The Heart of Wiseman

My favorite thing about my stay in Wiseman was being able to meet and spend time with the residents. There aren’t many people that live there year round, but the ones that do had so many interesting things to share with me. One fun little aspect of being in a remote village is the lack of grocery stores or restaurants, meaning other than a delicious breakfast of eggs and sourdough pancakes, you have to bring all of the food that you will eat. It felt silly that half of my bag was clothes and the other half was just food! Berni and Uta are some of Wiseman’s longest residents and while they are originally from Germany, they have called Alaska home for the last 40 years. I have studied German for the past 3 years so the subtle German touches, like the German comforter, German books on the bookshelf, and even the mugs at breakfast being from Germany, made my stay so much better. At breakfast, Berni and Uta were always so wonderful, kind, and interested in speaking with me. They truly are the best hosts, and they made sure my coffee cup was never empty!

More than just a village

I also had the chance to briefly speak with Jack Reakoff and his wife Nikki. They too have a long history with Wiseman are really the beating heart of the village. I asked Jack if he could tell me what he was involved with, other than his job leading tours. He told me that he volunteers with the National Weather Service by reporting daily temperature, rainfall, and snowfall. Because of the flood that had happened the night before, it was especially important that he was able to record rainfall, and more specifically when the rain starts and stops for the NWS. He was also the one to let the other downstream villages know via social media to get ready for flooding. He is involved with northern subsistence leadership and regulations, so he was super knowledgeable about all of the changes in rules over the years with what is allowed and what isn’t, even down to exactly who supported what. I was super gracious to be able to speak with him and learn just how vital he is not just to this village, but to the greater community of rural areas of northern Alaska.

Residents are the experts

Mollie and Sean Busby were the people whom I spent the most time with. They moved to Wiseman a few years before COVID and they live at the top of a nearby hill to run their business- a kind of retreat center they call Arctic Hive. I went on a hike with them one afternoon, sort of following their dog trails but also doing a little bit of bushwacking. They told me about how they sustainably harvest dead standing trees for firewood and the little bit of hunting they do. One of the most impactful things I saw during the hike were ATV tracks full of water. Sean told me that when the Nolan road washed out last year due to the flood, later that fall, there were people that needed to access that area so they used the trails near Wiseman to access it. The problem is that motorized vehicles rip up the tundra and expose the permafrost which melts and won’t recover for decades. He said it also causes problems in the winter because it can lead to more ice and with not much snow this year, they had to reroute the trails around these patches because it isn’t feasible for the dogs. It was pretty devastating to see that just 4 passes with an ATV permanently affected the land to a point of no return. Mollie and Sean made it clear to me that once the permafrost melts, it’s gone. 

Mollie and Sean took me up to see Arctic Hive on my last night, and I was so impressed by their whole place. It’s a short walk up a hill that you can only access by foot, and in the winter, by dogsled. They have 3 small cabins for guests, two domes, and their entire house, all of which they had to haul up the materials for. They told me about how long it took to build everything, what it takes to run the retreats during the winter, and I got to see their sled dogs. When building their house, they had to be sure to build on bedrock when they could, and raised up from the ground to account for shifting that could happen with the permafrost. They knew exactly how to tell where permafrost is by looking at the plants and trees. They had to know these things in order to be able to build on the tundra, live, and run their business. Mollie and Sean are really amazing, they were so excited to share everything with me about how they live and run their business in such a remote place (it wouldn’t be possible without Costco!), and I really enjoyed hearing their stories and learning about the lifestyles that they live. Each resident that I had the chance to speak with all had different levels of subsistence, different priorities, different businesses, and unique stories. I learned so many different things from each of them, but the one constant was that they all loved to live up there, were incredibly knowledgeable about the land and environment, and they all were so kind and welcoming to me.