Being so intimately connected to the natural world engenders in Arctic people a deep respect for nature. Here we show interviews with a wide range of Arctic dwellers, who share their thoughts and experiences about life in the Arctic, and how they look at and handle big changes in their environment.
Senior Wildlife Biologist, North Slope Borough, Dept. of Wildlife Management, Barrow, AK: Bowhead Whales
Jean Craighead George has written over one hundred popular books for young adults, including the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves.
Dr. Anne Jensen
Arctic Archaeologist
General Manager and Senior Scientist for UIC Science LLC
Anne Jensen’s anthropological fieldwork in Alaska extends back 28 years. Anne has worked in villages throughout the state and been principal investigator on numerous archaeology projects, including ones at Point Barrow, Point Franklin, and at Ukkuqsi, where she recovered the little frozen girl who died 800 years ago. She is General Manager and Senior Scientist for UIC Science LLC, where she runs operations and support contracts for the U.S. Department of Energy and conducts a variety of environmental projects. Anne holds grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. She has written dozens of professional reports and has published on resource use and zooarchaeology. Her current research focuses on human adaptation in Arctic and subarctic environments, paleoeconomy and paleoenvironments and Traditional Knowledge of Iñupiat peoples. Anne’s blog on Arctic Archaeology can be found at iceandtime.wordpress.com and her Gardening in the Arctic blog at tundragarden.wordpress.com.
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Richard Savik Glenn
RICHARD K. “Savik” GLENN is Arctic Slope Regional Corporation’s Executive Vice President of Lands and Natural Resources. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (“ASRC”) is the Alaska Native-owned regional corporation representing more than eight thousand Inupiat Eskimos of Alaska’s North Slope. The shareholders of ASRC own surface and subsurface title to nearly five million acres of Alaskan North Slope lands with oil, gas, coal and mineral resources. Richard is a member of ASRC’s Board of Directors. From 1995 to 2001, Richard headed Alaska’s North Slope Borough Department of Energy Management, where he supervised the energy programs for all of the North Slope Borough villages.
Richard received a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from San Jose State University in 1985 and a Master of Science degree in Geology from the University of Alaska (UAF) in 1991. Richard has special expertise in resource development in an Arctic setting, and is well-versed in on and offshore Arctic geologic processes. He is a certified professional geologist in the state of Alaska, and holds positions on many boards and commissions, most of them dedicated to education and scientific research. In addition to other postings, he has twice been appointed by the President to the United States Arctic Research Commission, is the Board President of the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, and has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Ilisagvik College.
Richard also serves as co-captain of the Savik Ahmaogak subsistence whaling crew. He is a member of the Suurimmaaniichuat Eskimo dance group and a budding rock-and-roll keyboardist.
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Seabird Biologist
Dr George Divoky has been studying seabirds in Arctic Alaska since 1970 and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is the founder of Friends of Cooper Island, a nonprofit scientific/education organization that maintains the long-term study of seabirds on Cooper Island and preserves and distributes Cooper Island data for use by current and future researchers studying climate change and other Arctic phenomena. Divoky also has an active outreach program speaking to conservation organizations and school groups.
Studying the Black Guillemots of Cooper Island has largely been a solitary venture for George. While the discovery and initial years of the study were part of governmental research related to oil development in northern Alaska, for the past two decades the work has been conducted with occasional grants and personal dedication.
Divoky’s research on Cooper Island was featured in a January 6, 2002 cover story in the New York Times Magazine entitled “George Divoky’s Planet," written by Darcy Frey.
Divoky conducts annual observations of Black Guillemots breeding on Cooper Island in the Arctic Ocean, 20 miles east of Point Barrow, Alaska. He stays on the wind-swept island every summer for the full breeding season of 100 days. His long-term study has allowed him to make startling observations about climate change.
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Dr. Glenn Sheehan
Executive Director, BASC
Barrow Arctic Science Consortium
Dr. Sheehan is the founding Executive Director of the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (BASC), which started in 1996. BASC provides scientists with field logistical support, including serving as the ashore contact for U.S. and foreign science icebreaker missions. In a recent year over 626 visiting researchers were assisted.Prior to BASC's creation Dr. Sheehan was principal investigator for the three year NSF-funded Point Franklin Archaeology project on the North Slope.
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Eugene Brower
Inupiaq Elder & Whaling Captain
Inupiaq Eskimo elder Eugene Brower, President, Barrow Whaling Captains Association, Barrow, Alaska, speaks about early days in Barrow, about becoming a harpooner and then whaling captain, about a rogue walrus, an amazing polar bear, a white whale and a whale that showed him and his crew just who is boss.
As a young boy Iñupiaq Eskimo elder Eugene Brower from Barrow, Alaska, moved up the ranks to Harpooner and finally to whaling captain. On a Sunday in March 2009, he took some time out to talk about whaling
As a young boy Iñupiaq Eskimo elder Eugene Brower from Barrow, Alaska, moved up the ranks to Harpooner and finally to whaling captain. On a Sunday in March 2009, he took some time out to talk about whaling
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Geoff Carroll
Area Wildlife Biologist, Alaska Department of Fish & Game
Geoff Carroll, Area Wildlife Biologist for Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, talks about his job looking after the animals in a 56,000 sq mile region on the North Slope. He also talks about his love of the Arctic, and especially the sea ice, and about his passion for sled dogs. In 1986, he accompanied Will Steger on a National Geographic sponsored 56-day dog sled expedition to the North Pole. One of these clips shows Geoff out on the ice his Greenland dogs.
