a community balancing between a past rooted in tradition and an uncertain future.

The last days of Shishmaref

THE LAST DAYS OF SHISHMAREF - Dana Lixenberg

DANA LIXENBERG

The Last Days of Shishmaref Dana Lixenberg

Paradox /episode publishers, 2008

The last days of Shishmaref DANA LIXENBERG

5 “Long ago, all there was here was water and sand. There was no village and no one lived here. One day a fierce storm raged. The constant roar of the furious sea sounded like thunder. The powerful waves threw tree trunks up onto the sand. The tree trunks stayed where they were.

As time passed, grass and other plants grew over them. The grass captured new sand, and the hills began to form. The new land rose higher and higher.

From far away, people saw the island rising from the sea. They came to the new land to hunt the animals that lived there in abundance.

Over time, more people came and the hunting camp slowly grew into a village. That is how Shishmaref was created. From driftwood and sand, surrounded by the tempestuous water. But someday the land will return to the way it was. It will sink back into the sea. Only the sand will remain, without houses or people, and the place will look just like it did all those many years ago.�

Old Inupiaq story, as told by Ardith Weyiouanna to her granddaughter Emma Bessie.

6

Magby Olanna Mi足ke Obruk

8 When Joel Magby and Minnie Olanna were married they had five children: Tyron, Desiree, Joel and identical twins Katherine and Tiffany.

Joel’s second wife died in a snowmobile accident; they had a son named Cody. Joel’s neighbours Daniel and Angela Mike also have five children: Christina and Jaylen Obruk and Zeb, Daniel and Katherine Mike. The surname Obruk is Angela’s maiden name. Angela Mike is Nora Iyatunguk’s cousin; Nora’s mother and Angela’s father are brother and sister. Minnie Olanna is Willy Olanna’s cousin; their fathers are brothers.

Tyron Magby

The community center

Minnie Olanna

Minnie Olanna’s home

9:00 p.m., June 2007

Eskimo baseball, 1 a.m., June 2007

The tannery

Katherine Magby

Tiffany Magby

Seawall from 1986, June 2007

Minnie Olanna and Joey Magby

Joel Magby

Minnie Olanna’s home

Desiree Magby

Nathan Weyiouanna’s house

2 a.m., June 2007

Christina Obruk

The Mike-Obruk family home

Angela, Daniel, Katherine, Zeb Mike, Jaylen Obruk and Daniel Mike

3:00 a.m., June 2007

Chukchi Sea, July 2007

42

Seward Peninsula and Shishmaref Area

43 RELOCATION ‘When my mom grew up here, she used to have a mile of yard out of the front of the island to get to the water and now it’s right here at everybody’s front doors. This island is disappearing real fast.’

– Joel Magby, 46 years old Shishmaref is disappearing. The only village on the island of Sarichef – the old stories say it rose from the sea during a storm – is slowly but surely being swallowed up by the sea. As the myth says, Sarichef is little more than a big sandbar: just over three miles long and less than a quarter of a mile wide, its highest point is only 19 feet above sea level.

That makes the island easy prey for the ravenous sea.

The fact that Sarichef has survived for so long in such precarious conditions is due to the island’s location just 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Cold conditions in this northernmost corner of Alaska keeps the lower layers of the island permanently frozen, holding it together. And ice rings the island from early autumn throughout the winter, forming a buffer against the wind and waves during the dangerous autumn storms. This keeps the coastal erosion limited to a minimum.

But in the last 30 years, Alaska’s average temperature has gone up by four degrees; the island is rapidly losing its most important weapons in its struggle against the elements. The Chukchi Sea is freezing later and later in the season; the protective permafrost layer is melting.

Ravaging waves bite increasingly huge chunks out of the island’s north flank. The traditional lifestyle is also under pressure. The growing unreliability of the sea ice is making seal hunting more difficult and dangerous.

For decades the inhabitants of Shishmaref have felt the threat to their way of life. After destructive autumn storms, they took the first steps to combat coastal erosion. Sandbags were tossed into the water off the afflicted coast and seawalls were built. Despite these efforts, the first 14 houses vanished into the sea in a storm in 1997. The inhabitants packed their belongings and moved some distance away, where the sea still left the land untouched. In 2002, fate struck again. A severe October storm ate away nearly 30 feet of land in just a few hours. In 2003, the United States General Accounting Office reported that 184 villages in Alaska are facing problems with flooding and erosion. Along with the villages Newtok and Kivalina, Shishmaref is facing the biggest threats.

44 Shishmaref will disappear. That myth seems to become reality now.

The real story picks up where the myth ends. 615 people live in the village, and they need somewhere to go.

