Week With Indigenous Family in Remote Alaska
Brianna Walston described spending a week with an Indigenous family in roadless remote Alaska, accessible only by plane or boat, sharing traditional MakTak foods and cultural history. The immersive off-grid experience highlights opportunities for authentic cultural exchange in Alaska's most isolated communities.
- The family's community, the King Island Iñupiaq, historically lived in a village of houses built on stilts on the steep cliffs of a remote island in the Bering Strait. At its peak, the community had about 200 residents who would migrate to the mainland in the summer to sell their renowned ivory carvings. - The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs' decision to close the school on King Island in the 1950s forced the community to relocate to Nome for their children's education, effectively abandoning their cliffside village by 1970. Today, many King Islanders live in Nome but strive to maintain their cultural identity and connection to their ancestral home. - MakTak, also known as muktuk, is a traditional food made from the skin and blubber of whales like the bowhead, narwhal, or beluga. It is a vital part of the Iñupiaq subsistence diet and is often eaten raw or frozen, providing crucial vitamins and nutrients. - A subsistence lifestyle is fundamental to the Iñupiaq culture, involving the hunting of marine mammals such as whales, walruses, and seals, as well as land animals like caribou. These hunting and gathering practices are deeply connected to their spiritual beliefs and are passed down through generations. - The reality of living in a roadless community like Nome means a significantly higher cost of living, estimated to be over 13% higher than the U.S. average. In 2022, food costs in Nome had increased by 27% in a year, with items like a small watermelon costing as much as $55. - Reaching remote Alaskan communities is a costly endeavor, with round-trip flights from Anchorage to Nome often costing between $350 and $400 or more. This reliance on air travel inflates the price of all goods that must be flown in. - Iñupiaq culture includes significant celebrations like the Nalukataq, or whaling festival. This event features a "blanket toss," where a hunter is thrown high in the air from a large skin made of walrus hides, a tradition that helps to honor the spirit of the whale.
