Tales of Old: The Norwegians, Part II

[Frozen Chosen]

Well, to continue our story, and yes there are plenty to tell, such that there will never be time to tell all that has to be told. Sit back, feed another log on your virtual fire, brew another fresh pot a mocha or whatever suits your fancy, and let’s get in on another Tale of Old!

You see, by the late 1800s, the Americans were established throughout this Great Land. Having purchased, for what we now consider a paltry sum of no more than 5 cents an acre, this frozen wasteland from the Russians, the Americans kicked out the Russians and the Brits and went to work on their new holding.

It was the shiny, warm pelt of fur that first brought the new comers into the land. Trading posts were established in Nulato, the Upper Kuskokwim region that included the Takotna River area, and at that desolate Bering Sea coastal town of Unalakleet. The first Caucasian to visit Unalakleet, by the way, was a Russian Navy Lieutenant named Zagoskin. His is a story that will be told!

By the 1890s gold fever hit this country hard and fans of the far north are familiar with “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and “The Cremation of Sam MacGee”, two Robert Service favs. These poems and others highlight this “golden age” of Alaska. But, let me tell you, there is a tale that has been somewhat hidden, somewhat nearly forgotten. This cold, harsh land is filled with tales long forgotten, some that have gone to dust and now, to this day, blow in the wind across this sacred trail…this Trail of Mystery, of Old Tales long forgotten. This Iditarod Trail, it’s more than a race trail, always has been. Sure, we follow with anticipation and delight, the runners of Mackey, Backen, King. We delve deep and analyze the times and strategies of these modern high tech trekkers, and place high stakes on a new Iditarod decorated hat in this now yearly attempt in coming up with the closest Top Ten Guess!

Folks, lets go back in time a bit, to a place long forgotten. It was the year 1893 or thereabouts. (Even some of the times and dates are blowing across this desolate land, never to be retrieved!) Our friend Sheldon Jackson was now Big Brother’s government agent of Alaska, and now he had become the educational agent charged with educating the Keepers, these hardened savages as they considered them then, in the New Way. Jackson saw how the Keepers lived: in homes made of the natural resource of the land, gray stained drift wood and sod from the tundra; wearing clothing made of wild animals; and tools fashioned from the stone, ivory and bone. Yes, these tribes lived from season to season and were at the mercy of the harsh changes of the environment: some years game was plentiful and everyone celebrated, and some years, game was scarce and everyone hunkered down waiting for that stock market to get on the rise again.

Jackson happened to arrive when that market was down. But this time, it was in a slump for a different reason: new comers, the Seekers, had arrived and boy, were they thirsty and hungry! Sure these Seekers came first for fur, then for oil (the oil of the Bowhead whale!), and now for gold! But you see, even a Seeker has to eat, digest food, etc. and up here, in the far north, the closest store was probably a good thousand miles at least! (Who do you think is the hungriest in this Thousand Mile trip?...well, we’ll find out in a day or so).

The land was beginning to change. The Bowhead was harpooned to near extinction, the walrus was being harvested for food and that coveted ivory. And that Snow Shoveler, yes this animal comes up in many stories, this roamer of the tundra and the northern forest, this caribou, was hit hard by the new fangled technology called the Repeating rifle! Gradually, these magnificent, antlered herds were being slaughtered. Both the Keeper and the Seeker had to eat, and this animal was the most accessible.

And now, here on the Seward Peninsula, (yes, where the last stretches of the Iditarod trail follow the southern coast of this barren area between Koyuk and the Burled Arch on Front Street), the snow shoveler disappeared, never to show up for a hundred years! So, now we get to Agent Jackson and his call for a New Way, and New Life, for the Keepers of the Land. You see, the Keepers were beginning to lose all that they had kept and held dear for centuries with minimal technology. The bowhead, the walrus, and now the shoveler. Food was scarce, liquor was abundant, and the life of the Keeper began it’s downward spiral. Jackson, like any good government agent, believed he had to do something. And he did. He called on this aged tribe of Scandinavians: the Norwegians!

