Eskimo Scouts

Eskimo Scouts


A local National Guard detachment had been given notice that they were to be deployed to Iraq a few Junes ago. This in and of itself was not newsworthy unless you lived in the area. It was and still is a story that is being replayed in cities, towns, hamlets, and villages all over the United States.

Like in all small communities, relationships among the residents was tight, and it was hard to find anyone not related to someone else around Buckland, either by blood, or common law adoption, not affected by the call-up.

A couple of the community leaders approached the school and it was decided by all that there needed to be a special event in honor of all the veterans and members of the community who were soon to be leaving to serve their country. So as in all small places where people live out their lives, it was decided that a community potluck should be held, followed by a short honoring ceremony.

As the time rolled around for the event to begin the serving table filled with food. Plenty of meats, fish, soups, potatoes, pastas, and cakes adorned. Someone even had time to bake a huge cake resembling the U.S. flag.

After the opening prayer, to which the school cafeteria was no stranger, and after everyone had their fill, the principal started the program with heartfelt words about his own relatives being sent off to war years ago.
He asked all veterans in the audience to come forward and be recognized. I was proud to be one of those so honored.

To watch the throng move forward from the crowd reminded me of the Phoenix rising from the ashes. I had no idea there were so many veterans in our small village along the banks of the Buckland River just short of the Arctic Circle.

Every major conflict since WW II had at least one representative, and several villagers – including one woman – had served in peacetime.
The senior vet was asked to remain, and the two school employees and the wife and mother of one young man not yet back from basic training were brought to the front. The principal and the elder vet honored the three citizen soldiers with little mementos.

Each was given a yellow ribbon pen for their spouses, a small U.S. plastic flag, National Guard T-shirts for their children, a window banner with a star in the middle, and a camouflaged handkerchief emblazoned with the 91st Psalm, which was promptly read to the audience.

The guardsmen had their pictures taken; the photographs will be hung in a prominent place in the school until their return, and if my tenure among the Inupiaq people serves me well, for a long time to come.

The school counselor, a major, said a few words of thanks and credited his wife for assisting him in anything that anyone might think he ever did that was admirable. Next came the maintenance man/basket ball coach, a 1st sergeant (who looked like a 1st sergeant should,) who told the young men who were not going that they had the responsibility of taking care of the young and elders. The lady teacher, who was married to the young man in basic training, said she had just talked to her husband in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and that he was proud to be doing what his country had called him to do.

That June the Inupiaq Eskimo villages of Kobuk, Shungnak, Kiana, Noorvik, Noatak, Deering, Kotzebue, Kivalina, Buckland and all villages that dot either side of a line we call the Arctic Circle, once again sent their best and brightest off to war.

Just like their fathers and grandfathers, who helped protect our northern border during the Cold War, as members of the Alaska Territorial Guard Scout Battalion, the 207th Infantry Brigade (Scouts), carried their banner to a far distant land, protecting a far different kind of border, in a place and war that is not so cold.