But I do not want to digress. I want to talk about the lack of any Russian influence in the region since that time. In all three places we visited there were Russian shops: the Baranov (or Baranoff’s) jewelry store, the Russian- American Trade Co. store (or that’s how they call it), the House of Russia in Juneau and also Grandfather Frost or something. All of those have nearly the same assortment of goods. Those are the nested dolls (matryoshkas), the rolling dolls (Vanka-Vstanka) that music when rolling from one side to another, colored spoons, porcelain sauces and cups, samovars, children’s books, wooden things, hand-painted, also some other trinkets. There were some cheap Soviet memorabilia: hats with hammer and sickle, badges, pins, etc. On the wall in the House of Russia in Juneau there was a set on paintings defining the ‘values’ of Russian traditional life. I remember the one called ‘The Family’. Stephen King would love that painting. It showed a very ugly elderly man in a 19th Century suit looking sternly at the two women in front of him; obviously a master of the house reprimanding his flock. Had Gloria Steinem ever visited Juneau? In any case it seemed that time somehow stopped in that place and Russia we all know, a country that went through wars and revolutions, the one that sent the first man to space and possessed nuclear weapons, the one that built nuclear power plants and Gulags, the one that had great literature, opera, ballet and cinema never existed for these people and the only voice of Russia was the painted wooden miniature pail made in Holui (it actually means ‘a subservient slave’ in Russian and I never heard of the place) and fake jewelry eggs all called Faberge. Go figure. Where are the historical paintings with all those Russian seafarers who visited those places starting from Bering and Steller? Where are the replicas of Russian armory and Russian whaling ammunition? Where are the Russian knives, Russian Tula rifles, Russian IZH motorcycles, Russian axes and saws, Russian winter gloves, mittens (rukavitzi) and famous Russian dochas (winter coats made of dog hair)? Where are the indestructible Russian watches, Russian drafting instruments and Russian books translated, where are the models of the Russian ships? Not far from here, in the Japanese sea the famous Tzusima battle took place and also before that the Russian cruiser Varyag (the Viking) alone refused to surrender to the Japanese fleet and fought gallantly until drowning itself. She was built in the USA and it would be a terrific idea to have a model of that ship sold to Americans. Where is the Russian food? Why don’t they have Russian bread? Ok, where is the famous Russian vodka? And where are the albums of Russian museums, ballet stars and reproductions from the famous paintings and icons? I wanted to ask all that but it was hopeless because the shop girls did not even know Russian language properly. It was a sad disappointment for a Russian like me. Not a nostalgia but rather striving for common sense and reason. All those things I listed did exist and for some inexplicable reason the people of Alaska (as well as tourists) are deprived of them. Why on Earth the Polish glass could make its way to Ketchikan and Russian axe could not? Strange. Very strange. But everything is strange in Alaska. People too.
3. PEOPLE
‘Every real Alaskan kid has to get lost in the wilderness at least twice.’
From the wisdom of Eli, our guide in Juneau
Ok, where was I? The wave of the gold diggers swept through the US/Canadian Alaska up to the North, to Klondike, where Dawson became a new capital for a while. But they left something behind besides the Red Dog saloon in Juneau (now for sale for $6M) and Dolly’s brothel in Ketchikan. That something was tuberculosis. The peak of the epidemic fell on 1923 but it crept in gradually for many years. No sun, you know. It was an uphill battle for a while until the Lung Association of Alaska was formed in 1934 and since that time the horrible disease is under control. It hit the Indians the hardest.
There are many tribes in Alaska but we were introduced primarily to Tlingits (http://www.ccthita.org/- Tlingits of Alaska national council). They constitute a majority in Alaska. The US Census Bureau states that 66.9 % of the population is white. But here is a catch - I can testify that maybe they have white skin, many of them, but they are Tlingits at heart. Our guide in Sitka, Bobby was like that. She told us that she was there for nine years and that she was a manager of the local radio stations and that she was married to a local Tlingit who looked like a Latino. In a very good movie (underrated, I think) ‘Insomnia’ with Al Pacino and Hillary Swank one of the characters says, ‘In Alaska people are either born here or hide from something.’ I guess Bobby was born again. She told us about the tuberculosis and how the local herbs were used to help. She told us that at the peak of epidemic the bodies were put into the abandoned navy bunkers and then people afterwards had to go there and recognize the family members. She also told us about the totem poles. Those poles are stories. Every story carved in the wooden pole is the private property of the family and only the members off that family have a right to tell the story. Otherwise you have to get a permission. Tlingit language is very hard and although there is a course now in the local High School, only rare whites know it. But they know that a creature with a straight nose is the Raven and the one with a slightly crooked nose is an Eagle. What they do not know is that the one with a really crooked nose is Poodles Eisenstein, the regular comedian on the ship line we used. He was on our ship too. The two ugly folks with hypernetted tongues are the teacher and the student. Nobody knows what the teacher teaches to the young one that way. Another famous totem pole, the one in Juneau tells a story of a mosquito. It stands near the Governor’s mansion. Kind off tells you what people of Alaska think about politicians. Eli, our second guide in Juneau told us about it. He also told us that there were only two McDonald’s in Juneau and that they had no arches to keep the landscape pristine; that in Alaska High Schools they had a survival course and that once the whole Middle School class (he was a student of that class) was lost during the hiking trip. He smiled when he told us that story and that’s why I think those kids did that deliberately. Eli was on his way to Oregon to become an MBA and it was so sad to imagine a perfect Alaskan, a man so composed and full of humor to become a chromium-blooded money machine. But you never know. Maybe he becomes a senator and offsets that fellow Stevens who really belongs to a totem pole, the one on which a shaman gets rid of a serpent.
At their peak the Tlingits had a very colorful culture. Arts and crafts flourished. The abundance of food made it possible to have free time and the Walrus and the Carpenter met. Carvings, stone figurines, clay sculpture, weaving- all of those were developing and we saw the samples in the ethic museum in Sitka and in many stores. Indian mariners and fishermen could make boats from simple kayaks to the huge battle canoes for about 70 men. I was especially impressed by the sculptures made from an Iron Tree, the very heavy and very dense type that sinks in the water. Those bears made of it were amazing.
To me the Tlingits looked exactly like the people of the Russian North whom I knew and who called themselves the Evenks. The Evenks explained to me the concept of basic food. See, every nation or a group has its basic food, the one which is always needed. Without it any other food would not do. Like for the Russians it is bread. Even watermelons they eat with bread, Russian person will feel hungry if there is no bread on the table. For the Evenks it is fish. No fish-no sense of being fed. Alaskans had inherited that sense of basic food. And for them that food is…
4. SALMON
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