KAREN BREWSTER: Today is November 14th, 2013 and this is Karen Brewster here in Barrow, Alaska doing an interview with David Leavitt about sea ice.

And I'm joined by Sarah Skin from Iñupiaq History Language and Culture Commission who's helping us with the Iñupiaq part of the interview and Oliver Dammann who is behind the video camera.

So -- Quyanaqpak.

Just to get us started you were just starting to tell us when you -- where you grew up at Cape Halkett.

And you came to Barrow when you were fourteen?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. I was 14. We come here with a dog team.

You know whole family that Herbert married already, you know, they got one kid the Billy -- no, not yet, no kids.

KAREN BREWSTER: Who were your parents?

DAVID LEAVITT: Mary Lou and Herbert Leavitt.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. DAVID LEAVITT: Do you know him? KAREN BREWSTER: Yep.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, together. And my -- Luther, brother, he’s not married at that time.

KAREN BREWSTER: They were your brothers?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Who were your parents?

DAVID LEAVITT: George Leavitt. My father, George Leavitt. Eskimo name is Tuukkaq.

KAREN BREWSTER: And your mother?

DAVID LEAVITT: My mother, Mae.

KAREN BREWSTER: Mae.

How old were you when you first started whaling and hunting out on the ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Well, it's -- we come here in 1943.

First time I see the whales it's just springtime 1943. Whale -- first time.

I don’t know what the plan was. I just -- I never say anything.

My two brothers in there, my dad in there, and tupiq -- I never say nothing. The black one. I thought it's the ice.

Never see that come up the whales before. Alright animals going head first you know. Yeah.

First time I see. My brother Luther told me go ahead. Why? That’s the ice.

He was here a long time. I didn't -- He was just sleeping. Iŋutuq. Yeah.

First time I see that. And Luther and Baxter Adams there, too.

You know that float for the natchiq skin, no air on it. It didn’t know it, too, you know, never hunt before and Baxter and Luther only other one that Gilbert Leavitt.

He know only and he got that shoulder gun. He go over there.

Luther take the harpoon, Baxter Adams grab that skin for the float put the air on it running (laughter).

I just watch. Yeah, first time they're hunting that's it I know that’s true.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, Gilbert got it -- shot him. That Luther he never lose on that string, he got a harpoon through it that goes -- from that string never caught the whale.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, stopped him in his --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that’s the first one I see.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. And how old were you?

DAVID LEAVITT: Fourteen.

KAREN BREWSTER: You were 14.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And then when did you start your own whaling crew?

DAVID LEAVITT: Huh?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Oh, my father whaling crew -- my father -- I -- I don’t know, I forgot, maybe 1967, maybe ’80, somewhere ’85, probably I started on my whaling crew.

KAREN BREWSTER: And who did you go whaling with before that?

DAVID LEAVITT: What?

KAREN BREWSTER: Your father had a crew?

DAVID LEAVITT: My father he got long time ago, you know, he got -- still got everything, you know, shoulder gun, harpoon, everything.

He come here that using it. He -- KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: He just keep it.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: He'd be gone for a long time. I don’t know how many year. Long time.

I think I was born in Cape Halkett. I don’t know.

KAREN BREWSTER: So when you were 14 and you started going on the ice --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: What's the --

DAVID LEAVITT: I know the ice on Cape Halkett and the ocean, too.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, you went out there?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: What was that like?

DAVID LEAVITT: That’s for the -- my father he got taking care of the reindeer managing and that someone trading post.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. DAVID LEAVITT: The Oliver Morry trading post take care of that, too. The Oliver Morry move up here.

And he take care of the trading post in Cape Halkett. Just buy the skin, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. DAVID LEAVITT: Fox skin, all kinds of skin.

KAREN BREWSTER: So when you went -- first went out on the ice at Cape Halkett when you were a boy --

DAVID LEAVITT: Well, not like this, you know, that's now open water the winter time.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. DAVID LEAVITT: Way far.

All day -- one time it's following my brother all day we go down never see the water with a dog team.

KAREN BREWSTER: Wow!

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. We was overnight down there. I was little boy. I just followed. Yeah.

No, you know that lot different right now. And really late frozen now.

Long time ago start frozing October even here. We would come up here, you know, people going to hunting on the ice. October.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Right now -- no ice until summer right now.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. And long time ago ice come up all the time, you know, the old ice.

Yeah, October, not too far down, and quickly that covered the ice on that ocean. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: You mean that Piqaluyak?

DAVID LEAVITT: Huh?

KAREN BREWSTER: That Piqaluyak, is that what you mean the old ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, a lot of Piqaluyak, too. Winter time right now hardly get Piqaluyak any more.

Yeah. And you know, they call this

SARAH SKIN: Ii.

