TO LIVE AND DIE IN WALES, ALASKA and The Ethics of Outsiders Writing about Rural Alaska

TO LIVE AND DIE IN WALES, ALASKA

A young man tries to make his way in a village still reeling from the flu of 1918
by Tony Hopfinger

Synopsis - Anchorage freelance writer, Tony Hopfinger, published an article about a young man whom he befriended over a number of visits to Wales, Alaska. The young man later committed suicide. This post calls attention to this important piece published in an award winning Canadian journal, The Walrus, in November 2007. It also delves into the ethics of 'outsiders' (non-Natives and/or non-villagers) writing about the problems of a particular village. I've divided this into five parts: The Article, Background to this Post, The Ethics of Outsiders Writing about Rural Alaska, a Conclusion of sorts, and Final Notes


The Article
In this article, Tony Hopfinger tries to understand the suicide of Mike Weyapuk by looking at the what life was like for Mike. He reviews Mike's family situation, issues of isolation and lack of employment and their effects on the people in this village of 150 or so an hour flight (about $350 r/t) from Nome. He also goes back to the 1918 influenza epidemic that nearly wiped out this once major village and forever changed it. His article doesn't look for or name villains or angels, but tells a very matter of fact tale of what he thinks led to Mike shooting himself up on the hill. It begins

For years Mike Weyapuk sat on his bunk, cradling his sunburst Gibson guitar. He stared out at the frozen Bering Strait and dreamed of the day he would leave his village to start a metal band. He thought about moving to Seattle or Chicago, but nowhere too far south; he’d heard about an Eskimo who went to Arizona and almost melted. When he arrived in the big city and stepped onstage, he would play fast and hard and angry and sad, the history of his people aching in every power chord.

You can read the first page of the article here. [It appears that The Walrus has now made the whole story available at this link, which moots my issues at the end of the post.]


Background to this post

• Anyone who lives in Alaska knows about stereotyping and condescension. Once you get off the plane in the Lower 48, when people find out you're from Alaska they want to know about living in a dark icebox all year. You don't live in an igloo do you? Even college educated people ask stupid questions about Alaska, and have the nerve to think we're the ignorant ones. So we know what it is like for others to have totally inaccurate stories about us. Yet that doesn't stop urban (yes, I know New Yorkers might find it amusing for someone living in a place with a population of 270,000 to call that urban) Alaskans from similarly stereotyping rural Alaska.
• I lived in Thailand for three years, long ago. In a small provincial capital where my Thai was better than their English. I learned to see what is invisible to the tourist - the ties of friendship and loyalty, the bonds to the land and to ancestors, how Buddhism has been internalized by the Thais who are more or less successful in their acting out its wisdoms, and how my own society looks from those eyes. This experience has helped me see these things in rural Alaska too.
• I've read Harold Napoleon's book Yuuyaraq (it's the 11th book, at the bottom of the table in the link) and even talked with Harold. It's hard to describe the book without reinforcing all the worst stereotypes non-Natives have about Alaska Natives. But actually reading his story has a profound effect on most people I've met who've read it.

Flash forward to more recent background.

• Last July my wife and I were invited by Joe and Catherine Senungetuk to visit Wales, Alaska where he grew up for a writing workshop. I've posted about that trip. But there was a lot I didn't post. Our workshop participants were half visitors from outside of Wales and half local Wales residents. As we talked about our writing we told stories about our lives and in some cases the stories were not happy ones. But there was an understanding that what was said at the workshop did not get shared. The audio recorders were shut down.
• While I was at the corruption trials this summer and fall I ran into Tony Hopfinger whom I hadn't seen for few years. He's an Alaska freelance writer, formerly a newspaper reporter, and his work has appeared in Newsweek, The Seattle Times, Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. He'd seen my blog posts on Wales in the summer and told me about this article he wrote. How he was a little nervous and wanted to get to Wales before it came out in print. He'd spent a lot of time visiting Wales and Mike Weyapuk in particular. He felt he had an obligation to tell Mike's story, but knew some people in Wales would be upset. Tony gave me a copy of the article when it came out in a Canadian literary journal, The Walrus.

The Ethics of Outsiders Writing about Rural Alaska
An aside on language first. In cross-cultural discussions, it's important to clarify our words. I don't talk about 'white' writers here, because the issue is not restricted simply to 'whites.' It is really about non-Natives. But what about non-Natives who grew up in rural Alaska, like Seth Kantner who not only grew up in rural Alaska, but did so living a subsistence lifestyle using traditional tools? His book Ordinary Wolves [I didn't like any of the links I saw, and even this NPR piece starts out with the stereotypical "Ooooh eeeee. He grew up in a half buried arctic igloo made of sod. He had no electricity, no plumbing..." but you get to hear Kantner himself] writes about that life and about changes in rural Alaska. So, 'outsider', seems an appropriate term. I mean it to include people who have a different way of seeing the world from people who grew up in rural Alaska. It includes those who live in rural Alaska temporarily as government officials, teachers, medical personnel - people who get an intimate glimpse of rural Alaska life through their jobs, but with the glasses of an Outsider. Which is not to say some can't cross the line.

I also don't intend to use the term Alaska Native as though there were a single Alaska Native culture. There are many different Alaska Native languages, and since the article is focused on the village of Wales, I'm basically writing about their Inuit culture. There are many common issues that rural - particularly off road - villages have, even if they are from different language groups.



What are the ethical issues that come up when outsiders write about Alaska Natives?

1. They write their own preconceived stories about rural Alaska instead of the stories of actual rural Alaskans. When they see things, they interpret them using their own cultural norms when they write, reinforcing the stereotypes outsiders have. It’s natural for people in new places to contrast them to what is familiar. But it isn’t usually accurate reporting. Often the outsider sees the tangible different negatives (honey buckets, small houses, dental problems), but can’t see the invisible positives (the intimate connection to the land, the personal generosity, the respect for elders.)

2. Even academics bring their cultural biases with them and see what they are looking for, interpreting behaviors and conditions in terms of what they would mean in Anchorage or Chicago, but not in terms of what they mean in Bethel or Wales.

In other cases, they gather stories from local informants and then write them up with their own names on them and for there own benefit - academic promotion and tenure, book contracts, etc. Or they gather statistics that support the decision that the government agency or corporation they work for wants made.

Alaska Natives are so tired of ‘experts’ stealing their stories or misinterpreting what they see, and bringing harm to the people they are researching, that the Alaska Federation of Natives developed Guidelines for Research. Those guidelines offer the following principles:

1. Advise Native people who are to be affected by the study of the purpose, goals and timeframe of the research, the data gathering techniques, the positive and negative implications and impacts of the research
2. Obtain informed consent of the appropriate governing body.
3. Fund the support of a Native Research Committee appointed by the local community to assess and monitor the research project and ensure compliance with the expressed wishes of Native people.
4. Protect the sacred knowledge and cultural/intellectual property of Native people.
5. Hire and train Native people to assist in the study.
6. Use Native languages whenever English is the second language.
7. Guarantee confidentiality of surveys and sensitive material.
8. Include Native viewpoints in the final study.
9. Acknowledge the contributions of Native resource people.
10. Inform the Native Research Committee in a summary and in nontechnical language of the major findings of the study.
11. Provide copies of the study to the local people.

3. Basic violations of confidences. Rural Alaska villages are small. You don’t need to name names for people to figure out who you might be talking about when you mention 'a woman with three kids who lives next to the washateria.' This issue of invading the privacy of individuals also extends to the whole community. Not wanting their less flattering stories (true or false) shared with the world isn’t a negative Alaska Native trait. Every self-respecting community is sensitive about what is said about them. Often people need to work through an issue on their own before they are ready to have it shared with the world.


