Arnold Brower, Sr., like Charlie
Edwardsen, was introduced to the Ikpikpak through reindeer herding.
As a young boy of 14 or 15, Arnold's father, Charles Brower, made
him choose between schooling in San Francisco for higher education
or reindeer herding with his older brother, Tom. The decision
was a difficult one; Tom offered him the chance to earn a dog
team if he went herding, but he also knew that there would be
opportunities if he chose to get more schooling. He chose to go
herding, a decision that he does not regret today.
He recalls that after he made that decision, his mother made him
the new fur clothing that he would need when he was herding.
Arnold, like Charlie Edwardsen,
spent time with the old-timers, listening to their stories and
learning about the resources. Arnold feels that the years he spent
walking the country as a reindeer herder were very important in
teaching him about the land. He made this point while explaining
how he and his boys found their way through a blizzard during
the winter of 1981:
"I wanted to recourse in the
morning, so we camped. Still didn't know where we were at. Next
day, I just reformed and went on in [a] one mile circle and found
out where I was. Because I'd walked this area on foot for seven
years. That's the only reason why, why I can identify the country.
So, it's helped me to know the country too. So, the boys were
kind of lost, but I took them right, direct back home to camp,
and they refer [to] how we got in there because it was a real
blizzard, and we crossed this river, we come into the airport
and going right through the flags, and we ended right up at the
house."
The importance of associations with
certain older people on the river is reflected in how they are
remembered. Arnold named his oldest son after Nasufuluk, an old-timer
from Ikpikpak. Speaking of Nasufuluk and the site of Isuliumaniq, he states:
"My dad referred to him as
an older, elderly person when he came here. So when dad died,
he was still alive. So he has memory, good memory of telling stories
as to what was up there. He mentioned that [Isuliumaniq] quite
a few times and to be an area for people grouped together."
Arnold also elaborates on Amabuaq, the old-timer
whom he and Charlie frequently visited while reindeer herding.
"While we were in that area,
we'd go back and forth to that old fella, and he'd tell us more
stories. So that these were the things we found out."
Arnold also points out that he and
Charlie Edwardsen had a special relationship to Natchibuna, Amabuaq's wife (stepmother-stepson),
that she called them sons, and that this may be why they were
treated so well by the old couple. He mentions that Charlie Brower's
wife warned them not to go near the old couple because of Amabuaq's powers.
When Arnold returned from World War II, he went back to the land
and depended upon the knowledge he had gained from personal experiences
and from the old-timers.
"It was right after the war
before anything started to materialize. So that trapline I got
up there, all the way on the sea ice going from Point Barrow all
the way into these fishing areas I knew before I got into the
service. You know where my subsistence put away area [is], let
me put it that way."
When he returned from the war, he
observed environmental damage caused by the Navy, and he remarks
now that the area never has been the same since then. Despite
the damage, Arnold views the Ikpikpak like a savings account,
as an area that he and his family can turn to in rough times for
the resources they need.
(Biographical section from Quliaqtuat
Iñupiat Nunafiññiñ - The Report of the Chipp-Ikpikpuk
River and Upper Meade River Oral History Project, W. Arundale and W. Schneider, 1987)