DAVID LEAVITT:

SARAH SKIN: He's talking about the thick ice.

The older aged ice used to come up to shore in front of shallow water. Then it would freeze right there during the winter in October.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Lot holding up the ice. Ii.

SARAH SKIN: He said there used to be ivu ice coming up in October and it would freeze but not so much, but

scattered here and there when they hit shallow spots.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And what was good about that? Was that good to have that ice do that?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT:

They're flat all the time, you know, about a miles out, except for the --

About a mile from the beach. All the way down all the way to the Nuvuk.

SARAH SKIN: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT:

SARAH SKIN: Ii. Aasi.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Inaudible.

SARAH SKIN: He did mention that back in the day when Ivu -- Ivu's ice come up until it hit the shallow spot.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. SARAH SKIN: There used to be a very thin layer about a mile from the Ivu to the land.

DAVID LEAVITT: From the ocean -- I mean from the beach.

SARAH SKIN: It would go from Nuvuk all the way down the coast to and back then and it was a lot safer for them to travel.

DAVID LEAVITT: Calling the Igniġnaq.

SARAH SKIN: All the way through July.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So that was between the beach and the Ivu?

SARAH SKIN: Yes.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So it was frozen in place?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

SARAH SKIN: It was pretty -- pretty flat.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

SARAH SKIN: Flat traveling terrain for the hunters to travel even up through from October through July.

KAREN BREWSTER: Wow! And that doesn’t happen anymore?

DAVID LEAVITT: And some time it's maybe that, you know, hot wind and the Uŋalaq starting Ivu some time -- big pile on the beach.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. DAVID LEAVITT: All the way sometimes real big high. Not anymore like it, you know.

SARAH SKIN: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Not -- is not thick anymore for the ice.

SARAH SKIN: He said when the west winds come that's when the ice used to Ivu and hit land.

And it doesn’t happen anymore like that. No -- no more Ivu'ing and no thick ice.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Does it still Ivu out farther?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah -- no, up to the beach so that July some time, yeah, pushed that heavy ice coming up,

and push it out the big pile some time in springtime.

KAREN BREWSTER: What about away from the shore farther out on the ice, does it still pile up?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, all over.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: Not anymore.

KAREN BREWSTER: Not anymore.

DAVID LEAVITT: Ah, not. I never see the Ivuniq out this year, never, you too right? Nothing.

SARAH SKIN: .

DAVID LEAVITT: Nothing. SARAH SKIN: Not this time.

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: What is -- DAVID LEAVITT: That's the ice is -- is not thick, you know, not piling up anymore, no.

They want heavy -- not heavy -- not heavy enough push it up the ice anymore.

KAREN BREWSTER: So -- DAVID LEAVITT: Except for the -- all that -- not big one ice, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: So the ice is --

DAVID LEAVITT: Young ice.

KAREN BREWSTER: -- is young and thin. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So it doesn’t pile up as much?

DAVID LEAVITT: No, that thing that big about two feet sometime it pile them up.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. So if it's thin --

DAVID LEAVITT: Ice.

KAREN BREWSTER: The Uŋalaq comes in -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And it's thin ice it just -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: -- crumble. It doesn’t pile?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Big pile it, not anymore.

KAREN BREWSTER: Not anymore.

DAVID LEAVITT: It not anymore come up that ice just the heavy one not no more heavy ice, nothing.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: This year. This spring nothing. All low. All of them.

KAREN BREWSTER: Hm. Even the Ivuniq's were low?

DAVID LEAVITT: No. Nothing. Yeah. A lot of change.

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: When you were young -- when you were little, how much Piqaluyak was there? Was there --

DAVID LEAVITT: All over Piqaluyak.

KAREN BREWSTER: All over. DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: All over.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: Did it happen that most of what was frozen outside of Barrow, the land fast ice, that most of it was Piqaluyak?

DAVID LEAVITT: No, they coming in some place.

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: Okay.

DAVID LEAVITT: The Piqaluyak, you know, yeah, and the big one, you know, some of the real big one, you know, two miles some big one. Stuck it down there.

KAREN BREWSTER: So it would -- it would be -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Blown in or current brought it in?

DAVID LEAVITT: All the time, you know, winter time, get some ice from the Piqaluyak -- not any more.

KAREN BREWSTER: No.

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: How thick was that Piqaluyak?

DAVID LEAVITT: Maybe that thick.

KAREN BREWSTER: Ten feet?

DAVID LEAVITT: Thicker than -- yeah --

KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, some of down there, some of the big Piqaluyak that's high too, you know? KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: And the bottom a lot way down, too.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. I’ve heard --

DAVID LEAVITT: Maybe fifty feet thick. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: I’ve heard that Piqaluyak can break up really (noise).

