Category: Published stories
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That one time Timm shot a bear
A few years ago, on September 15, Timm’s birthday wish was to drive our four wheelers to Tom Cod, a high, proud hill north of us. After eating some blueberry lemon birthday cake, TImm, Henning, Sidney and I packed up our bags with our binoculars, tea, dried ugruk meat and some chocolate. “Should I see…
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Losing salmon means losing more than just food
I’ve long held an aversion to the word subsistence. It’s felt too shallow for what this lifestyle gives. Subsistence living is so much more than just getting food. It’s health. It’s belonging. It’s relationship with the land and waters. It’s healing. My latest High Country News column explores our relationship with salmon. Our relationship with…
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Picking aqpiit I found a surprise
A funny thing no one seems to talk about when writing for magazines is timing. For a piece that publishes in July, the story is written months ahead of time. Editors need time for editing, writers need time for rewrites, and the art department needs time finding photos and laying out the stories. I’m sure…
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Feathers in the Tent and Fish in the Pan
The yellow Arctic Oven tent is nestled in the snow in front of a grove of spruce trees. Stoic, strong spires telling us they remain even in winter. A winter that has brought rain in December, covering everything in an inch of ice, and week-long January windstorms that blew siding and roof metal off houses.…
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Native food is my love language
I don’t think I’ve ever written about it, but I should. The first time I visited Timm in Noatak, and after we officially started liking each other that way he kind of sealed the deal with my send off meal. Out of his freezer in his teacher apartment he served me trout quaq, bowhead maktak,…
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If my house was on fire, I’d grab my favorite ulu
My journalist friend, Julia O’Malley, hooked me up with an editor for Eater Magazine to write a piece about the ulu. She reminds me of the importance of community and the recurring lesson that we cannot do anything alone. Thank you, Julia. It was interesting writing about an every day Inupiaq/Yup’ik item in a literal…
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Family Time Means Moose Hunting
This past year I full-on caught the moose hunting bug. Some call the fever Moose Brain. The infection started a few years ago when intending to drive way up North River to my Uncle Burkher’s camp. On the way we saw a cow and a bull moose in the middle of the river. My brother,…
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Compassion is transformative
This spring I spoke with U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo for a story for New Mexico’s El Palacio Magazine. For five years it was my job to interview people. All kinds of people. Hunters, mayors, U.S. Senators, Alaska Governors, CEOs and birders. I was rarely nervous, and definitely never as nervous as I was in…
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Gram, Beach Greens, Fermenting & Home
Our busy harvesting season begins with our ugruk hunts in May. After ugruk we have the oil to store greens and roots like tukaiyuk, masru and sura. (I actually don’t pick sura because I don’t have the patience to pick and clean the tiny greens, LOL.) In June we pick beach greens to ferment. To…
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I’m writing again!
It’s been a while. I know. Thanks to High Country News, I’ll be sharing glimpses into our life in western Alaska. My favorite thing. This past summer I took a qulliq carving class with one of the greatest teachers of our time, Kunaq. This column explores welcoming the seal oil lamp back into our homes.…
laureli ivanoff 