Alaska trip

Unalakleet Day 1 - 4/7/04

My nervous anticipation was unecessary. I was disapointed and relieved to find that Unalakleet is not an "Eskimo Village" but a typical American rural town (albeit with a lot of snow).

Outside of Brown's Lodge in Unalakleet photo

What did I expect when I came here? Some epiphany? Some spiritual awakening? I found a small town so much like any other small town. It reminds me most of Encapment, Wyoming. The only visible signs of the Eskimo way of life, a few furs hanging on the line in one man's back yard, teams of huskies and sleds in a few others, and log framed fish-drying houses scattered around town and along the beach.

Everyone speaks English. I only heard one family speaking Yup'ik and that was at the airport in Anchorage. Even the children playing amongst themselves in the Unalakleet library spoke English. Perhaps they speak Yup'ik at home with their parents, the way Mexican families in Colorado speak Spanish.

The town is not depressingly poor -- at least not obviously -- the way Peter Matthiesson described the village he visited in "Oomingmak." But it is amazingly tiny, more rural than any place I have visited before. No paved roads, no street signs (I think the streets may move during winter as the front loaders re-arrange the snow), no signs on stores (also buried in snow), a small post-office, a general store, one Alaska State Trooper.

Most people have trucks, snow machines, and four-wheelers. And in yesterday's 50 degF weather, the kids were out with spring fever, cruising all around town. I called Mike, the owner of Brown's Lodge, to pick us up at the airport when we arrived. But it is only a 15-minute walk from the airfield on the North end of town to the lodge at the South end. It makes me wonder why these people need these vehicles. Certainly not for getting around town. Maybe for going out to the hills and on the frozen water for hunting, trapping, and fishing. It seems like a waste of gas and noise to me. Last night, inside with the window open, it sounded like I was on Mission Bay in San Diego, surrounded by a sea of jetskis.

I am saddned. I would have liked more Native Spirit to be apparent.