Cold United

This video was shot during Fairbanks’ 2009 annual Festival of Native Arts, where artists from all around Alaska and the Outside come to celebrate their native heritage by showcasing arts and crafts, dances, native games, and other cultural activities.

These are Nunamiut dancers from Anaktuvuk Pass, one of the coldest towns in Alaska. The Nunamiut are inland Eskimos, who hunt caribou rather than whales. Anaktuvuk Pass is only accessible by airplane, or by going through the bush in the winter, using snow machines or SnoCats.

They performed a couple of dances, most of them from 30 seconds to 1 minute long. Sometimes I wished they went on for longer as they were quite entertaining, you could tell the dances told a story and I wish I understood their language. On all dances the males stomped one foot on the ground to the beat of the drums, while the women did not stomp. Their drums were large but light, made of some animal skin (possibly caribou) stretched over a round wooden frame. They were the only instruments used by the performers.

Looking by the number of people on stage it looks like most of the village came down to perform; the total population is only 249!