For years, the inhabitants of Shishmaref have been asking the American government for a definitive solution. When their cries for help went unanswered, the inhabitants decided to get organized, founding the Shishmaref Erosion and Relocation Committee in April 2001. The committee makes concrete plans for the future and demands attention for the increasingly dire situation. Meanwhile, countless media repre­ sen­tatives traveled to the island to report on the story in front of the collapsed house on the edge of the village. Speaking on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Al Gore called the inhabitants of Shishmaref “the first climate refugees”. Meanwhile, students at the local high school started the Save Our Shishmaref (SOS) fundraising campaign to raise money to preserve their community. In response to a Congressional request, in 2004 the US Army Corps of Engineers issued a report detailing relocation needs and costs for Shishmaref.

There are three options for saving the community of Shishmaref from destruction: keep defying their myth of origin by building higher and higher seawalls; departing to a new, isolated location on the mainland; or joining another, larger community, such as the nearest towns of Nome or Kotzebue, still located nearly 100 miles away.

The inhabitants would prefer not to leave the island at all. Their parents and grandparents are buried in the cemetery here; how could they leave them behind to be swallowed by the sea? And yet, most of the people seem resigned to the idea that fate can no longer be thwarted.

In a vote held in 2002, most of the people of Shishmaref voted in favor of relocation.

Moving is no easy task. The inhabitants are concerned that their community would crumble if it were incorporated into another city or village. Will their people be able to resist the temptations of the big city, with its liquor stores and gambling halls? And will the traditional way of life, still characterized by a strong emphasis on subsistence living, hunting and gathering for personal consumption, survive the relocation? The biggest fear is that their cultural identity will vanish along with Shishmaref.

Most of the votes were for the utopian plan to found a new village in Tin Creek. When the weather is good, the remote mainland location can be seen from Shishmaref. If they moved there, the people of

45 Shishmaref could preserve their existence as a closed community, without excessive outside influences. At Tin Creek, they would be able to continue their traditional way of life. The area still offers ample opportunities for hunting.

But it is also the most expensive and most complicated option; the costs of the move are estimated at 180 million dollars. Tin Creek is pioneer country, without any infrastructure, jobs and social support.

Shishmaref is partly self-sufficient, but modern society has reached even this remote island in the past century. The community has one foot in the past and one foot in the present. Like other Americans, the inhabitants are used to having access to basic amenities and luxury products such as electricity, telephone, and internet. In Tin Creek, a livable village will have to be created from nothing. There is no guarantee that the American government will be willing to invest so much in keeping the small community of Shishmaref viable.

46

Ningealook Eutuk We­yanna Na­­yokpuk Sockpick To­ck­too

48 Bonnie Nayakpuk and Dewey Tocktoo have four children: Cody, Charley, Clayton and Johnny. Bonnie also has two older children living with her: Arney and Jacinda. Jacinda and her boyfriend Travis Ningealook have two children, Clarissa and Shayla. They have a pet dog named Snowball. Jeffrey Nayokpuk is Bonnie’s cousin. His father, who died in 2006, was the famous dog-sled racer Herbie Nayokpuk (‘The Shishmaref Cannonball’). Leslie Eutuk lives with her grandparents Frank and Frances Eutuk. Frances is Johnny Weyiounna’s cousin. Tricia Weyanna is the daughter of Brenda Weyanna, whose mother is a cousin of Ardith Weyiouanna. Teddy Sockpick is a distant cousin of Jeffrey Nayokpuk, who is a nephew of Annie Sockpick.

Clarissa, Travis and Shayla Ningealook and Cody Nayokpuk

Pond, midnight, June 2007

The garbage dump

Jacinda Nayokpuk and Shayla Ningealook

The Nayokpuk-Tocktoo home

Snowball with puppies

Bonnie Nayakpuk and Dewey Tocktoo

Jacinda Nayokpuk’s bedroom

Clarissa Ningealook

Kenny Iyatunguk, Clayton, John and Arnold Nayokpuk with baby Shayla Ningealook

Midnight, June 2007

The Eutuk family home

Leslie Eutuk

Herbie Nayokpuk’s dog team

Jeffrey Nayokpuk

Tricia Weyanna

Brenda Weyanna

The cemetery

Teddy Sockpick

Chukchi Sea, March 2007

82

Seward Peninsula 19th Century Inupiaq eskimo nations

83 CULTURAL IDENTITY “I feel more an Inupiaq than an American. I just try to pay attention to what they’re trying to teach me, so I can learn the white men’s style and at the same time learn the Inupiaq style.”

– Johnny ‘Mimic’ Pootooguluk, 17 years old.

