![]() ![]() The windswept tundra of the northwestern Seward Peninsula lay behind a coast line that often was pounded by the crashing waves of the Chukchi Sea. In 1918, as it had been for millennia since the end of the last “ice age,” the Seward Peninsula reached out across the narrow waters of Bering Strait toward the Chukotsk Peninsula of Siberia. Nearby Qivaluaq was the associated settlement of Salliñq, or “a place where there is a lagoon behind and a beach coast outside.” This winter camp was called Qivaluaq by the Iñupiat, but known as Kividluk or Kividlo to the few White people in the world aware of its existence. It was in 1918 that Thomas Makaiqtaq Barr built a house at Ublasaun, planning to abandon the family’s former home at the winter camp to the southeast. ![]() His other Iñupiaq name, Kunautaq, was that of his father’s father. One of Gideon’s Iñupiaq names, Kahlook, was bestowed upon him as a namesake of a deceased relative of his father. Shishmaref was the location of women healers and midwives to whom Iñupiat turned for assistance when giving birth. (“Makaiqtaq” was spelled many ways by White teachers, such as “Mukaktik,” “Mukritruk,” and “Mukituk.”) Thomas’s wife Emily had given birth to Gideon in the northwestern Seward Peninsula village of Shishmaref on July 21, 1917. ![]() The tumultuous climate of the year passed unnoticed in the short life of Thomas Makaiqtaq Barr’s first son, one-year-old Gideon Kahlook Kunautaq Barr. During the coming winter, however, 20 million people around the world would succumb to a devastating epidemic of what was termed “Spanish influenza.” While the war, removed by geography and culture from the day to day concerns of most Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska, may have had little direct influence on their lives, the influenza epidemic to come was to affect everyone. ![]() This was the year that the tide of the war ultimately would turn to favor the allied forces. It was the spring of 1918, and the world was embroiled in the closing phases of World War I. From Hunters to Herders book cover By Linda J Ellanna and George K. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |