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Alaska Magazine
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Kotzebue

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Authentic Alaska

Late Nights

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I always get questions about sunlight when I tell people I’m from Alaska. I have my typical spiel about our vast state, and how it’s different depending on the latitude. In Southcentral we must squeeze the most out of a meager five hours of sunlight in the depths of winter. But come summer, it’s light all day. The sun still sinks behind the mountains, but there’s enough light to function. Occasionally, someone will ask me how I sleep, and I explain that I’m conditioned. As a kid my mom would open our shades sometime in April and wouldn’t let us close them until fall. Sleeping through the midnight sun just became a way of life. But there’s not much sleeping this time of year anyway. Every Alaskan who just suffered months of darkness knows that winter is coming, and they’re determined to make the most of it. June is for…

Culture

Marks of the Ancestors

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The traditional art of tattooing DESPITE TATTOO PARLORS IN ALMOST EVERY CITY and celebrities flashing chic subcutaneous designs, facial tattoos still carry a stigma—try landing a bank job, even suited up fancily, when you look like Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man. In the wake of Age of Enlightenment voyages into the South Pacific, the practice reached Europe, where it has long been the domain of thugs, sailors, carnival freaks, biker gangs, and other “unsavory” folk. Some of the first New World encounters between pale faces and tattooed ones occurred along Bering Sea coastlines, during James Cook and Otto von Kotzebue’s expeditions. In Alaska, this visual language was ancient, known to Siberian Yupiit, Inupiat, Aleuts, Alutiit, Deg Hit’an, Gwich’in, Tlingit, and Haida. The earliest representation of a human face in the Arctic—a 3,600-year-old, Paleo-Eskimo carved-ivory maskette from Devon Island—has incised lines, a web of tattoos. Intrigued by fellow practitioners, expedition artists mostly…

Northern

Escape: Kobuk Valley National Park

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Take a roll in the dirt. Kobuk Valley National Park allows visitors to explore a sand dune amusement park, one that’s frequently traversed by migrating caribou. With almost 1.8 million acres of remote backcountry, you won’t run out of outdoor adventures or run into many tourists. Like other parks in the Brooks Range, this region lacks trails and facilities, but that’s part of its allure. Photography, flight-seeing, backpacking, snowmachining, dog mushing and just about anything else you can think of are possibilities here. Fly from Anchorage to Kotzebue and charter a flight to the park. Just come prepared for all types of weather, even snow in summer. Canoeing Sixty-one exceptional miles of the 350-mile Kobuk River flow through the park. Paddlers are expected to fly their own gear into the park (as there are no developed facilities here), but we recommend hiring an outfitter and enjoying their boats, PFDs and expertise…

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