Geoff's Polar Bear Story
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Dr. John C. "Craig" George
Senior Wildlife Biologist (Bowhead Whales)
Department of Wildlife Management
North Slope Borough, Barrow, Alaska
Craig George has worked as a Wildlife Biologist with the North Slope Department of Wildlife Management in Barrow, Alaska for 25 years. Craig earned a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the Utah State University in 1976 and recently completed his Ph.D. in bowhead whale energetics, age estimation and morphology (comprehensive exams 2001). Beginning in 1982, Craig worked on and later coordinated the bowhead whale ice-based population assessment project on the sea ice near Point Barrow for nearly two decades. He also has conducted many postmortem exams on bowheads harvested by Alaskan Eskimos (since 1980) and published a number of papers on this work ranging from evidence of killer whale predation to structural anatomy to population biology. Craig has attended IWC meetings since 1987 focusing mainly on aboriginal whaling management procedures and assessments and population estimation. He has also participated in Eskimo traditional knowledge studies on the North Slope. Craig has lived in Barrow since 1977 and is married to Cyd Hanns, a wildlife technician. Together they enjoy community and outdoor activities with their two sons Luke and Sam.
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Fran Tate
Owner of Pepe's
Fran Tate, owner, Pepe's North of the Border Mexican Restaurant, Barrow, Alaska
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Dario Levia
Proprieter NARL Hotel, Barrow, Alaska
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Joe Fieldman
Helicopter Pilot, Polar Bear Project
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Eddie Bodfish
Inupiaq Elder from Wainright, Alaska, now living in Barrow
He talks about how whaling crews had to walk 9-15 miles out on the ice to get the whales because Wainright, unlike Barrow, is tucked into a bay, and to get the whales, the whalers have to walk out to the open sea where the whales pass during migrations.
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Donald "Nok" Nokinba Acker
Assistant Logistics Coordinator, BASC, Barrow, Alaska
Donald "Nok" Acker from Allakaket, AK, now lives in Barrow, AK. "Nok" is short for Nokinba, which in Athabascan means "Snowy Owl," a name his parents gave him at birth. Nok never thought he'd come north to Barrow but when did, he fell in love, with his wife to be and with the high Arctic. Here he talks about his love for the cold and especially for the ice. Coordinating logistics for the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, BASC, he helps scientists stay safe on the ice. Here he talks about polar bears and the knowledge you have to have in order to go out on the ice safely. Nok also has put some nice video clips up on Youtube that show what it's like to break trail and to be out there, a place he loves so much.
Nok talks about his love of the Arctic and how he helps keep researchers safe out on the ice.
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John Tidwell
Polar Bear Photographer
The bears begin to trust him after days and days and months and months of routine. Here he talks about how the bears can survive on land. He agrees that ice is getting thin and bears are having a hard time finding seals on the dwindling ice, but he also has what he considers evidence that there's plenty of food on land for the bears.
Here he talks about how he "gets a bear," ways to attract bears to his lens. Back in the early 80s when Tidwell got to Barrow you'd listen to the radio to find out when the bears were in town. What attracts bears to town? Arctic Pizza on the south side of town.
Tidwell, "I don't carry a gun. What right do I have to shoot a bear when I'm invading his territory." Here Tidwell tells tales about bears, close calls, Snagglepus, a particularly large foul-mood male with a broken jaw and broken nose and teeth sticking out, coming up to Tidwell in the fog snorting as he comes.
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Jean Craighead George
Newbery-winning author of Julie of the Wolves
Craig Jean Craighead George was born in a family of naturalists. Her father, mother, brothers, aunts and uncles were students of nature. On weekends they camped in the woods near their Washington, D.C. home, climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible plants and made fish hooks from twigs. Her first pet was a turkey vulture. In third grade she began writing and hasn't stopped yet. She has written over 100 books.
Her book, Julie of the Wolves won the prestigious Newbery Medal, the American Julie of the Wolves Library Association's award for the most distinguished contribution to literature for children, 1973. My Side of the Mountain, the story of a boy and a falcon surviving on a mountain together, was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book. She has also received 20 other awards.
She attended Penn State University graduating with a degree in Science and Literature. In the 1940s she was a reporter for The Washington Post and a member of the White House Press Corps. After her children were born she returned to her love of nature and brought owls, robins, mink, sea gulls, tarantulas - 173 wild animals into their home and backyard. These became characters in her books and, although always free to go, they would stay with the family until the sun changed their behavior and they migrated or went off to seek partners of their own kind.
When her children, Twig, Craig and Luke, were old enough to carry their own backpacks, they all went to the animals. They climbed mountains, canoed rivers, hiked deserts. Her children learned about nature and Jean came home and to write books. Craig and Luke are now environmental scientists andTwig writes children's books, too.
One summer Jean learned that the wolves were friendly, lived in a well-run society and communicated with each other in wolf talk -- sound, sight, posture, scent and coloration. Excited to learn more, she took Luke and went to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Barrow, Alaska, where scientists were studying this remarkable animal. She even talked to the wolves in their own language. With that, Julie of the Wolves was born. A little girl walking on the vast lonesome tundra outside Barrow, and a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park were the inspiration for the characters in the book. Years later, after many requests from her readers, she wrote the sequels,Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack
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