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, just like a glass.

KAREN BREWSTER: Just like a glass?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So it's good to have but it is also breaks up easy?

DAVID LEAVITT: Nobody it starts -- starting put a -- piling up the snow and nobody would stay in the Piqaluyak. Yeah. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So -- so when do you leave -- when do you go away from the Piqaluyak? When do you saw it's dangerous, time to go away?

And time to move?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: You know,

That big ice coming in from the west wind and the curve too kind of strong. Qaisaġnaq. Same time.

Everybody go pull out by close to the beach. One time really west wind, maybe you remember, huh?

A lot of boat losing, too. Left it down there about a mile.

SARAH SKIN: Yep. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

Even the beach, the piling up, moving ice, big ice, too, you know. Lot of -- I think in the three skin boat lost in lifetime.

KAREN BREWSTER: Was that back in the 1950’s?

DAVID LEAVITT: I don’t know what year -- KAREN BREWSTER: Or more recently? DAVID LEAVITT: 19 --

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, 19 -- somewhere around ’50, around -- yeah big, yeah. I forgot.

KAREN BREWSTER: Dog teams go in the ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

Were you -- were you out there?

DAVID LEAVITT: I was working. My crew down there first.

One time it's only one year that I got try, you know, when I working. Yeah.

When I quit after working I go home, kind of wind strong, and I go down and starting to take the tupiq off and you know loading up and helping.

We was stopped down there and we have to get some coffee, you know, and some of it maybe too slick going up and they go back.

Start piling again over there. We never get it going again. We -- up to the, beach.

KAREN BREWSTER: Wow!

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, really.

KAREN BREWSTER: Did your guys get back safe?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, we make it.

KAREN BREWSTER: Because I heard some crews lost all their gear and it took them a long time --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- to start a crew again.

SARAH SKIN: Yeah, when the west wind's blowing and the currents are real strong.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

SARAH SKIN: That's when they start pulling up, When the west winds are blowing and the currents are really strong.

KAREN BREWSTER: Which way does the current come to make it so strong?

SARAH SKIN: West winds.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, west wind.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, but the wind's coming from the west, is the current coming from the west also or the currents going a different way?

DAVID LEAVITT: Just for the -- and, you know, for the east wind, just opening water.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. DAVID LEAVITT: East wind, all the way.

Then, you know, curve and Qaisaġnaq is coming in ice too.

And from the east for the Piruġaġnaq calling is strong too. No wind sometimes get open water just the curve .

KAREN BREWSTER: I have to get something.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: My Inupiaq.

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Huh? SARAH SKIN: DAVID LEAVITT: Naumi.

SARAH SKIN: Oh. Okay.

KAREN BREWSTER: My -- Qaisaġnaq is west current. Qaisaġnaq is when the current comes from the west.

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh. KAREN BREWSTER: So that means west wind and west current is very dangerous?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

SARAH SKIN: Yes. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Okay.

And then east wind Nigiqpaq.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: And --

DAVID LEAVITT: Southeast it start opening water.

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: East and southeast wind opens the water?

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: And like today I think it's north northeast wind maybe -- I mean west?

DAVID LEAVITT: Northwest, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Northwest.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Yeah. That's why they gonna pile them up.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, I noticed today there's lots of piling --

DAVID LEAVITT: Piling up the ice for the northwest.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. I can’t figure out where it's coming from. There’s shore, ice, water.

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh. KAREN BREWSTER: Where does this ice come from in between?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Anywhere. Anywhere it changing -- whether or not,

, you know,

Farther than Piruġaġniq and up the Qaisaġniq, yeah.

And the curve down there it's just like a string, you know, that Qaisaġniq and Piruġaġniq together. Yeah. He's going that --

SARAH SKIN: He said when the winds are going all directions, that Qaisaġniq winds, that's where the --

DAVID LEAVITT: We calling the Piruġaġniq --

SARAH SKIN: Yeah. DAVID LEAVITT: That one.

KAREN BREWSTER: When the -- when the -- they're going all different directions?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Then what happens? SARAH SKIN: The currents -- that's when you're -- the thin ice Piqaluyak, tamanna?

DAVID LEAVITT: Naumi. That's what we just talking about the ocean.

SARAH SKIN: Ii. KAREN BREWSTER: Yes. DAVID LEAVITT: No ice.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Not for the Piruġaġniq.

Piruġaġniq going this way and the Qaisaġniq -- And always just like a string kind of.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, like a -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Slushy. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: A lot of water and ice mixed together.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, no ice.

KAREN BREWSTER: No just --

DAVID LEAVITT: Just the water going like this, you know, just like ice, just the water.

