If you find yourself amazed that our day is continuing, you can understand how full the days were at Kantishna! If you participated in everything offered, you were running from sunrise to sundown. We hated to miss anything so we did it all! The evening presentation today was by Ben Boyd, who happens to be the husband of Mia, the gal from Tokyo who attended school in Appleton. Ben's cultural presentation was very interesting and one of the reasons we chose the Cruise West tour. We wanted to learn more about the land we were visiting and its people, not simply pass by on a floating city.
Ben is actually part Cherokee, from Bronson and a descendent of the Trail of Tears survivors. In Missouri, many Cherokee married and became Ozark Hillbillies, changing their names to that they wouldn't have to go to Oklahoma where they were supposed to be! Ben became the first half-breed in the Artic Village. Artic Village is 110 miles above the Artic Circle, the northmost Indian village in the world. The first contact came via Hudson Bay. They hold 1 1/2 million acres of tribal land and the tribal government uses their funds to promote and preserve the traditional way of life. No alchohol is allowed on tribal grounds and they can search everything coming in. Regional and Village corporations were formed when the pipeline went in. The Village corporations went belly-up becasue most of the people running them had never even balanced a checkbook. They called foodstamps the Indian checkbook! The Doyon corporation (which runs Kantishna) is made up of people who grew up in a cash economy.
All artic cultures are to some degree matriarchal. Women are the head of the family. This is not the same as being head of the household, but exists because someone needs to be in charge while the men are away, hunting and gathering. Whatever meat comes back goes to the women to dole out. Bachelors hunt for the tribe. They hunt to feed the village, which is why laws with bag limits and the like don't lend themselves to that culture. Elders get first choice of the meat and the entrails, which are rich in nutrients. Men own the traphline and the trapline cabins. Natives say they eat caribou down to the hooves. That saying has its roots in the fact that they will hang the feet and in hard times can eat them, after being there for years.
The Tlingit traded all the way down to Baha, California in ocean-going canoes. They were very prosperous people. Their corporation now is called SEALASKA and they are a Native owned company, the largest private landowner in Southeast Alaska. We are in Athabaskan territory here and they own the Kantishna. Doyon Corporation for Denali There are approximately 14,000 Athabaskans and 100 people in Artic Village. There are 11 groups, each with its own language and they have been found to be genetically related to the Apache and Navaho. The Native name for Athabaskan is Den a (long "a") and the Native name for Navaho is also Den a.
There never were any igloos. The natives made a foundation for subterranean houses and covered them with fur, sticks, etc. Polution is not new. The Indians were burning firewood and the valley filled with smoke, so they said that some needed to leave. They went south. They were highly migratory. In school, when you studied the land bridge across the Bering Sea, they made it sound like there was a One-Way sign, didn't they? The Natives all have the same story of creation. They came across from Asia. They would like you to think they've always been here! The Indians settled while the land bridge was still in place and the Eskimos came by ship later and settled. The Eskimos are a Mongolian people.
Ben joked that you used to be able to tell an Eskimo by the way they walked with a waddle, the better to stand firm on ice but nowdays you can't tell because the youngsters all walk like gangstas!
We were honored to be able to see Ben and his daughter, Hannah, perform the Hoop Dance. Once a year, when Hannah visits, they perform and so we were fortunate once again with our timing for this trip. The Hoop Dance stood for eternity and was a healing dance. Placing the hoops over the body was used to reinforce the belief in the cycle of life. If you were ill it was because your actions placed you on the outside; wrong thoughts, wrong ways. The hoops had a spiritual association much like a cross for a Christian. The Natives didn't have medical problems until the Europeans came with contagious diseases but traditional healing wouldn't work because the illnesses were not from being outside the cycle of life.
Hannah and Ben wore their traditional Native costumes and Hannah just shone like a little star. She has her own small hoops, made for her size. Watching her go from being a little girl, playing in puddles on the trail and making "moose antlers" behind my head to being such a talented and sparkling performer was joy itself.
Facebook page for Hoop Dancing
Ben Boyd communications
5 star log cabins, managed by Ben Boyd
No comments:
Post a Comment