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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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 Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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this is a typical whaling camp. many miles out on the ocean ice.
here I am on a sled going out to the lead opening, and I am so sick.
I have the flu. I just want to roll over in bed.. NOPE.. Jake Koonuk whaling captain.. requests for me to join his crew!
I slept outside that night @ 60 below.. brrr.. I froze the flu! I was perfect the next morning! WowoW!
This is home for the next two months! This is where we sleep, and wait and watch and wait and watch for weeks on end. Just for food!
This image was created at midnight! The Arctic is such a beautiful quiet paradise, The air is so fresh and clean and "cripz"! |
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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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| Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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All whaling camps are set up identical. Each crew "I8 wHALING CAPTAINS are spread along the ocean ice lead opening 1/2 - 3/4 mile apart from each other.
Two months! yes.. this is how we gather food.. we hunt, we have to arrive out on the ocean ice.. BEFORE that lead opens.. and we wait for the animals to migrate! The food comes to us!
Some familes stay together out on the ice. The tents are for the women to do all the cookng, Plenty of Hot Coffee, Hot tea, Hot chocolate. But how do you obtain DELICIOUS FRESH Drinkng water way out here miles from land?
The tents are placed BACK. way back on much safer ice. 3/4 mile back in some cases..
All the "fresh water" is every where. you just don't see it.. That is the ocean. everything around us is "salt water" how do you get FRESH WATER, way out here?? !! I betcha can't figure that one out! |
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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:58 am Post subject: |
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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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| Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 2:10 pm Post subject: |
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! good bye !
Last edited by Majik_Imaje on Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:25 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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evutch
B.V. Info Seeker
Joined: Sep 24, 2006
Posts: 2690
Location: the lions den, reptiles lair, and satans playground-DC
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| Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 3:43 pm Post subject: hey majik |
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i see your still full of piss and vinegar..and taking great photos...
must be all the clear air up there. you're about as cuddly as one of those polar bears... 
so...other than all that..how ya doin?
i see you're a little more riled than usual, or maybe it's just the weather..
thayt one snow photo is so bright, it hurts my eyes from here!
you wear sunglasses up there?
60 below eh? how the hell do you piss up there? real fast i bet.
i've only been in 45 below...but my eyes still froze shut..probably light sweater weather for the kids up there...i'd have to sleep with the dogs...or a few gals...got to find that one that heats up like a coal furnace...
i hope to be near you...( if anchorage can be called near..) in a year..
on one of those big fancy cruise boats...we'll see..
well, glad to see you still posting, in your warm way...
i thought i was a curmudgeon...you win...
keep some water on the fire...don't lose your mittens.. |
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Nanook
Newbie
Joined: Apr 16, 2007
Posts: 6
Location: Shoreline, WA, USA, Earth
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:37 am Post subject: |
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| tofu_kronos wrote: |
| Welcome to the board, but isn't inuit instead of eskimo. |
Inuit refers to a specific group of people, Eskimo refers to any group native to the area generally north of the arctic circle or tree line. Eskimo is to Inuit as Asian is to Japanese.
There are some people who take offense to the term because they believe it has the meaning "Eaters of raw meat", which is incorrect, it actually has a meaning more along the lines of one who snowshoes. However, as it happened, Greenlandic Eskimo's at least prior to modern times did eat some meats raw. Bear meat would be boiled, but certain birds that would be found frozen, would be eaten raw.
The whole concept of this being a bad thing is really a western influence, prior to western contact, mental illness was almost unheard of. One could argue that they were living in a primitive fashion at that time but they survived in an environment that nobody else could and they were noted by early westerners who had contact to possess superior intelligence and physical traits. |
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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:01 am Post subject: |
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Inuit = Canada, finland, Norway, Russia, Greenland
Inupiaq or Inupiat = Alaska only
Circumpolar conference held in Barrow every few years, brings all the Inuit nations to alaska for this special conference.!! |
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inventorgrissom
Newbie
Joined: Mar 31, 2008
Posts: 2
Location: Morrisville, NC
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| Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 2:59 pm Post subject: |
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| I think this is one of the most interesting threads I've read in a very long time. My brother Steve Grissom was a bush pilot up there. He also founded and published an aviation magazine there. He always said that it was heaven on ice. I never really believed that until I read this thread. Now I must visit. |
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_________________
Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see. |
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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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| Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 3:31 pm Post subject: BARROW ALASKA - TOP OF THE WORLD |
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Hello Hello from the land of the Eskimo - in Barrow TOP of the WORLD.
Here is perhaps the most well known site in the entire village, The Arch of the two Jaw bones from a Bowhead Whale.
But these were put here, not by the people of Barrow.. .. People of Point Hope came up here to show and help them how to do this in the ways of Tikigaq ! in 1964.
An Elder informed me of this little tidbit of info about the Arctic. Ron Oviok from Point Hope. He was my former landlord in Point Hope, In one of the many different homes have rented in the village.
Its that time of year again, it is time to go whaling.. new skins need to be put on those umiaq frames !! Clean skins or the whale will not give up its gift to the hunter of its choice.
New skins are hanging, drying in the wind. To stretch and stretch and sewn together to cover that wooden frame.
These are thousands of years of age old traditions that must be strictly adhered to. The whale can see, hear, smell. They know the personality of that hunter. They know his umiaq each and every year, the same whales with the same hunters in the same umiaq. Whales are SMART. they will only give up the sacrifice to the hunter of its choice.
