Jane Brower on the bank of the Kuukpik River

Many more things happened at Kuukpik's 40th anniversary celebration for the village of Nuiqsut, and I did my best to photograph it all. There was an Iñupiat fashion show with contestants ranging in age from infant to elder, there was a rock and roll dance with a 60s and 70s dance competition and there was another boat ride, this time upriver. There was a grand finale Eskimo dance. And there was gospel singing. It will all be in the publication I will make for Kuukpik to document the celebration. I did promise to include a photo of Jane Brower in this iPhone/Instagram series and here it is. She sits on the bank of the Kuukpik River (Coleville) at a picnic that was part of the second boat ride - quite a long ways up river from the village, late in the afternoon. I will make another one-picture post from the grand-finale dance. There is a point I want to make about the vastness of this country up here and the closeness of the very few people spread across it and I think this dance picture will help me to do so. I will follow this with a short series on the gospel singing, because it is just too important to the culture to leave out. And then I will make one more small series on the goodbyes and that will be it. I had planned to do this tonight before I go to bed, but I am exhausted. I think I might just try to relax, get a good rest and a decent night's sleep and then post this in the morning. But you never know, I could get restless and post it tonight. It could happen. But I'm going to try to resist and just relax. 

Square dance in Nuiqsut, fiddle and guitar music provided by Canadians

Along with their traditional drums, songs and dances, the folks from Aklavik, Yukon Territory, brought a fiddle and guitars and staged a wild square dance. That's Andrew Gordon on the guitar and James Rogers on the fiddle. They play fast and good...

...and everybody had fun. Young people...

Angus and Alexander of Aklavik, Yukon Territory, play at the great square dance at Kuukpik's 40th anniversary celebration for Nuiqsut.

...and older people, too... Everybody had fun...

I should probably add... The entire celebration was alcohol and drug free. Not only was it fun, but everybody could remember it afterwards...

...those empty bottles and cans... water and juice...

...it was just a happy night...

Homemade bow and arrow contest, part 2: the young champion

Here's the winner - Woodrow Oyagak, originally of Nuiqsut but now living in Atqasuk with his wife and family.  He put a homemade arrow almost in the bullseye with a homemade bow. I took a picture with my "real" camera of him and the target with the arrow in it as proof and then I thought I took one with this iPhone as well, but I can't find it in here so I must not have. There was also a slingshot contest and a kid's division in both but I put myself behind the target with a telephoto lens for those and that was just too much distance for my iPhone to grapple with.

Homemade bow and arrow contest, part 1: the elder

Those who have followed this series from the beginning first met Lydia Sovalik in her tent at her Nigliq fish camp, then in her fish smokehouse and then boating back to the village in her grandson's boat. Here she is again, competing in the home-made bow and arrow contest. Technically, she did not win, but in a very real way when an elder gets up and competes with young people, she wins. Maybe there was an elder's division and I just didn't pick up on it. In that case, she did win.

His mom, looking so young he must photograph her all over again

"My mom looks so young in this picture," Harry Ericklook mused in amazement as he gazed at the image of the late Bessie Ericklook (right) taken in 1973 in the Nuiqsut tent city. Then he pulled out his phone and took a picture of the picture of his mother. Standing with Bessie is the late David Brower and his wife, Jane. Now in her mid-eighties, Jane attended the celebration and will yet make at least one appearance in this account. #nuiqsut #alaska #kuukpik #inupiat #tentcity