The great-grandgovernor (before Palin, before Murkowski) wanted to put the” honey bucket in the museum”. However, we live in a semi-arid country (as little precipitation as New Mexico high desert. The costs are mind-blowing, the systems only work for about 15 years; the systems are expensive to maintain (electricity for heat, etc.; and we have nearly 200 Villages which must be relocated, in all or part, sometime in the next 15 years due to on-going environmental change. There is no money to replace aging systems.

Focussing on wasting water for flushing toilets, rather than having water clean enough for the specific uses needed, is bassackward, so to speak. Point of use treatment, E-loo (enviro-loo, a dry sanitation system), other aspects of permaculture need to be investigated. For example, Denali Commission would rather spend hundreds of thousands on major projects than $10,000 in testing the use of dry systems (no composting, no water, no electricity). Rural water systems (open cess pools, basically, a.k.a. sewage lagoons) are still the norm for AI/AN communities (here and in NM, for example) even though outmoded 40 years ago for suburbia. Toilets and trash in the Last Frontier (Alaska) There are so much better solutions possible.

Rainwater is said to taste better than chlorinated water by some elders. However, water collected from galvanized steel roofs; water collected from roofs with dust blown from car exhaust, fires smoke, and dried sewage; water collected from the edge of the continent with soot from China (we never could get the state, feds, or the tribal associations to investigate) should be filtered.

Steams–
the dry steam or fire bath is the one requiring special filters to keep from searing lungs. John Active did a short video explaining the origin of the steambath (Russian) and the fire bath (Yup’ik)–NIH Hot Weather Advice for Older People. Here’s another one– http://www.bankstreet.edu/gems/kwethlukbnkst0506/steambath2.mov

Teachers blogging from the tundra–
Tundra Teachers

My last year there, we finally got “running” water, where there was a large water tank in the bathroom that we’d fill up with the hoses. We did have a flush toilet that last year, but still had to empty our kitchen sink bucket outside because there was no place for the used water to go. It was quite an experience and really made me appreciate the little things, like pipes and toilets.

Beautifully written, thank you for sharing! I’m going to make sure Ann S gets your post since Alaska Newspapers is interested in village perspectives. Hope that’s OK with you!

That type of Native ingenuity just humbles me down to the core. We had such amazing inventions, from sunglasses, to animal oil lamps, to medicines and tools that did allow us to survive in such a brutal climate. Yes, life was hard, children, Elders and young adults often died from preventable deaths (sometimes by starvation) but it was rich in culture, nature and spirituality.

I despair over non-Natives that deride us about why we don’t live like we used to, why we ask for government handouts, why we drink, why we abuse. . .read http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=1065017 and from Wednesday’s ADN printing – http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/679340.html and you can get maybe an inkling of why we started out as a dysfunctional society once we were rounded up for sedentary life.

Outsiders promised recreational free time and commodities, medical care and education – what we got in return was wholesale emasculation, laziness, processed foods, medical epidemics and serial molestation and abuse.

When you are completely torn down, and expected to build yourself up without the benefit of a guidebook – you have a decimated culture that breeds an insecure and confused society. Don’t get me wrong, we have hundreds of success stories and perfectly functional and good families out here that make their way, but as a whole, our problems easily gets more attention.

I am one of those modern day Natives that believes the time to blame is past us. We have to own up to our problems and take them head on and recapture the salient traits that defined us as a proud and enduring people.

But when we are hamstrung with a chronological history of neglect and lack of infrastructure, we have a right to complain to those that govern us. We did not come into Americanhood with our own resourcefulness, it was thrust upon us after our self-sustaining ways were dismantled. What kind of citizenry do you expect when that happens? We aren’t talking hundreds of years ago, we are talking about my parents and my grandparents generation.

I may traverse the non-native world with ease, but I will not pretend that it should be so easy for my people. It is with my skills and sense of responsibility that people like me owe our villages a level of activism to level the playing field. Once we have adequate funding for social services and energy sourcing, then taxpayers have a soapbox to stand on in saying you are not responsible for our conditions.

There are many of you out there that care. You have shown it through something as simple as saying you are fascinated by village life and not judging us, or by asking yourself and others to donate food or cash, or by defending our way of life (rather than lifestyle.)

Thank you for your attention, and with the Palin affect, we have people paying attention to Alaska in ways we rarely see. Unfortunately, a lot of it is nasty and negative (even with the heartfelt and innocent letter first published by Nick Tucker) but it is my hope that it is for the betterment of infrastructure out in the Bush, to take us out of Third World conditions and make us a part of the American dream.

Anyway, we had a washing machine but no dryer so I’d do a load of dipes and hang them out on the line, summer and winter. Funny thing in the winter, they’d freeze (dry) like a stiff board and were so soft when they thawed, lol. I’d have a long line full of white dipes, especially when I started double diping as he got older. Actually we still like hanging laundry outside, saves on electricity and smells so good.

In many houses we’d string a line in the basement to dry laundry to avoid using the dryer. It is one of the main energy hogs in a home. So those who’d like to cut down their electric bills might consider doing this. Just takes a bit more time, I sometimes throw certain things like towels or shirts in the dryer for 5 mins to soften and unwrinkle them. But if it’s windy outside that softens nicely. At this house we have 2 retractable lines out on our deck. We only had a family of 4 and now just me and the spouse, I’m just dang frugal by nature.

Thank you sun, wind and the smell of fresh air.

It’s absolutely stupid that homeowners associations ban clotheslines or hanging laundry outside just for “tidiness”.

Thanks for making me laugh this morning. With my older daughter I did the m&m thing and the first time she peed in her potty I literally had a POOPY PARTY, I made a huge deal and her and I celebrated the one LITTLE drop of pee she got in the potty. With my son I can remember throwing cheerios in the toilet to help teach him how to aim LOL

Ann S.

My younger Sis had come up for a visit, wanted to go fishing with an Uncle that had a boat. Could I mind her 3 yr old overnight. Well SURE, Aunt Kath could manage a 3 yr old. Things seemed to go well. Then darling Niece in my bedroom starts calling “I stink, I stink”.

Ran in and to my horror. On my brand new 2day old oval wool braided rug – placed on the oak floors I had lovingly cleaned before. There laid a ‘pile’ on my brand new rug, while she fumbled to pull her panties up.

How funny, that little niece is now a mother of three who constantly worries about her clean WHITE carpets. I also remember how my Oldest Sis eventually confessed that she had finally had to resort to M&Ms in doing the potty training. I just told her that I “could appreciate”. I know Ann, you said you keep CC’s sugar intake down, though. Maybe raisins would do the trick. Raisins are a LOT cheaper than huggies. lol

I think that this crisis will have some positive effect. People that have donated or mailed boxes aren’t simply going to walk away after this hard winter is done. People all over the world will continue to WATCH to see that their kind of ‘adopted’ friends get treated. That puts the pressure to get things done for all the Villagers.

Thank YOU!