Global warming’s impact on an Arctic village populated by the Native Inupiaq people will be the focus of a program on Monday evening (Mar. 2) at the L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, 400 Eau Claire St.
The talk, by Roger Skatrud, is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Eau Claire Room on the library’s lower level. It is free and the public is invited.
The program is the third in this year’s series of special monthly programs sponsored by the Waldemar Ager Museum and Center for Nordic Culture.
The Inupiaq people are part of Alaska’s broad Inuit culture. The name stems from roots meaning “real people,” according to Wikipedia.
Skatrud will share his experiences among the Inupiaq in the barrier island village of Shishmaref, located 100 miles from Nome and accessible only by plane. The village of nearly 600 people is located on Sarichef Island, just north of the Bering Strait and five miles from the mainland
Skatrud and his wife experienced life there among the Native Alaskan people whose island is steadily disappearing into the sea as global warming increases. The village is threatened by autumn storms as well as by the warming of the Chukchi Sea’s waters.
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Villagers have watched buildings slip into the sea as they struggle with the question of whether to move their village, according to a press release from the Ager Museum. Since 1980 the island has shrunk from about four miles wide to about a quarter of a mile.
Skatrud, who has lived and pastored among the islanders, will discuss 150 years of Inupiaq history and culture. His talk will reference the role of the U.S. government and its efforts to force the Inupiaq to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and settle down in one location.
He will also explore the role of Norwegian missionaries and reindeer herders knowledgeable in the care of reindeer herds.
Skatrud, a Wisconsin native, graduated from Luther College in l957 and from Luther Seminary in 1961. He married Marilyn Sorlien in 1959.
After his seminary graduation, he served as a Lutheran pastor in Medina, ND and in Shawano and Chippewa Falls. After retiring in 2000, he served as an interim pastor in Eau Claire and – in Alaska – in Nome as well as in Shishmaref.
The Ager Museum’s special monthly programs this year supplement its regular schedule of three monthly open house days, according to the Ager Association’s press release.
The museum, located at 514 W. Madison St., hosts its regular open house events on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on the third Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m.
More information about the Monday program is available at Agerhouse.org.