Someone had come up with an idea of animal husbandry. Why yes, why depend on a resource one had no control over? Why live from season to season on game so wild that they could never be tamed, never be corralled? How ‘bout this idea of an animal we could corral and control (doesn’t that sound like today’s race, where the mushers are now corralled and controlled in a give area within the checkpoints, and boy with this gps deal, they have to be watched even more!).

Geez, how bout that tame animal across the Strait, that reindeer that the Chuckchi Eskimo have relied on for centuries? Yeah, why not someone else agreed. So, within a few years, Jackson put together a good government program to transport these tame deer across to Alaska. The year was 1891, or thereabouts, when the first deer were brought across.

The natural enemy of the Keepers, the Chuckchi Eskimo, were hired to train the Seward Peninsula Inupiat as herders, but of course, you know where that went. Nowhere. Then someone with a good idea of other cultures and places far, far away said, well, I know of a group of people, they live just like these Keepers, eat like them, and their natural herders: the Laplanders! Why not bring this ancient tribe of people (and just like all tales of the north, these Laps, these Sami, are a mystery, no one can say exactly where they came from and how they came to be what they are now…this is a true mystery even Frozen cannot solve).
So, Jackson said okay, let’s get these Laps over here to teach these Keepers a thing or two about animal husbandry!

To make a long story short, the Sami went on their own Iditarod journey way back in the early 1890s, sailing across that Ocean Blue, then making their way by train from New York (yes where the twin towers once stood) to San Franscisco (all things go through Frisco to this very day!), then on up to the Seward Peninsula. But before they got there, this mystery tribe stopped somewhere in Wisconsin and visited and picked up a VIP. You see, the Laplanders had only one vital request upon their hiring: “We want a Lutheran pastor, a preacher, to hold our flock together!” Sheldon responded by calling on that Norwegian we know as T. L. Brevig.

Well, here I am in a place called Teller, 60 miles up this cold Bering Sea coast from the Burled Arch and only 3 miles from where this Brevig once lived and worked amongst the Keepers. In fact, I will be attending a church service this Sunday morning: at the Teller Lutheran Church, and it will be lead by a half Norwegian/half Norman-type (as he claims). Here, the wind blows and blows, never knowing when to stop. Most winter days, like recently, it blows steadily from the north just enough to cause a bit of nip on your cheeks and the tip of your nose. Every now and then, this cold wind shifts and before you know it, your in a white out and the wind howling so bad that you have to yell to your partner, and most times it’s right in their ear!

Anyway, Brevig responded to Sheldon’s call and for close to 20 years, made this southern Seward Peninsula country his home. Other than being the pastoral shepherd of this small flock of Sami (which at first numbered close to 20 herders and their families), Brevig took on the job of Assistant Superintendent of the Reindeer program. You can read about this program in a book called: Where Did the Reindeer Come From?; by Alice Postell, Amaknak Press, Portland, 1990.

Things went pretty well with Brevig and his family and he learned the Inupiat language, worked with them and the Laps and in general learned the lifestyle and the country. When the gold rush hit the Nome area, T.L. even bought some mining claims. But then, disaster struck…as it quite often does here in the far north. You see, the Seekers brought more than just the latest gadgetry and technology like you see in the race today. (Geez this gps is nice!). Little silicate based components, carrying genetic material never before seen here in the frozen wasteland, made their way up here too on the ships and dogteams driving up that old mining/mail trail to Nome. These microscopic creatures would create havoc like never before seen in the north. And you know what, this modern day descendant of that fierce Viking tribe of long ago happened to be around. He would fight a new battle using new weapons, and this Brevig fought with as much determination and guts as his ancestors did of long ago.

To be continued…

[Frozen Chosen]

Here are some pics to go along with the story.

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[Di*]

Thanks for this latest installment Frozen! Being of Norwegian/Swedish ancestry myself, I'm fascinated by your story!

The smiles on those cute kids are priceless!

[flowerpower]

FC, good to see you back! I've been wishing and wishing for another story...and poof...here it is! See, dreams DO come true!