Emmonak - The Real Alaska: Native Villages

I was in the Yu'Pik Village of Emmonak for about 6 months a few years ago.  I now see I am getting a number of people looking at my early blogging when I was in Emo.  For my Emmonak and/or those interested in Village Teaching friends, this post is for you.

I now live and teach in Juneau, Alaska.  It is a long way from Emmonak or the many villages which are scattered throughout Alaska.  the life in Juneau is that of any small city in the lower 48.  I have a car and can drive to a Fred Meyer or Costco and have multiple restaurants to choose should I decide to eat out.  We have a few movie theaters and I can easily get alcohol at a liquor store or a bar should I want a drink.  Gasoline is about 4 dollars a gallon, which is high when compared to the lower 48 but cheap when compared to the village.  I had an apartment with running water, an indoor toilet (regular bathroom with a tub and shower) and a washer and dryer in my apartment.  I just turned the heat up or down as needed.

I would also like to point out that the Governor and Legislature in Alaska is run primarily by White Middle Aged Men who have little to no knowledge of the villages.  Even those who have been to a village, have been there for an hour or two for a meeting and look around.  Living in a village in my opinion needs more time than a quick trip to the school, city hall, the medical facility and then a meeting before flying back to their comfortable bed in their 2000 square foot house.

In the village of Emmonak and many other Native Communities.  Many of the elders in Emo do not speak English.  They speak their native tongue on Yu'Pik.  The elders often take the hides and grasses and make clothing and baskets to stay warm and store their goods.  After the fish run, you will see fish on the lines to dry and cure.  You will see smoke houses where fish and meats are being cured for the long, hard winter.

Houses:  Many in villages live in houses and huts which are quite small.  I have had a two car garage which was bigger and better insulated than over half of the houses in Emmonak.  Many of those houses did not have running water and indoor toilets.  Most people had to go to a community bathroom, shower, clothes washing building.  I went into a house which had 10 people living in it and it was smaller than my double car garage,  They had made bunk beds 3 high for people to sleep.  They had no indoor toilet.  They did have running water in this house.  They were the nicest, sharing people you could imagine.  After I had been at the school teaching for 3 months some of the Natives I worked with told me of the conditions which they lived.  No running water and No indoor toilets and it was 30 below Zero at the time of her telling me.

Villages are just barely making it now:  The Pebble Mine and Billion Dollar Tax Breaks are being pushed by the Governor and the White Male Legislators in Juneau now.  If the water is fouled by the breaking of a 700 foot earthen dam or two at Pebble Mine, the Bristol Bay watershed will be devastated.  Those who rely on subsistance to feed themselves in the villages cannot withstand the loss of Salmon or game.  The cost of food is so very high to the average villager with little to no income means they will starve.
PFD: If the Governor and the Political Elite decide to give Billions to Oil Companies and then have to cut the PFD or money to schools or Head Start, the Villagers will pay a severe penalty.  We had Head Start in Emo and a K-12 School, where I taught.  The children are as smart as any other children I have taught.  they live in a Village where there are few jobs.  Even fishing and selling their fish is costly.  It is much cheaper to ship fish out of Anchorage or Juneau or a Fishing Village with fishermen from the lower 48.  Flying things or boating in and out of Emmonak and remote villages is very expensive.  Villagers are often not given the high paying jobs in the mines and oil fields anyway.  They lose the land or have it spoiled so the fish and wildlife are killed but they have little economic benefit.  The White Politicians will chose what will put money in their pocket with very little thought of how the decisions impact those who have lived on this land for hundreds and thousands of years.

If you want to see the real Alaska, the Native Alaska, you see that in the villages.  In the North it is frozen for 6 to 8 months and you have to withstand severe cold.

I just wanted to say hi to those interested in Village life and let you know that the real Alaska is in the villages and the life and problems are unique to villages and you cannot understand them until you have lived in a Village for at least 5 months.
THE LINK WILL TAKE YOU BACK TO MY EMMONAK POSTS:
http://richalaska.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-on-emmonak.html