Saturday, June 13, 2009

Defining Bodacious


The kitchen is sparkling. The laundry is folded. The beds are made. There's a new supply of caribou in the freezer. Anyone can tell we've just had a house full of Eskimos, and now that it's up to us again, things will probably start to slide a bit.

We come by our Eskimo friends by marriage, specifically, our nephew Michael's bride Andrea. Her family lives so high up on the globe that it's just a short trot before they're going back downhill on the other side. This makes them among the few people on the planet who come to Oregon to warm up.

The occasion this time was Andrea's graduation from law school. That makes two freshly-hatched lawyers in our family, although we aspire to getting through life without needing even one. What we really need is a plumber, but what we got is a pair of bright young people who plan to save the environment and/or strike a blow for Native American rights. I like to point out that good plumbing is essential to a good environment, and Native Americans have to flush too. But lawyers it is, and we're plenty proud of them.

The weather has been superb. We spent lots of time shooting the breeze with our guests, Obbie, Linda, Brandi and Auntie Boda in the back yard. A 22-degree change in latitude is interesting all by itself. Even our staid and modest bug population struck our guests as being alarmingly tropical. And of course we discussed the relative merits of caribou, moose, and bear meat, none of which, we are informed, can compare with a good side of musk ox. Dave was very enthusiastic about his one meatly encounter with moose, so now he's having musk ox dreams.

Auntie Boda stayed the longest. We'd have had to answer to Andrea if Auntie Boda got damaged while in our custody, but she's plenty sturdy. Auntie Boda is pushing seventy, but not very hard. Her two gray hairs haven't met each other yet. She still rocks her blue jeans. What can be said about Auntie Boda that has not already been said about Superman? She's pleasant, self-effacing, and mild-mannered, but turn your back on her for thirty seconds and she has folded your king fitted sheet into a tight slab that could slip right back into the original plastic packet. That's just to get your attention. Then she makes you an atikluk. I know what you're thinking, but you can't just say, Poof, you're an atikluk--it's not that easy. An atikluk is a summer parky, a cotton tunic adorned with equal parts ribbon and joy, and sewn with a devotion to detail that would drop a monk. The whole extended family is thus clad and decorated, extending even to Dave and me, who are not nearly as genetically decorative as the rest.

It would not be possible for Auntie Boda to be any trouble, but she wants to make sure. More coffee, Auntie Boda? "I'm okay!" Need any help cleaning up after all of us? "I'm okay!" I see you've tumbled face-down on the trail. Would you like a hand up?" "I'm okay!" Attention, world: Auntie Boda is O-Kay.

Andrea's entourage came to the graduation from Anchorage, Kotzebue, Montana, Seattle, and Salem. It was a huge contingent and most of us were wearing atikluks, so we were already the most colorful audience segment, and were bound and determined to be the loudest, too. She was easy enough to pick out, being the only graduate with the presence of mind to wear her grandmother's bearded-seal and beaver mukluks. Since she was in the middle of the alphabet, we had lots of opportunity to gauge the cheering competition, and by the time she got up to the platform for her degree, we owned the title for uproar. Half of us screamed in Eskimo. I've had the chance to learn a number of Eskimo words but the only one I can ever remember is the word for poop. Don't act all surprised.

A week later, Andrea is already out there doing good lawyery things for Native Americans. We do have a little leak under the sink, but we're happy for her.

By the way, here's an interesting link to the name question

10 comments:

  1. Congratulations to your family!!! The service your Nephew's children provide the People will be invaluable to the Seven Generations and to the Earth herself.

    Eskimo is kind of a generic term. More appropriate would be Inupiaq, Inuit,Aleut or one of the many Nations that reside in Alaska. Many of our far north Brothers and Sisters would be offended by the term Eskimo. The word "Eskimo," traces its origin to an Abenaki (that would be me) word meaning “eaters of raw meat," which was further bastardized to mean blubber eaters.

    I know this sounds petty, but words like that, further the case of stereotyping the First People. Not too many people that there are well over 550 Federally registered tribes, and that number doesn't begin to include the nations exterminated and terminated. Beyond that, many many people do not know that the People of the far north are indeed Native Americans. Crazy, huh?

    ok..climbing off the soap box...

