COMMUNITY FORUMS AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES

The telephone rang on Tuesday night with a call letting us know that Joanne and I were to have a house guest for the next several days.  Jayne Andreen, based out of Juneau with the Alaska Division of Public Health was coming to help organize a community effort to address some of the health concerns that are present in Barrow.  Joanne and I both enjoyed getting to know Jayne and found ourselves talking late into the evenings she was there.  Jayne shared much about her work in Juneau and throughout villages in Alaska as well as her work as the former Chair of the Coalition on Domestic Violence for the State of Alaska. 

As a way to become educated about community dynamics and health concerns, on Wednesday I was invited to attend an afternoon forum of close to 20 leaders who were meeting to review Ituagniagnikkun Qaisaksrat or translated, the Baseline Community Health Analysis Report for the North Slope Borough.  It was produced in whole with National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska grant funds made available through the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.  Heather Dingman, a young woman who was born and raised in Barrow, received a degree from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and now works part time in Barrow as an assistant to the mayor and part-time in Anchorage presented the data.  I sat next to her father, Joe Dingman, who is the Barrow Fire Chief and learned that along with Heather’s other achievements, she is learning to fly helicopters. 

The forum opened as all events and meetings do here, with an elder offering prayer in Inupiat.  It’s humbling to be among these people of faith who have had theirs tested in ways that I can’t imagine and have found it a rich source of strength and wisdom.

Eskimo communities on the North Slope include from West to East, Point Hope, Point Lay, Wainwright, Atqasuk, Barrow, Nuiqsut, Anaktuvuk Pass, and Kaktovik.  The analysis was very comprehensive and revealed areas of concern specific to each community.  Some of the common health concerns these communities face are the highest rate of tobacco use in the nation, a high rate of lung cancer, suicide, alcohol and drug use, obesity, lack of sustainable food, lack of store food, homelessness, diabetes, motor vehicle accidents and domestic violence.

As a follow up to the leadership forum, a community cafe was held on Thursday night at Ipalook Elementary School.  People enjoyed hot food prior to breaking up into discussion groups, focusing on health concerns specific to Barrow.  I enjoyed meeting a young Inupiat man named Richard who is an Advisor to the Mayor in the area of finance.  His most recent position was Deputy Director of Finance for the North Slope Bureau.  I’m impressed with the intelligence and dedication to community that I’m seeing in the young people here.  All of the Eskimo people I work with and have interacted with who have jobs with ASNA (Arctic Slope Native Association) who owns and operates the hospital, the North Slope Borough or the Mayor’s office are very bright, articulate, intelligent as well as inclusive and open-minded.

Jayne asked four other people and myself if we would be willing to help her by being table moderators.  In theory, this sounded easy…facilitate discussion at a table by having people introduce themselves and then talk about factors that contribute to a healthy community, assets that the community has and health issues that should be addressed.  Facilitators were asked to each remain at a table while other participants changed tables with each new question or topic of discussion.  I found myself asking these deep questions to life-long Barrow residents who felt as though they have lost their voice, people who have worked in the villages as health aides for many years, a physician’s assistant, people with PhD’s, experienced public health nurses, mental health counselors and homemakers.  I took copious notes on all that was shared and was not too surprised, but not terribly pleased that each facilitator was asked to come to the front of the room and share what we had gathered from our facilitating into a microphone.  This seemed like a good way to initiate someone into a community, testing their mettle, poise and ability to articulate things they only had a cursory knowledge of.  I think I represented the groups I met with fairly well, only omitting two points that were on the back of one of my sheets.  Fortunately the points were not lost as the man who had shared them stood up and spoke about them from where he was.  I think I may have passed my first initiation, or I hope that I have. 

Joanne and I enjoyed talking with Jayne late into the evening.  I was especially interested in hearing about the anthropological study done in Emmonak, a village south of Nome where people were interviewed and asked about the rising occurrence of domestic violence.  Jayne said that the report uncovered that prior to white men arriving in the village, Eskimo males spent most of their time while not hunting or providing for their families in large igloos at the center of a ring of smaller ones where Eskimo women lived, preparing food, sewing, and caring for children.  If a man mistreated his wife, he was ostracized by the other men, a very dangerous situation to find oneself in, so domestic violence was virtually non-existent.   Missionaries introduced relationship norms that included husbands and wives cohabitating in couples, most likely causing tension that had not existed before and non-accountability for abuse.  Glenn, an anthropologist I met this week also said that with the introduction of Westernized clothing, women who formerly held the indispensable place of keeping their husbands alive by sewing fur garments no longer held this value. 

One of the books I’m reading is entitled “Ultimate Americans, Point Hope, Alaska: 1826-1909” by Tom Lowenstein.  It talks about “the impact of commercial whale hunters, traders, and missionaries on the oldest continuously inhabited village on the North American continent”.  The back cover goes on to say, “This study is based on more than thirty-five years of contact with the village of Point Hope and on unpublished nineteenth-century documents.  It represents one of the most detailed accounts of contact between a Native American society and Euro-Americans in literature.”  It sounds interesting and although knowledge may not provide answers for current problems, it will provide a framework for understanding.  One of the elders at one of the tables I facilitated at the Community Cafe spoke about the Inupiat people needing to feel empowered and another talked about the need to learn how to navigate change in a healthy way.  Many are understandably concerned about Shell Oil being here and about the impact it may have on the sea life that these people subsist on.