In the small village of Wainwright, Alaska, which sits on the state's northern coast, the subsistence lifestyle is still king. On a late-June visit to the community, Alaska Dispatch multimedia editor Stephen Nowers caught the community in the midst of preparations for a celebration the next week, readying a 52-foot bowhead whale caught earlier that spring for the event.
At the home of John Hopson, Jr., women worked inside and men outside, all focused on the monumental task of divvying up the whale's meat for distribution and consumption. Fermenting whale meat sat in large tubs in the kitchen, needing stirring several times per day.
RELATED: Photos of life in Wainwright
Hopson showed off his family's ice cellar, dug into the permafrost by hand more than half a century before by his grandfather and others. The cellar maintains its temperature and the entrance sits propped up on a mound to prevent any inadvertant melting from the opening in the earth.
Sitting on a table nearby were hefty slabs of whale blubber, which Hopson identified as part of the whale's fluke, or tail flipper. Wainwright resident Bob Shears deftly sliced off pieces for visitors -- cutting past the yellowing rind of "cheese" formed while sitting out in the sun -- and telling them how to eat it, by tucking it all the way to the back molars, where it can be chewed on at leisure. Although he also said that swallowing it whole would warm you from the inside out in the winter as your body processed the high-calorie food. The raw stuff is tough, but it's a badge of pride for Alaskans to say they've tried the chewy, oily delicacy.
While "Sarah Palin's Alaska" has finished its eight-week run on TLC, Alaska Dispatch continues to take a look at the Last Frontier as it's experienced by residents across the state -- urban and rural, young and old, from all walks of life. You've seen "Sarah Palin's Alaska" -- now welcome to Our Alaska.