They call him the Piruġaġnaq. Two of them down there. One of the farther down there and that maybe not very far for the above one. Two of them down there.

SARAH SKIN: Two types of Piruġaġnaq ice.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right now? No.

DAVID LEAVITT: I don’t know.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. I’m confused.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, that's what --

SARAH SKIN: There's two types of Piruġaġnaq ice. The one that's further out and the one that's closer to the land.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, like -- SARAH SKIN: Two types.

KAREN BREWSTER: Like the pack ice is -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: -- what's further out -- is that? SARAH SKIN: Yeah. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: The big pack ice that comes in -- Uhm.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, that's what -- that's just stacking up out there. It's just water now -- ice, you know, what a Piruġaġnaq and Qaisaġnaq right now. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So that's where the ice come -- when there's just water -- DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: And it starts to form ice.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: That's the Piruġaġnaq? That's where it comes from?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Sometime it may be winter time is not like this, you know, just for the summertime. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Because yeah I'm trying --

DAVID LEAVITT: Water, yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: I am trying to understand how this time of year the ice forms on the ocean.

Where does that ice come from?

DAVID LEAVITT: I don’t know.

SARAH SKIN: Cold weather.

DAVID LEAVITT: All the time you know the ice coming from the east --

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. DAVID LEAVITT: That's fall time not anymore.

KAREN BREWSTER: Around from Nuvuk ?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Uh-huh. Not anymore. Yeah.

There's a lot of heavy ice all the time into summertime. Not any more. Year round one time it's the north -- ice not coming. No.

KAREN BREWSTER: So where does it -- the ice come from now?

DAVID LEAVITT: Somewhere. KAREN BREWSTER: But --

DAVID LEAVITT: Greenland, I guess.

KAREN BREWSTER: But it used to come from east around the Point -- that big ice would come around?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, the ice it is not coming anymore for the heavy one.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. DAVID LEAVITT: Only that young ice all the time around here not the big one anymore.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And what about the ice that forms from shore, the Tuvaq? How does that -- DAVID LEAVITT: What?

KAREN BREWSTER: The ice that forms from the beach out, how does that come?

DAVID LEAVITT: Sunauvva?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Oh.

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: You know -- Starting for the -- they come up the ice, young one go that come up the fall time, you know, coming up. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Some right now. And be gone again. Never stay, little bit ice on it up from here to Browerville maybe that little bit on the beach ice right now.

And it may be gone now, I don’t know.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, that’s what I -- we've been here since Monday and I've been watching the ocean.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And --

DAVID LEAVITT: You know -- KAREN BREWSTER: One day --

DAVID LEAVITT: When that snow, the Qannik, snowing, and the frozen in the far down somewhere and it coming in. KAREN BREWSTER: Okay.

DAVID LEAVITT: Sometime out on the beach.

KAREN BREWSTER: Cause one day --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: One day, no -- Well, Monday there was this sort of slush ice.

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: Along the beach. Tuesday -- No, Tuesday calm winds and pieces of ice --

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh. KAREN BREWSTER: -- starting to form.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, that's why --

KAREN BREWSTER: Wednesday, phew.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: No ice, all gone.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Today, there's a big area of ice again.

Where does it go? Where does it come from?

DAVID LEAVITT: It coming ocean where the far down, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: So the wind blows it in?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, from the east side here from the -- not much curve over there and there's only the Barrow area that are strong curve all the time.

Way down from that -- somewhere around for the inside of Cape Halkett.

Qalluvik, calling the Qalluvik, not too far from that Cape Halkett.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, that's a -- they gonna --

. SARAH SKIN: Ii.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. SARAH SKIN: Ii.

DAVID LEAVITT: Qilamik. SARAH SKIN: Cape Halkett? DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Aasi, taimma --

SARAH SKIN: He said it -- towards Cape Halkett it freezes there earlier.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, okay.

SARAH SKIN: And it migrates this way.

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

SARAH SKIN: The ice pattern. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, that always float in early over there.

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay. So --

DAVID LEAVITT: I don’t know the right now. Not anymore, too, I guess.

KAREN BREWSTER: That's how it used to be? Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Well when you go out -- when you go out on the ice, how do you know it's safe to be -- where to go that's safe?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT:

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT:

SARAH SKIN: He says they observe the wind directions and the cracks on the ice. They monitor the cracks on the ice if it's safe to travel or not.

Sometimes they make trail even though there's a few cracks here and there and then they come back to shore.

Then they head back out and sometimes the wind directions will disturb their trails and they have to re-do the trails again.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. How -- how often does that happen that you have to make a whole new trail?

DAVID LEAVITT: You know that this spring -- this spring nobody go down.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Only three crew out there by that Nunavaaq -- straight down -- nothing up here.

