Today was a beautiful day in Barrow. The sun was shining and it got up to around 40 degrees... it must be global warming. We attended the elder and youth conference, it was a forum on education. Many of the native elders spoke of the importance of native culture, values, language and knowledge and how that can conflict with the western education directives that are coming from Washington DC. Some of the elders had beautiful fur ruffs on their coats. The fur on the hood helps protect your face from the wind chill and frost bite. This one still has the claws attached.
After the forum, we had some free time so I went to the DVM to try to get a drivers licence because mine expires in a month. I have to take a written test. The printer in the Barrow DMV office was out of toner, so they were unable to print the tests. No Test, No Licence. I guess this gives me an excuse to go to Fairbanks. So then I wanted to go to the post office, which was half way across town. I was able to hang a lift in a taxi with a lady that was going that way. I mailed off some postcards... if you are lucky maybe it will be for you! And picked up the insurance claim forms I was unable to get in my village because the post master has no idea what I am talking about. Then I walked around a bit. 
Abandon boats along a pool. Cotton grass in a cemetery. 
After dinner, We visited the BASC or the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium. There studies are being conducted on everything from Biomass, carbon and methane gasses, Tundra, Archeology. There was a necropsy on an arctic fox going on while we were there.
Here some grad students are sorting vegetation samples taken from the tundra. They have sorted it into piles by species. The samples will be dried and weighed to calculate biomass.
This poster created using GIS and GPS technology shows the paths taken over the ice pack to the whale hunting locations. This shows how technology and native knowledge can come together.
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