Last Friday was Premier election in Nunavut. The race was between former Premier Paul Okalik and Tagak Curley. Paul's first term as Premier was also the first time there was a Premier of Nunavut. On Friday Paul was elected to serve a second term. Watch a video from the Premier Election. The official languages of Nunavut are Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, English, and French.

We are on the road again after an incredible stay in Baker Lake. All of us are well rested, with lifted spirits, and a couple of pounds heavier than when we pulled into town eleven days ago. As we loaded the sleds and hitched the Polar Huskies early Friday morning, let's just say the dogs were roaring to go! Traveling on a nice hard-packed trail, we have been flying the last couple of days. Ma'tna (thank you) Baker Lake - Here we come Pelly Bay!

Elder Simon Tookoome is a master with the twenty-foot whip that was traditionally used to steer the team when dogsledding. Watch a master whipper at work!

Being back on the trail and in the tent is actually very nice - it is just like returning home after a great vacation. And what a vacation it has been! In our team chat on Monday we were asked if we have had much opportunity to relax? No, we have to admit that we have been very busy; not only fixing and drying gear, sorting out our re-supply boxes and catching up with Base Camp, but simply tasting, living, and breathing Baker Lake and the amazing hospitality with which we were met everywhere we ventured. We may not have seen people forty-some days prior to our arrival, but we sure did a lot of visiting during the time there. And we learned a lot!

Top row: Aaron, Paul, Mille. In front: Orin, Martha, and Sarah. Watch Martha and Sarah as they tell us one of her great stories!

One of the most honorable visits we had was with the living legend, Martha Tallorak. Born on the land before years and age mattered much to the Inuit, no one really knows exactly how old Martha may be. Last year the community celebrated her 101 year-old birthday, but most, including her daughter and our good friend, Sarah, believe her to be a bit younger than that. Martha does not speak English; she speaks the Inuit language Inuktitut. Since none of us speak her language, we were fortunate to have Sarah with us to translate. Paul and Mille met Sarah and her partner, Orin, who you might recall from last week's report is a teacher in Baker Lake, when they dogsledded through here on an expedition back in 2001. One night they, along with Orin and Sarah, got talking about Mille's hero, Knud Rasmussen.

The Inuit Heritage Center here in Baker Lake is incredible! This was a display on the importance of caribou to the Caribou Inuit and how the women traditionally treat the caribou hide. It is still treated this way today!

In the years 1921 - 1924 Knud Rasmussen, the famous Greenlandic-Danish expedition leader, successfully completed the longest dogsled journey in history, "The Fifth Thule Expedition." He traveled across the top of the Arctic American continent, from Thule in Greenland, through Canada and Alaska, to Nome at the Bering Sea. His goal was to piece together the history of the Inuit, by tracing Inuit legends, language, and way of life. About half-way, in 1922, he came through this area. His reports and pictures from that time stand as the most descriptive study of the people of the Baker Lake area: the Caribou Inuit.

The Nunavut flag waving in front of the Rachel Arngnammaktiq Elementary School. Next year the old High School, built in 1957, will be replaced by a beautiful new building.

Knud Rasmussen was a very close friend of Mille's great-grandfather, Morten Porsild, who founded and operated the first Arctic research station in the world on Disko Island in Greenland. Morten actually had a very hard time finding support and money to open up the research station. It was Knud who made it all possible by giving Morten the first funding. Knud had received a bunch of money from a donor to support another expedition, but Knud, who was born in Disko Bay (Ilullisat) in Greenland and truly believed and supported Morten's idea of a field research station, decided that the money would be better spent on making Morten's dream a reality!

To answer one of the questions from the Team Chat on Monday: hockey is what a lot of people do for entertainment here in Baker Lake.

Now, it turned out that Sarah grew up hearing many stories from her Mom about "Knutti", which is Martha's nickname for Knud Rasmussen. Knud Rasmussen actually spent a lot of time with her family when he traveled through here eighty-two years ago. We went to meet Martha to hear all about it!

A favorite game in the Elementary gym today is to play "Igloo." Here all the students have their heads inside the igloo while they stomp their feet outside. At first they stomp lightly to make it sound like rain, then a little harder to make it sound like caribou, and finally they stomp as hard as they can - that's the musk ox coming!

With Sarah as our translator, one of the favorite stories related to Knud Rasmussen went something like this: "Knutti (Knud Rasmussen) had asked her mother to help him get a tent for their ongoing journey. Martha's mother then went ahead and sewed a beautiful double walled tent made out of canvas to give to Knutti as a gift. Knutti would not accept the tent as a gift so he left behind some money when he took off. Martha's mother decided to save the money for when her husband returned from a hunting trip he was on. That same day, Martha and her sister were playing outside, practicing making fire for tea water. They were looking around the home to find anything they could use to burn. They found this paper which worked great for getting the fire going. Now, unfortunately it turned out that the paper was the money that her mother had received from Knud!!! Her mother did not get mad though, as she knew her girls had never seen money before."

