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Gambell Friday January 19, 2007

I’m stuck in this trailer, unable to get out, unable to sit still. Finished 4 books, my daily journal, three movies and even cleaned my hard drive. Awaiting the sound of an airplane coming in for a landing… Don’t think I have ever wanted to hear a specific sound as much as I want to hear that one…

I saw a rare sight for Gambell in the winter. An insect. A solitary fly was lazily buzzing around the clinic, perhaps (I am guessing here) in search of food or companionship. Unlike flies in St. Louis, it flew slowly, meandering about without much focus or determination  (it occurred to me that this was not at all unlike the natives up here…) I stepped outside to take a few seconds of video of the current blizzard and the fly made a very, very bad choice. He departed the open door. He was instantly crystallized by the cold, his wing stopping mid-beat. He dropped to the snow without another twitch.

Technically a blizzard is defined at 35 mile an hour wind with concurrent snowfall and visibility under a quarter mile sustained for at least three hours. By the description, we had a blizzard conditions here in Gambell for 6 of the 10 days I was here. The visibility was above a quarter mile on just 2 of the days. The question has come up several times, in my head and by others: Why do these people live here in such a desolate, inhospitable place? Here are a few of my observations – remember, they are coming from someone from somewhere else…

1)      they’ve always lived here. Yup’iks have lived in the region for 2000 years. This is what they are used to. The same way that I am used to living in an area with defined seasons, sunlight in the morning, fresh produce, cars and consistent telephone service, they are used to darkness, waist deep snow drifts, wind which shakes the house down to what they think of as a foundation. Think about the way your mom made a peanut butter sandwich or your grandmother made turkey stuffing… that’s the way it “should be.” Any time you have one of those things and it is not the same, in the back of your mind you tell yourself “that’s not right….”

2)      They are overwhelmed by what we consider “normal” life. Several Natives have told me of their trips to Nome, relating that it is “too crowded, too busy.” Nome is made up of about twelve square blocks. There are streets in Nome, but no stoplights (I think two stop signs though). There are cars and trucks there, a gas station, two grocery stores (each about the size of a QuickTrip), 12 bars and three liquor stores (24 hours), two restaurants. Even at that small size, it is oppressively frantic for some of them. A few tell me they are never going back for that reason.

3)      They don’t seem to see the bigger picture. Some of the carvers do beautiful work which would sell for 4 times what they can get here in the village. A box of carvings would easily get them to Anchorage where they could find supplies and a lower cost of living. Another box of carvings would get them to the states. But they only seem to make their art when they are flat broke, and then only enough to “get by.” I saw this same “focus on the present” in the Navajo tribe. The weavings I bought were wonderfully executed, and some took only two – three days to make. They could, if they so desired, make more money in a month than they collect all year, but they don’t look at it the way we do.

4)      The darkness seems to encourage sleeping a whole lot. Although I was available to see patients at 8am, we only had one person in the two weeks show up at that time. Of course my assistant didn’t not grasp my suggestion to tell patients that that was the only time we had available – she persisted in letting the patients dictate what time they preferred to come in (usually 5:30 at night). Her reason? “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” When I forced her to ask, the question came out as “You don’t want to come in at 8:30 am, do you?” Of course the answer was “no…”

I got to thinking (and reading) about the Eskimo culture and I have some conclusions which, I admit, are extremely narrow-minded and unsubstantiated. But I have lived here for two weeks and there is at least some validity.

Imagine a bunch of humans 8000 years ago walking across the land bridge from Siberia. They are hungry nomads searching for game. They have depleted the large mammal population in Russia and it is cold. They start to head south where is becomes a bit warmer than what they were used to and they stumble on to great herds of large game – mastodons, walruses, seals. Some of them had to say, “Hey, life is good. This place rocks! Let’s stay here.” So they did. Those people settled for life on the ice eating what they could find, accepting the conditions as “good enough.” Over the next few thousand years they were able to expand to population of 20,000 in those harsh conditions.

Now imagine that some of the people who crossed the land bridge at the same time but were not content with their surroundings. They desired something more, something better. Those individuals kept walking south in search of that “better place.” One subset decided that the region now known as Mexico and Central America was “the place” to be. Those people became the Myans and the Incas, two of the most productive and prolific races ever to inhabit the Earth. They invented the wheel, domesticated animals, developed agriculture, created a calendar  and language. Their population swelled to tens of millions.

Same deal with the northern Europeans (Neandethals, Cromagnon - basically cave people). They were less content in their surroundings. To their way of thinking the weather in northern Europe “sucked,” the food was in short supply, disease was rampant. They had no place to walk to find more game to hunt. Some of them were a bit more inventive than others and they searched for ways to improve their lot in life. Rather than simply moving on, they attempted to change their environment to match their needs. Of course not all of their “inventions” are today considered successful – churches, slavery, kingdoms come to mind – but agriculture was big hit. Domestication of animals was another. So was coffee. Eventually they made forays into the ocean and eventually stumbled onto North America which, with a little farming, could easily support millions of people. That population – the inventors, explorers and coffee drinkers – have been able to expand that population to a few billion.

I am not saying that we descendants of Northern Europeans are smarter in any way than Eskimos or even harder workers. Heaven knows it is exhausting just breathing or walking way up here. But the pursuit of “something better” – a restlessness or dissatisfaction – has resulted in a culture which places a higher value on improving their lot in life rather than merely accepting it.

This differential may explain why I am up at 5:30 am writing, reading, looking at the stars and my Native assistants are sleeping until last possible moment and watching movies when the work is almost done. And maybe it explains why I am relatively thin and all of the Natives are very heavy to obese. Or maybe it is just the coffee…

I may have additional insights and observations, but my goal here is to get on the first plane that lands on the island and head back south.

Thank you all for reading my missives from the Arctic. I look forward to sharing my photos with any and all who are interested. Some of these journal entries will be posted on my website along with a few of the best photos.

Cross your fingers the Wicked Witch of the Wind stays asleep for a few more hours….

Bill Hartel

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