The Fair!

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I'm almost despairing of ever catching up... but Fran and I did so many things that there is a lot to write about. Things will get briefer when we hit the road.
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We stayed an extra day in Fairbanks to go to the famous Farmer's Market and also the Tenana Valley State Fair.

Native Athabascan dancers at the TVSF; note the painted drums!

It had been a wonderful evening, but I was a little eager to get going out of Fairbanks. Unfortunately, that meant doing some re-packing of the car so that Fran could have some space for herself and her things, while still having everything we needed accessible.

Giant cabbage weighed in at almost 40 lbs!

I also needed to do laundry and put on the new bike rack. Of course that took longer than anticipated, since there was more assembly required than just attaching it to the car!

Fran and Renée got hungry and took off for the Farmer's Market while I put the new rack on and shuffled clothes in the dryer. Warren came out and offered helpful advice.

Fran and Renée returned about noon. We finished packing the car, said goodbye to everyone and went off to the Tenana Valley State Fair. It was Native American Day, and Fran and I both wanted to see the dances and especially the Native American Olympics presentation.

Native American Day

Seniors (now that I am one!) have some good benefits in Fairbanks: riding on the buses is FREE. And it was half-price (all of $5) to get into the Fair!

Even the littlest wear a kuspuk!

After wandering around a bit and trying to get our bearings, we found the Usibelli Pavilion where most of the Native American events were to be held. The mayor of Fairbanks, John Eberhart, gave a brief introduction and expressed his thanks to the group. The dance group consisted of men and women, girls and boys. For the most part, the women and girls did the singing and dancing, and the men and boys provided backup with drumming and chanting.

The drums were different that what I was accustomed to — they are very lightweight, consisting only of a skin stretched over a circular hoop, which is attached to a handle. It's held with one hand, while the other hand taps the drum with a stick. So the sound is not loud, but since there were about eight drummers sitting immediately behind the dancers, it was just enough to provide rhythm. Some of the drums are painted and real works of art.

Everyone was dressed in traditional kuspuks and mukluks: the men are shorter; the women's are dress length. Some women wore pants or leggings underneath; some did not. (I'm kind of in love with the kuspuk style, since it has a hood and pocket(s); must find a pattern!). 

One of the dances; note the drummers in the back

Miss FNA 2016, Chanel Simon

The group's members introduced themselves with their native and English names. They were of different nations from all over (as far north as Barrow), although most were Yup'ik from the Fairbanks area. The songs and dances tend to be similar within cultural groups, although there are some differences (in some cases men can dance with women; in others they do not dance together). Most of the dances they did were representational. For instance there is the seal dance, which mimics hunting a seal — from looking for the seal, sneaking up on the seal, spearing/harpooning the seal and finally dragging it up out of the icy water.

In this series of dances (I have no way of knowing if this is traditional or not), the story was repeated twice. The second time through the drumming is louder, the voices are stronger, and it ends usually with a loud, final "huh!" accompanied by a fierce drum beat.

In some ways, these dances reminded me of representational Polynesian dances, with their expressive hand movements.

The dance group's performance was followed by a presentation by Miss FNA (Fairbanks Native Association). She talked a bit about her experience as Miss FNA: the opportunities for travel, connecting with others both within and outside her area, and for educating others about native cultures.

She was a beautiful young woman, poised and assured. She told us about each of the items of her costume: the crown made from ivory and baleen, the "Miss FNA" sash beaded with traditional Athabascan flowers (a new bit of regalia added this year), and the collar and dance belt she had been given by a relative.

Her bracelets and earrings were also lovely; her decorated mukluks had been made for her by another friend or family member. The pompoms were one of the signature decorations of the maker.

Here's another picture of her in a "fancy" parka.

She did a dance (to taped music) that was an expression of thanks for her earrings, bracelets and belt, using a couple of fans as props. Here's a video of part of that dance. (One of these days I'll learn how to edit video; trying going through YouTube, as I think the quality is better!)

Exhibits

There was a intermission of sorts, so we took a tour around the Fair. There was a lot to see!

