One more thought about our pot luck dinner in Nome, 17 August 2009

Shipmates,

This post follows an early one on the remarkable pot luck dinner that was given in Nome for the Team that traveled to Alaska this week. Cussy Kauer, the Chief Financial Officer of Nome, made introductory remarks. It was clear immediately that she was speaking from the heart and a hush fell on the crowd. I ask her if she would share her words and she said, "yes." This post provides a short clip of the King Island Eskimo Dancers and the text of her comments. You cannot read this and not be overwhelmed by the joint history of Alaska and the Coast Guard. Thank you Cussy and thank you Mayor Denise Michels.

Cussy Kauer's remarks:

We go back a long way, you and me, you, being the United States Coast Guard, and me, being Nome. Let me share with you some stories of our time spent together.

The history of Nome is a short 111 years, set within the framework of 10,000 years of Eskimo history, art, music and dance.

?With the roll of drums? writes Petroff, ?and the discharge of musketry, the imperial eagle of Russia descended, and the Stars & Stripes rose into the murky atmosphere of an Alaskan autumn day?. October 1867 ? Sitka

Please rise as we present the colors of our Nation and our State.

(Brownie Scout girls approach with US & Alaskan flags

Joy Baker sings National Anthem

Jackie Reader sings Alaska?s Flag Song

Brownies walk back to their Mom?s)

Please be seated

This vast land became a Territory of some United States, and Alaska?s First People of the Seward Peninsula watched, as barkentine and whaling fleets plied our waters, not knowing forever after, allegiance would be pledged.

Thirty years passed. 1896 found merchants, missionaries and miners pushing northward through the new territory into nameless valleys and along endless rivers. Spilling out of the Klondike and down the Yukon River, prospectors and pioneers struggled up the west coastline of Alaska.

Go north, young man, Go North. North, to Alaska, Go north, the rush is on. The way was north, and the name was Nome. Our gold discovery at Anvil Creek in 1898 brought the hopeful, the dreamer, the destitute and the damned. 40,000 men, women and children would land on this very beach, ever searching for good luck, big fortunes, a new life, a good life.

History tells us of the many struggles in this new land. As man searched for fame, knowledge, and wealth, the Cheechakos learned how to survive, from those who knew. Ours is still an existence truly governed by the elements and Mother Nature, and many of those types of events are marked in Nome?s history forever. Along the coastline of the Bering Sea, we have been battered, but never beaten. Many of our successes, along with our hard times, have been played out in the newspapers and magazines of the Lower United States. In 1906, after surviving three years in the Arctic, Roald Amundsen sailed his boat Gjoa into Nome, becoming the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. Our population was decimated in the l9l8 flu, an impending diphtheria epidemic captured world wide attention in 1925, and is commemorated today by the running of the Last Great Race, the Iditarod. Our major business district burned to the ground in September 1934. The old Victorian Gold rush Nome would become but a memory in the minds of those who were here, and in the imagination of the world.

Ah, but we are a breed apart, and boom or bust, have persevered. We are the ingenious, the creative, the energetic. We are the hub of our heartland, the Seward Peninsula. We are the center of 15 surrounding communities, a gathering place. Our names are Bahnke, Nagozruk, Dexter, Ivanoff, and McLain. We are descended from the Inupiaq, Upik, Siberian Upik, and a melting pot of emigrant Norwegian, Swede, Lappland reindeer herders, and Czechoslovakian prospectors. Our corporations proudly proclaim and herald historic landmark places: Norton Sound, Sitnasuak, Kawerak, Bering Strait. Our business names depict and represent hope, luck, our feelings, our surroundings, our way of life: Aurora, Anvil, Bering Sea, Bonanza, Discovery, Gold Coast, Gold Run, Mukluk, Prospector, Wilderness, Inuit, Stampede.

But then, you have known this, because you have always been by our side. You were here, charting our coastline, carrying scientific men on exploring expeditions, furnishing valuable data to the government with regard to the natural history of this country before the turn of the century. This research continues, as we and the world witness and become sometimes painfully aware of profound and significant changes in our back yard, our arctic domain. Yes, the US Revenue Cutter Bear?s presence in Bering Strait waters is legendary, as well as her captain, and other captains like Tuttle, Hooper, and Lieutenant Jarvis. She was the law, in a lawless land, attempting to regulate the fur trade and whaling industry and interaction with Native Alaskans. She carried mail and government supplies, missionaries? northbound, prisoners and undesirables? southbound, and transported reindeer from Siberia as part of Sheldon Jackson?s support of a starving people and newly established missions. Her surgeon furnished medical and dental attention to those in need, delivered babies on board, and cared for the sick or injured up and down the west coast of Alaska. Today, your Operation Arctic Crossroads 2009 carries on a tradition set in motion over 100 years ago.

How well I recall as a child the excitement in Nome at the jovial and sometimes boisterous arrivals of the cutters Northwind and Westwind and Storis. It marked the passing of long winter months, the opening of the sea ice. In my high school years, with a cutter in the Nome roadstead, I was never out of a dancing partner on a Friday night.

And so, we continue to welcome the men and women who proudly serve our nation aboard your ships passing through Nome: the Acushnet, Alex Haley, Spar, Hickory, Polar Sea, and the one named in honor of the caption, so important to the development and protection of Nome and the Seward Peninsula in those early days of Alaska, the Cutter Healy.

Thank you for being here with us tonight. Help us, and prepare us for the impending opening of the Northwest Passage, as we bear witness in our lifetime to ongoing dramatic changes in our environment, our life style, and our daily routines. You have been a part of our community and our region for generations, and we wish you good luck and god speed, as you expand your role and presence into the Arctic and the far northern reaches of this great territory, the State of Alaska.

My name is Cussy Kauer, and we welcome you to Nome.

With that, I would like to introduce to you our Mayor, Denise Michels.

Presented at the Nome Recreation Center, Nome Alaska

Monday, August 17, 2009 in honor of and welcoming to Nome the following:

Admiral Thad W. Allen, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard

Rear Admiral Christopher C. Colvin, Commander, Seventeenth Coast Guard District

David J. Hayes, Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior

Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

Nancy H. Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality

Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change

Cussy Kauer

August 17, 2009

Nome, Alaska