Why should outsiders or others write about rural Alaska issues?

There are legitimate reasons to address real and deadly serious problems in rural Alaska. There is no question that rural Alaska faces a myriad of problems, just as urban Alaska does. Is the role of the outside writer to ignore them and defer to locals to solve their own problems? This is a reasonable question to raise. Are people - particularly children - being seriously harmed while the people harming them are protected by some sort of cultural “it’s none of your business” card? Responding to this is complex. Some aspects to consider:

1. Outsiders carry significant responsibility for the problems in rural Alaska. Alaska Natives survived for at least 10,000 years without help from outsiders. They didn't come into Outsiders' territory, the Outsiders came to theirs. Thus outsiders have some responsibility for cleaning up their mess. But many problems exist because outsiders tried to fix what they considered 'problems' in the first place. So it has to be done differently this time.

Cultural destruction first by the Russians and then Americans is real. Much non-Native rhetoric about rural Alaska still echoes those 19th Century stories of bringing civilization to 'primitive' Native Americans. “We’re here to help you poor, not-as-enlightened-as-us, people by assimilating you into the American way of life.”

However, as in the Lower 48, people came into Alaska Native communities mainly to exploit natural resources (furs, gold, whales, timber, fish, oil) or to fulfill their own spiritual needs by converting them to various forms of Christianity. The imports - religion, disease, wooden houses (in the treeless tundra), school books written for Lower 48 white kids, guns - displaced the self sufficient traditional ways of life that had served Alaska Natives for 10,000 years. The imported wisdoms, housing, tools, and expectations didn’t improve Arctic survival skills, but they did require a commodity hard to find in the tundra - cash.

Killing off the carriers of the oral traditions and skills, through diseases and Western schools where Native languages were forbidden, pushed many Alaska Natives into a no-man’s land in between cultures. Living the old ways was no longer possible, but neither were the new ones. While people in Wales have electricity, potato chips, and Pepsi, they still have to haul water from outside of town and they carry their toilet waste out in ‘honey’ buckets.

All this leaves people in the total cultural and personal disarray that Tony captures from his conversations with Mike. They need money to buy the products or a ticket to Nome, Anchorage, Seattle, that they are pressured to buy, but there are few decent cash paying jobs. Yet outsiders come to these villages and bemoan what they see as the terrible conditions and blame the residents for lacking motivation.


3. The issues are not unique to rural Alaska. Many village problems mirror the problems of rural America and urban America, but in those places they aren’t usually so publicly visible. Rural America is also losing its population to cities and can’t keep doctors and other professionals for long. In this context, Alaskan rural communities aren’t particularly inept as they are often portrayed.. Neither are alcohol, drugs, suicide, or teen pregnancy unique to rural Alaska. Yet much coverage of rural Alaska makes it sound like Alaska Natives are singularly incapable.

Rural Alaska does have a level of isolation not experienced elsewhere in the US where every town at least is connected to the road system. Wales, for example, is about an hour away from Nome by small plane - I think it cost us about $350 round-trip. I don’t recall any of the roads being paved and they don’t go far out of town. Most of the people in town are related. There’s a fancy school building with Outside teachers (which is not to judge them, I was an Outside teacher in rural Thailand), alcohol is illegal, but is available at tremendous markups. People still do hunt and fish and gather local greens and berries for a good part of their food. Subsistence has been made easier with motors and guns, but harder with restrictions on when and how things can be caught. And the introduction of manufactured goods requires cash that can't be hunted or gathered. Health care beyond first aid is in Nome or Anchorage.


4. Difficulty of honestly addressing all this. There aren't many outside writers who have the experience and understanding to write well on this (at least based on what I've seen.) The imposed Western culture’s story says that these problems are the personal weakness of the individuals who aren’t taking responsibility. The story chides Alaska Natives for not appreciating all the wonderful things the missionaries, teachers, government agents, small businesses have brought them.

The traditional wisdom has been devastated. The Inuit and other Alaska Native equivalents of ‘libraries’ and ‘museums’ of traditional culture were ‘burned’ and ‘looted’ when the 1918 epidemics killed off the generations who would normally have passed that wisdom on. And the missionaries followed through by often banning Native ways like dancing, drumming, and speaking Native languages.

Today's village children are the first or second generation that does not speak the ancestral languages. Instead, they are sucked away from their parents and grandparents by schools, television, video games, music into the invading, dominant Western culture. Think about all the families in non-Native America who put their kids into private religious schools of various denominations to protect them from losing their family and cultural values in public schools. Most villagers don't have this option. Alaska Natives have to fight huge battles just to have their kids study their own languages in their local schools. Only a few have won this right. And these aren't immigrants. They don't have a home to go back to. They are home.

5. Individually, most Alaska Natives are not living in despair, but rather have found ways to navigate successfully between the two cultures. They are doing overtime duty with their Western world responsibilities and their Native world responsibilities.

6. . Collectively Alaska Natives through various organizations such as regional,
urban, and village corporations , the Alaska Native Professional Association, or the Alaska Federation of Natives have many initiatives to restore cultural identity and pride and develop skills to make Alaska Native village communities economically, socially, and culturally healthy. Despite the media exposure these organizations get, most non-Native Alaskans have no idea of who they are or what they do.

So, outsiders who get involved in all this ought to respect the people they are involved with. This may not always be easy. Their styles of doing things are different and this takes adjusting to. Instead many outsiders interpret "quietly thinking" as having nothing to say and they interrupt before a person is ready to speak. And Alaska Natives don’t speak in a single voice. They - surprise , surprise - don't know which path leads to the best future and they fear taking one that will cause harm. Just like everyone else.

7. There is a real clash between American rights to free speech that writers have as US citizens and the values of respect, discretion, and compassion. The free speech rights of Americans are also abridged at times. Anti-gay demonstrators have been banned from protesting too close at funerals for American military. Writers should recognize this same sort of right of Alaska Natives to have their private lives respected. Just because one has the legal right to do something doesn't mean they should do it.

8. Outside writers may shy away from these stories because they have seen others burned for raising thorny topics, or understand their own lack of background. It would be helpful for Alaska Native organizations to do more work to help train Outside writers about rural Alaska. The Alaska Humanities Forum's Rural-Urban Rose Exchange sends urban teachers and students for week long exchanges in rural Alaska as one way of raising their understanding of rural Alaska. But only a few get this experience. It would be good to include journalists.

So, do Outsiders have the right to talk about the issues of rural Alaska they have gained from the confidences of Alaska Natives?

My short answer is yes, but with conditions.

• They need to have the permission of the person who confided. And of the other people who are brought into the limelight by their writing. Getting the permission of a whole community is not as easy. I don’t think one person can make that decision.

• If they are doing it for the right reason, and

• If they know what they are doing.

There are problems with my criteria. Most people assume they know what they are doing and that their motives are pure. Even when they aren’t. The AFN Guidelines for Research are more specific and thus easier to measure against.

If we look at the AFN research guidelines, I would say that numbers 1, 3, 5, and 10 tend to be more appropriate to formal research projects. The others, though, are also appropriate for outside writers coming into Native communities. Numbers 2, 4, and 7, and 9 all would be covered when getting consent. If consent isn't given in advance, then 11 - sharing the findings - would be necessary to get permission at the end.

Having talked at length about this with Tony, I believe that

• He had Mike’s permission.
• His intentions are sincere,
• And he mostly knows what he’s doing.

Mike Weyapuk talked to Tony knowing Tony was a writer. But simply introducing yourself as a writer isn't enough. Writers need to make clear the intention to write a story and that what the other person says may appear in print. It appears Mike understood this and saw Tony as his way to make a mark in the world, to not live his life in vain. Tony certainly believes that Mike would strongly support his decision to publish this story.