“Real people”, that’s what the Eskimo word Inupiaq means. Approx­i­ mately 14,000 Inupiat live in the northwest of Alaska, along the coasts of the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Even when they lived as nomads, the Inupiat always had ties to a certain region. The former Inupiaq nations consisted of big families living together in an area and sharing the land and the available food with each other. These groups were called nunaqatigiitch: “people who are linked to each other through possession of the land.” They were organized according to centuries of tradition, centered around family and tribal ties.

Shishmaref is located in the territory of the Tapqagmiut, “the people along the sandy coastline”. Archeological digs have shown that Qigiqtaq, the old Inupiaq name for Shishmaref, has been permanently inhabited for centuries now. The annual spring hunts have started from the island for over 4,000 years.

The island received its current name from a Baltic-German explorer working for the Russian army, Otto Von Kotzebue, who explored the regions around the Bering Strait between 1815 and 1818. He named the island after the famous hydrographer Andreyevich Sarychef and called the settlement after his lieutenant, Gleb Semenovich Shishmarev.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Inupiaq societies were selfsufficient, both economically and socially. They lived off the resources within their territories, trading with members of other communities for goods that were not available locally. Contact between the indigenous peoples in the north of Alaska and the European explorers and colonists was limited to trade for decades.

Life in Shishmaref revolved around hunting and gathering food. The few hours that were not spent hunting were occupied with games of skill and dogsled races. During the long, dark winter months, the people kept boredom at bay by making carvings from walrus and mammoth ivory, whalebone, and caribou antlers. The older villagers taught the younger generations skills for surviving in the extreme Arctic climate.

This was done by singing, dancing, and playing all sorts of games and contests. Pulling, wrestling, and jumping games kept the inhabitants

84 of Shishmaref in shape. The two-footed high kicks were particularly impressive. Strong men jumped several feet high to kick against a wadded cloth hanging from the ceiling with both feet simultaneously.

Until the end of the nineteenth century, there were no Christians at all in the north of Alaska. In those days, the animist religion of the Inupiat was omnipresent. According to Inupiaq beliefs, the forces of nature were fundamentally malicious and the spirits of the weather and the animals had to be appeased. Taboos and ceremonies to honor these spirits were followed strictly. The Inupiat believed in the transference of the soul from one life to the next, for both people and animals. The names of those who died were therefore passed on to newborns. The skull of a freshly killed animal was always opened to release his spirit; only then could the animal be reborn and return to the hunt to be prey again in the future. Many of these traditions were passed down by a shaman, man or woman.

Starting around the turn of the century, the Christian faith spread from Kotzebue across the North Pole region thanks to the efforts of two white missionaries and an Inupiaq convert named Uyaraq. Within 20 years, almost 100 percent of the Inupiat had converted to Christianity.

In Shishmaref, the first Lutheran mission was founded in 1930 and is still the main denomination in the village.

In 1901, the inhabitants of Shishmaref encountered the permanent influence of the Western world for the first time when a post office was established on the island. Not long after, white teachers came from other parts of the United States to teach the Inupiat in English.

The arrival of white missionaries and teachers marked the beginning of major changes. Children were no longer allowed to speak their own language at school. The shamans decreased in importance and the old Inupiaq beliefs quickly lost ground. Traditional dances and customs fell into disuse and modern technologies and equipment were introduced.

Despite all this, the old Inupiaq culture has not disappeared entirely.

The inhabitants of Shishmaref still hunt the same animals, make carvings from the same materials and are still largely dependent on the land and the sea. The animist beliefs still echo down the years in the old myths; family and ancestors still have an important place in Inupiaq culture. Many of the living rooms in Shishmaref are richly adorned with photos of family members and relatives. Obituaries are hung up on the wall and never taken down again.

85

86

olanna Sockpick Stepanoff Kuzuguk

88 Helen, Arnold, Amos, Rae and Kenneth are the children of Willy and Frances Olanna. Paul, Willy’s older son, also lives with the family.

Annie Sockpick has three children with her partner Derek Stepanoff: Dominick and Alex Sockpick and Cynthia Stepanoff. Andrea Kuzuguk has three children: Norman, Marissa and Wendell. Her sister Selena Kuzuguk lives with her as well. Annie, Andrea and Selena share the same mother.