    The National Day of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places is being observed on Friday, June 19, 2009.

    thanks for allowing me to rant.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, that's not petty at all. And I had learned the same thing until my new family re-learnt me. The people who do not want to be called Eskimos are the ones who aren't Eskimos, but Kotzebue is blessed with them. You did give me the opportunity to add a link on the subject--I just put it at the end of the post. And Happy National Day of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places to you! I think we can all get behind that.

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  3. Family is family and I love the appreciation of all parts of that family. Diversity is where it is at. I love the atikluks! What a wonderful graduation season story.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great article Aunt Murr!, Auntie Boda, my Papa and Mama, and Brandi will love it.

    Thank you for setting the record straight - - that us Inupiaq Eskimos from Kikitagruk and Sisualik don't mind being referred to as Eskimo.

    Whether we have actual Nations is also debatable. Us Alaska Natives, except for Metlakatla, have individual allotments and some land held by private regional and village corporations chartered under state law. But that's another hunk of muktuk.

    Suffice to say, I am Eskimo and proud.

    Taagiuluk

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great story. I too was corrected. I met a Yupik speaking woman who identified as Eskimo and when I pressed which tribe under the Eskimo umbrella - she informed without hesitation that her tribe was ESKIMO! She comes from a family of both ancient and modern whale and seal hunters. She had just lost her brother to a hunting capsize - a fairly common occurrence apparently. And unlike Sarah Palin - she could see Russia from her backyard and half her kinfolk lived across the way in a different country.

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  6. I don't know nuffin' about what to call whom, but I know that is one boffo lead paragraph. I read it while in flight and passed my laptop to Bill to read it too. Made me laugh out loud on an airplane which is hard to do.

    I still get all giddy when I see TR and you commenting on each other's blogs.

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  7. 'm not someone who "argues" on line. Suffice to say that the article Steve Sailer wrote and your niece basically said the same thing. Your niece wrote she is an Inupiaq Eskimo and Mr. Sailer made reference to the Yupik. The term "Eskimo" is a generalization that groups all the native people of Alaska, Siberia, Labrador and the northern coast of Canada into one group. Eskimo, like the word sqaw (although many people will argue the origins of sqaw, does not necessarily mean something bad, it was the way the term was used and the fact that it negates the unique cultural and traditional differences of nations, bands and tribes.

    Let me make it a bit clearer with an example. I need information regarding Yupik masks. If I google Eskimo mask, there are many sites listed regarding mask crafted in the north. It's not necessarily clear which mask is made by a Yupik artist. When I google "Yupik mask," I get exactly what I am looking for.

    Another example. I do not refer to myself as American Indian or Native American, except when the government gives me a multiple choice question. I am Abenaki and proud. The Federal government and the majority of New England states would prefer to believe I don't exist. We were terminated and are extinct; we don't live on tribal lands anymore, according to the government. Now that's funny, because I have family that has lived in the same area for generations... they chose NOT to register with the government in order NOT to be given small pox blankets.

    I'm done, I won't be checking back. People can be or say whatever they choose. The consequences of giving up your identity may not be apparent for many years.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Family is family and I love the appreciation of all parts of that family. Diversity is where it is at. I love the atikluks! What a wonderful graduation season story.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Congratulations to your family!!! The service your Nephew's children provide the People will be invaluable to the Seven Generations and to the Earth herself.

    Eskimo is kind of a generic term. More appropriate would be Inupiaq, Inuit,Aleut or one of the many Nations that reside in Alaska. Many of our far north Brothers and Sisters would be offended by the term Eskimo. The word "Eskimo," traces its origin to an Abenaki (that would be me) word meaning “eaters of raw meat," which was further bastardized to mean blubber eaters.

    I know this sounds petty, but words like that, further the case of stereotyping the First People. Not too many people that there are well over 550 Federally registered tribes, and that number doesn't begin to include the nations exterminated and terminated. Beyond that, many many people do not know that the People of the far north are indeed Native Americans. Crazy, huh?

    ok..climbing off the soap box...

    The National Day of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places is being observed on Friday, June 19, 2009.

    thanks for allowing me to rant.

    ReplyDelete