The visitors have arrived! Tia and Jackie came first and they have stayed all day. Stanley came too and fed us some of his seal blubber and meat for lunch. He had so many amazing stories to tell! He had to leave already but Jackie and Tia are still here. In fact, Jackie and Tia wanted to write in the blog. Here they are. The first one is from Jackie:
Jackie: Hi my name is Jackie, I'm a visitor from Kivalina. Today when the helicopter went to fly in and to get us I felt a little scared but then I realized that it was getting more fun. When we got here to Raven Bluff I was excited to get off and explore a lot of things I never knew about. After we flew in we got settled in and got a snack, we went up a little hill to the archaeology people. We learned about some stuff back in the ancient years, things like some stuff that are left behind and are needed to be dug out. Today we went hiking up to the mountains, on our way we were looking on the ground to see if we can see some interesting stuff. I was really surprised to come out here and learn stuff about our ancestors back in the day. I'm excited about tomorrow. Talk to you soon.
Tia: Hi my name is Tia, I'm also a visitor from Kivalina. I'm so excited to come out here and explore different things. When I first found out about this trip here to Raven Bluff I called in and said I would be the person to come out here and learn about the ancient stuffs that were left here under ground. Today was exciting, we went looking for things under ground that were left by our ancestors years ago. We also went hiking up to the mountains to see if we'll see interesting stuffs. I'm so excited about tomorrow because we are going to dig under ground. I think its gonna turn out good. Talk to you soon.
The students are having a great time. We'll send more news tomorrow. Ask questions of the girls with the Ask The Team tab above.
After having a tour of the camp and meeting all the archaeologists, we went for a long hike with Bill Hedman, leader of the expedition. Tia, at right, and Jackie, middle, enjoyed the hike.
The students arrive after their flight from Kivalina. They both wore fire-resistant flight suits and flight helmets for the trip. They said at first they were scared, but then it was fun.
Tia and Jackie help Steve from the BLM and Courtney, our fabulous cook, dig up something metal found with the metal detector. They found two 22 caliber shell casings, one larger burst shell casing and some old tin foil all deep in the tundra.
Stanley Hawley was the elder from Kivalina who came out. He was really great. He told incredible stories about finding arrow heads and ivory with scrimshaw when he was a boy. The people in Kivalina have been hunting for a whales for hundreds of years. Stanley told us about it.
Jackie Norton, 16, of Kivalina, shows off a caribou antler she found while hiking.
During lunch Stanley brought out the bag of seal meat and blubber he had brought from Kivalina. Luckily, he was willing to share. Wow! This was from a Bearded Seal. It tasted like sort of fishy beef steak. He suggested eating a slice of the blubber with it. That was really oily. I won't need to take a fish oil pill tonight. Thanks for sharing, Stanley!
The girls watch Roger, a BLM employee, screen a bucket full of soil from one of the dig units.