Tony is an outside writer who listened for Mike's story instead of imposing his own story on what he wrote. He wrote this to tell Mike’s story, to give his life a meaning beyond the small village of Wales. But I also read in Tony’s story a great frustration and anger at the destructive influence of the West on the people in this westernmost point of the North American continent and a desire to help other outsiders get past their stereotypes about rural Alaska.

He doesn’t blame any individuals for what happened to Mike, but rather helps readers feel and begin to grasp the unintended devastating consequences of Western culture’s imposition on rural Alaska. It’s a story that Harold Napoleon tells explicitly and Seth Kantner tells less directly. Tony tells it by painting the picture of one, bright young man, trapped in this cultural crevasse. The story isn't one way. Tony also reveals his own private struggle with depression. This self revelation, fits well in the context of the story, but also shows that Tony too is willing to expose his own vulnerable side.

While Tony probably had Mike’s approval for this story, he didn’t have the community approval. To tell Mike’s story, Tony, had to also include parts of other people’s stories. Ideally, Tony, using my criteria, should have gotten the approval of the respected elders of Wales. [I should make it very clear that my criteria are way above any journalistic standards I've ever seen, and what Tony did in all this far exceeded any journalistic standards I've ever seen. Discussing all this in the context of a piece that does it right, seems much better than in the context of one that does it wrong.] Having spent several days in a writing workshop with some of those elders in July myself, I believe Tony might well have gotten that approval. I think Tony knows this. When we first talked about this article (he told me about it because he'd seen my posts on Wales) he was planning on going to Wales to share the story with people before it was published. But as I understand it, he never worked out time or financing to do that. The AFN standards don't require approval by the community leaders of the final product, but it does require permission to do the research at the beginning. [But those are research, not journalistic standards.]

I think Tony’s intent is good. He didn’t write this for money. What little The Walrus paid him will never cover his time and expenses over five years of writing this. He worked hard to see Wales through Mike’s eyes, not his own. He brings the context of Wales’ history to bear on this story. His writing expresses not only Mike’s pain, but Tony’s too, and his hope that this story will help nudge, however slightly, the way urban Alaskans think about rural Alaskans.

One problem is that most Alaskans don’t know Tony's article even exists. A Barnes and Noble staffer told me they get three copies of each edition of The Walrus, but had none when I called this week. The UAA library has a copy. The Walrus website only lets you link to the first page or so of the article. I think it’s an important article, but I also think that any article like this one needs to be read in the context of the question I’ve raised - how can outsiders ethically write about Alaska Native villages?

One path through many cross cultural ethical dilemmas is to recognize that first, we are all human beings. Thus non-Native people should first behave as human beings with human beings, rather than dwell on “I’m White (Asian, Black) and you are Native." (There is also the pesky fact that many so called Alaska Natives have a parent or grandparent who is non-Native. Why should someone with a non-Native father and a Native mother automatically be labeled Native rather than non-Native?)

So first we are human beings working with other human beings. Those human beings have cultural variations that add to the richness of human experience. Just like we have learned to cherish cultural variations in food and music we can learn to appreciate cultural variations in other areas. I think Tony took this approach. He and Mike, from one perspective, were two young men who had a number of things in common - like electric guitars - about which they talked and on which they based a friendship.

For non-Native Outsiders going into Native communities, I think the most appropriate role is to listen. They should do their homework. Read what Alaska Natives have written. Attend the AFN annual conferences. Seek assistance from Alaska Native organizations. They need to prove to their hosts their recognition of their own ignorance of local ways and their intention to do no harm.

To the extent outsiders have access to resources that might be useful to rural Alaskans, they should offer them for inspection. The decision whether and how to use them belongs with the village residents themselves. This is an approach I think the dominant American culture might use around the world. Our modern technology is easy to see. But the culture of other peoples is like an iceberg - only the tip is visible. Rural Alaskan culture is more vulnerable than most overseas cultures which have sufficient population, territorial sovereignty, and thriving cultural institutions. But indigenous peoples around the world are often even more vulnerable than Alaska Native cultures.

[The rest is now moot, since the link to the Walrus now gives you access to the whole article.]

Final Note
While writing this, I thought it would be neat to be able to provide access to the whole article since it isn't easy to get. The managing editor of The Walrus said it would be fine if Tony, the author, approved. Tony has approved, but we haven't worked out the best way to do this. (And he asked me to mention that he got partial funding for this project through an artist grant he received from the Rasmuson Foundation. Tony also asked I include his email address so readers could contact him.)
But as I revised this post, I realized that I personally feel the need to get some sort of approval for this from the people of Wales. I will try to do that, and if that approval comes, I'll find a way to make the article accessible. Meanwhile you can read the first page of the article here. Since this is already publicly available I don't think I'm violating any obligation to the people of Wales.

I realize that some people will think I'm going way overboard in my caution and others will think I've violated the confidentiality of people in Wales by calling attention to this article. I'm making the call that this is an important article, written for the right reasons, and that overall, I estimate that its effect will be positive. Harold Napoleon also took a lot of heat for his article too. But I also respect the people of Wales and want to include them in the decision to make the whole article itself available.

(And if anyone read all the way to here, send me an email or leave a comment.)

Wales - 1

Tryying to figure out how to post about Wales, I've decided to let my pictures structure the story and go in chronological order. There are lots of overlapping stories here, but rather than isolate them out, I'll let them unfold (or not) as I experienced them. For the beginning of this Wales trip including maps go to July 18, 2007.

We got the flight go-ahead at 11am on Friday and flew into the Wales airport on a new Beechcraft. Here we are at the airstrip in Wales with our luggage out. Four-wheelers were out at the airport to pick up luggage and we walked the ten minutes to the community center, passing grassy marsh land.


We had to decide where to stay. People had sleeping bags to put in offices in the Community Center, several of us brought tents. Alice, who's from Bethel, wanted to sleep out on the beach, so I went along to see if that would work for Joan too.





On the way we passed Marie who was going a little out of town to a large pond to fill up on water. Wales doesn't have running water. People said they did, but it was chlorinated and the State health people said that wasn't safe. So now they get the same unsafe water, but they have to get it in buckets. Or so that is what I was told.





Alice gave a warm hello to everyone we passed and the warmth was returned by all. A group of kids followed us to the beach. Shawna, the one in the hooded sweatshirt, became a buddy She's also the daughter of Joanne and Tony who were both participants in the writing workshop. Alice got her tent up on the beach, despite warnings by locals that it would get extremely windy and blow away. She piled rocks on all the stakes and in the tent.





Walking back through town to the Community Center after Alice's tent was up. In the end, Tony convinced me to put our tent just behind the community center so we wouldn't have to walk so far.

Wales 6

I'm still trying to catch up with the reports of the Wales/Nome trip. Last Saturday, while we were walking, Tony went out and caught a salmon for dinner.








Here's the group filling their plates. Catherine had shipped in a lot of food and we had a nice mix of local and outside food for our meals.




Then the drumming practice began. The Kinggikmiut Festival will bring drummers from different villages to Wales later this year. Writing workshop participants were proud of the young drummers and dancers who were maintaining the local traditions.









One former Wales resident, who is now an engineer in New York State, was visiting and getting video of the drumming and dancing.











They told us the drummers could make the sun shine, and the only time we saw the sun in Wales was that evening toward the end of the drumming.




And I couldn't help notice the back of this sweatshirt from one of Wales' residents who had on a World Eskimo - Indian Olympics sweatshirt.

Headed for Wales, Alaska

All the photos in this post can be enlarged by clicking.

