Under threat of thaw, some North Slope ice cellars will get tech upgrades to stay frozen

Alena Naiden

RURAL ALASKA

Anchorage Daily News

When traditional ice cellars are flooded, the damage extends beyond the stored food. Traditional practices for preservation and cooking are disrupted.

“It affects our food security,” said Doreen Leavitt, director of natural resources at the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope. “It affects our sovereignty to store our food in a traditional way, serve it in our way. It affects our culture as a whole.” ICAS, the regional tribal government, is working to preserve ice cellars by outfitting some with thermosyphon technology — a passive pipe filled with a cooling fluid — to keep them frozen. “Those ice cellars need some help with cooling,” ICAS consultant Lars Nelson said. “The plan is that the ice cellars will just freeze.” Leavitt, who grew up in a whaling family in Utqiagvik, experienced the problem in spring 2015. Her family landed a 50-foot whale, so they cut up the meat to store it in an ice cellar, or Sigluaq. But that year, the meat did not completely freeze, and the blood ran out from it, making the meat dry. “We want the blood to stay so we can ferment the meat and have it moist when we serve it,” Leavitt said. Besides affecting the quality and taste of food, disappearing ice cellars hurt Iñupiaq practices. Traditionally, whaling captains empty and clean their ice cellars and put fresh snow in them before starting the whaling season. “Whaling captains and the crew understand that you have to prepare your cellar before you catch the whale; otherwise the whale won’t respect you,” Nelson said.

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