Janet 'Kakianaaq/Aivayuaq' Mitchell was born and raised in Kivalina to her Inupiaq parents Joseph 'Tauqsiaq/Samarun' and Lona 'Nasalik' Swan.  Her paternal ancestors Qayaiyaqtauluk and his sister Maŋŋuyak are known to have lived in the area since the early 1800's until she married a man from Pt. Hope and moved there.  They lived off the land like the current Inupiaq do today in the same traditional style, through hunting, fishing and gathering edible plants and berries.  That is threatened by oil and minerals development.  Not only is it threatened by contamination and spills, it is also ship traffic, ocean acidification, and noise from the oil development in the ocean.

 

Our Native Foods

The subsistence foods we rely on are borne from the land, sea and air.  Every type of food claimed from the land is very essensial to our health and welfare.  All the food we collect are self-preserved, without additives or preservatives.  Back then, in our ancestor times, they stored the food in 'storage caches'.  The underground storage caches were built atop perma-frost ground to preserve freshness.  The in-town storage places were dug halfways into the ground where the seal oils and dried meats were stored for daily consumption in wooden barrels.  We can still store the food in that fashion but having electricity and freezers has changed our habits.  All our foods are healthy and contain some types of nutrients and vitamins. 

Paniqtaq which is dried meat from the bearded seal and stored it's own rendered fat.  Dried trout fish stored in rendered fat of the bearded seal as well.  Ikuusuk which is wild celery gathered from the land.  It cannot be preserved so it must be eaten as it is picked and prepared.  Store bought potatoes, although we do collect the 'masu', which is wild potatoes.

Marilyn Swan with wild potato in her hand.

Aged salmon eggs called 'suvak'.  A favored delicacy of the elders.

King Crab.  Only a few locals attempt to harvest the king crab outside of Kivalina.

Seagull eggs are a summer treat.  They are gathered every summer.  Elders of old used to store the eggs in seal oil after boiling them.

Aqpiks (salmonberries) are gathered every summer if they grow at all and stored for the winter as dessert.

Blackberries are gathered every summer and stored in freezers for use winter time as dessert.

Local boys getting drinking water from the melt water in the ocean.

And you wonder.....

Why do we fight so hard to protect our resources?  It's all we have to survive, to feed our children and ourselves.  Jobs are scarce despite the mining company to the East, oil exploration and possibly development to the West, oil development to the North.  South, well, Kotzebue is to the South.  Some local residents found jobs there.