That little bit water all the time over there. My son going to try it over there by the Camp .

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: And quite a few over there. It didn’t make it. And the ice is not going over there.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. So he --

DAVID LEAVITT: It's not open water.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, that’s what I heard no open water.

But I heard that -- I head that the ice kind of moved a little bit and people had to come back.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And they lost their trails.

DAVID LEAVITT: Lots of trail -- a lot of it -- my son, too.

KAREN BREWSTER: So --

Did he go some place else? Did he start again?

DAVID LEAVITT: I never -- I never going anymore.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. I -- I -- my -- my -- my -- mine is given to my son, Jeff.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, everything. He'll take care of that.

KAREN BREWSTER: So did -- DAVID LEAVITT: All mine.

KAREN BREWSTER: Did he put the crew out last spring -- they went out?

DAVID LEAVITT: Last spring, about few days too and it bad, too, you know.

Yeah. There're two springs it not good.

KAREN BREWSTER: So -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: -- Jeff had the crew waiting on the ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, he never go down. No open water.

KAREN BREWSTER: He didn’t go?

DAVID LEAVITT: Day and night. Down there in about a week and wait for it.

Not too far the beach, you know.

They're going to make it and that -- lot of boats.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. I was wondering about you were saying how you monitor the cracks.

Have you ever been on ice that's gone out and you couldn’t get back?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Little bit. Aglaan. We make it all the time. My brother and I go that seal hunting. I never see that people anymore.

I got two seals in the -- with a Igiłhaq . Last one I get that. They closer, closer.

I tell Luther, Luther, I'm gonna -- coming in now. Luther going at the pile up. He say that’s open water up there.

Yeah. And loading my Natchiq, both of them, put it on my sled. Luther going and I follow it.

Somebody, Natchiq pulled in -- we saw him running out and the three people already cross 'em.

Luther and I with that Suvałiq . Luther say, "No. We have to waiting for the big ice over there coming in."

And across that big piece of ice, we going. We make it. Yeah.

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah,

SARAH SKIN: Yeah, he went down the -- they were on the other side of the ice when the open lead opened up.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. SARAH SKIN: They were hunting seals and his brother Luther told him that --

DAVID LEAVITT: And that Suvałiq told us, Akłaq, Luther, "No." "No."

SARAH SKIN: Sovalik told him to hurry up and get on this side of the ice.

And his brother, Luther, said, "No." Real quietly.

DAVID LEAVITT: My brother said quietly, "No." We can’t left my dogs here.

KAREN BREWSTER: So what happened?

DAVID LEAVITT: We make it. KAREN BREWSTER: You made it anyway?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, everything. SARAH SKIN: They made it back.

The ice brought them back. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Had two people just lost their seals.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, they lost their seals.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Not many. One each, I guess. Suvałiq and Uqpik.

KAREN BREWSTER: So the ice moved out and then it came back around so you could --

DAVID LEAVITT: Sometimes come back, yeah. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Are there stories about --

DAVID LEAVITT: It's not storm, you know, nice weather.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, it was nice weather?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, kept the curve open.

KAREN BREWSTER: So the current moved it -- the water moved it?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Not the wind.

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: I was wondering how often a long time ago people would get drifted out. Did that happen a lot a long time ago?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, I heard that. Lot of it.

You heard that Patrick Nashaknik news, yeah, he did about a month, huh?

SARAH SKIN: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: You know Patrick Okpeaha?

KAREN BREWSTER: No. DAVID LEAVITT: He was young.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, yeah, I do, yeah, yeah, I remember him.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: He was young. About a month. Just himself. A long time ago.

KAREN BREWSTER: And it came -- DAVID LEAVITT: I heard that -- that’s before coming up, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: I was a teenager, I guess. I don’t know.

KAREN BREWSTER: So he -- he was out on the ice -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: -- for a month? Wow.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Nashaknik make it out the tape. I heard that for the tape.

KAREN BREWSTER: And he made it back -- the ice --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, made it back, put a -- what do you call it, Tatchim Isua.

SARAH SKIN: Oh, okay.

DAVID LEAVITT:

SARAH SKIN: That ice brought him back through -- through Tatchim Isua. That's --

KAREN BREWSTER: Peard Bay.

SARAH SKIN: Peard Bay, yes. He landed right there. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

SARAH SKIN: It brought him back.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, about a month I heard that.

KAREN BREWSTER: And he started out off -- off of Barrow?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, from there.

KAREN BREWSTER: Seal hunting, huh?

SARAH SKIN: Yes.

DAVID LEAVITT: Just by himself.

KAREN BREWSTER: Wow! So when the ice forms in the wintertime, when do you decide it's thick enough, safe enough, I can go out?

What do you look for to tell you?

