Palmer, AK

Palmer, Ak
June 23,2017

Anchorage has a really nice Alaskan Native Heritage Center.  It's a nonprofit facility with the goal of keeping their Native Heritage alive.  They have no written language.  Stories are passed down by elders to the younger members of the clan verbally.  Their native language is becoming lost as the younger clan members mix with the rest of the world and adapt to the 'new' ways and 'our' language. 

We were entertained as well as educated with a dance presentation.

 There were replicas of the winter dwellings they used when it was too cold to use their skin dwellings.  The men stayed in a larger dwelling that also acted as the common house while the women stayed in a small dwelling and joined others the in the common house for dances, etc.  Marriages were prearranged by the fathers.  The male would do a year of servitude for the female's family.  The female's family would gather something of wealth to give to the male's family at the end of the year.  If the family accepted the gift, the marriage was complete.  No ceremony.

On the way back to Palmer from Anchorage, we passed a body of water with homes that had water frontage.  Instead of a boat tied to the dock as you would find in the lower 48, about every third house had a sea plane tied up.  I'm sure come winter, the pontoons are swapped out for snow skis and the water take off becomes a snow take off.  Just life in Alaska...

Hickory
......on the road again