This may be the last post for several days. Joan and I are headed to the Westernmost point of the North American mainland, the village of Wales. (There are some islands further west.) Our friend Joe was born and raised in Wales and has put together a small writing workshop there. We couldn't refuse such a great invitation.

The top map of North America is from Joe's 1971 book Give or Take a Century and was done by Joe as are all the illustrations. On the Atlas map of Alaska, you can see Anchorage in the lower right and Nome on the left. Wales is a little above Nome (Under Little Diomede which is an island a mile from Big Diomede. Little is in the US and Big is in Russia).





This last map is another Joe drew of Wales almost 40 years ago. We'll see if it still is useful.













Here's the cover page of the book.














This is the beginning of the chapter about Wales in Joe's book. Click on it to enlarge.

Wales 2

That first day in Wales - Friday - after helping Alice get her tent up, we had a late lunch. Here you can see Winton (from Wales) and Eli (from Anchorage.) Eli was the pool manager at the University for years and is originally from Germany. She is now a sculptor and has an outdoor 'studio' along the beach somewhere in Anchorage where she builds natural, temporary sculpture in the manner somewhat of Andy Goldsworthy. And just a part of Barbara's face. She's a writer from New Jersey who has been a museum curator and has done extensive work with Alaska Native art and has spent a great deal of time in Alaska. There were so many interesting people.





And here Joe's wife Catherine is talking to Lena. Both Lena and Winton were important participants in the writing workshop. Both have lived in Wales their whole lives and know so much about the history, the natural world, and the social world of Wales.

















There was a picture earlier of Marie on her four wheeler going out to get water. Well, in Wales they still use honey buckets. There's a white bucket with a plastic garbage back in the 'toilet' on the right. When this gets filled, someone has to take it out and dump it.



There are little honey bucket stations all around town. Here is someone coming back from dumping. Think about it. Alaska has a Permanent Fund of savings from oil income (and more recently investments on that income) of $40 billion. This fund pays annual dividends to all the citizens of Alaska. Last year it was around $1000 per person. And yet we have people living in villages that still don't have running water and decent sewage systems.

I'll try to get a little more up each day. My mom and daughter are both here visiting. Yesterday we had a triple birthday party - my daughter, me, and a friend, Alex - and we've got lots to do so I can't do too much at once.

Most of the pictures can be enlarged somewhat by clicking on them.

Back from Wales in Sunny Nome

We spent Thursday night in Nome because Wales was fogged in. There were six residents of Wales who joined the ten of us (plus our workshop facilitator Kim) who came from outside. With Alice (from Bethel) and Joe (from Wales) we had more Alaska Native participants than non-Native.

The people of Wales were incredibly hospitible and we share a lot. I'll blog more and post lots of pictures when we get back to Anchorage, but I'm just taking a moment in the Nome library to get back on. The sun is shining here in Nome. (We only had about an hour of sun in 3.5 days in Wales, that was after the drummers had been practicing for two hours one evening.) It was warm enough that I put on my shorts at the beach and tested the waters of the Bering Sea.

We have a few hours to wander the beaches of Nome and see if we can find a few birds that normally we can't see.

Wales 3

On Friday afternoon (still our first day in Wales) we did some writing exercises. Then we broke for dinner. Tony and his wife Joanne prepared reindeer in the kitchen. I'm not going to talk a lot about our Wales hosts and the other workshop participants because in the writing workshop they talked about themselves and the village of Wales, and while they didn't say anything terribly sensitive, there was an agreement that things we talked about are confidential, and it's hard for me to separate out what they might not want shared from what they wouldn't care about. However, we did 'publish' a small book with highlights of what people wrote and that I can share as i go along.





In addition to the reindeer meat, we got to taste walrus flippers cooked in seal oil and locally picked greens also preserved in seal oil While the reindeer was definitely a more familiar type food, the walrus and greens weren't bad.





Here's everythig ready to eat.







Joan and I both enjoyed being right on the beach. I think this was an after dinner walk.





There are no trees anywhere around, but there is lots of firewood in the form of driftwood on the beach (see Wales 1 pix) and lots of interesting other things like these dead starfish.














That evening the community center was busy with bingo. There is electricity, though the experimental windmills weren't on while we were there. They are made, I was told, in Kotzebue, a little further north, and when they first tried them the wind was so strong it broke the windmill. There are very harsh winds here.



This picture was from the plane when we flew in.

Wales 7 - Writing Workshop

The ostensible purpose of the trip to Wales was the Writing Workshop. I'd never been to one before and didn't know what to expect. We had a bona fide writer leading the workshop. Actually, someone who has extensive experience in teaching writing - Kim Stafford director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College..


I was pleasantly surprised. Starting in Nome, where we spent the first night because Wales was fogged in, we regularly did little writing exercises. Our first exercise was to "take a line for a walk." After about five minutes or writing we stopped, volunteers read what they wrote, then we were supposed to pick a line we really liked in what we wrote, and start from there.

We got another assignment to just write a run-on sentence - we weren't to worry about proper grammar or anything like that, just keep writig your thought.


Saturday, in Wales, when we had all the participants, we did an assignment on "What makes me want to live?" I'm attaching a page Kim printed out with one or two lines from most of the participants. These are pretty short and anonymous and they've been printed and passed around so I don't think I'm betraying any confidences by posting this here. I'd love to put up a couple of the pieces that were printed in the booklet at the end of the workshop. Even though people picked what they wanted in there, and it is pretty public by virtue of being in the booklet, I don't have anyone's permission to put their stuff up here, so I'll pass on that.



I've never really written in a group before, where we shared our writing with others as we wrote and it was an interesting and useful experience. I explored ideas I wouldn't have come up with on my own. I also got a better focus on things I sort of knew. Since this was my first and only such workshop, I don't have much experience to base recommendations for such things on. Things I know contributed were: 1) an experienced, articulate, thoughtful facilitator, 2) interesting and diverse participants who brought a lot of different perspectives and ideas to the table, and 3) being in a pretty isolated place. There was only nature and nice people to distract us pretty much.

Oh yes, I would also add that many of the people in the group identify themselves as artists rather than writers, so some of the participants led art exercises. We did watercolors one afternoon and made little books out of beautiful pieces of paper. All - the writing, the watercolors, the bookmaking - were incorporated in the booklets Kim had published on his new printer that he'd carefully carried all the way to Wales.

Redistricting Board Public Hearing Anchorage - Ketchikan Wants Prince of Wales - live blogging

Got here a little late, but meeting hadn't started.  Chair announced the situation - approved of 7 Board options and three private options plus Ketchikan.  Then they got three more from Calista and AFFER.  And another today

[Basically Ketchikan wants part of Prince of Wales Island.]

Ketchikan - Dan

Carefully consider the 8 page letter.  All to happy to provide additional information and supporting materials.  As I understand rules of redistrict, especially in the hickel process, contiguity, one-person one vote etc.  Similar to Board Option A.

Torg:  When we had hearings in Prince of Wales - they said they didn't want PoW divided.  Have you talked to them about this? 

Dan:  We have not.  It is mathmatically impossible 1 person 1 vote.  Population characteristics impossible to keep Prince of Wales intact.  VRA change is certainly a game changer.  We have very strong ties to Metlakatla and PoW.  More than with northern communities on the island.  I understand PoW desire to keep all communities int he same election district.  It just can't happen in my opinion, given

Torg:  Have you looked at map G?
Dan:  Mostly A
Torg:  Option G does keep PoW in one piece, so please look at that and give us your opinion. 


AFFER - Mr. Ruedrich
[He's setting up his powerpoint - there's a break here so I'll post this for now.]