Sorel boots

Arnold Olanna

Helen Olanna with daughter Angel

Rae Olanna (right) and friend

Amos Olanna

The Shishmaref telephone directory

Arnold and Kenneth Olanna (center) with their nephews

Rae Olanna

Paul Olanna

The pastor and his wife

Willy Olanna’s workshop

Amos Olanna

The school

Dominick Sockpick, Cynthia Stepanoff, Annie and Alex Sockpick

Annie Sockpick’s home

The VP (village police officer)

Marissa and Andrea Kuzuguk

Selena Kuzuguk

Marissa Kuzuguk

Chukchi Sea, June 2007

122

United States of America

123 US INSTITUTIONS & INFRASTRUCTURE ‘Our government is just more interested in overseas than in helping Shishmaref. We’ve been wanting to get help to move our village and they keep stalling.’ – Johnny Weyiouanna, 72 years old Shishmaref is a small village, but it is complete in itself. All the basic elements of a modern community can be found here: a church, a library, an elementary school and a high school, a community center, post office, fire department, and a simple clinic. A laundromat, tannery, trading post, and two shops are also located here. The island also has an airfield and a dock for tugboats. Since the 1960s, the islanders have had electricity and telephone and satellite connections.

At the same time, many forms of infrastructure are lacking in Shishmaref. Most houses have a bathroom and toilet and the kitchens have a sink, but sewers and running water are not available. People do their business on the honeybucket (toilet bucket). Only the pastor and his wife, the white teachers, and a handful of prosperous families have a working tap and shower. The rest of the village uses a bucket, or visits the washeteria to do laundry and shower. Drinking water is priceless: a gallon of water at the shop costs seven dollars. The cheap alternative is the freshwater lakes located behind the lagoon on the mainland. The people of Shishmaref chop huge blocks of ice from these lakes in the winter. They often also collect clean snow. In summer, when the ice and snow have melted, they depend on rainwater.

The people of Shishmaref have repeatedly asked for running water and a sewer system, but their requests have not been answered. Now that it has become unclear how long Shishmaref will still exist, no inv­est­ ments are being made here, with the exception of a provisional seawall.

Only the feces are picked up; the rest of the garbage is dumped on the scrap heap on the other side of the island, or stays jumbled among the houses, waiting for a new lease on life. Broken washing machines, snow­ mobile parts, oil drums and jerry cans; to the locals, what initially seems like trash is a collection of things they might still be able to recycle.

Shishmaref is hard to reach. There are hardly any roads in Alaska, and there is only one railway. Besides the landing strip on the airfield, none of the roads on Sarichef is paved. Where the dogs were once essen­tial for transportation and hunting, snowmobiles and quads have now largely taken over those tasks. For the people of Shishmaref, airplanes are the most important link to the outside world.

124 Shishmaref has an ambivalent relationship with the rest of America.

The inhabitants refer to the rest of the US as the Lower 48, based on the position of the 48 states south of the 49th state of Alaska. Many of the people of Shishmaref can hardly imagine the rest of the country. Only a handful of the inhabitants have traveled or lived off the island. Many people go to the Alaskan mainland for education and work, but only few go south of the 49th state. At the same time, the inhabitants are largely dependent on the federal government, which is so far away.

For centuries, geopolitical developments bypassed the Inupiat almost entirely. For many years they were completely unaware that the Czar had sold Russian America to the Americans in 1867 for 7.2 million dollars. No one had asked them what they thought. After the title changed hands, the Americans stayed off their scopes for a long time. That changed at the end of the nineteenth century when the gold fever attracted thousands of colonists and miners to Alaska. Christian missionaries followed in their wake.

With the signing of the treaty in 1867, the inhabitants of Alaska gained the same rights as other American citizens, with the exception of the ‘uncivilized indigenous tribes’, one of which was the Inupiat. They were not considered second-rate citizens; they simply were not citizens at all. It was not until 1915 that the lawmakers in Alaska came up with a complicated procedure for the indigenous peoples to gain American citizenship. The prospective citizen was interviewed, needed five white witnesses and had to testify in a district court that he or she “lived apart from any Indian tribe and had embraced civilized society”.

That idea of assimilation remained common until the 1930s, after which the idea of tribal self-government gained prominence. Indigenous peoples could organize themselves in accordance with the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), the law that had already given rights to the Native Americans in other parts of the United States.

In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state. The new state claimed more and more land, at the expense of the hunting and fishing grounds used by the indigenous peoples. In response, the Alaska Federation of Natives was founded in 1966, a federation of indigenous peoples from Alaska that lobbied for a treaty on land ownership. 1971 saw the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the biggest land claims settlement in American history. It gave the Alaskan Natives 44 million acres of land and 964 million dollars. The money was divided between regional, urban, and village corporations. In 1971, the inhabitants of Shishmaref founded the Shishmaref Native Corporation to manage the money.