PHOTOGRAPHY!
We stopped by photographer Didier Lindsey's booth. He had some incredible photographs of Alaska and wildlife, and told us the stories behind them. One was of a mother grizzly with FOUR cubs. He had been tracking this bear, returning to her home region on successive years. One year she had triplets, another year she had these four cubs, which is very unusual. He surmised that she must have a genetic predisposition for multiple births. He said that she took very good care of them, and he thought that all would survive, but one was killed by a car. He thinks that the other three did survive.

Another was a series of three shots of a charging grizzly bear coming increasingly closer. We asked him how on earth he managed to get that picture and survive? He said he was in a hide far enough away from the mother bear and her cub, but then a boar (male grizzly) wandered into the sow's territory. She will not stand for that (male grizzlies can kill cubs), and charged the bear that was near him. The angle was such that it looked like she was coming for him! The end of the story was that she did attack the male bear, and he was chased away. She paid no attention to the photographer, luckily! I guess she saw the male bear as a threat, but not him. You can see the photographs of this encounter on his website.

Some of the knitted entries: sweaters and afghans

Prize-winning knitted mittens

We wandered into some of the exhibits! Oh my!

TEXTILES! 
There were knitted and crocheted items: socks, mittens, slippers, sweaters, afghans, scarves, shawls, gloves.

There were incredible quilts and wall hangings, pillows, needlepoint items, embroidered tablecloths, dresses and jackets.

There were hand-spun and hand-dyed yarns, and hand-woven items like placemats and shawls.

Only in Alaska: Moose Ribs!

FOOD and PRODUCE!
There were entries of fresh and preserved foods, including high- and low-bush cranberries, blueberries, dehydrated mushrooms, jams, jellies, preserves, syrups, honey and even moose ribs!

There were baked goods: brownies, pie, cookies, breads and cakes.

There were prizewinning cabbages, celery, carrots, rhubarb, potatoes, onions, squash of all kinds, broccoli, kale, beans, eggplant, herbs, and more — every sort of greens and vegetable you could think of, but no nuts or grains, and relatively little fruit that was not native (i.e., I saw no apricots, peaches or cherries; I vaguely remember an apple preserve...)

There were single flowers, and flowers in arrangements of various types.

AND MORE!
There were leather-worked items; beaded mittens, gloves and footwear (a nod to native culture); carved antler and bone; drawings and paintings; sculpture and pottery; poems, essays and creative writing; photography, and Lego constructions!

And we hadn't even made it to the barnyard yet!

BIRDS and ANIMALS!
There were ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens (hens and roosters) of every type, doves, pigeons and quail.

There were the "small animals:" lop-eared rabbits, miniature rabbits, regular rabbits, guinea pigs, and rats. There were probably mice, too, but I didn't see any.

There were cows and horses; black-faced sheep and white sheep; pygmy goats, standard goats, and angora goats; and pigs of all sizes and shapes (and PIGLETS!!)

This sow had nine pink piglets!

Just look at that gorgeous face!

Since 4-H is big here, the kids were preparing their animals for show. Sheep were getting cleaned and blanketed. Goats were being milked. A pig was getting a bath and being scrubbed and not at all happy about it.

 Seeing the kids (4-H is big here) brought back some very fond memories of attending the Marin County Fair back when we were raising the guide dog puppies!

I didn't see any llamas (or related animals), but that doesn't mean they weren't there!

At some point, Fran and I got separated; turned out she'd gone back to Usibelli to catch the next Native American demonstration. I was pretty captivated by the animals, but eventually made it back to see the Native American Olympics.

Native American Olympics

These were pretty interesting. The are games that showcase the participants' strength, balance, and coordination. What I really liked were that these were things that could be done almost anywhere, without much equipment. They also often paired participants to vie against each other, rather than have each compete on their own.

For instance, there was LEG WRESTLING (I remembered this from school), where both people lie down, hip to hip, with their heads in opposite directions. Each raises his leg and locks it around the other's leg, and tries to flip them over.

There was the NECK PULL, where the two competitors faced each other, stretched out on their hands and feet. A belt was placed around their necks, and the idea was to drag the other person toward you, kind of like an odd tug-of-war. This required firm traction on the floor!