Wales 5

Joan and I took a walk on Saturday afternoon along the beach to see the sculpture on the hill. There were several nets drying on the beach.













Here I'm starting up the hill at the end of the beach looking north, we can see the south end of Wales.







The hillside is lushly covered with green stuff.





Here, again, looking north from the hillside we can see the village of Wales from the south. The sculpture was created by Joe Senungetuk, the organizer of the workshop, in memory of his brother Skip. He worked on this with sculptor David Barr from Michigan. Barr's website has a little more on the sculpture:

Arctic Arc consists of two sculpture installations at sites on the Bering Sea (Naukan, East Russia and Wales, Alaska) which are sites of the first human migrations into North America. The sculptures are a peaceful symbol for a border of international tension.

This is the inscription.



A tractor slowly disappearing on the beach.











On the way back we saw a snow bunting, a bird I hadn't ever seen before.

March 2009 Google and Other Search Terms

I put up these posts to highlight the power of internet searches, how they sometimes go poorly astray, some of the more unexpected things people search for, the satisfaction I get when someone appears to have found just what they want, and the frustration when they get close, but don't know how to get the rest of the way. I learn about how people get here and maybe someone reading this will figure out something useful here too.

• what can i do to be more interesting? A reasonable question, but I don't think this person found the answer here. The person got to the November google search page.
  
  
• do federal judges fly on sundays with us marshals I'm sure I didn't have the answer for this, but there was something about Federal Marshals flying with Vic Kohring on Monday.
  
  
• pomegranate phone release india - sadly the pomegranate phone is not a real phone, but I was surprised at the number of people who thought it was. The spot is very well done which is why I posted it originally. This query was from someone in Bombay
  
  
• does the fbi pay for house hunting for new employees - this person got to the post on the FBI complaint by Chad Joy which did not answer the question, but maybe raised a lot of questions the seeker hadn't even considered.
  
  
• what is the thai version of lol - Bingo! Here's someone who got exactly what was sought: lol in Thai.
  
  
• does a yellow shirt go with red shorts - Absolutely, but they didn't get that answer. Instead they got a post on the political implications of redshirts and yellowshirts in Thailand.
  
  
• do americans even know where wales is? This UK browser didn't get the answer either, but at least now knows that the US has a place called Wales too. To Live in Die in Wales Alaska was probably a lot more than the person was expecting.
  
  
• famous people born in pennsylvania with their last name beggining with u (1909) - If this browser, who got to Famous People Born in 1909, searched the page for Pennsylvania, he would have found that David Riesman and Joseph L. Mankiewicz were both born in Pennsylvania, but obviously neither had a U in their last name. The closest we got were a V(elez) and two W's (Welty and Weil) There was also U. Thant. But not from Pennsylvania.
  
  
• how many people are famous for knowing more than one languages - Think about this for a bit. I guess if someone spoke 25 languages fluently, that might be the reason they are famous. I can think of famous people whose knowledge of a second language was much appreciated - such as Jackie Kennedy who could speak French. Anyway, this person got to famous people born in 1909 too.
  
  
• did lady natasha spender home in france burn down - Also got to the same place where there was something on Stephen Spender, Lady Natasha's husband.
  
  
• who is the famous person successful in studying at university more than 1 - This came from a computer using US English in Cambodia. Also got to famous people.
  
  
• elvi gray-jackson's values seems to be affecting policy decisions - Is that surprising? Don't most politician's values affect how they vote on policies? This searcher at least knew how to search the blog for 'elvi-gray-jackson' when she got an archive page full of posts. But what she got was about the election between Traini and Gray-Jackson.
  
  
• know your cranes t shirt - Here's one of those google hits that doesn't work. I had a post on Chiang Mai T shirts (which the browser got to) as well other posts on Sandhill and other kinds of cranes. The browser clicked on a picture from that page Chiang Mai T-shirts. But that got me curious - was there a T-shirt that showed you the different kinds of cranes? So I looked at the google page they got to. Well, the "know your cranes" t-shirt wasn't quite what I was expecting. Nor was the other T-shirt google found.
  
  
• "abie baby" production - A number of people searched for variations of this. I'm not totally sure what they were looking for, but they got to a Lincoln's Birthday post I did with an excerpt from the Anchorage Hair cast singing "happy birthday abie babie".
  
  
• ted the dog hunting for rabbis vidios - I first thought this was some sort of sick anti-semitic joke. But eventually I realized that the searcher had left out the 't' at the end of rabbi. The post he got was definitely not what he was looking for. It was about Ted Stevens and the Seward Sea-Life Center.
  
  
• how do you increase morale in a deli - The wonderful serendipity of googling. In a post called doing what's possible I, by chance, gave some examples, two of which included the magic words

  "If she told you to pick up some bagels in a New York deli for lunch (and you were both in Los Angeles,) you'd laugh."
  "improve the morale and increase production"
  
  

• furniture that hangs from the roof inside - I really wanted to see what this looks like, but couldn't find it. The person did get to see some furniture in Hang Dong.
  
  
• chanot deed - Another bingo, almost. This was not something I expected anyone to be looking up. The search came from Denmark. I had just posted on this Thai form of property deed. So who was looking it up? An NGO worker? A corporation? Or maybe a Dane married to a Thai trying to figure out what happens when they buy property together in Thailand? Or maybe his attorney? Actually the post - on Chanot Chumchon - they got to probably wasn't as useful as a later post on the types of documentation for Thai property.
  
  
• how does the gut in death row work harder - Not sure what this person was looking for, but he got a post on why I think the death penalty shouldn't be reinstated in Alaska.
  
  
• kuala lumpur bird park owl take picture - This is a real bingo (I think, I'm never sure I really understand what people are looking for.) There's a spot in the KL bird park where you can have your picture taken with birds, including two owls. This googler got to that post which included this picture of people getting their picture taken with the owls in the background.
  
  
• steve keudell.blogspot.com - This one disturbs me. Actually, I got quite a few like this. Steve is a farmer in Oregon who got electrocuted when a tree branch fell on a power line. I started getting hits with his name one day and it didn't make sense, so I looked what else they got on google. I found an article about the accident. I've got Steve in my url so sometimes I get people looking for other Steves. So I put up a post about it, with some information about the accident and asked people to let me know if there was a better link for people to get info. They let me know about stevekuedell.blogspot.com. I posted it. But as a new blog (I assume) it wasn't as high up on google's radar as my blog so I kept getting more and more people. So this is someone who had the right url. If they had put it into the url window they'd have gotten directly to the right site. But they googled it instead and got to my site. Which now had a link at the beginning that sent them to the right site where they could get the latest update. And according the sitemeter information, they didn't go to that link. There were a number of hits like this. And others that did go to the better link. It's partly about knowing how to read and paying attention, it's partly internet literacy. And maybe some people didn't want to know more than I had up, even if it was a week old. Here's the most current information on Steve's condition.
  
  
• information on boyfriends cheeting on their girlfriends and the girlfriends pay the price - no comment. Not sure why this blog came up. Here's what their google search showed:
  

What Do I know?: March 2009
... charge less, hurting shops who pay the price of legally and safely disposing of waste. ... schools and a health clinic as well as information on various ...
whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html - 451k - Cached

I can't believe this was the best google could do.

• a day i will never forget in chiang mai zoo with my family - I'm guessing this is of the genre of "Googling to find stuff for the paper I have to write for school". It was US Pacific Standard Time, from a Thai language computer. And they got my post on a day at the Chiang Mai zoo.

Click here for all the other posts on interesting google searches.

