“You say you are from Barrow and they all know exactly where you are from,” Akpik said. "We're still in a wait-and-see mode," said Ray Lane, operational communications manager for Alaska Airlines. Regaining our traditional names is just one step towards that healing!”. Bob Harcharek said a notification was mailed as required to the lieutenant governor’s office this week, noting the name change becomes official 45 days after notification.
States ramp up for biggest vaccination effort in U.S. history. His work has appeared in Discover, Popular Science, Outside, Men’s Journal, and other magazines. Its two-year programs include indigenous early learning. He loves the Inupiaq language but is not fluent. It’s not immediately clear what the city’s new Inupiat name means. The northernmost US city is now Utqiagvik Voters in the northernmost US city have voted change town's name to reflect its indigenous-majority population. The Wade Hampton Census Area, named after a Confederate general and slave owner, last year became Kusilvak, the highest point in that part of Southwest Alaska. Rows of old huts make a neighborhood where water is trucked in and sewage is trucked out. “The people of Utqiagvik voted to regain our traditional name. They claim the correct word is Ukpeagvik, which means “the place where we hunt snowy owls.”, City Council member Qaiyaan Harcharek, who is Inupiat on his mother’s side, introduced a local ordinance in August that began the process ultimately ratified by voters. On paper, the new Inupiat Eskimo name of the nation’s northernmost town is now official. He helps his 6-year-old daughter with her trapline.
(Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), A Presbyterian church uses the word Utqiaġvik in its name. Give a Gift. "This is for our seventh generation.".
(Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), A cabin at one of several summer camps outside the city is drifted with snow and coated in frost on Tuesday. And on Tuesday, Mayor Fannie Suvlu introduced an ordinance to consider asking voters if the change should be repealed. The town was … Lori Townsend is the News Director for the Alaska Public Radio Network. A statue of a hunter casts a shadow on a city office building in Utqiaġvik on Monday.
At times, he says, he wonders if something is broken in his very soul.
In ruins during civil war, Syria marks 50 years of Assad family rule. And it had to do with potatoes and a place to gather potatoes. NVC created the award-winning Independent Native News as well as producing many other documentaries and productions. On December 1, the town of approximately 4,300 people officially changed its name to Utqiagvik, the village’s traditional Inupiaq name, which means the place for gathering wild roots. Barrow businesses haven't changed names. Die Bevölkerungszahl betrug bei der Volkszählung 2010 4212 Einwohner. A hearing is set for Jan. 19 in a courthouse that shares a building with a Quick Stop. Some say it means “a place where snow owls are hunted” while others say it essentially means a place for gathering potatoes, even though potatoes are not native to the area.
That's the view of the village corporation, with Ukpeaġvik as part of its brand. Get the best of Smithsonian magazine by email. Sign up for the Afternoon Update and get the day’s biggest stories in your inbox. ", [Barrow council weighs changing city name, signage from English to Inupiaq]. Grant money won't be pulled just because the name is different, the city says. Maybe if Utqiaġvik appeared on more signs, more residents would learn it and other words too. Some residents say their questions haven't been answered. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), Arnold Brower gets a hug from Susan Hope during a holiday dinner at the North Slope Borough Senior Center. Hiltzik: The Pfizer vaccine news is exciting, but don’t throw away your mask yet. Tensions are rising. He noted that early day missionaries set up schools in the area where students were forbidden to speak in their native language and were punished if they did so. Still, before stores and daily deliveries by jet, people relied on many animals. Utqiagvik (Inupiaq: Utqiaġvik, IPA: [utqe.ɑʁvik], English: / ˌ ʊ t k i ˈ ɑː v ɪ k / UUT-kee-AH-vik), officially the City of Utqiaġvik, formerly known as Barrow (/ ˈ b ær oʊ /), is the largest city and the borough seat of the North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska and is located north of the Arctic Circle. Reporter Shady Grove Oliver first wrote about the name change for the Arctic Sounder.
