Alaskan Native Heritage Centre, Anchorage

What a fantastic place the Native Alaskan Heritage Center turned out to be. Unfortunately we got there with about an hour and quarter to go until they closed, wish we had more time. It was absolutely riveting. We whisked our way around the lake, stopping to hear from different tribes about their stories, daily life, how things were done. Red spruce is a repellant to mosquitos and other insects. Must remember that one. Better than deet any day, smells good too. Woman learned to hunt as well, just in case their men never returned. Boys learned to sew, also just in case their female relations disappeared.

They used spotted seal skins for regular clothing shirts and trousers. They were difficult to wash and dry, yet on the other hand very hard wearing. The warmest skins were caribou's winter pelt. Clothes made from these were given to pregnant women, the elderly and hunters since they kept them warmest. When the Russians arrived, the indians took a liking to their smock which was soft and easy to wash, modifying it with pockets for holding extra collections like berries and hoods to help with mosquitos.

Indian lodges would hold 50 to 100 people with small doors, only large enough for 1 person at a time to get through. Then raiders could only enter one at a time, easier to defend. They used a 3 to 5 inch plug as a door at night to stop raiders. Raiders were after the other tribes tools and foods that they didn't have. This happened even when they traded. I personally think it must have also provided a form of excitement and daring for young people. The door also resticted brown bears/grizzly's entering. Bears were very common then and children knew to check outside before stepping outside. They used volcanic rock vessels filled with seal oil or whale oil as lighting and also for heat and cooking. The wick was moss.

Men and woman used a walrus tipped staff with a walrus tusk set at a 45 degree angle from the main shaft. It was used to check the ice was strong enough to hold you for walking on. The walrus hook was especially useful for ice hopping, if a piece was too far away you could hook it and pull it closer, it was also useful if you fell in the water, you could reach up to solid ice and haul yourself out.

There were lots of native artisans with their wares out. Oh to have more time, why did I go to JC Pennys! Both my darlings after saying that they just wanted to go home instead of stop here, declared it was really worth while. For me it was the highlight of Anchorage.

Anchorage here we come!

Next stop Anchorage.

Why do we have to go? That was how our trip to Anchorage started. Surprisingly it went quite quickly. First stop the tourism information center. Now, accommodation is very pricey in Alaska, and also in short supply when one hasn't booked in advance. So it was the Alaska backpackers for us. The first backpackers the children had stayed in. It was all that we needed with 4 bunk beds in a room all to ourselves.

We arrived at mid day, so decided the best plan of attack would be to drive half way to Seward and about 10 miles south of Girdwood to the Alaska conservation center. The road is mountains one side and sea the other. Bradley caught sight of a beluga whale, which apparently roam in groups of 20 to 30 in this area during the summer. Unfortunately I had to keep my eyes on the road, much to my disgust and had to wait for some distance to pull off the road.

At the Conservation Centre, I got some fantastic photos of grizzly bears, the rare musk ox, caribou which are also called reindeer – by golly they are tiny things with great racks where the antlers are about the same height as the reindeer. Two abandoned moose babies were huge despite their young age – about the size of a horse and two herds of bush bison of which one herd will be released in 2013, that was exciting to read about.



An official had just thrown some apples to the bears while we were there and they had a little cabin the bears went into to try and find it, got some great shots of that. We also saw a bald eagle which had been shot at and had to have its wing amputated, plus two owls whose home had been invaded by a silly magpie, how it got in who knows. The magpie sent the owls into a spin when someone tried to shoo it out without much luck. They were also preparing an enclosure for two female lynx cubs who were in a forest fire with paws that were badly burned. The glaciers in the background looked eerie with blue ice shining through.

Brown Bear painting, by Desray