"september yukon windstorm"I traveled smoothly from nulato to kaltag in under 8 hours, warm summer evening with sunsetting over nulato hills and a fishhawk weaving clean lines like calligraphy penstrokes in the pale blue sky with the smell of woodsmoke and salmon and spilled gasoline and village waste suddenly coloring the night and a dog barking and a 4wheeler coming down the riverbank from the village to where I pulled up on the low gravel bar. Similar routine at most places... throw camera and a few other essentials into backpack and head up to case the place out for location of school, tribal building, store. I remember some of these villages perfectly from before.
Stories are always different depending upon who you talk to, and the same is true for what I have been hearing this fall... I look forward to composing my thoughts more on this later...
But the truth is if you go to people and sit down with them and talk directly... teachers, social workers, firefighters, fisherman... professors, students at the college level and youth in the schools... people want what is best for their future and they want what is best for their community. If you cut through the media chatter... the everyday, regular people are interested in getting into the business of working for change, of working together to create positive solutions.
I believe that the network of leaders that I am building in these communities will give that extra effort and share what they have to offer and work together to bring this project to fruition. I believe in the power of this group's ability to offer true grassroots change thru authentic vision, intelligence and courage. That is what the Last Frontier Eco Alliance is all about: helping people become involved in creating solutions to the challenges we face, tapping into their true spirit, creative ingenuity, dormant talents ... and manifesting this revealed excellence thru deeply coordinated social innovation that will enable our state's culture to flourish and blossom into a role of global sustainability leadership.
I came down to grayling in two days from kaltag, camped beneath a bluff where a grouse had been killed feathers strewn everywhere amongst wet stones. Lit a fire and watched the wind sweep over the water and rake through the yellow leaves and rich tall grass blades swallowing the smoke and fanning the coals as night fell. Crouched there alone by my tent watching the flames and the stars gather themselves slowly... than later the next night a skiff stopping me, six guys from grayling with guns asking me if everything was allright... beartracks everywhere on the beach where I thought of camping than rowing toward Grayling into perfect calm and perfect silence with cold sky draped alive with constellations, shooting stars music on the cd player sometimes and a boat engine in the distance flashing my headlight and they pull up and we talk again and they say brown bear country watch the banks and I say you dont need to tell me i stopped to camp and saw sign everywhere and they laugh and said you make good time for a paddler and they push farther down river with a spotlight on the bank looking for bears and later just drifting in perfect silence, bundled up for the cold watching northern lights move in the sky against the stars back towards kaltag and true north... diamond sound of water droplets from oar blades crocheted into the sound of breath and the stars than the lights of grayling and the snap and pop and sparks of burning driftwood after the push into the grayling lights on the grayling beach and sleeping with the sound of wind in the trees and falling leaves brushing against the tent-fly like snowflakes.
Grayling is a great community, I did a presentation there yesterday and they have an impressive sustainability project at the school with chickens that produce eggs year around. I arrived there @ 240 Am and left in the early afternoon after eating lunch with the school kids in the cafeteria where one little girl got a laugh out of me when she asked "are you Indiana Jones?"...
Came into Anvik yesterday afternoon thru high winds, spitting snowflakes... first day on the water where I wore a jacket all day. One teacher here pointed out to me that this is the last indian village on the yukon... Just left the school after doing a presentation there, talked about the project and 350 climate action day... was going to go to holy cross last night but am glad the librarian convinced me to stay here, as there is a nice dusting of a few inches of snow on the ground and it is still steadily falling outside the windows of the tribal center where I type this post... and because I always feel empowered and renewed after speaking in schools. thanks for the support...