Saturday Morning Redistricting - Fine Tuning, Sort Of, Kenai, Matsu, Fairbanks, Juneau

Board met on the record from 10am until 12 noon.  Basically they were looking at maps and moving census blocks around and trying to figure out if they could make things better.  Some key points:

1. They used Calista Option 4 as their base map
2. Started with Kenai.  Kenai has population for three whole districts within the Borough boundary, but they have to figure out what do with the excess population - GIS tech Eric Sandberg was the key person
3. Part of this included discussion of Kodiak and could they connect Kodiak to Valdez and Cordova without contiguity concerns.  Kodiak is an island so it needs to be contiguous over water, but how far can they go without raising problems?  Part of Kodiak borough is on the mainland across the water from Kodiak. From what I could tell, Board member Bob Brodie, who is from Kodiak, was the key person.
4. Matsu has five whole districts, plus some excess population.  Should they follow the Calista 4 plan which takes about 400 people from north Anchorage and connects them via the highway to Valdez and the Richardson Highway, or try to take population from Matsu?
5. Fairbanks North Star Borough has enough population for five districts plus about 7,000 excess.  Board member Jim Holm, who is from Fairbanks was working this one.
6. Southeast - Board member PeggyAnn McConnochie, from Juneau, was in charge here.  The new map, she said, was in response to testimony last week in Juneau.  Haines folks said they wanted to be connected to downtown Juneau, not the Mendenhall Valley.  She did that.  She also had Prince of Wales Island whole.  Deviations were a problem here.  
7. Deviations - attorney White said that the very low deviations in Calista and AFFER plans were good, but that there was room to increase deviations a little if they can justify that with other considerations, such as whole Boroughs or Socio-Economic Integration (SEI)

All the Board members were there except Marie Green.  They will reconvene at 3pm.  You can listen in at akl.tv.


Here are my very rough notes.  I'm in LA and so I listened in via the audioconference online.  There is also a call in number.  The Calista Option 4 Map is below and you can get a higher resolution copy here.  

Get higher res PDF here.

Here are my rough notes of the meeting.  I got in about ten minutes after the scheduled starting time.  Beware, I got what I could, but there are a few gaps and probably things I misheard.  ???? means it wasn't clear to me.  I've added some headings to show where they started a new topic.  Though they do talk about different regions throughout as other regions can be impacted by what they are doing with the region they are working on. 

KENAI BOROUGH
 
10:12 
Eric:  when you take Tyonek, drops ??? , you have to go to Chenega to balance it out,  38 is slightly low, so I grabbed Newtok into 38. 
Calista Option 4 stopped at Crooked Creek, I had to go into Good News Bay, then the Domino effect sends 38 slightly over. 
Taking Tyonek out of Aleutians causes domino effect.
Looked at original Calista 4 plan, they’d gone to end of the road system to get those type deviations.  Only about 1200 people on Kenai borrow off the road system and they have an excess of 2000.  Fox River East End Road. 
I’m the fill colors, the red overlay is Calista Option 4.
Torgerson: Why Fox River?
Eric:  To take this out of the road system.  Tail end of East End Road.  I reconfigured their Kenai slightly,  They had Funny River over here, but that’s Sterling.  Just moving around, all these districts overpopulated, can’t entirely get rid of the excess ?? Kodiak district. 
White:  Three complete districts in Kenai Borough, clear out those off the road system and the spread the excess among the three?
Eric:  Yes.
Torgerson: Discussions with Marie, you guys worked with Good News Bay?
McConnochie:  she preferred to have it.  Traditional Calista boundaries. 
Torgerson: In Calista?
McConnochie:  Yes,  When we had to split the Chain, not happy.
Torgerson:  You have 37?
Eric:  in Calista area,
Torgerson: What about Newtok?
Eric:  Remember they were closely related with Yukon River.  They’re all Calista.  This is all Calista area.   . . . .
[In response to Q from Torgerson )It would completely change, you would take 4000 out of Valdez, South Anchorage, this would have to be redone.
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Can you go back to Kenai?

