So it’s 4am once again, it was dark for about 2 hours last night. Up and at’em, ready to go to Barrow,
Alaska – the highest city in the United States. It’s going to be light all day
so looking forward to another sleepless night in the land of the midnight sun.
This of course is the Arctic Ocean.
So we’re here at balmy Barrow, Alaska. It’s June 7th so the beginning of the summer.
It’s a very warm 40 degrees or so. All the locals are wearing T-shirts and shorts,
and of course I’m here wearing a stocking, cap and my jacket. Barrow is about 300 miles north of the Artic Circle.
The one good thing about the Arctic is that we’ll get 80 straight days or a few more of 24 hours of sunlight.
And it actually kind of drives people a little batty. You see kids out here playing at midnight
because they just don’t know what to do with all the daylight hours.
There’s a curfew that starts at 11 o’clock. What time is it guys? So 45 minutes ago this kids should have all been heading home,
but they’re not. And one of the favorite things the kids like to do is tease the cops and run around and hide from them.
Now Barrow is an Inupiate village, and people have been living here for thousands and thousands of years,
and it was actually known originally as the place to hunt snowy owls.
Dog-sledding is one of the most predominant forms of transportation here, as is getting around on snow machine.
The Inupiat Indians will go out in the spring and fall and hunt for bowhead whales. Sometimes they’ll even get a Beluga.
This is an “upiak” or a whaling skin boat. They stretch seal skin around the outside, head out past the glacial ice.
Each whaling captain and crew have their own flag.
Obviously these marine mammals are protected in the United States under the Marine Mammal Species Protection Act,
but the Inupiat are allowed to hunt them, they’re allowed to hunt tons of water fowl and of course they’re allowed to hunt polar bears still.
A skin boat crew just came back with the first whale of the season and they had a successful hunt so right now they’re celebrating, having a feast.
It’s kind of a – it’s a far out place. It feels like I landed on the moon or something, but I’m actually in the United States
and they have all the modern conveniences that you would have in an American city.
You look around and it looks like the houses are quite poor but actually the average household income in Barrow is about 58,000 dollars.
It’s just so expensive to pay for things around here that people have to live this lo-fi lifestyle,
but that’s kind of what Alaskans are about. They mind their own business, they’re ruggedly independent,
and the Inupiat and other Eskimo tribes all kind of live that subsistence lifestyle and get back to the roots of things,
rather than worry about you know going to work and paying bills and keeping up with the Joneses.
You know the most thing they’re worried about is getting a new snow machine for the winter or if they actually got a caribou
or whale to feed their family. So, a pretty great world up here.
It’s my honor today to show the cultural and natural history of Point Barrow and the Barrow area,
and we’re going to go out as well and look at some birds.
In front of us is the Chukchi Sea of the Arctic Ocean. The Chukchi Sea goes form Point Barrow across northwestern Alaska,
all the way across the bay to Russia. Please repeat clearly after me, it’s Muguruk. They kids out there, they are Muguruking.
They playing around hopping on to the ice. You can see them jumping out there.
The ice is like 4 feet thick so they’re not going to break through.
One of the most common birds we’re going to see out here are red phalaropes and red-neck phalaropes.
Another set of birds we may or may not see are the long-billed dowitcher.
They’re establishing territory right now.
On behalf of the Nubukials or people of Nubuk, it is my honor to welcome you here today –
congratulations you guys have reached the top – welcome to Point Barrow, the true top of the world.
In front of us is an imaginary line the separates the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean,
a very powerful place with the Arctic Ocean and North America meeting right here at 2 seas.
The traditional name of the area is Nubuku, or Point Barrow. My family is Novulumu or people of the point.
And I like to take people out here to the true top of the world – Point Barrow, Alaska.
There’s nothing like a place like this, really!