SARAH SKIN: What’s that?

KAREN BREWSTER: What do -- what do look for in the winter that tells you it's thick enough, safe enough I can go out now?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Oh, okay. You know some people -- my father I follow it. First thing I come up here I was a boy. He check all the time for the get open place, all the time.

They would stop here, check in the curve . Something, put it on the water. Check on it. Yeah. That's what he --

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay.

DAVID LEAVITT: Going to check on sometimes for the, you know, string light -- put the lights on something and check on it.

Yeah, all the time they check it, you know. Sometimes it's a curve going down and it go -- sometime it the curve coming in.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: He would cross. No open water, just a crack and check on it. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay so --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: If it's a crack and the current go this way -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: It's safe? DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, yeah. Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: Because the ice is going to do that?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, just like that, yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: If the current goes this way --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: It could go like that? DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: That's dangerous? DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, that’s an Atchaġnaq. Call them the Atchaġnaq . Yeah, and going this way

Qiġlunmun . Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: That's wind.

DAVID LEAVITT:

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT:

Yeah, I learn it from the Kaleak, too. Leo Kaleak. Old man.

KAREN BREWSTER: And so what happens if the current is going to the south? Goes this way?

DAVID LEAVITT: It's way -- not too far -- it's just a little bit not too far out, you know.

And the Qaisaġniq, he going, too.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s okay.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So the Qaisaġniq is west?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, west.

KAREN BREWSTER: Which means -- DAVID LEAVITT: And the east is Piurġaġniq.

KAREN BREWSTER: So if the current --

DAVID LEAVITT: And that north Qiġlunmun and south Atchanmun.

KAREN BREWSTER: Atchanmun. And if it --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So if it's -- the current -- a south current, that means it's coming up from Tachim Isua?

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: And if the current's doing that, what does that mean on the ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Tatchim Isua's way -- way up.

KAREN BREWSTER: Ii. Well, I -- So, Nunivak -- it's coming -- that Atchaġnaq --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, Atchaġnaq.

KAREN BREWSTER: It's coming like Nunivak towards Nuvuk?

DAVID LEAVITT: This way, Atchaġnaq.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. And what does that mean?

DAVID LEAVITT: Atchanmun, yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: What does the ice do when there's that kind of a current?

DAVID LEAVITT: Ice going out, going further from the Atchanmun is going up, yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: It's going to make the ice go out?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah and Qigiluŋmun. The ice coming in.

KAREN BREWSTER: Qigiluŋmun. Which is --

DAVID LEAVITT: Coming in tight.

KAREN BREWSTER: What Qigiluŋmun mean? Which direction? North?

SARAH SKIN: Coming this way towards the land.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. SARAH SKIN: The ice coming towards the land. KAREN BREWSTER: Okay.

SARAH SKIN: That’s the dangerous part.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s not Qaisaġniq?

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

SARAH SKIN: Qaisaġniq is blowing this way and it's dangerous (David coughing).

KAREN BREWSTER: Cause, yeah, here I have that the west current is Qaisaġniq.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Qaisaġnaq. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: That it's -- So that means it's coming from the west --

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: -- towards the land?

SARAH SKIN: Yes.

KAREN BREWSTER: But now you're using a different word.

DAVID LEAVITT: And the east --

KAREN BREWSTER: Piruġaġnaq. DAVID LEAVITT: Piruġaġniq.

KAREN BREWSTER: And that's --

DAVID LEAVITT: South is Atchaġnaq.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

DAVID LEAVITT: North, Qiġiluŋmun.

KAREN BREWSTER: See that has a different word, Kanaŋŋaiññaq. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And so if it's Qigiluŋmun --

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: What does the ice do?

DAVID LEAVITT: That's what I --

KAREN BREWSTER: It comes in?

DAVID LEAVITT: No.

KAREN BREWSTER: Goes out? DAVID LEAVITT: Down.

KAREN BREWSTER: Down.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Going --

KAREN BREWSTER: Down the coast?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. SARAH SKIN: Out.

KAREN BREWSTER: So --

DAVID LEAVITT: That's the Qiġilunmun. Qiġilunmun coming in. And --

SARAH SKIN: Atchaġnaq DAVID LEAVITT: Atchaġnaq go down.

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay.

DAVID LEAVITT: Okay?

KAREN BREWSTER: I think so. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: It's hard when you sit inside and talk about it. DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. It's easier if we were out on the ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: You could show me.

So how do you know how thick the ice is when you go out?

DAVID LEAVITT: Well, that -- some of the close, the ice so some time heavy ice up here all the time opening and moving around the ice around, you know, Sikuliaq.

Some time young ice coming in. Some time it's a heavy. A lot of Sikuliaq here. The Sikuliaq coming in.

