Qaspeq Wedensday

One of the things I am beginning to love about New Stuyahok is their traditional culture. The elders of the village push the importance of those who came before them, and teach the younger generation how to follow their old ways. I love learning about the foods, holidays, clothing, and traditions that are still continuing for years in this small village; especially when the elders are so eager to share.
An good example is qaspuq Wednesday, when students and staff are encouraged to wear their qaspuqs. You may have already seen one in older pictures of native Alaskan's with the bulky parka and hood framed with fur. Many used skins for the body part and wolf hairs for the face frame. This would keep the faces protected from the cold and frost. As years passed, these parkas transitioned into lighter material, shedding the fur and skin material to cotton hoodies with big pockets in the front, traditionally trimmed with a rick- rack design.

Seal Hunter- with Winter kuspuk and snowshoes

Within the first months of living in New Stu, I took a weekend and learned how to make a "modern" women's qaspeq at a University of Anchorage campus in Dillingham. That was fun; I learned how to make one for myself and go to a town with a grocery store. But the class never gave the history or the definition of the qaspeq for me. I even had a hard time looking up the definition. It doesn't help that many people spell it differently: qaspek, kuspuk, quspuk.  So I asked Pruney. Pruney drives the shuttle from the bush plane to the small Bistol Bay Campus university. (I asked Pruney how she got her name, thinking it was a nick name. She replied, "My mother gave it to me as soon as I was born.") Pruney (her real, given name) told me everything I wrote about a kusbuk above, and that was more than I could find online.
So I came back to New Stu with an Alaskan's modified history and my own modern kusbuk. But I wanted to make one for Ben. Finding a men's pattern was much harder. I realized that many who make these don't use patterns. But they have a knack for just looking at someone and knowing how to size a quspuk for them. So I made one for Ben using this formula [look+guess=make], and I felt very cultured. It ended up with too small of hood and the back shorter than the front. Oh well, he still wears it every Wednesday. So do many others. Here are pictures of school members and their kusbuks.

Tat is one of the Elementary yu'pik teachers

Traditional girl's kuspuks have a skirt

Robin, our school principal in her favorite color

Clay never likes his picture taken. He only agreed because I promise his efforts would educate others.

Oh look! I saved the best for last;) It's not the best kuspuk, just the best looking person!

Eskimo Icecream

For something different, I thought it'd be fun to post an Alaskan recipe.
           As a favorite of the people from New Stuyahok, this dish is referred to as "Eskimo Icecream", but the Yu'pik term is Aqutaq.You'd think that people living in Alaska would favor the warmer dishes, but this puts excitement into the villagers eyes when asked about it. And each family recipe has its own variation and popularity.
Maria, from school, loves the town's gatherings when the school cook prepares it. Kara, my cute little running friend, says her mom's Aqutaq is the best in the village. She'll bring me some when it's her birthday. Ben had a great idea of making an assignment for kids to bring in their recipes from their elders. It was the first time the students were excited about an assignment and many brought the dish in to taste.

Ben's student, Jacob

         The first time I actually saw Aqutaq was last Monday during the school's quyana night . Quyana means thank you. "You're welcome" sounds somewhat like an angry yell, and I am not quite sure how to spell that. Maybe it's, "Aang!"
Here is a picture of a dinner plate from with Aqutaq. It is in the dixie cup in the left corner.

And if you do need something to make with leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce, here is one basic recipe:

Aqutaq

3 cups of Crisco, or shortening

1/2 cup water

2 cups granulated sugar

1 gallon of raw cranberries, or blueberries

Directions: Stir or whip crisco in a large bowl. Gradually add water while stirring until it is creamy and fluffy add sugar and stir more. add berries 1 to 2 cups at a time until thoroughly mixed.

You might be turned off by the amount of Crisco. It is the base of the recipe, but years ago it was made with large game or seal oil and no sugar was added just fruit. Different variations that I've heard of in New Stu is adding cold white fish and some  like to add more sugar (obviously, I would too).
So bring this to your next holiday party or suggest it as a new flavor at Diary Queen (Right, Dad?!)  

All of New Stu at the school on Monday