“I have no preference, whether I’m in Barrow or whether I’m in Utqiaġvik. TOWNSEND: Before absentee and questioned ballots were counted, the vote was tied. A local native corporation is suing the city formerly known as Barrow, demanding it halts the official name-change to Utqiagvik. Utqiaġvik (bis 2016: Barrow) ist eine Stadt im North Slope Borough im Bundesstaat Alaska in den Vereinigten Staaten. "Utqiaġvik with a 'T' is not even the original name of Barrow," said Dorcas Stein, who is approaching 70 and describes herself as "not that old, actually." Jason Daley is a Madison, Wisconsin-based writer specializing in natural history, science, travel, and the environment. Remote British island creates massive marine protection zone. The city's native name, Utqiaġvik, refers to a place for gathering wild roots. Residents of Barrow, Alaska, have voted to change the name of their city to its Inupiaq name of Utqiagvik. "Your honor, I have the same problem that you do," said Louisiana Cutler, one of the attorneys representing the city.
Beverly Hugo, an Inupiaq language and culture teacher, wondered. Barrow City Council member Qaiyaan Harcharek, the mayor’s son, introduced a local ordinance in August that began the process ratified by voters.
Is it the right name? In 2001, at then-Mayor Jim Vorderstrasse's direction, the city put up a sign with a big snowy owl welcoming people "to the ancient village of Ukpiaġvik." Can Biden convince red states to wear masks? HARCHAREK: I’m extremely excited. Smithsonian Institution. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), Photography enthusiast Romeo Morales created postcards to sell that use the city’s new name since voters approved it in October. Residents in the nation’s northernmost community have voted to change the name of the Alaska town to its traditional Inupiat Eskimo name. Keep up-to-date on: © 2020 Smithsonian Magazine. Utqiagvik. In 1997 she co-hosted a continuing Saturday afternoon public affairs talk program on station KSTP in St. Paul, Minnesota. Everybody calls it Barrow.".
After the October vote, however, he said Utqiagvik essentially means “a place for gathering potatoes.”, “We are now in an era where the reclamation of tradition is critical to the perpetuation of identity as Iñupiat,” he wrote in an October email to the Associated Press. Judkins works as external affairs coordinator at Ilisaġvik College — Alaska's only tribal college — on the edge of Utqiaġvik.
Why mess with something so basic?
Cookie Policy But, he said, it only refers to the old part of town by Arctic Pizza near where ancient underground sod homes were found, with people trapped inside by shifting sea ice. "We call it Barrow. The move would not only acknowledge the history of the area, its proponents wrote that changing the name would honor the disappearing Inupiaq language which is currently spoken by about 3,000 people in Alaska. According to President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, even Pope Francis considers the U.S. presidential race over. Local American Indians and others are seeking to have it switched to Bear Lodge. The location has been home to the Iñupiat, an indigenous Inuit ethnic group, for more than 1,500 years. © Alaska Public Media 2020. Will it stand up in court? With the coronavirus coming back with a vengeance across the country and the U.S. facing a long, dark winter, governors and other elected officials are showing little appetite for imposing the kind of lockdowns and large-scale business closings seen last spring. Last year, the Obama administration decided to bestow the traditional Alaska Native to North America’s tallest mountain, from Mount McKinley to its Denali, an Athabascan word meaning “the high one.”. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), Midday light glows on the southern horizon as seen from Utqiaġvik. “I do understand how it got passed.”, Connect to local news for just $1 a month for 3 months. The lawsuit was filed by the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp., which also was seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the city from changing the name. In court documents, plaintiffs say the lack of input from the public led to a flawed law being passed, one that didn’t even use the correct traditional name for the city. It sponsored a logo contest on Facebook to incorporate the new name, misspelled in the original announcement. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), Jimmy Arey, who operates a city recreation hall, said he was unaware of the proposal to change the city’s name until he showed up to vote. Phillips, who voted against the change, owns the Barrow Souvenirs and Gifts shop and is a 22-year resident of the town located more than 700 miles north of Anchorage. Where are people getting it? Now the city mayor is calling for a new election to give residents time to fully consider what to call their town.
HARCHAREK: There’s some folks that are afraid of change and change is often times a daunting task and I believe it stems back to how well of a job that the missionaries and the Western folks in BIA schools, how good of a job they did at assimilating our people. On the top shelf of one was bowhead whale tongue, stored by a student who helped with the fall harvest. With the name change, the town also is seeking state approval to change it stop signs to the Inupiat word: “Nutqagin,” the mayor said. A lawsuit pits the village Native corporation against the city of Utqiaġvik.
No, since Barrow was the town's name when they were born, according to the state Department of Health and Social Services.
Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. The town was known as Barrow until Thursday, when the new name, Utqiagvik (oot-GHAR-vik), became effective, less than two months after the town approved the change at the polls, by a margin of a mere six votes. The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York City.