They go down and go hunt seal in the cracks for the open water little bit all the piece somewhere.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, that's seal hunting long time ago. Walking. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, yeah. Well, if you're coming from shore -- this is the beach.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And this is the Uiñiq, the lead. DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: How do you know how thick this ice is?

DAVID LEAVITT: That's -- that's where they stay in the wintertime all the time never go out -- never going open for the -- up here long time ago.

KAREN BREWSTER: And you -- DAVID LEAVITT: Right now -- right now on the open in the beach.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

DAVID LEAVITT: Sometimes it's January. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So, now that this is taking so long, how do you know when it's safe to go on -- when it's thick enough?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Oh, that, you know, that look at it, you know, just watching on the open water.

And the -- this ice just gets stronger, you know, with a young ice you go into the young ice you need a little stick on it. Point on it. Check on it.

KAREN BREWSTER: You always check the strength?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, not only one shot in the -- you could go walking. Young ice.

And the one try you can walking. (laughter)

KAREN BREWSTER: Does the young ice look different than the old ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: You know the young ice is different.

KAREN BREWSTER: How -- what does it look -- how is it different?

DAVID LEAVITT: The black, you know, and the old ice and the white -- all white.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So you clear away the snow --

DAVID LEAVITT: I look a little bit on the, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: Hm. So if you’re going out on this ice --

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh. KAREN BREWSTER: You clear away the snow and look at it?

DAVID LEAVITT: No. KAREN BREWSTER: No?

You just go. Iiqinii!

DAVID LEAVITT: No. SARAH SKIN: They use a long stick to poke to see if it's safe to walk on.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: First you -- SARAH SKIN: Yeah. DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: Also, does the -- this ice that's on the beach -- against the beach, does the time it -- I don’t know how I want to say it.

The length of time it's been there, you know, if this ice got here in October. DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh.

KAREN BREWSTER: Or if this ice got here in January, does that make a difference?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. It's a long time ago this starting the frozen already for the October up here.

Not anymore. Alappaa. All winter. Cold weather all the time. Right now it's summer all year round. (Laughter). Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Because the ice comes later it's thinner?

DAVID LEAVITT: What?

KAREN BREWSTER: The -- the ice doesn’t have as long to get thick. It comes late.

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. SARAH SKIN: Aasiiñ.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, really. Right now there's a little bits of ice on it and nobody go down anymore any way. I never see the hunting any more 'til wintertime.

A few people, maybe that, what’s their name? Carl -- KAREN BREWSTER: Carl Kippi?

DAVID LEAVITT: Amii? SARAH SKIN: Ii.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, only thing that Carl.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, right now -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: There's no ice so it wouldn’t be safe to go out. Even for Carl?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, only thing I know that Carl hunting is -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yes. DAVID LEAVITT: Out there.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: Not nobody. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: What have you taught your boys about the ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Huh?

KAREN BREWSTER: You've taught your boys about how to go on the ice.

DAVID LEAVITT: My boys are learning. That Jeff, he learning.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. He know it.

KAREN BREWSTER: What do you teach -- what have you taught him?

What have you told him about the ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, I told him all the time put a watching in the curve . KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: All the time where the big spring time is the ice coming, he look for the heavy, you have -- the Qaisaġnaq getting stronger.

You have to go up little bit, yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Where do you -- when you put your whale camp out, how do you decide where's a safe place to camp by the lead?

DAVID LEAVITT: You know, that's -- Right now all the open water you start whaling some time they're hard to get the flat ice. Can hardly get the -- look for the camping, you know, for the -- how the big pile -- piled all the way the whole open water.

Hard to get some time.

KAREN BREWSTER: Wow!

DAVID LEAVITT: Right now. Long time ago not like that.

We go dog team all the way toward the Monument or Nuvuk. Close to the beach for the dog team right now.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. But --

DAVID LEAVITT: It's funny.

KAREN BREWSTER: Now by the lead no flat ice either? None, huh?

DAVID LEAVITT: Not anymore.

KAREN BREWSTER: So that was important for a camp is flat -- flat ice.

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: Did you hunt the same places?

DAVID LEAVITT: Huh?

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: When you were a kid, did you hunt different places than people hunt now?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, they have to moving, you know. The whalers going to moving what’s the best -- what’s the best going to moving all the time. Yeah.

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: Were -- were people in the old days hunting more down by Monument? DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh. DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: Or --

DAVID LEAVITT: By that Nunavaaq monument. DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Up to the Point . Yeah, that, you know, I don’t look by the Nuvuk. The curve too strong all the time. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. Yes.

DAVID LEAVITT: You know, yeah.

All the time is the curve really strong over there -- not way down to the ice over there.

