(This is a photo taken from Ah Alaska Blog - eat your heart out fishermen everywhere!) Our nation is so very diverse and this little Christmas video points that out so clearly. Looks so cold I almost wanted to get a sweater while watching. It's refreshing to see a video with faces etched by the elements, work and normalcy of neighbors. (Don't you just get tired of everyone on TV looking perfectly plastic?)
I looked at the coordination and song the first time around, the next time the surroundings and the last time I looked at the faces. Good job Village of Quinhagak - nice Christmas present to us all.
And as far as gardening - wow - that would be some tough lessons learned to grow what we traditionally think of as gardens. A place I'd like to visit and get to know. Here's a few facts:
This video from the Yupiq Eskimo Village of Quinhagak, Alaska, population 669. The village dates back to 1000 AD. Over 96% of the population is Native Americans. Over 27% of the families are below the poverty line.
A federally-recognized tribe is located in the community -- the Native Village of Kwinhagak (aka Quinhagak). The community is primarily Yup'ik Eskimos who fish commercially and are active in subsistence food gathering. The sale, importation, and possession of alcohol is banned in the village. Almost half the households haul water and use honeybuckets.
There is one school with 225 students and it's mostly the 5th grade class in this video filmed in 2010 by teacher Jim Barthelman. Check out his BLOG "Ah Alaska!" at http://www.jsbarthelman.blogspot.com and check out www.adn.com the Alaska Daily Newspaper.
(This is his photo of a 10 p.m. sunset on April 15th - they are having 14 1/2 hours of sun a day.) Quinhagak is located in a marine climate a mile from the Bering Sea coast. They average 43 inches of snowfall a year. Summer temperatures average 41 to 57 °F, and winter temperatures average 6 to 24 °F. Extremes have been measured from 82 to -34 °F.Now you know the rest of the story - enjoy the great video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=LyviyF-N23A
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