Independence Day - Alaska

There was a parade, a berry eating contest, cracker run, baseball game, a fishing derby, pot luck, prizes, but no fireworks.

I had decided to teach summer school and thus found myself spending the Fourth of July in a small Eskimo village near the Bering Sea.  The Fourth was celebrated just like they do in most small towns in the Lower 48, but there were a couple of twists here and there.

The parade started at the east end of the village and went north on what served as the main street towards to what passed as the local landing strip, but actually petered out near the new halibut processing plant.  Every young Eskimo seemed to be participating in the parade one way or another.  Some walked, some were pulled in wagons, and some rode in the back of one of the two pick-up trucks that somehow had gotten to the village.  All were waving American flags or Alaska state flags.  The military was represented by members of the local National Guard Detachment marching at the front of the procession.  The Police Chief drove the newly acquired ATV equipped with a siren, which he would let wail far too often.

The next thing on the schedule was to be the Halibut Fishing Derby, but it got cancelled at the last minute when everyone sort of realized that the water was too choppy, or so the plant manager determined.

The next item was the berry eating contest, not a berry pie eating contest, but an actual berry eating contest.  The entrants were limited to those over 70 years old and from what I could tell, they were to eat as many berries as they could in a certain time span.  When it was announced that the contest was to begin, three male elders stepped forward and they immediately started arguing with one another as to where each was going to stand behind the table piled with berries.  They finally agreed that the oldest one would have his pick first, but then they got into an argument as to who was the oldest.  The whole matter was finally decided when a very elderly lady inserted herself into the fray and started grabbing one man then another by the ear and led him into position, whether he wanted to be there or not.  It took me a while to figure out that this was all part of the ceremony.  The crowd got into it also, because they would boo and heckle the elders as they got into position.

Each man was brought a bowl of berries.  Each elder received one kind of berry only.  There were Blackberries, Blueberries, and Salmonberries.  Dark blue, light blue, and red.  The woman who had grabbed the men by the ears yelled something that apparently was the signal to commence.  The elders started cramming their mouths full as quickly as possible.  But when the bowls were empty other bowls did not appear.  The men just stood there with dark blue, light blue, and red coloring all over their respective faces.  Then the ear lady yelled something else and the crowd I was standing in quickly dispersed.  To my horror the men started running towards me.  I stood there petrified as they ran past and started grabbing any female they could get their hands on and pressed face against face.  There was shrieking and laughing for several minutes when the ear lady yelled something again.  The men went back to their places and women started lining up behind them based on how much and what kind of coloring they had on their faces.  The blackberry guy won by two women.