In Kotzebue, Alaska, Hunters Are Bringing Traditional Foods—and a Sense of Comfort—to Their Local Elders

Charlee Catherine Dyroff wrote for Pacific Standard about an Alaskan elder-care program providing traditional foods in a pioneering person-centered healthcare approach. This article is part of RiseLocal, a project of New America's National Network. 

Twenty-six miles above the Arctic Circle, in Kotzebue, Alaska, there's a plain white metal trailer in the center of town that blends in with the snowy tundra during the winter. From the outside, it looks like an office or a perhaps a single-family home, but it's actually a modern-day ice-cellar, or Siglauq, where hunters from across Inuit villages throughout northern Alaska can donate meat to be inspected, packaged, and served in the northernmost nursing home in the United States.

"The main source of meat that we have is caribou," says Cyrus Harris, who is in charge of the Siglauq. Harris can slice and prepare caribou, moose, muskot, tarmigon, you name it, almost with his eyes closed. The Alaska native has been hunting for as long as he can remember, providing meals for himself and his family by learning the patterns of the tundra and the animals that make it their home. He inspects all of the food that goes through the Siglauq, making sure it's safe to be offered in the nursing home, called the "Utuqqanaat-Inaat" by the Inupiat Eskimo people.