Ethan felt better, so my friend Marjory and I took my little Native Alaskans to meet some Native Alaskan dancers.
The Aleut Indians are represented here.
They wore no clothing until Westerners arrived and gave them wool and buttons.
Not knowing what buttons were for, they used them for decoration.
We explored several villages from different clans.
A normal door would actually be about a third the size of this one.
This structure would house 60 to 70 clan members.
In the carving shed there was a totem pole in progress.
The boys were excited to see REAL dinosaur bones and were very disappointed to find out they were really whale bones.
They were impressive nonetheless.
We learned that Polar Bears don't taste good and they can kill you whether they are dead or alive. When alive they hunt you down by playing games. When they are stalking you they hunch down and cover their noses with their paws so they blend in with the snow. Their hides are very useful, but the internal organs can't be eaten because they have too much vitamin A in them. Also, the meat must be boiled for four days before it can be eaten. One of the guides told of a family member who only boiled it for two days before eating it, and ended up in the hospital for 13 days with liver failure.
This cache is for keeping your food safe from bears. So much for child locks on the fridge and cupboards... to keep Ethan out we should have installed one of these instead.
The best part of the day was watching a demonstration of Aleut games. The following pictures are of different athletes, but together they showed AMAZING skill!
There are a one and two leg versions of this.
I think they said the record right now is 7' 2''.
Native children begin practicing as early as age five. However, these boys started around age twelve.
I loved this shot! To complete the task they must not only touch the ball, but also land on their feet. These boys are super fit. Did you notice the leg definition in the first picture, and the full abdominal crunch in the last?
Did your boys get 'privacy' from Senneca? That is what she always says too. Or maybe she got it from them. Its neat you saw all the Native Alaskan stuff. I still remember 3rd grade studying it all and going to the museum in Anchorage.
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