KENAI, BUT RUNNING INTO ANCHORAGE AND MATSU ISSUES

Eric:  Anchorage has excess population about 7,746, that’s 43% of a district.  If you added it to the Kenai excess, then you’d have to grab Valdez plus part of Copper River Basin or Cordova. 
PeggyAnn McConnochie: As I remember the Calista plan didn’t split Matsu more than once?
Eric:  Grabs about 400 people around Knik River.  John asked me not to split Matsu.  ??? and a few changes i Matsu to even out the population.  Matsu, for five districts, remainder of 200? people.  They can be spread among five districts.  Kenai not into Anchorage and Matsu not split at all, that means Anchorage 7000 excess has to go somewhere.  Taken 500 out of Knik, means you have to make some changes up along Alaska highway.  Their Calista Option 4 split at Ft. Greely.  I moved Dot Lake back in, hadn’t quite finished. 
1-6 along with District 10 are about 500 people short of ideal for all seven, slightly,  Spread 500 people among seven districts.
Their original boundary goes to S boundary of City of Delta Junction.  Then down the Alaskan Highway. 
Torgerson:  Back to Matsu or Anchorage?  Valdez????  
Eric:  Eklutna, Knik Road, Knik Glacier, Lake george area.
Torgerson:  Takes care of issue SC was on, but I still have questions about SEI.
Eric:  To eastern, same as Calista 4, eastern boundary of Matsu Borough. 
10:26
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  8 and 10 ?? Knik?
Eric: Then you’d have to change the Valley a little? 
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  How many in that section of Knik Arm? 
Eric:  500
Torgerson: mmmm
PeggyAnn McConnochie:
Eric:  Whittier too is in there.
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  how many people where 10 ...Anchorage?
Eric:  7000 where all the Anchorage excess goes.  Has to go somewhere. 
White?:  Where’s the line drawn, for ten, the border?
Eric:  Basically, edge of state park, cut thru Chugiak.
Torgerson:  Deviations of 28?
Eric:  Negative
Torgerson:  Court ruled for Valdez, Whittier and Girdwood?
White:  Yes, court found them SEIntegrated.  Board take a hard look, limited themselves by saying they couldn’t combine Matsu and Anchorage, had to do Valdez.  Both had .4 excess, can’t combine them, proportionality.  SC said wrong.  On remand, board changed concept and created Richardson Highway district. 
Torgerson:  I think we can make the case for Valdez.  There’s a sweet spot there where people just go north, to Fairbanks  . . .Paxton, ????,
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  ????
Torgerson:  I think we can make the case for coming into Anchorage, Whittier????
White:  Ahtna Corporation, but I understand what you’re talking about pushing north.
Brodie:  Mr. Chairman, a hard one to balance, transportation has changed a bit, taken urban people and moved them clear to coastal areas, and these are all road people, to say they aren’t SEI is pretty weak today, in today’s environment, weak argument that the road district people wouldn’t match up.
Torgerson: You say they are SEI because of the road system connection.
Brodie:  I would think so.
Torgerson:  This dead space doesn’t bother you?
Brodie:  There is a dead space in many districts
Torgerson:  PeggyAnn, what is your though?
Holm:  We have to decide to divide Matsu, or go over the mountains.  We have cases of water being the connector and mountains.  This is not Anchorage, but close.  Within 200 miles.  Delta is a long way from Fairbanks too, but have SEI connection to Fairbanks. But also to Anchorage.  Hard to make blanket statements.
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  I kind of have a problem with that.  Alaska is a ?? state.  Valdez and small towns, not in my mind the right way to go.  I’d rather go to Matsu than Valdez Anchorage.
Torgerson: Michael can you defend us as it is?
Coming down to two competing, one that says shouldn’t divide borough versus defines SEI, I don’t disagree with what Bob said, there is certainly a connection,  highway corridor.
Holm:  What is the connection between ??? and Kotzebue?  We have places that aren’t connection, but they have some theoretical connection.  We have to make the connection.
White:  Can I defend it?  Of course I can defend.  There is sufficient evidence in the ?? it works.  It was basically an Ahtna region except Cantwell, but that’s an anomaly from Native perspective.  But then going up, just for population purposes, Greely, Dot Lake, ??Village, does the need for population outweigh?  Balancing act.  Yellow portion in Eric’s how many people there?
Eric:  Zero, boundary of Ft Greely
…. Richardson is, the line, the Alaska ????
??:  What’s the deviation on 6?
Eric:  Low as well.  1-6 plus 10 have about 500 people short of ideal district, they have to be spread.
White:  Extra people in Anchorage.  Can you shorten 10 so it doesn’t go so far north.
Eric:  500 out of Matsu, changed Calista’s boundary there.
Torgerson:  I want to see what it looks like, if moving people, SEI, cut across Matsu not that big a deal.
White:  How many in Ft. Greely . . . .
Brodie:  16?
Torgerson:  Eric said 500 people
Brodie:  Chairman if we zoom out, NW a little, put villages from Wiseman down to Hughes, then becomes pretty much original, as in the ?? plan, then put Huslia in 39, that’s what PeggyAnn and I were playing with yesterday.  And 6 is pretty healthy.  Puts the villages back together.
Holm?  Deviations go
Brodie:  6 is good.  40 goes back to our Proclamation Plan.
Eric:  Ft. Greely 530, Dot Lake 13, Dry Creek 94, Dot Lake Village 62
Torgerson:  700 people, only taking Anchorage excess?
Eric:  7,746 people, rest of Anchorage deviations really low, about 7000.
Torgerson:  Need to keep them low, can look at that later on. 
White:  Start getting into the Fairbanks area, have to look very carefully.  Would be more comfortable if they weren’t in 10.  Not claiming no SEI, but fair to say those areas closer to Fairbanks than to Anchorage.
Holm:  Are you intimating that donut should occur?
White:  Difference between donut hole in the past and here.  Not just one city being isolated. 
Holm:  Testimony a couple of years ago that Delta Junction and ?? were not connected.  But Dot Lake and Village of Dot Lake should belong in 6.  Healy? Lake in there.  You’re going to split it some place, if highway is the corridor, then the proper place.  Not enough people there to make deviation problems.What about that piece there?  Any population there?  That whole piece could be connected to anybody?  The bombing range?
White:  Boundary of FT. Greely?
Eric: boundary of the base
Holm:  Did we make a choice that we’re going to split Wasilla or Knik to Valdez?
Torgerson:  That’s all we’ve been presented with.  Still puts Northern Anchorage and Valdez and Richardson Highway.  We could take Dot Lake and maybe, everything south of the highway, maybe a little more defensible than going across the highway.  Out of ten into 6.  That would tighten that deviation a bit.
Eric:  Largest deviation somewhere up north.
White:  Change Dot Lake, Creek? 
……….
10:53
Brodie:  Just have to set in our mind priority:  Maintain Matsu that has exactly 5 boroughs.  We’ve taken excess from Fairbanks and now we have excess in Anchorage that’s taken about the same.  All sophisticated people with power and water, so what is the difference?  Distance or SEI?????
Torgerson:  40 people right?
Eric:  Same as Calista.
[lots of quiet or couple of words here and there]
10:57
White:  Red is borough boundary?
Eric:  No, red is Calista boundary, Borough boundary is here.
Torgerson: I like the deviation, if Valdez, ??? should be included.
Holm:  but I’d go all the way to …..
Torgerson:  I see
[I assuming they are just moving blocks around on the map to see how the numbers work in different configurations.]
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  take out?? and make it look better.
Torgerson: We already did
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  [can’t quite hear her]
Torgerson;  Voting blocks …..???
???:  That’s a huge block
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Take it down to meet Anchorage . . .
Brodie:  This is just minor cleanup, is there another area we can work on?
….
KODIAK
 
11:04  [lots of knocking noises but no one is talking]
Torgerson:  Making water connection from Kodiak to Kenai B 37
Brodie:  These two sections of villages are ….just put them in ? to see what happens.  Puts 40 under back to where were before.  … . . . . the extra population here.  Nelchina Ridge, Ester, College, Farmers Loop, the numbers are pretty close.  All these are less than one percent.  Difference less than ½ percent. 
Torgerson: In The blue, this side of
Brodie:  River there, this could probably change color.
white:  That block
Brodie:  Could take all this to the river.  Whenever three districts come together, it’s always awkward.
Torgerson:  you just raised the deviation on 40, then took a little out of Fairbanks
Brodie:  On the edge, so these will all be close.  heard yesterday the ??? - these two were happy to be together and these two, and happy to be in 40.  Back in Yukon, Kuyokuk.
Torgerson;  TCC ????   

DEVIATION VERSUS OTHER FACTORS  But still in Fairbanks discussion

White:  As long as in the tolerance,under the ten percent maximum, made effort.  That would be a reason to have the deviation increase a bit.  Someone comes in and said we did under one and we are three, then you could say we balanced it with SEI.  If it were ten would be different.
Holm??:  I liked what Mr. Begich said about clusters of districts.  Just want to be sure we don’t run afoul.  If justification to have higher deviation than could be achieved without violating the constitution in other places.  But could also raise the deviation, but still get these together.  I understand it’s the boards decision.
White:  Deviation courts have said is a laudable goal,
Holm:  But this is not a constitutional requirement to move Wiseman
White:  by making those moves you are focusing on SEI,  saying we could get a lower deviation and still constitutional, but this is better SEI
???:  good work
Torgerson:  That was a minus 4 right?
Brodie:  Could always??? Arctic Village, or put ??? back.  Apparently [mumble]
Torgerson:  OK, just taking notes, Mary’s taking care of me.  Making note of these so we can come back and make our votes.
Torgerson:  Personally willing to gamble with deviation for reasons of SEI, trying to do what we can for the area.
Holm:  We looked at Native villages as well and Doyon map.
Brodie:
Torgerson:  Let me ask Mike about Kenai.  ??? was good.  Not taking Nanwalek,  You are making a connection by water, so you’re thoughts making connections by water.
White:  Given trial court ruling last time, a little pause to jump from Kodiak over there, ??? Kenai.
Torgerson:  Cook Inlet to 37 ok?
White:  ok
Kodiak to
Torgerson:  Kodiak is an island, has to cross water.  A little hesitation tying in lower part of Seward.  Now jumping from Kodiak to Cordova and Kenai Peninsula west.
White:  Kenai Pen crosses water anyway, but looking at Eric’s map I like better than crossing over water.  Kenai breached once or twice - over land.
Torgerson:  Jump over water, it’s still in borough boundary.  OK
White:  but the jump from Kodiak across… more troubling
Torgerson:  several reason
1.  has to go somewhere
2  has to make a water connection somewhere
3.  no evaluating distance of water is bad.  40, 50 170 miles?
White:  Court said Aleutian to Bethel too much.  Some risk court would say too much.
torgerson:  Didn’t have to connect that way.  Kodiak has no other option but to cross water.  On the Chain you could use the rest of the chain.
White:  Kodiak is connected to mainland.  Do you have to go to nearest water contiguity.  Borough isn’t there??
Holm:  getting more comfortable going over water.
Going 32, 37, 31.  Kodiak may be land locked. 
Torgerson:  This is now this distance, come across that way and connect.  I don’t know, we need to think about.  Is that another of these tradeoffs.  You can argue it’s contiguous, but not as clean as we’d like to see.  Where else Bob?