In the Qaisaġniq, you know. It's all the time closed on the ice on the -- by the Nuvuk.

KAREN BREWSTER: It's strong up there?

DAVID LEAVITT: A lot of open water always closer over there. Sarri, always. Yeah, from the Piġniq to the Nuvuk is closer. . Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: So where do you like to put your whaling camp -- up by Piġniq or by Nunivak or -- ?

DAVID LEAVITT: For the --?

KAREN BREWSTER: When you would put your whaling camp out, did you go north, south?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, my boy he liked that by the Camp. By the bridge. From the bridge.

KAREN BREWSTER: By NARL.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, yeah. My boy's going down all the time over there.

KAREN BREWSTER: What about you? Where did you go?

DAVID LEAVITT: I was on the -- that way. My boy is different, going over there.

KAREN BREWSTER: You go straight out from Barrow?

DAVID LEAVITT: Sometime, not too close to water.

They close the water, you know, quite a ways, little bit from the town.

DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: Why did you not go right out from town?

DAVID LEAVITT: What? DYRE “OLIVER” DAMMANN: You said you were a little bit away from town. Why not right from town?

SARAH SKIN:

DAVID LEAVITT: Oh. That close the ice. That's -- Everything north from here, you know, down the beach you listening.

SARAH SKIN: Too much -- KAREN BREWSTER: Too much noise.

DAVID LEAVITT: You go. Anything. Hondas. Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: But long time before all that noise?

DAVID LEAVITT: No noise long time ago. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: With a dog team, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: So where would you put your camp a long time ago?

DAVID LEAVITT: That's all of them gonna -- not ice bad all the time, you know, long time ago.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. DAVID LEAVITT: Anywhere, not many though, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: Maybe seven crews, something like that long time ago when it -- we was come up here.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. Is -- Long time ago, how far out would you have to go from town to the lead?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, some time --

KAREN BREWSTER: How far would that be?

DAVID LEAVITT: Some time quite a bit down, you know. About three miles some time.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, some time it's -- you know, that's all the time like not too close. Right now where they're really closer now, water all the time.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Long time ago about three miles quite a ways all the time.

KAREN BREWSTER: What’s the farthest you had to go to get to a lead?

DAVID LEAVITT: Well, about three -- KAREN BREWSTER: Three? DAVID LEAVITT: Two miles.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Not farther?

DAVID LEAVITT: No, not too close.

KAREN BREWSTER: Now it's closer?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Or now they go way north or way south, too, huh?

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh. KAREN BREWSTER: You used to just go straight out?

You never used to go way up to Nuvuk or way down to Nunivak?

DAVID LEAVITT: Uh-huh. KAREN BREWSTER: You never did that?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, I -- I was at the Monument some time. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. You know that lot of whale, the limit. When I get, first thing I put on the whaling crew that's a three limit.(laughter)

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, that was the quota?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, quota.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. And how did that -- DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: That affected your whaling?

DAVID LEAVITT: You know that -- for the, we never -- closed, when too we just look at it, you know. We don't want to lose them, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah. I started for the three quota on it.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s more -- DAVID LEAVITT: More and more. Right now they got forty something. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, is there anything else that is different now from when you were a boy with the ice?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, a lot different. Yeah. Winter get late all the time. Right now -- even inland.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Even.

KAREN BREWSTER: Have you noticed a difference in the wind? Which -- the prevailing wind, is there a difference?

DAVID LEAVITT: Warmer every -- every year it get warmer. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

DAVID LEAVITT: Really different.

KAREN BREWSTER: What about the Anuġi ?

DAVID LEAVITT: Huh?

KAREN BREWSTER: The wind, is it different?

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, that wind -- sometimes get strong wind too long time ago. The wind is not different much, you know, just weather warmer.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, much warmer.

DAVID LEAVITT: Warmer. Warmer.

KAREN BREWSTER: I didn’t know if maybe different direction the wind is coming now?

DAVID LEAVITT: No, no more real cold weather right now.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yep.

DAVID LEAVITT: The February’s were the coldest one on the month all the time. Some time it's warmer. Yeah.

And the March getting colder from the February. Yeah, that true.

KAREN BREWSTER: Is there anything else you want to tell me I haven’t asked about -- about the ice and what you remember?

DAVID LEAVITT: No. Maybe they'll find out from the -- Joash Aiviq going to help you, too, okay?

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay. Aarigaa. Tavra.

DAVID LEAVITT: My boy's gonna -- I picking up the cam --

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay. We’re done.

DAVID LEAVITT: Three o’clock, I guess.

KAREN BREWSTER: Okay, we’re done anyway. Tavra.

DAVID LEAVITT: Yeah, okay. Ii. Aarigaa.

SARAH SKIN: I get to see you.