Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Why subsistence?

Scott,

I didn't mean to leave you or others with a partial view of the picture which after some pondering I could see my post doing. As to the big complex picture of the roughly dozen Alaska native peoples (depending on who is counting and naming them) the story of those that are leading normal healthy lives seldom if ever gets any play in the news or social conscience.

I know many trilingual people, fluent in English, Aleut and Russian. My neighbor graduated from Stanford law school and is a corporate CEO, and I know another attorney and CEO. I've worked with an engineer that graduated from MIT and another who received her doctorate from Stanford. Musicians, artists, priests, craftsmen, fishermen, whalers, electricians, heavy equipment operators, the sweetest little old ladies you'll ever meet, etc., more often than not just honest hard working decent folks.

To add, when i last got my shoulder repaired doc friends all gave me the same name for the surgeon they would see. And my shoulder on the third try by the third doc was finally done right. He was a Native from wayyyyy uo north.

Yeah, Art- on your recomendation, he did a fine job on both my knee and shoulder, several years apart. Go Adrian!

Some of those Natives know knives and anatomy....

I don't think he is a "subsistence" hunter anymore, tho.....

Well I am really glad that I met both of you gentlemen.

I realize that it would involve a lot of keyboard work to really express the intricate dynamics regarding this topic. Perhaps we could do lunch again sometime and I could learn more.

....and Art I will try to swing by soon and pick up my mail. I've been working six day weeks and lately It's been after 8:00 p.m. when I get back home from the jobs... we'll make arrangements I'm sure.

Thank you both.!

Scott,

That would be nice to do lunch again. Only thing is I got myself in trouble at work. My boss is moving out of state and I made the mistake of taking the offer to fill his position. In the last three weeks since getting myself in that mess I've only had time to take two lunch breaks, and I'm looking to be even busier if that's even possible. Beats unemployment, but why does workload always have to pick up during summer?

Good news is oil industry is heading towards a significant uptick. Bad news is with so many people being laid off, retiring and just bugging out of the state it's going to be tough to find experience hands to fill positions. Construction uptick is likely another 6-12 months away.

Chet is good at what he does, for sure..... and knows what those joints will be subject to when they’re back ‘out there’. 😄

I can just about guarantee that he gets plenty via the trading/barter pipeline. Heck, his widowed mom was still hunting caribou alone in her 70s a ‘few’ years ago. And with sis and bro-in-law retired from full-time aviation, I’m sure there is plenty.

Been out of the loop all week at camp... didn’t see this.

Reindeer are still herded in some parts. Their value is different than what they originally were brought here for. These days it’s largely the antler trade for monetary purposes, with meat generation for local people. They do an annual round-up of the scattered herds, tag new calves, cut antlers, castrate some. They are, like dogs, genetically identical to caribou and mix just as collies and labs might. Many of the original ‘deer were easily known by various coloration. That’s less now. So too the body structures which once favored a less ranging shorter legged, bigger bodied deer.

Typically the animals belong to an individual or collective and they are taken and used by their owners. The local herds here have expanded so much that they are becoming difficult to manage, overgraze their range, and tend to wander off and mix with the caribou. Consequently the herders have approved some thinning and allow households to remove 1-2 per year as they need meat. They prefer a male harvest right now since the calves are young. My son took an animal from a calf-less herd, presumably all males (or in this case cisgendered 🤪 ). In any case he/she/it 😎 was modernly adorned with an appropriate body piercing (ear tag). 😇

Just give a holler... tough thing about construction work is doing it all summer when you would like to be out doing fun stuff and then having all winter off when you would rather be working. Of course finish guys like their end better...

I will indeed, thanks again.

Few years ago I was in a hardware store in PA buying loose fasteners out of bulk by the pound.
Lady comes over and asks me "Young man, would you be able to tell me where I might find some 'finish' nails.?"
I paused for a moment and said "I really don't know, maybe in Finland.?"

So she spelled it wrong? And you were mean to her for that?

I have stayed at a few local native villages and yes these natives do need subsistence,natives do not understand our way of life. 99 % of the natives are very honest,fun to be with,would give you the shirt off there back, sometimes even give you their wife for the night and to us that`s strange,but a old native custom I guess ? if you ever hunt or fish with natives bring a few new nice knives with ,natives love a good knife.

Weird science.

I just knew someone would go there.

Don’t make fun of my communication skills. 🤪

Nothing but a bit of pointy elbow bud!

😁

Totally
But I've learned to be nice-er since then

No different than our State Bird being co-opted as the cause celebre of the "Glorious 12th" in Scotland...

Heya Las,

Cool you and your wife lived up here for ah few years. I just came up from my dry cabin on the Tanana, half hour outside of Delta. I still alternate between building boats in Delta Junction, and working jobs in the surrounding villages.

I rock ah fat tire bike round the village all season. Usually in the evening, I'm blastin round town on the bike.

I also run a dog team in the winter months. Keeps it simple: No gas or parts or car insurance or ATV or snow machine. The Malamutes go through 300 lbs of shifish and 20 lbs of rice per month. But, they will eat anything. That fish, is the fuel.

I can't take pride in a fancy, expensive material object that uses internal combustion. Running them dogs up the Noatak this spring, man what ah wild run! I was lost in the blizzard and high winds with no GPS.

Those Malamutes were all like confident lil homing devices. I was 1/4 mile from town, and still didn't realize where the heck I was! Just trust the homing pigeons! I do take pride in my bloodline though, I've been building dog team for six years. Gonna run them in the Kobuk 440 this year, just for the scenery. They are 4 times the size of a race dog, so 8mph pace is all i can keep, against the sleek 9.5 mph huskies..........

It is hard living up here without a boat though, as a boat builder. This place is water-world! Once I finish out my orders for the year, I'm gonna have to build a good boat for up here.

I do feel bad for a single mother in town, who gotta feed kids when the AC be chargin $100 for a 25 lbs turkey, or $8 for some milk. Some of em can't get trips to town for a costco run. Rough times man.