125 The indigenous tribes are still fairly autonomous, but at the same time are more dependent on the federal government than ever. The teachers at the local primary and secondary school, the civil servants and the police officers in Shishmaref all come from ‘Outside’. They also get their electricity, transportation, work, social services, welfare, and food stamps from the American government. Even their future lies in the hands of the federal government. There is no way that the small town can pay to move the community to Tin Creek from its own funds. In recent years, the Shishmaref Erosion and Relocation Coalition has been lobbying with the Alaskan government and the federal government for technical and financial support to realize the move to Tin Creek. So far, they have met with little success.

126

Weyiouanna Good足 hope Pootooguluk Attatayuk Barr

128 Ardith and Johnny Weyiouanna have six children: Perry, Johnny Jr., Dave, Fanny, Fred Charlie and Emily. Johnny ‘Mimic’ Pootooguluk is their cousin. Fred Goodhope is the brother of Ardith and Shirley, who passed away last year. Deeann Barr’s father is Ardith’s first cousin.

Alice Attatayuk’s family moved to Shishmaref a couple of years ago from Brevig Mission, Alaska.

Ardith Weyiouanna

Chukchi Sea, July 2007

Emily Weyiouanna

The Weyiouanna family home

Perry Weyiouanna

Fred Charlie Weyiouanna and Ardith Weyiouanna

Fred Goodhope’s home

Fred Goodhope

Reindeer meat

Ardith Weyiouanna

Fred Charlie Weyiouanna, Serpentine Hot Springs

Fred Charlie Weyiouanna, Serpentine Hot Springs

Perry Weyiouanna, Serpentine Hot Springs

Caribou Hunt, Serpentine Hot Springs

Caribou Hunt, Serpentine Hot Springs

Bert Sockpick, Johnny ‘Mimic’ Pootooguluk and Tristan Sockpick

Fred Goodhope’s home

Deeann Barr

Panaaluk , dried seal meat in seal oil

7:00 pm., June 2007

Alice Attatayuk

Chukchi Sea, March 2007

162

Annual Round of Subsistence Activities at Shishmaref

163 SUBSISTENCE ‘The kids live on junk food, they mostly want white man food, but sometimes they live on Eskimo food. The stores are expensive, I got to buy more expensive stuff like clothes, iPods, cell phones, or whatever they can get.’ – Frances Olanna, 43 years old Three flights carrying all sorts of goods come to the island from the mainland every day. Besides basic products like cooking oil, sugar, and salt, the two stores in Shishmaref also sell luxury foods. T-bone steaks, frozen pizzas, and hamburgers; many of the products on the store shelves in the rest of the US are also available on the island. And yet seal, walrus, or caribou is more likely to be on the menu than beef or chicken.

Subsistence, living off what the land and sea can offer, is still a way of life for many of the Inupiaq. It is part of their cultural identity, but it is also a financial necessity. A T-bone steak costs 22 dollars; the same amount will buy five gallons of gas. That much gas is enough for a day of hunting with the snowmobiles, often shooting two or three caribou and getting enough meat for a few weeks.

The term subsistence, used so often here, makes it seem as though the Inupiaq are entirely self-sufficient. But the economy of Shishmaref and the lifestyle of its inhabitants are much more mixed. The people of Shishmaref lead an isolated existence, but that does not mean that the island is cut off from the outside world. The airfield is a vital lifeline for the village. Not only do the planes bring in basic goods, mail, and luxury products like iPods, televisions, cell phones, and computers; the locals also regularly fly to the mainland. For dentist’s appointments, medical aid, and childbirth, they go to the better facilities in the town of Nome, or to the bigger cities like Anchorage or Fairbanks.

There is little work on the island. Much of the paid labor is seasonal, and the form of employment is often unstable. Many of the inhabitants of Shishmaref depend on welfare and buy their basic supplies with food stamps. Even those who have work consider the catch from hunting to be an important supplement to their diet. In contrast to expensive and low-nutrition frozen foods, Eskimo food is high in nutrients. Anyone who has the right supplies and is physically capable joins in the hunt.

The right to hunt and gather for personal use is a protected part of Alaskan law. Subsistence hunting is a right not only for indigenous peoples like the Inupiaq, but for anyone living in the rural areas of

164 Alaska. The Inupiaq have more rights; in accordance with international agreements, they are allowed to hunt marine mammals like seals, whales, polar bears, and sea otters.

They hunt almost anything that walks, swims, and flies on or around the island. Where fish is the most important food source in most of Alaska, seal, caribou, and reindeer are the most important catches in the Arctic coastal region around Shishmaref. After a successful hunt, every part of the animals is used. The largha seal (ordinary seal) is hunted mainly for its fur and oil, while the oogruk (bearded seal) is hunted for its meat. Processing the seals takes a lot of time and work, but it is a cheap way to acquire meat that stays good for a long time.

