Life in the Arctic

[Randi]

https://alaska-native-news.com/category ... -the-week/

PAMYULEK – METEOR
AKGUA’AQ PAMYULEGMEK TANGELLRIANGA. – THE OTHER NIGHT I SAW A METEOR.

[Randi]

High time for lynx in Alaska’s Interior

[Randi]

https://alaska-native-news.com/category ... -the-week/

MAITAQ – SEPTUM PIERCING
MAITARTUUMARTAALLRIIT ARNAT. – WOMEN USED TO WEAR SEPTUM PIERCINGS.

[Randi]

https://alaska-native-news.com/category ... -the-week/

QALUTAQ – DIPPER, LADLE, BAILER
MAQIWIGMI QALUTAT ATURTAAPET. – WE USE DIPPERS IN THE BANYA.

MAQIWIK – Steambath/Banya-Alutiiq Word of the Week-November 24th

[Randi]

There’s Lots of Water in the World’s Most Explosive Volcano

[Randi]

Marsibil Erlendsdottir runs a farm and provides weather reports from a remote outpost in eastern Iceland. The job requires vigilance and an unfailing resolve.
Monitoring the Weather at the Edge of the World

[Randi]

Alaskan Fishermen Encouraged By Climate Change Executive Order

[Randi]

https://alaska-native-news.com/category ... -the-week/

Qawangurtuaq – Dream
Qawangurtuataartut. –They always dream.

[Randi]

Alutiiq Angyaq Inducted into Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame

[Randi]

Archaeologists Discover Spot in Alaska Where Indigenous Fort Once Stood
The location of the fort, which was used by the Tlingit people to ward off Russian invaders in 1804 and was destroyed by the Russians, has eluded researchers for decades.

[Randi]

Blue beads in the tundra: The first U.S. import from Europe?

[Randi]

https://alaska-native-news.com/category ... -the-week/

Piturni’isuutet – Spices

Neq’rkat piturni’isuutet ilaluki. – Add the spices to the food.

[Randi]

https://alaska-native-news.com/category ... -the-week/

Qiteq – Rain
Sun’ami qitengtaartuq. – It rains all the time in Kodiak.

[Randi]

‘Ghost Forest’ Got Run Over by a Glacier

[Michael]

[Randi]

https://alaska-native-news.com/category ... -the-week/

WAA’UT PITURNIRTAARTUT MIKELNGUT. – THE SMALL FLOUNDERS ARE TASTY.

[Randi]

Cultural ‘big deal’: Seal oil on
the menu at Alaska care home

The Associated Press


ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Seal oil has been a staple in the diet of Alaska’s Inupiat for generations.
The oil — ever-present in households dotting Alaska coastlines — is used mainly as a dipping sauce for fish, caribou and musk ox. It’s also used to flavor stews and even eaten alone.
But when Inupiat elders entered nursing homes, they were cut off from the comfort food. State regulations didn’t allow seal oil because it’s among traditionally prepared Alaska Native foods that have been associated with the state’s high rate of botulism, which can cause illness or death.
That’s changing for 18 residents at Utuqqanaat Inaat — in English, a place for elders — a part of the Maniilaq Health Association in the
Chukchi Sea community of Kotzebue, about 550 miles northwest of Anchorage. The association has worked with partners in Alaska and
the Lower 48 to develop a process to kill the toxin in seal oil and make it safe for consumption.
Last month, Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation approved its use in elder homes, believed to be a first for seal oil
in the U.S.
Maniiliq staff members and an ad hoc seal oil task force worked for more than five years with two universities to develop a way to
eliminate the botulinum toxin without dramatically changing the taste or reducing the nutritional value of seal oil.
The effort began when Maniilaq was in the early stages of starting a traditional food program, said Chris Dankmeyer, its environmental health manager and a commissioned officer with the U.S. Public Health Service.
“The No. 1 crucial food that everybody wanted was seal oil, but we weren’t able to give them that,” he said.
Discussions were initiated to determine the safety risk of seal oil and possible ways to control it.
Most seal oil comes from subsistence hunters who are allowed by the U.S. government to harvest bearded, ringed and spotted seals in
the Kotzebue area and to donate what they collect to nonprofits and other facilities.
Botulism has always been controlled by heat, but the questions for those involved in the seal oil project were how high should the heat be and how long should it be applied to destroy the toxin.
“You know, we could boil it, but that’s going to change the whole characterization, the whole nutritional value of seal oil,” Mr. Dankmeyer said. “That’s not what we wanted.”
Seal oil was shipped to the University of Wisconsin, where it was spiked with different toxins and tested at varying levels of heat and
lengths of time. Researchers discovered that heating seal oil at 176 degrees) for 2½ minutes destroys the toxins. To be extra safe, they decided to heat the oil for 10 minutes then keep it frozen so it doesn’t produce any additional toxins.
Cyrus Harris, hunter support and natural resources advocate for Man-iilaq, said staff members at the Utuqqanaat Inaat facility must now be trained about safe handling, a process that is being slowed by the pandemic. Still, he expects seal oil will be available at the facility soon.
Elders at the facility, who range from their 60s to their 90s, have gotten tastes of seal oil in the past when relatives brought them food and it didn’t pass through the facility’s kitchen, where it would have been subject to state regulations.
But now the residents are excited about the prospect of having the oil anytime they want it, said Marcella Wilson, current administrator of the facility.
“They consider it a part of them, their being,” she said about the elders, recalling that some have said they “feel warm inside” and sleep all night after eating it.
“It’s a big deal culturally,” Ms. Wilson said.

[Michael]

Finally!

Quite a number of years ago the Whitehorse General Hospital started serving "country food" to First Nations patients who wanted it. It does make an institution more home-like.

[Randi]

Malaspina Glacier Gets Up and Goes

https://www.geonames.org/5868197/malaspina-glacier.html

[AvastMH]

It's awful to be able to think 'Just another glacier in retreat'. In fact all I expect to find now is glaciers in retreat, whether that be by their ground area or their volume (where they simply think out like Malaspina). It's all sad and worrying