Bethel, Alaska

Bethel, Alaska
I was so lucky to be able to travel to Juneau, Bethel and Barrow for work in April. I went to Juneau with folks from my program, RAP, for a cofnerence with others in programs like ours. While there I met with Andrew Heist, Dylan’s friend from grade school and his lady-friend, which was quite a treat. Juneau, the only state capital that you cannot drive to, is very beautiful, sandwiched between mountains and the sea. it is all green, and white and blue, except that it rains quite often so it is mostly gray. I had to leave Juneau early to go to a conference and do some recruiting in Bethel.

David was able to meet me in Bethel for the weekend, which,luckily for us, was Camai, the huge Native dance festival.

Bethel (Mamterilleq in Central Alaskan Yup’ik) is a city located near the west coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, 340 miles (550 km) west of Anchorage. Accessible only by air and river, Bethel is the main port on the Kuskokwim River and is an administrative and transportation hub for the 56 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Bethel is the largest community in western Alaska and in the Unorganized Borough, as well as the 9th largest in the state, with a population estimated to be 6,356 in 2006.[3

Camai was held in the high school gym for three days and nights, going until about 1 am every day. Most of the speaking was in Yupik, the local language, because it is the language that the schools use until 4th grade. Many elders, many little kids and lots of teens coming and going all day as well as many dance troops from all over the area.

Below are photos of the Tsimshiam people who are known for the button blankets. Each group has great, decorated drums.



We were able to go to a free Native dinner with traditional food including seal stew and Akutaq, Eskimo ice cream which is crisco, sugar and blueberries whipped together.



Towards the end of Saturday evening all the drummers were called upon to march around the gym, drumming on their huge skin drums as hard as they could. Very powerful and very beautiful! Camai had a wonderful mixture of young and old, and some of the oldest were the dancers. This old lady was our favorite.

The craft fair had wonderful art that we have not seen elsewhere, and the museum also had very unusual work. First the museum pieces:





This fish skin doll was for sale. Bethel is quite desolate but had some humor as well as seen by this dumpster. What you see here are salmon drying on a rack in the back and the large, sort of yellow thing is the waste water container that is sucked out overy week.

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