The Neck Pull

A variant of this was the NOSE PULL, where each sat on the ground, back to back, and put what amounted to a shoelace loop around their heads, on top of their noses. The idea was for each to pull forward as much as possible. The first one to give up was the loser. This is an exercise in pain more than strength, because the narrow string digs into the soft skin and cartilage of the nose. The demonstrators said that some competitors were so focussed that blood was spilled before they gave in.

Kicking the ball from a seated position.

One of the more interesting ones was a real exercise in core strength. The participant started by sitting on the floor with his legs outstretched. He then had to lift himself up off the floor on his knuckles, so that no part of his body was supported by the floor.

He then had to try to kick a ball suspended from the ceiling, and then return to the original position (only knuckles on the floor) and "in control."

This is amazingly difficult to do. Even the first part is hard!

When everyone has had a chance to kick the ball, those that miss it are eliminated, and the ball is raised higher on the next round. This process keeps going until only the winner is left.

The kid who was demonstrating this was an amazing athlete!

There was a related game with the same swinging ball, but instead of kicking it from a sitting position on the floor, you do it from a standing position. Sound easier?

BUT, to make it harder, you have to stand on one leg, and to ensure that, a belt loops behind your knee and around your neck so that you look like an awkward crane. So when you try to jump, and hit the ball — now with just ONE foot — you also have to deal with being off balance because one leg is drawn up close to your body.

I'm sure it takes practice, but this kid was spectacular. Look how high off the floor he gets (and remember that his right leg is connected to his neck!

I'll just include one more, but a video this time. It's pretty self-explanatory. It kind of looks like fun, but the floor is hard, and as one of the guys said, "It can really hurt your tailbone!" 

It looks like only one YouTube video can be attached to a page, so here's a link to what might be better quality of this video.

Phew! It was fun to see some games that were definitely different from the games we played when we were growing up!

Leaving Fairbanks

We finally left the fair, and made tracks in the early evening for the Chena Hot Springs area. The plan was to camp overnight at one of three possible campgrounds on the way, do a hike in the morning and then relax at the hot springs in the afternoon.

It must be said I was a little nervous about finding a campsite. It was Saturday afternoon in the middle of the summer, and close to Fairbanks in a popular area. I thought the campgrounds might be crowded, but it wasn't worth worrying about until we got there.

Turns out... not a problem. We could have had our choice at any of them, but we chose Tors Campground because it looked really pretty, and wasn't crowded!

Flooded picnic table at Tors Campground

Did I mention there had been a lot of rain? Here's another in the "flooded table" series. The river was really rushing, but it was a beautiful spot!

Fran got settled in my new NEMO 1P "Hornet" tent. I couldn't find the footprint for it, so we had to use the silnylon poncho as a groundcloth, which I've done before in a pinch. Always good to have backup.

It had been a full day, so we retired fairly early, but not before we had a long chat with Ranger Dane. He stopped by after dinner, pulling his truck into our campsite. I got that nervous "What Have I Done / Not Done Now?" feeling when The Law comes into your personal space. But it just turned out that he was curious about what part of South Dakota "we" were from! Turns out his wife was from there.

When we asked about him, he pretty much told us his whole history: he and is wife had been in Fairbanks for about five years; they moved here from Illinois the day after their wedding! They love it, just wish it was not as far from family. He loves the winter as well as the summer.

He eyed my kayak, and I said, no I wasn't into white water and had too much respect for the current. He nodded sagely, said, "Good," and the proceeded to tell us about a water rescue they had just done. Seems that a couple of gals, very experienced women, had been canoeing on the Chena and lost concentration. One of them was fishing in the front, the other was steering in the back, when the canoe got caught by a sleeper, went broadside to the current and tipped. One of the women was thrown from the canoe and ended up being swept downstream. She made it out, but on the opposite side of the river, and was trying to swim back when she got so cold that she couldn't make it any further. Luckily, there were people around who called the rangers in. He said it was good that they had just undergone a course in water rescue, so all the know-how was fresh in his mind!

It was a really nice, friendly way to get to know the community just a teeny bit.

More to come tomorrow!