2004 Native store tank farm - Southside
2007 Native store tank farm - southside
Rock Revetment - Finished product!
Changes in Kivalina
Photo courtesy of Jim Kulas
SINK HOLES
A sink hole has developed 15 miles up the Wulik River and is about 100 yards in length and 300 feet inland and is growing steadily each summer. The seepage looks toxic and makes the water unsuitable for consumption when it is seeping into the river. The source of water the City of Kivalina uses to fill the holding tanks for the community's drinking and washing water is two (2) miles up the Wulik River from Kivalina and the flow of the river is downstream, as are all rivers. Every year, both holding tanks are filled between July and August, when the water has cleared enough for consumption. In addition to the Teck Cominco Red Dog Mines waste water discharge which includes their sewage system, there is the contents of the sink hole to reckon with.
Our people drink this water! Although not everyone drinks this water, the majority do.
Photos courtesy of Jim Kulas
Alan Zarembo, Reporter for LA Times, Austin Swan Sr., Former City Mayor and Don, Photographer from LA Times at the Siglauqs. Photo courtesy of Janet Mitchell. Taken by Willard Adams Jr.
SIGLAUQS - Underground storage caches
There are two (2) siglauqs about a mile East of Kivalina. One is owned by the City and the other is owned by Oran Knox Sr. The one owned by the City has filled with water and those that had food stored there have been ruined and is now unsuitable for consumption. Oran's remain fine and is still usable.
Every year, during the spring season, the people hunt the bearded seal. When enough is caught and there is excess, many make tuktaqs (aged meat wrapped in the blubber of the seal) and age them in the siglauqs. By winter time, they are ready for consumption and are taken out gradually as needed. This is a delicacy for many of the elders and those that have developed a taste for it. When a whale is caught, the meat is also aged and stored until it is ready for consumption. That is another delicacy for those that like aged meat. There is no other way to age these types of meat. Once the siglauqs are no longer usable, the people will no longer be able to age these delicacy items in the way they are accustomed.
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ROUTINE TRAVEL BETWEEN VILLAGES
It is springtime in 1998 and my husband and I, with our 7 year old son, are taking a snowmachine trip from Noatak to Kivalina to attend a function being held there. We are near the Wulik River and in the distance towards Kivalina, to the left of it, we can see an object that looks like a house. It is dark in color and it is standing about 6 feet in the air and about just as wide and it is so out of place because it has not been there before. The land surrounding Kivalina is flat. While we are standing there looking at it, two local residents drive up behind us. They are returning to Kivalina from an ice fishing trip. We point out the object of interest and the driver of the machine pulls his binoculars out and studies the object. He informs us that it looks like ground, like that of permafrost ground, making it rise to the air.
The next day, it has fallen back into place.
As witnessed by Janet Mitchell
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Climate Change Committee listening to testimonies from Kivalina, Shishmaref and other representatives at Kotzebue. Photo courtesy of Janet Mitchell
CLIMATE CHANGE TESTIMONY at Kotzebue
by Janet Mitchell
Hello all, thanks for giving us an opportunity to voice our concerns about climate change and its impact.
My name is Janet Mitchell and I am the administrator for the City of
Our village, which has a population of 388, is in the Northwestern regions of
I want to share with you one of the effects of the climate change activities at the request of a resident. Kivalina has had storage caches which we call ‘siglauqs’ since time immemorial and Kivalinas is located across the channel from our town. In the past, because we didn’t have electricity to begin with, our ancestors have had to be innovative and create a way to make sure their food gathered in the summer months remained fresh. How did they do that? They created underground storage caches and it had to be done on land that had perma frost underneath.
On June 25, 2007 my father went to the storage cache where he stores his summer catch to make it ready for storage. What he discovered there was five (5) feet of water covering the whole bottom of the storage area. The permafrost has already begun to melt so that storage cache is no longer usable. The ‘siglauqs’ are located approximately ½ a mile inland from the beach shoreline. The water forming in the bottom floor of the storage caches in previous years have been gradual but it has not melted to this level before. He wanted one of us to make mention of that fact.
Our erosion activity will most likely accelerate now that the perma frost is melting. Currently, the only solution I see is to have the village moved to another location and even that has its road blocks. This process takes years and years but the erosion activity demands that we move now or address it to carry us through until we do move. And with the climate change happening, which is causing the top layer of ground to begin cracking through melting permafrost, it has even become more urgent.
If you would like to know where the ground is cracking, it’s on the location where the worst of the erosion was happening on the beach shoreline but we weren’t able to determine the length of the crack because by the time it was discovered, parts of it had already been run over by the heavy equipment. Its parallel to the bank and it leads from a residential housing unit towards the AVEC tank farm and is about 10 feet away from the bank. That is where the permafrost that was discovered is melting. The melting permafrost is directly in front of two of the residential housing units.
There was mention of co-location. Shishmaref and Kivalina tried that years ago. The differences between cultures prevented a co-existence. Language was one of the barriers, which is just an example and I’m sorry to say, I can’t answer questions to that effect. So that was how Shishmaref was formed. Some village members moved there. Others moved inland to a village that is now called
(ADDITION 12/28/07) My great-grandmothers name was Regina Qaigan Swan-Walton. Her brother William Penn Sr. and her sister Mable Walton were the two that moved with the group that decided to move inland. The group that moved to Shishmaref included the brother of Louis 'Aannayun' Swans family whose name was Uiksraq but Louis remained in Kivalina. (Based on family history of the Swan Family.) His first cousins at Shishmaref are the Kuytallik's which includes Steven and David, and their sister Molly Tocktoo.
My point for adding this information is to add to the history of how Kivalina came to be and how some family's had to come to a decision as to where they wanted to live and that meant separation from family members. Some of the paternal side of the family moved to Shishmaref and some of the maternal side moved to Noatak.
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