Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I get back to Red's house in time to greet Guy Adams, Red and Sarah's nephew, who
has picked crab pots on the way back from helping a friend pick up his new boat. Don,
Lynda's husband, and Mike, Sarah's husband, clean the ten king crab while we cook, and
eat. A fair distribution of labor, we all agree. Well, maybe not all.
At eleven there is intermittent yawning, but it is too beautiful outside to go to bed. In-
stead we go for a drive, across the lagoon and up to the new cemetery, where Red and
Sarah's mother is buried. The gravesite looks down on the lagoon and the town and the
Sound beyond, which stretches to the Chuckchi Sea, and Russia after that. Russian and
Alaska Natives are related by generations of trade across the sea, and in fact there are
Russian Natives visiting Kotzebue for the Fourth and for the biannual Native trade show
that follows.
July 4
th
in Kotzebue kicks off as most Fourths do, with a parade of fire trucks, ambu-
lances, and tanker trucks, followed by a color guard of local National Guardsmen. What
distinguishes this parade is the traditional dress worn by the bevy of Inupiat lovelies wav-
ing from the cabs, hoods and roofs of the vehicles, flowered kuspuks, sealskin parkas,
skin moccasins and mukluks and gauntlets, all intricately and colorfully beaded and
trimmed. Some of them are sitting in dogsleds draped with skins. A retired bush pilot
rides a float with an almost full-size red and purple crepe paper airplane behind him.
Yeah, this is what I call an Alaskan parade.
And then it's on to the fair grounds, where a semi-circle of empty Conex freight trailers
open onto a central yard. There are dolls made from caribou hooves, jars of fireweed
honey, and what appears to be 3,000 cans of silly string, very popular with the kids and all
of which seem to be aimed in my direction. There is qayusaak, caribou stew. At least two
places are selling fry bread, for which I make a beeline, one after the other, because it's all
about fairness in reporting with me. Both are excellent, since you asked.
Footraces in every age group begin immediately after the parade, starting with the baby
crawl and ending with an adult three-miler. The Northern Lights Dancers take to the
grandstand, where drummers in white kuspuks and spotted seal mukluks hammer out a
beat and dancers in blue and red kuspuks take to the floor. The songs and dances compete
with the calls for races. At first the songs are muted, the sticks tapping the frame—“On
your mark, get ready, go!”—and the dancers beat time with subtle grace. Then the drums