Skins are still the best protection from the cold and are turned into hats or used to line clothing and shoes.

The skin is cut loose from the meat and cleaned using the special semi-circular ulu knife. The meat is cut into strips and hung out to dry for weeks on drying racks. The strips of meat need to be scraped off every day to prevent fly eggs from spoiling the meat. When the original blood-red color of the meat has darkened to pitch black, the drying process is done. The dried seal meat is cooked in seal blubber and served as Panaluk. The raw entrails are considered a delicacy.

While the inhabitants of Shishmaref still clean and prepare the animals using traditional methods, during the hunt they use modern equip足ment. Since the late nineteenth century, they have exchanged bow and arrow for the hunting rifle and they have replaced the kayak with robust motorboats. Weather conditions are monitored via the radio and GPS systems are used to find safe passage through the ice.

About 55 miles from Shishmaref are the Serpentine Hot Springs.

From time immemorial, the Inupiaq have been coming here for medi足 cinal, religious, and recreational purposes. The hot springs and the hunting lodge beside them are common property of the inhabitants of Shishmaref. From this base camp, they hunt caribou, rabbits, ptarmigans, and reindeer. In winter, the hunters travel here over the ice by snowmobile; in summer, they travel up the Serpentine River by boat to fish for salmon.

Some inhabitants of Shishmaref also earn an income by hunting brown bears. Japanese and American hunters will pay significant amounts to shoot a bear. The hunting tourists take the skin home with them, leaving the rest of the animal for the leader of the hunt.

These hunting trips are subject to very strict rules to prevent commercialization. Every animal shot must be reported to the

165 Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which monitors fish and game populations. Anyone hunting too early or late in the season can count on steep fines.

Subsistence is a necessity because the alternative is often too expensive. Still, it is uncertain whether this way of life can continue to exist. The rapidly changing weather conditions in the polar region are altering the migration routes of the animals. And the unpredictability of the sea ice is making the hunt increasingly difficult and dangerous.

Knowledge carefully accrued over centuries is often no longer reliable.

Moreover, fewer and fewer young people are interested in hunting, and many no longer know the techniques. However, even they will have to learn if they want to put food on the table at the end of the month, when the food stamps run out.

166

Iyatunguk Schul足tze Kost Nayokpuk

168 Nora Iyatunguk lives with her boyfriend Tim Nayokpuk, their two sons Kenny Iyatunguk and Corben Nayokpuk, Tim’s sister Alison and their mother. Eric Nayokpuk is Tim’s cousin; his father is Tim’s mother’s brother. Vanessa Kost is Eric’s cousin; she is living with Eric and his family during her last year of high school. Gilford Iyatunguk is Nora’s brother, who lives next door to Nora and Tim with his parents. Inez Iyatunguk is Nora and Gilford’s niece. Justin Schultze is Tim and Eric’s cousin; his mother is the sister of Tim’s mother and Eric’s father.

Nora Iyatunguk

Chukchi Sea, June 2007

Downtown

Nora Iyatunguk and Tim Nayokpuk

Tim Nayokpuk and Kenny Iyatunguk

Bingo

Alison Nayokpuk

Noon, June 2007

Corben Nayokpuk

Tim Nayokpuk

Eric Nayokpuk (center) with friends, June 2007

Eric Nayokpuk with caribou

Vanessa Kost

Nora Iyatunguk, Corben Nayokpuk and Kenny Iyatunguk

Walrus stew

Gilford Iyatunguk

The Iyatunguk family home

Inez Iyatunguk

Justin Schultze

Chuckchi Sea, July 2007

202

Projected ice extent at the Arctic for the month September (5-model average)

203 MODERN LIFE “If we are not together anymore, I think we would become weak and kind of, like, lost.” – Ardith Weyiouanna, 60 years old The way of life in Shishmaref is changing fast. Old customs are disap­ pearing and new ones are supplanting them. Where marriages were still arranged just two generations ago, now young people choose their own partners. Many couples never marry, even when children are born. Traditional tools have given way to modern equipment; satellite television has brought the world into the living rooms of Shishmaref.

The temptations of the consumer society are overwhelming the traditional, sober way of life.

The youth of Shishmaref are much more Americanized than their forebears. American popular culture is just as important to them as the Inupiaq traditions. After hunting, they listen to Eminem or Tupac Shakur, trading their traditional attire for the baggy pants and basketball shirts that seem to be the uniform for all of America’s young people. For many of them, city life seems more appealing than the sheltered life in the village.

