Harriet Penayah rests on her couch in Savoonga.
Photo by Eva DeLappe.

This series features Yupik Elder Harriet Penayah. Listen to the previous episode here.

Harriet Penayah stays active in her community. The 80 year-old elder teaches children native drumming and dance. She also recently opened up her home to her community’s youth.

Savoonga has no teen center. After the “hang-out place” closed down, Harriet saw teens in her community needed a safe and private place to call their own. So she welcomed Savoonga’s teens into her home, and encouraged them to play instruments and fed them snacks like popcorn and juice.

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility,” Harriet says. “It’s easy to say it’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem. But we are all part of Alaska.”

Listen here: 

KNOM’s Elder Voices features a new Western Alaskan elder each month. If you would like to be featured, or know an elder who would, contact us. Call 907-443-5221, or send an email to publicaffairs@knom.org. 

A NASA image shows routes of the Northwest Passage, including routes adjacent to Alaska’s western and northern shores. Marine vessel traffic is expected to become increasingly active in these regions in the coming decades.

This Thursday on Sounding Board (March 21, 2013 at 10am), we’re talking about the future of goods being shipped through the Arctic Ocean.

Scientists predict that open-water vessels could be traveling the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage by 2040; this means more traffic passing along the Western Alaska coast.

• How do you think this traffic will impact your community?
• Do you see any benefits to the opening of the Arctic Ocean for you or for the region?
• How do you think an increase in vessels will impact subsistence lifestyles?
• Are there any advantages or disadvantages for the environment with more vessels passing through?
• What recommendations do you have for legislators or shipping companies as they prepare to set up vessel traffic regulations?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Photo: Jeff Kubina, Flickr [CC-BY-SA-2.0]

• How does the high cost of energy affect you?
• What opportunities do you see to save energy in your home or work place?
• What alternative energy projects have and haven’t worked in the past in your community?

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Traditional subsistence hunting activities as portrayed in artwork at the school in Teller, Alaska.

This Thursday on Sounding Board (December 6, 2012 at 10am), we’re talking about subsistence hunting.

• Why is subsistence important to your family?
• Has hunting in your village changed over the years? If so, how?
• What are your favorite stories or memories of subsistence hunting?

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10-year-old Ellie Martinson wins the 2012 Iditarod Booster Button Contest!

In Thursday’s News:

• Whale struck in Savoonga on Tuesday could be biggest in Savoonga history;
• Disaster declared for Napaskiak for damages cause by October storm;
• BP takes another blow, EPA suspends future contracts between company and federal government;
• Nome’s own Ellie Martinson wins Iditarod Booster Button contest.

It’s harvest time at the community garden in Nome. The garden next to the Nome Food Bank is finishing up its first season. Despite the late start in July, founder Cheryl Thompson says community gardeners successfully sprouted broccoli, cabbage, mizuna, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, radishes, onions, swiss chard, turnips and peas. Hear more from KNOM Reporter Eva DeLappe and Community Garden Founder Cheryl Thompson:

Musk oxen at the summit of Nome’s Anvil Mountain, viewed from the passenger seat of an automobile.

This Thursday on Sounding Board (September 27, 2012 at 10am), we’re talking about wildlife within community borders.

• What is acceptable when it comes to protecting your community?
• What is the balance between respecting nature and protecting human life, property, and pets?
• What would you like to see done when there is a struggle between nature and our communities?
• What are the actionable steps we can take when encountering wildlife?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

The summit of Nome’s Anvil Mountain, whose towers are now slated for removal. Photo by Chris Lott (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/38159054/) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Sitnasuak President Chuck Fagerstrom says that on August 14^th, the Sitnasuak Board of Directors voted to direct the Air Force to remove the towers from the site. Sitnasuak is to take ownership of the 11 acres through the Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act. President Fagerstrom says the board believes the land will be a valuable site for telecommunications and wants a clean site.

The board of directors did not wish to obligate future board of directors to any risk of person injury, lawsuits or financial liabilities.

