Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Alcohol is a huge problem and a hot-button issue in Alaska. Bush villages have the op-
tion under state law to declare themselves wet, damp or dry. Dry means no alcohol al-
lowed for any purpose at any time. Damp means you can have it for personal consump-
tion. Wet means it's for sale. The councils of dry villages have been known to create air-
port greeting committees empowered by local ordinance to search your plane, your lug-
gage and you. If alcohol is discovered in any one of these locations, you will be summar-
ily shot.
Well, okay, not really (sorry, a little wishful thinking going on there), but you will be
summarily deported, generally via the same plane you came in on. Even if you are in a
wet community you may, by imbibing, offend those who are trying to make it a dry one.
Why risk it? My suggestion is that you act as if all villages are dry and just don't drink
during the time you spend in the Bush. Save it for when you get back to Anchorage,
where the bars are open until two in the morning.
If you have a problem with hunting or trapping, stifle it. Rural Alaskans wear fur as a
matter of survival. Rural Alaskans hunt as a matter of subsistence. Check your politically
correct sensibilities at Anchorage International. You can pick them up again on your way
out of the state.
I was in England last October and someone admired my storyknife brooch and wanted
to know what it was made of. “Ivory,” I said, and I will never forget the look of horror that
flooded her face and the faces of the people with her. “You'd better be careful,” she said
sternly, “they'll confiscate that at customs.” For a moment I thought she was going to call
them herself then and there. I gaped at her, until the light dawned. “It's not elephant
ivory,” I said, “it's walrus ivory from Alaska.” Alaska Natives harvest walrus and sell art
made of ivory from walrus tusks. You'll see it in every gift shop you walk into. It's legal.
My friend and fellow author Michael Armstrong tells of arriving in Barrow to work on
an archaeological dig, and one of the first sounds he heard was of an automatic rifle going
off in the distance. Although my father, a charter member of the
NRA
, and I went round
and round over gun control (“You don't need an Uzi to shoot a moose!”), the reality of the
situation is this: a firearm in the Alaskan Bush is a tool, not a toy. You'll see a lot of them.
Relax.
