RAIN IN APRIL 20, 2010
It was raining cats and dogs the night of April 20. Then when the temp got lower as the night progressed, it turned to snow flakes.
KIVALINA IN JANUARY
We are experiencing spring time weather in January 2010. Yesterday's temp was 31 degrees fahrenheit, today is it 26 degrees. The exterior walls of my house are wet from melting snow. January and February are the coldest times in Kivalina.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 7, 2009
Contact: The Indigenous Environmental Network Media Team
Mobile Number: +45 526 85596
E-mail: indigenous.environmental.network@gmail.com
Alaska Native Delegation
Issues: The Alaska Natives are in the Arctic region of North America who is experiencing escalating climate and weather changes resulting in rapid melting of sea ice and permafrost that has caused land erosion, villages sliding into the sea, concerns of relocation, deaths and negative impact to their food sovereignty. Most Alaska Natives in rural areas still maintain traditional subsistence food diets. On the basis of the fossil record and climate history of Alaska, they are expecting future periods of cooler, drier climates that will result in shrinkage of forest boundaries, lowering of altitudinal tree line, and expansion of tundra vegetation into lower elevations. Boreal forests, which cover 17% of the Earth's land surface area, are found in Alaska's south-central and interior regions. Models consistently project large-scale transformation of Arctic landscapes, where the northern edge of the boreal forest advances into the tundra. Even with these projections, concerns for Alaska's boreal forests from projected climate changes include: a loss in the moisture needed for forest growth; insect-induced tree mortality; increased risk of large fires; interference with the reproduction of white spruce, a biological and economic concern; and the changes caused by permafrost thaw e.g., slumping of land and wetland development from thaw water. All these projected changes to the biodiversity of Alaska, homelands to the indigenous Alaska Natives, who still maintain traditional lifestyles to the land, will greatly impact their future. Major petroleum corporations, with support of the United States are continuing to expand oil and gas development in the ecological sensitive areas of Alaska, including efforts to drill offshore. Any future oil spill will devastate the life of Alaska Natives.
Faith Gemmill is the Executive Director of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL).
Colleen Swan is a lifetime Inupiaq member of the Native Village of Kivalina. Born to Joseph and Lona Swan, Colleen has seven sisters, three brothers, six children and seven grandchildren. She has worked as Tribal Administrator for the Native Village of Kivalina for 18 years and has sat on the Kivalina City Council since October 2008 and the Northwest Arctic Borough Economic Development Commission since 2008. Colleen has been involved in environmental and climate change issues for many years. She headed up the efforts to mitigate damage to Kivalina's environment due to environmental contamination from mining and climate change damage. She is a spokesperson for hte Native Village of Kivalina on the climate change lawsuit filed against oil and energy companies, has provided testimony before the Alaska Climate Impacts Assessment Commission Hearing (July 2007), and has provided testimony before US Senate Field Hearing on Climate Change (October 2007) to Senator Stevens of Alaska and Landrieu of Louisiana, which is now in the Congressional Record.
Crystal Annette Frank is a young Gwich’in Athabascan woman from Arctic Village, Alaska.
Thunder and lightening in Kivalina!
A never before seen phenomenon in my lifetime. You can see the ladies Stephanie Koonook and Laretta Adams standing behind the bolt but they are looking the other direction. The lightening struck behind them about 8 feet away and they never knew it struck behind them. Tina was across the street trying to capture a lightening bolt. Little did she know that she would capture it and so near to striking the two ladies by the clinic porch.
Photo courtesy of Tina Swan from Kivalina.
There's a new bug in town!
JULY 9, 2009 The insect is about an inch long and it's armor is very much like hard unbreakable plastic. It was seen flying towards a Rural Cap employee. He swatted it to the ground then stomped on it. He picked it up and placed it on a piece of plywood thinking he had killed it. It began crawling and he pounded on it with his hammer. It laid still so he thought he had killed it again. It began crawling yet again which totally amazed him. He picked it up with his gloved hand, took his pliers and crushed it's head between the teeth. It finally quit moving at that point.
Brown water in Kivalina lagoon
MAY 12, 2009 Every spring, when we are not able to collect water from our river or unable to get ice anymore, we rely on the melt water of the snow which collects on the surface of the ice in the lagoon and the ocean ice. However, this year, we were not able to because of the brown water everywhere the eye can see. It was even in the ocean side.
On May 5, before I left for Kotzebue for training, the river was all filled with blue water on the open spots. We decided to see if we can fill the water tanks a bit and how much we can pump before it freezes up on us in the pipes. I left for Kotzebue on May 6 and called to report it was clear as day upon arriving, all blue water. We decided to check for turbidity the next day. However, when I called home that day, it was reported that the water had turned brown overnight. Pumping was out of the question. I was distressed to hear that because it's our only source during the time when the holding tanks are empty or near empty.
The boys getting water from the clearest part of the ocean ice. There is traces of brown stuff on the snow, making it difficult to acquire clean water.
Early melting of Snow June 17, 2009
Whats left of the winter snow in town. This is a photo we should be taking mid-July if we wanted to document the amount of snow left in Kivalina. The sun is very hot now, more so then normal. It melts the snow much sooner then normal. Although our winter was fierce and full of snow, it melted very fast. As I said, the sun is much hotter then usual. Our record temperature was 86 degrees fahrenheit this summer. The normal temperature in the peak of summer is 70 degrees fahrenheit. Times, they are a changing.
Photos courtesy of Jim Kulas of Red Dog.
Changes in Kivalina
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.
You can see someone walking on the edge of the slump on top the photo.
There are smaller sink holes developing along the Wulik River in various places below this slump.
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.
ROUTINE TRAVEL BETWEEN VILLAGES
It is springtime in April 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.
Jerry and Becky Norton went to inspect the object that is erected in an upright position. When they reach the object, it is a piece of permafrost ice about 16 feet wide and about 8 feet high. There is another one but it is smaller in size.
The next day, it has fallen back into place.
As witnessed by Janet Mitchell
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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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April 2009
There is an unusual lining on the ice all over the Kivalina area. It wasn't evident until the snow began melting. I left for Kotzebue on May 5 for training. Before I left, because the water looks so clear, we discussed pumping some water for a few days. When we flew over, it was still clear. After arriving to Kotzebue, I called home and told them it was still clear and we should consider pumping water. Brad agreed to test the water for turbidity and would test it the next day, May 6. The next day, I called home and I was told the water got brown overnight. My first thought was Red Dog so I sent them an email and told them about the brown water and asked if they were discharging brown water. They said no and would take me and Austin Swan with their helicopter to investigate the whole area.
The whole area surrounding Kivalina, including Kivalina River and Wulik River, the grounds, the ocean ice is all brown. Only a few spots have clear, white snow. The substance has some sort of a sheen to it. Red Dog's discharge, at the time of the flight, is clear. Our source of fresh water is unsuitable, which is melt water on top the ice. It is also our wash water source. It is unsuitable for that even.
July 2009
SLUMPS OR LAND SLIDES
It has just been reported by Reppi Swan that more slumps are forming in the Wulik River. They are closer to town but are smaller in size. There is one near Eugene Wesley's camp, another below Qaglugruaq where we fill our water tanks from for the winter supply.
It is also reported by Tillman Adams, a 67 year old elder that still walks the country to keep an eye on activities, that the lake by Ushak has been changing. He reported that there is some form of action where the water rises and falls. In 2008, he stated that the lake was bubbling in some places. This summer, the water is rising and falling, like there is an underground stream now.
The lake is 5 miles Southest of Kivalina.
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