In Alaska, Moving to the City, but Keeping Native Ways
There is a whole king eider sea duck, including feathers and head. And she has three plastic bottles filled with seal oil: liquid gold to a Yupik Eskimo like Mrs. Cooke Phillip.
But the real prize is the spotted seal meat.
“We call it the prime rib of the sea,” she said.
Last year, Mrs. Cooke Phillip, 40, and her family left Kongiganak (population 439), their hometown near the Bering Sea, for a three-bedroom home in Alaska’s largest city. They are among thousands of rural Alaskans who have moved to urban areas in the last decade, having decided their old life was too hard and too expensive.
“I was just sick of village survival,” she said.
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Full article at nytimes.com
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