FAIRBANKS

Brodie:  A little bit in Fairbanks. 
Torgerson:  Jim you want to look at that? 
HOlm:  I took boundary of Fairbanks borough.  Numbering not quite right, I renumbered districts.  took Ester area we had trouble with.  I wrapped it slightly over Fairbanks.  The City of Fairbanks is totally inclusive within the boundaries of Fairbanks.  Not one ounce outside.  The deviations here are one is -28 folks, pretty smooth.  Calista had a piece up here and I put it back into 4 and moved 4 out to Farmers Loop so this whole piece is back together.  This has been back before.  Only had to cross Chena HS a couple times for population.
Moved ??? south to borough line.  No one there.  I needed a few extra folks and I went up here.  I don’t like the look of that, but this is a voting block and there’s no way to get rid of that.  this little handle here.  If you click off on this it goes all to hear.
White:  That’s all one voting block? 
Holm:  5 right now is plus 73 folks.  i can take these folks out of here, but I think it makes a little problem. 
White:  What do you call it?
Holm:  Southwest of Ft. Wainwright.  This is city of Fairbanks.  took all the excess of 1 and put them in 2.  I put them here.  Took pipeline corridor has the basis for three, and all these folks live on B? road are included.  Kept integrity of North Pole City, then went to Eilson.
Torgerson:  Eileson is in 6.
Holm:  Yes, to eilson boundary.  Like Calista, shouldn’t shed to the West, so to SW. 
Torgerson:  You didn’t push population down into 6?
Holm:  Wiseman, may have to have some other changes.  Eliot Highway.
White:  Can you zoom in on 1 and 2.
Little blue spot?
Holm:  Outside the city limits.
White:  Outside city limits already in 2
Holm;  Moved it once, but didn’t make any sense.
Torgerson:  looks a little odd both ways
Holm:  Eric, make me look good.
We’re looking at ??? folks in there.  quite a few folk.  This is ???
White:  Can you put that area into 2?
Holm:  I can go either way.
Torgerson:  Looking earlier, peeking over your shoulder, a few things could be adjusted, one of the best justifications is city boundaries.
Holm:  Have to take them out of  . .
Torgerson:  Can you work on that this afternoon.  Up to you . . .
Holm:  I don’t see any justification for that.  On City Boundaries
Torgerson:  Disagree, there has to be a city boundary somewhere
White:  You go out of boundaries for 2
Holm;  That’s why we went to the west . .
Torgerson:  Not straight across anyway.  there’s a lot of little lack of better word, toes, where the boundaries  . . .
Holm:  that’s above the RR tracks.  Adding more people to 2.  City of Fairbanks has two seats plus a little bit to the west.  And 4 wraps around Fairbanks.  Fairbanks really has four.
Torgerson:  Eastern boundary, NE
Holm  NE boundary is the river. 
Torgerson:  We used to have pointers, but can’t afford it.  Looks like squared up a bit.
Holm:  Calista had it squared with this little chunk but it wan’t in the city so I put it back
Torgerson:  I’m talking about this one here.
Holm:  Something gets goofy right away.  problem with thee voting block.  Grab one and it’s different from what you wanted to do.
Isabella Creek.  Never heard of it.  All the way around.  that’s theoretically????
11:39
Holm:  If you get 4 and 5. 
Torgerson:  Questions for Jim?  None?  PeggyAnn  Southeast
PeggyAnn McConnochie:
Torgerson:  When you look at
Holm:  I moved that out
Torgerson: When I look at the other three, looks kind of uniform.  Treats all the population outside of Fairbanks the same. 
Holm:  We know the outside boundaries of 6 anyway
Torgerson:  I thought Bob’s looked good, his Fairbanks was similar to yours too?
Holm:  He wrapped the other way.  He took Chena Ridge and Ester all the way down, just the reverse. 
Torgerson:  Deviation of 5.97 with the 4.09
Holm:  Highest deviation I had  . . District 40? 
Torgerson: -4.09 and a +1.88
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  There got it
Torgerson:  Alright.    

SOUTHEAST
  
PeggyAnn McConnochie:
11:47  Here’s my SE map.  Also note deviation have problems with population are a little higher.  Much like Eric - Ketch with Wrangell, New entire Petersburg, Hoonah, Pelican.
Downtown Juneau to Haines and Skagway, and downtown Juneau to Mendenall Valley.
Holm:  What’s south? 
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Some maps across to Hydaburg or Craig.  Craig hard to carve out , so I left Ketch borough whole with Metlakatla.  Taking in all the testimony.  Wrangell Mayor wanted to be with Ketch.  P of Wales whole.  Then, Sitka all together. 
Downtown  Juneau with Haines, Skagway.  Haines had more in common with downtown Juneau than they do with Mendenhall valley.  Deviations not great.
Holm:  Talking about 35
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  35 great, but 33 is awful
White:  P of Wales not a city.  Testimony ?
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  P of Wales Island similar SEI that’s why they wanted to be together.
Torgerson??White?:  How many in Hydaburg?
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  That’s all Prince of Wales Island, yeah.
11:52
480
Torgerson;  all inclusive there?
PeggyAnn McConnochie;  yeah the whole area.  some along this area here
If that’s more important that keeping P of Wales whole, yea.
Torgerson:  I remember something about Metlakatla and wanting to be together.  Our deviation.  Plus3 getting into, not dangerous area, but . .
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  yes, higher.  Given the north stuff, rather split Prince of Wales Island. 
Douglas Island, break here, Steady point, airport is right here.  You see it’s Thunder Mt. straight down toward the glacier, to top of douglas Island, majority of Mendenhall here to borough line, right there.  Burners bay and Out The road. 
Torgerson:  Follow Juneau testimony?
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  exactly
Torgerson:  We are doing that for for ferry system  Haines said if they have to be connected to a districted, felt more connected to downtown Juneau or south Juneau as they call it, than north Juneau.
Torgerson:  water connection?
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Juneau has lots of water
Torgerson:  didn’t really hear from Juneau this time. 
White:  District 36, no commercial marine activity?
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  everything has marine activity.  Cruise ships come into downtown Juneau and to Skagway and Haines.  Downtown Juneau feels like a little city, the Capitol, main tourism area in downtown.  We have two major ports.
White:  I understand, but commercial ports?
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Auk Bay and downtown Juneau, Taku main processor in downtown Juneau. 

Torgerson:  looking at Hydaburg, clean that up to get our deviation down. Any other questions on SE.
White:  this changed from our A based on testimony we received since? 
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  correct
Torgerson:  OK, thank you. Eric, anything else?  We’ll go off record and probably come back at 3.  Give people time to go for lunch and go over things.  Three major areas to look at:
Kenai Borough split
Matsu-Richardson highway, great conversation this morning.  Feel a little more comfortable with Richardson into Anchorage
Fairbanks, look at some of those iterations in Fairbanks
come back t 3 and see where we are.

No votes until tomorrow when Marie is here.  Anything?
White:  Before you draw, we found the maps from Hickel district?  We can have copies made for people.  Basically what you have in the district.  District contained Palmer and PWS communities, included Valdez, Cordova, Whittier, and two villages.  Here’s the actual map that was struck down.  Palmer was agricultural, others fishing.
Here’s 1990, Hickel case.  Some pleadings from that time with arguments that were made.
Torgerson:  Your opinion, the Richardson H with north Anchorage is totally different.  PWS just to Valdez, Ahtna,  Since ???
White:  Court has said it’s fine.  Biggest issue is the further north you go, the less connection you’ll have.  If you look at this, 28 too, Big Delta to Glen Allen this way.
We have these maps and you can look at them and pleadings, here for your perusal.
Torgerson:  12:07, recessed until 3pm