The older inhabitants of Shishmaref are worried about the younger generation. They fear that the youth will lose contact with the tradition­ al culture. For generations, classes at school were taught exclusively in English. Most of the children and grandchildren do not understand their grandparents when they speak Inupiaq with each other. Of the 14,000 Inupiat still living in the northwest of Alaska, only about 2,500 people still speak the native language.

The detachment from Inupiaq culture observed by the older inhabit­ ants of Shishmaref is seen as the cause of the chronic problems that many of the Native communities face: alcoholism, a high suicide rate, domestic violence, and high school dropout percentages.

To avoid the negative consequences of liquor, the community in Shishmaref chose to live without alcohol. No alcohol has been sold or served since 1983. Where the drinking halls on the mainland in Nome and Kotzebue are full, there is not much to do on Shishmaref. There are no restaurants, hotels, clubs, or cafés. The dark hours of the long winter were once used for playing traditional games, but now the youth prefer to watch television, listen to music on their iPods, or play computer games.

One of the most popular activities outside the home is bingo. Evening after evening, the villagers gather in the community hall to spend hours

204 bending over the bingo cards. Pulltabs are also incredibly popular; these perforated cards require the player to pull three identical pictures in a row - like a slot machine on paper. The bingo nights and the days on which pulltabs are played are organized by various clubs. One night the winnings go to the hunting club; the next to the Shishmaref Native Corporation. The global poker hype has also hit the inhabitants of Shishmaref. Secret late-night poker games are held in people’s homes, and some spend hours online playing for money.

When the weather permits, the youth dress in their best and crisscross the island on their quads or snowmobiles. Once spring comes, they play soccer, baseball, and basketball. In winter, competitions are held in the high school gym; in summer, the basketball players can be found on the old landing strip, which is the only public bit of asphalt paving on the island.

For transportation, the people of Shishmaref have traded their dogsled in for a snowmobile. It has major advantages: the snowmobile is faster, easier to use, and does not require food. The snowmobile is a gas-guzzler, nearly prohibitively expensive now due to the high oil prices. Accidents on the ice have also become more frequent. Climate change is causing more thin ice to appear. Sled dogs recognize holes in the ice; snowmobiles do not.

The people of Shishmaref have not given their dogs up, though. Dogs are chained up all over the village, and many families now also keep dogs as pets. A few still keep a dog team for races. The most famous race is the annual Iditarod, in which the competitors race their dog teams from Anchorage to Nome, a distance of more than 1,000 miles.

Extreme cold, snowstorms, or sometimes a lack of snow and crumbling ice make The Last Great Race a spectacular event. Shishmaref pro­ duced one of the most famous and beloved Iditarod competitors of all time: Herbie Nayokpuk, better known as the Shishmaref Cannonball.

The Iditarod is not the only event that breathes new life into old traditions. As traditions crumble, interest in cultural heritage continues to increase. Since the 1960s local communities have been organizing traditional dances and festivals again, which were banned a century ago by the white missionaries. Schools set up language programs to encourage interest in the Inupiaq language. Cultural camps and youth exchange programs are organized. Cultural heritage organizations research the Inupiaq culture and organize the Native Games, in which the competitors pit skill and strength against each other in traditional games.

205 Mirroring the rest of America, Native Pride is gaining popularity in Shishmaref too. With the annual Inupiaq Days, the high school is trying to interest the younger generation in their traditions. Among other things, pupils learn about traditional cooking: seal, muktuk (frozen whale skin in blubber), oogruk (bearded seal in blubber), walrus, duck, and caribou soup. Old myths and tales are told and traditional music lessons are offered.

The people of Shishmaref are determined to save their community from annihilation. Leaving their island is one thing, but abandoning the security of their community is another. That is why moving to Tin Creek is the only option for them. On that remote piece of pioneer country, they hope to preserve their way of life and prevent the community from falling apart.

206 CREDITS The maps appear courtesy of: p. 42 en p. 162 © Wisniewski, Josh, We’re always going back and forth: Kigiqtaamiut Subsistence Land Use and Occupancy for the Community of Shishmaref.

Anchorage: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District, 2005 p. 82 © Schaaf, J. M., Late-Prehistoric Inupiaq Societies, Northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska: An Archeological Analysis AD 1500-1800, 1995 (dissertation) p. 122 © University of Texas Libraries. p. 202 © ACIA, Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge University Press, 2004

207 Acknowledgements My gratitude goes out to all the people of Shishmaref who collaborated with me on the photographs in this volume. Thank you for your hospitality, trust and graciousness. I’m most indebted to Jan Louter for inviting me to come to Shishmaref.

