Saima Chase slid onto the ice Chase decided to head home to at Kotzebue Sound, her arms make dinner. She recently loaded down with two five- shot a few caribou and was gallon drum buckets filled eager to make caribou curry. with an ax and pick. She butchered the meat “When were these holes last herself and had it flown back opened?” Chase asked her to Kotzebue. cousin Juanita Henry, who sat “As a woman you kind of feel quietly in the sun, ice empowered,” Chase said as cut fishing with about 20 frozen caribou meat with her ulu tom cod in front of her. knife, a short, curved “Last night,” Henry told traditional Eskimo blade. Chase as she flung another “Usually you don’t get to go fish off her line. It quickly hunting, but I was given the froze in temperatures that opportunity to go, so I went.” hovered around 20 degrees. Chase stopped eating pork a Chase, and many people here few years ago and keeps her in Kotzebue, hunt and fish to own chickens for fresh eggs. feed their families. Chase She’s also had a few turkeys says if she shopped at the and meat chickens. Her local grocery store, her friends lovingly refer to her monthly bill would be about as "Chicken Mama." $1,000 a month. Because she Chase says she spends a lot hunts for all of her meat and of her time, almost every day only buys vegetables, pasta off from work, making sure and rice, she can keep it her family has enough to eat. closer to $200. Her husband, John Chase, is Chase enjoys fishing, but also a well-known hunter. says it’s also necessary “if Saima says she expects him to you want to eat good, and shoot ptarmigan and seals free.” this winter. The two women stayed on the To avoid waste, Chase looks ice for about an hour. Every for any opportunity to reuse few minutes they caught parts of the catch. The bones another fish. and intestines from the tom Tom cod, which are bottom- cod will be fed to her feeders, taste somewhat like chickens, so will their own halibut. Typically, they're eggshells and the leftover boiled before diners pick the vegetables from the caribou meat off the bones. Henry curry. says she likes to dip hers in “You gotta take care of stuff, seal oil, and the eggs are and they’ll take care of you, considered a treat. “ Saima said. As dusk started to settle Contact Rebecca Palsha
Tags: Kotzebue, land, Living