A letter received in July spurred what Fagerstrom described as a lengthy board discussion and the eventual decision on the towers. The Air Force gave notice to Sitnasuak, saying the work on the Anvil Mountain Towers was not a demolition project. The Air Force had been working this summer to remove the asbestos-laden panels to keep the towers erect – based on public interest that goes back decades.

Fagerstrom said looking at the land as a potential telecommunications site  is in the best interest of Sitnasuak shareholders and says the Sitnasuak Native Corporation has been in communication with the Air Force.

Shortly after the vote was taken, we communicated with their representative. He was in town and we informed him of that vote.

The Anvil Mountain Towers were erected during the Cold War. Seventy-one such White Alice sites were established at that time and by the 1970s, most of the system was deactivated – the technology replaced by satellite communication.

The Air Force demolished and is in the process of cleaning up now contaminated sites throughout Alaska as part of a large remediation project. When the Air Force announced in the late 90s that the towers north of Nome were to be demolished, it was met with large public outcry. The City of Nome had been in communication with Sitnasuak the past few years and into this summer to sign a long-term lease with Sitnasuak to keep the towers intact.

John Handeland is chair of the Nome Museum and Library Commission.

You know there are many of these White Alice sites that were in place around Alaska, but the four towers are all that remain. And they’re an important era in our history, not just of our community, but of our world.

Handeland says he remains optimistic Sitnasuak will allow the City to enter discussions regarding their decision and hopes the vote can be reversed.

Together, in continuing spirit of cooperation, I’m confident that a creative solution can be developed to ensure that Sitnasuak’s concerns and interests are addressed and yet the towers can remain for the people of Nome – as well as the visitors to our community.

Steve Hunt is the Remedial Project Manager for the Anvil Mountain Site and other sites throughout Alaska. Phone calls and emails had not been returned regarding the Air Force’s plan for the towers. The Air Force had planned on completing clean up of the site in September and the land transfer was expected then.

In the early morning hours, a three-building fire in Teller caused the Nome Volunteer Fire Department to respond – first with a planeload of six firefighters and later with several vehicles loaded with crew and equipment.

The first group of firefighters arrived in Teller just before 5 o’clock this morning. The fire, burning since around 2AM, had engulfed the old Teller Commercial Company building, the former store known as the Blodgett Building, as well as an old abandoned house next to it. The flames had also spread to the Mary’s Igloo office, and were threatening the Teller Catholic Church, as well as the community power plant.

The wind was also begging to bring smoke to buildings adjacent to the fire. Many of those buildings were abandoned, described as “tinderboxes” by firemen on the scene. Nome Fire Chief Matt Johnson:

We took a two-story structure with a loader and pushed it under the pile so that it would stop the fire spread to the Catholic church and the power plant.

Additional Nome firefighters arrived around 7am. Johnson says they used a City of Teller loader to tear down three buildings and move other structures away from the fire. NVFD turned its hoses onto the church and used the loader to move flaming debris away from it. But then Johnson says the loader itself caught fire.

It fell into a utilidor that’s buried in the ground and it was unable to get back out and fortunately the firefighter that was operating it was able to get out OK and unfortunately we lost a loader, but we didn’t lose anybody.

The loader eventually exploded—first the fuel tank, and then the tires—and it was completely gutted by the fire.

Johnson says the blaze was fully contained around 9am. No injuries were reported. NVFD is now using heavy equipment from the City of Teller to move charred debris and extinguish any remaining hazards.

We started out early with a real small crew and we had to work really hard and do a lot of stuff in a short period of time with a small group of people. I gotta hand it to the people of Teller too. The people that helped us out too…there were quite a few younger guys that were helping us move hoses around and equipment for us and everything else. They were trying.

Johnson says the Fire Marshall is determining how they will get investigators to Teller. Until then, Johnson and his crew are securing the perimeter of the fire and treating it as crime scene. He says it will be up to the Fire Marshall’s office to determine the fire’s cause.

Photos