Also many thanks to: Taco Hidde Bakker, Eefje Blankevoort, Ben Diep, Linda van Deursen, Melle van Essen, Gary Yong Guan, Jacqueline Hassink, Juul Kappelhof, Cyril Lixenberg, Onno Lixenberg, Renske Meertens, Janna Meeus, Armand Mevis, Sander Roeleveld, Iris Sikking, Jeroen de Vries, Bas Vroege, Riekje Ziengs en Yvo Zijlstra.

Dana Lixenberg (Amsterdam, 1964) lives and works in New York and Amsterdam. She studied photography at the London College of Printing and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Previous independent photo projects include Jeffersonville, Indiana (19972005) and Imperial Courts (1993-present).

Two volumes of her work have been published, united states (Artimo, 2001) and Jeffersonville, Indiana (Artimo, 2005). Her work has been exhibited internationally and has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Newsweek , Vibe (VS), The Telegraph Magazine (UK ) and Vrij Nederland (NL), among other publications.

The Last Days of Shishmaref started with a dramatic report in French newspaper Libération in 2005 about the disappearance of an island off the coast of Alaska. Film director Jan Louter travelled to the island to make a documentary and asked photographer Dana Lixenberg to accompany him. The result was a fully comprehensive project: a documentary, a website incorporating educational modules, an exhibition and a photobook. www.thelastdaysofshishmaref.net The Last Days of Shishmaref was made possible by: Exhibition, book, education: Mondriaan Foundation, VSB Foundation, Egbert Kunst Fund/Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation, The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, SNS REAAL Fund, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam Climate Initiative, Rotterdam Department of Arts and Culture, Rotterdam Development Corporation and others.

Film and website: CoBO Fund, Netherlands Film Fund, Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Promotion Fund, LLiNK, Rotterdam Film Fund and others.

With many thanks to: Gérard Steenbergen (LPII Las Palmas), Anthony Wouters and Herman Abbes (Eyes On Media), Oscar van der Linden (EPSON), Ruud Visschedijk (Nederlands Fotomuseum) and Maurits Groen (Maurits Groen Milieu & Communicatie).

208 Colophon

Distribution

Photography: Dana Lixenberg Editing: Dana Lixenberg, Bas Vroege (Paradox) Design: Mevis & Van Deursen, Amsterdam Book prints: Color Space Imaging, New York Lithography: Theo van Herwijnen (Studio ZieZo, Maarssen) Text: Eefje Blankevoort (Prospektor) Research: Taco Hidde Bakker Translation: Joy Maul-Phillips Production: Iris Sikking (Paradox)

RAM Publications, Santa Monica www.rampub.com

Paradox PO Box 113 1135 ZK Edam The Netherlands www.paradox.nl

Australia, New Zealand Books @ manic, Victoria www.manic.com.au

episode publishers Marconistraat 52 3029 AK Rotterdam The Netherlands www.episode-publishers.nl ISBN 9789059731103 Printed in the Netherlands by Slinger, Alkmaar All rights reserved.

First edition © Images: Dana Lixenberg © Paradox www.thelastdaysofshishmaref.net

United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Japan Art Data, London www.artdata.co.uk Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy Vice Versa, Berlin www.vice-versa-vertrieb.de

Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand Book Editions Singapore www.bookeditions.com.sg The Netherlands and other countries Coen Sligting Bookimport, Amsterdam

DANA LIXENBERG

Paradox / episode publishers

ISBN 978-9059731103

9 789059 731103

THE LAST DAYS OF SHISHMAREF

Shishmaref is disappearing. The village on an island off the coast of Alaska is slowly but surely being swallowed up by the sea. Global warming is causing the island’s protective permafrost layer to melt; the Chukchi Sea is freezing later in the season, leaving ravaging waves free to batter the island. It is estimated that the community of 600 Inupiaq Eskimos will have to leave their native land before 2020.

Photographer Dana Lixenberg stayed in Shishmaref for several weeks during the winter and summer of 2007. She explored the intricate relationship between the inhabitants and the rough, bleak and beautiful landscape that surrounds them. Using her 4x5-inch field camera makes the act of photographing more formal than hand-held photography, resulting in an intimate collaboration between the photographer and her subjects and in carefully composed still-lives. By combining portraiture, details of interiors, village tableaux, sea- and landscapes, Lixenberg creates a nuanced and complex portrait of this close-knit community, a community balancing between a past rooted in tradition and an uncertain future.

The last days of Shishmaref

THE LAST DAYS OF SHISHMAREF - Dana Lixenberg

DANA LIXENBERG