Everyone has had a whole year to get ready. That Captain must spend many thousands of dollars to feed his crew and provide the supplies, ammuntion, meals for 8 hunters many times each day. There is lots of very difficult hard work to do out on that ice. If you want a much closer view of Barrow by the best there ever was up here. Bill Hess is most respected person up here. He lives in Wassilla but has made many trips to Barrow in his own private plane. The Gift of the Whale by Bill Hess - a MUST READ ! that will keep you utterly spell bound. I now know how you feel when you read this thread. I felt the excitment all over me reading his exceptional book 289 pages with oodles & oodles of fascinating images that had me breathless page after page. (Gasp !!)
I was shocked .. .when I found out, we each began our quest in the same year. In fact when he was in Point Hope in 82,after the hunt I was in the darkroom processing all this film, we have never met. but his name is a 'legend' and well respected at that.
We have spoken on the phone years ago, But this book is wonderful. and he verifies many of the stories and customs that I have written about. I felt like I was beside him the whole time. I will read - reread and read that book many times. The rush was incredible !! |
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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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| Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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greeney2
B.V. Info-a-holic
Joined: Sep 28, 2001
Posts: 9637
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:06 am Post subject: |
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Majik_Imaje
I'm giving you the honorary position, of having provided all of us with the most spectacular pictures, of anyone in the history of this board. No exageration, you win, hands down.
Seriously, they are really a pleasure to look at and see how pristine and magnificent Alaska is. Not only the subject matter is fantastic but the quality of your pictures. I'm no photography expert, but I certainly enjoy looking at them.
Thank you! |
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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:24 am Post subject: |
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A most profound thank you (blushing) greeny2
I promise not to disapoint you, for the remainder of images I will post in this thread.
Living out on the ocean ice, is an experience of being in a another world, a different world, a world of frozen ice.
we are out here, for one reason, and one reason only.. .. to gather food to make it through next winter.
This is hard core hunting at its extremes. A lot of very difficult hard work is involved to stay out here. It is very dangerous, anything can happen at any time, with no warning at all.
This year, 2008, the ice broke many miles in back of the hunters and the tent areas, Everyone was floating out to sea and no one knew it at all.
Search and Rescue had to fly down from Barrow to resuce the stranded people, using a huge helipcopter. Everyone was safely brrought back to safer ice, to continue the hunt.
These trails have to be cut by hand, Keep these trails open, that is the job for many of the crew members, work on that trail all day long, bust down the high portions and fill in the low portions. this crew member is over 70 years young and this is his job all day.. work on that trail. no one gets any pay for all of this hard work.. .. .. .. just the right to eat !
Looking around, it is easy to wonder at times.. how did i ever end up out here in the middle of frozen no where ? Outside for 24 / 7 for two months !
It is windy and extremly cold. Polar bears can strike with out any warning.
I posted a story .. about a very close friend of mine in Point Lay that was eaten by a Polar bear in Dec of 1990. Charles Stalker Jr. III - He was my electrical apprentice in Point Lay. I was in Anchorage when I found out about it. I was in shock. Here is the actual newspaper article
Some people like to lash out and slap me across the face and insist I make these stories up. when I provide the proof.. Not once are these cowards capable of apologizing !!
So sad that we live in such a world that people possess this hateful spitefull attitude. This is why I stay living with Eskimo's. I do not have to put up with that type of mentality.
This is another world out here. Quiet, cold, windy, and absolute solitude.
Far far away from the maddening crowd of civilization.
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greeney2
B.V. Info-a-holic
Joined: Sep 28, 2001
Posts: 9637
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:06 am Post subject: |
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Majik_Imaje, amazing again, you are the best bringing us these great pictures.
I have to confess when you first came on the board, we clashed about some subjects, and don;t really recall what right now. We all get a little suspicious of new people if they are real or not. You live in a place and a life none of us can imagine, but wonder what life must be like up north. You are the real deal, and If I;m one of the ones who offended you, you have my sincere apology now.
We have all the convienance of everything at our fingertips and don;t realize how hard life can really be in this country. Most of us do not have to hunt because our lives depend on it. I live where it doesn;t even snow, except in our local mountians, where its all resorts and snow are for fun and entertainment. I did grow up in Buffalo, New York, so I have seen cold weather and lots of snow, but nothing like you muct see. We all live in places where everything we need is just around the corner. Big food markets, countless fast food drive thru's, malls, theaters.
Thanks Majik_Imaje! |
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Majik_Imaje
B.V. Lurker
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Point Hope Alaska
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| Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:16 am Post subject: |
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Well I am originally from Boston Mass. !!
I first flew to Alaska in 1976 to work on the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline. Over 500 electricians from the Onion Hall were working on that project.
I worked 13 weeks = 26,000 bux I fell in love with Alaska & the Arctic.
I did not want to leave, to go back to Boston, but I did. June of 81 I moved back to Alaska for good.
Dec of 82 was when this image was created and it is my favorite all time image, that I have created here in the village of Point Hope.
Daisy Della Fay Age 3
Hunting for food is not as easy as it may seem up here. It is a constant challenge, A seal will pop its head out of the water for perhaps 3 - 5 seconds to look around. You have very little time to grab a rifle and make that shot !
Not a very big target to shoot at. But food is the prize !!
Once you shoot and kill that seal, now you have to 'snag' it using a Niqsut
this is a home made Niqsut. some of the excess line is played out and you swing it over your head and cast it out there.. to catch that seal and drag it in, before it sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
Our way of obtaining food is much different and incredbily more dangerous than what your used to having to do to obtain food.
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Aquarian
B.V. Info-a-holic
Joined: Oct 25, 2003
Posts: 9656
Location: Miami, Florida 305!
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| Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:31 am Post subject: |
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_________________
I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend? ~Robert Redford, Yosemite National Park dedication, 1985 |
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