Lydia makes coffee at fish camp

Lydia Sovalik makes coffee in her tent at Nigliq, where she keeps a fish camp. Nigliq, btw, means "geese." This is a good place to hunt geese.

(I have found a spot that appears to have a stronger wifi signal. Let's see if the picture posts from here.)

The wind in her hair

The boat ride to Nigliq: Tikigaq elder Delia Stone and Josie Frankson, both visiting from Point Hope. #nuiqsut #kuukpik #nigliq #boat

Drummers and singers on the bank of the Kuukpik

Closer in on Laura Kunaknana, Nellie Nukapigak, Nannie Kaigelak and John Ipalook as they drum and sing to welcome boaters to Nigliq. I've shot a lot of different images today, mostly on my "real" cameras but quite a few on this iPhone, too. I anticipate shooting far more tonight. It's going to be pretty hard any time to deal with of them anytime soon. #nigliq #nuiqsut #kuukpik

"Every man must return to the place where he was born." This was the answer the late Sam Taalak gave me 20 years ago when I asked him why he had come back to build a new village at Nuiqsut 20 years before that. The small Inupiat community Sam had grown up in had been dispersed by the forces of the modern world but in 1973, following passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the founding of the North Slope Borough, 27 families packed up their tents and belongings onto sleds and took a 150 mile machine ride to rebuild their village. They lived, set up store and taught and attended school in tents for 18 months in a place where the ambient winter temperature can drop into the -70's and windchills... too hard to calculate. This week they are celebrating their 40 years as an old village made new again. Today, celebrants ventured half-an hour downriver on the Kuukpik (Coleville) to a camp called Nigliq. As each boat came in and pulled up to the bank, boaters were greeted by the drums and songs of the Kuukpikmiut - the Kuukpik People.

Logbook: Wasilla to Nuiqsut, entry 10: Destination reached

Nellie Nukapigak picked me up And brought me here to the Kuukpik Hotel. That's it. I'm done posting for today. I need some sleep. Anyway, I have made quite enough posts for one day. This is what can happen when you spend the whole day sitting in airplanes, or sitting on chairs waiting for airplanes with nothing else to do.