Martha is an incredible seamstress - still active today. She made this beautiful doll wearing an amautik, which is displayed at the Inuit Heritage Center. Listen to Martha's adventure on her way to a square dance. Listen to one of Martha's wild dogsled trips.

What Martha has experienced in her life is pretty close to unbelievable and she has many stories to tell. Think about it. Martha was born on the land - in an igloo - east of Baker Lake in the nearby community now known as Chesterfield Inlet on the coast of Hudson Bay. Her family endured many-a-time of near starvation; they would hunt seal to survive, gathering eggs and berries as delicacies in the summertime. She was married to a man from the area south of Baker Lake, who she had been promised to as a little girl. This meant she had to leave the livelihood she knew, living on the shores of salt water, to travel inland where she would learn to live in a "new way" - from the land and fresh water rivers. Martha explained how she was crying and crying when the day came that she had to leave her family and the life she was used to. But living on the other side of Baker Lake and running her own five-dog team, she learned to love this area and the way of the Caribou Inuit - especially the square dancing parties held at the Hudson Bay Trading Post in Baker whenever they would go to trade or buy supplies. Back then Baker Lake was not actually a community.

Eric visited with Irene, a renowned artist who finds her inspirations in the traditional myths and legends.

See, even though the Baker Lake area has been known and inhabited by Inuit for centuries, the village of Baker Lake is very young. In the late 1950s the caribou herds did not migrate through this area as they normally did, which left the people in starvation. At that time the policy of the Canadian government was to pick-up all the family camps they could find on the tundra by helicopter and gather them into new communities. This decision was probably based on the very limited knowledge southerners had about the nomadic way of life traditional for the Inuit. It was, and is still, even for us traveling on the land, hard to envision how these people survive - but they have for thousands of years. Most of the communities we are traveling through were formed during this period, even though some had been traditional gathering spots for centuries because of the available resources.

Students practicing basketball at the gym after school. Most signs at the school are written in both English and Inuktitut. Check out downtown Baker Lake and look for the maroon house of Orin, a local teacher. Can you find it?

Baker Lake is such a place. Five different groups were known to live on the land surrounding Baker Lake; along the shores of its waters. They were: The Utkuhiksalingmiut, Hanningajurmiut, Akilinirmiut, Qairnirmiut, and Harvaqtuurmiut. They had most things in common since they all lived off the land. They all spoke Inuktitut, though with different dialects. As they were brought to Baker Lake, the kids had to go to the local school, built in 1957, where they were taught in English. Inuktitut was not allowed. So that Sarah and her three sisters could go to school, in 1957 Martha and her husband moved their family into an igloo on the edge of town.

Lipton patiently waiting at the school sign outside Orin's classroom after a visit.

Today Martha lives in The Martha Tallorak Care Center with a beautiful view of the lake. When Mille asked her what she thinks of all the changes she has seen around her in her lifetime she got quiet for a little bit, then said with a big smile, "I have sure noticed it is getting colder!" She continued to explain that when she lived on the land she did not think about the weather or "living outside," she just did it. She looked at us and gave us a compliment we will never forget, "I admire you for what you do. You travel like we used to travel in the past."

Monday night we were invited to enjoy delicious caribou burritos with the local teachers. Here is Will dishing it up!

After this amazing experience visiting with Martha, we talked about just how wild Martha's life has been. As Mille put it, "I know that my grandparents experienced remarkable changes in their way of life with the introduction of machines, phones, cars and so on. They often told me how different my life as a kid was from theirs. Even though my grandparents were very important to me and I wanted to listen and learn from them, sometimes it was hard for me to understand what they were talking about, simply because our worlds were so different. Now, when you look at Martha from that perspective, she experienced about 500 years of evolution in just 50 years! Think of the communication gaps that develop between grandparents or great-grandparents and how their grandchildren can't relate to them, especially when they most often barely speak each other's language!"

Vera's 10th grade during Inuktitut class. Watch and learn a few Inuktitut phrases. Watch Moses, Ryan, and Natasha talk about why Inuktitut is so important to them.

That's right. When we visited with the students at Vera's 10th grade Inuktitut class on Monday, to see if we could learn some phrases, they told us how most of them have a hard time speaking with their grandparents because their grandparents do not speak English and the kids do not speak much Inuktitut. Just recently they started learning Inuktitut in school from Kindergarten through 12th grade for at least three hours a week - but Vera's students all agreed that they need even more Inuktitut in the classroom if their language is to survive! As one student wisely said, "When we loose our language, we loose our culture."

Orin and his class teaching us to speak correct Canadian!

We actually spent a lot of time in school last week - visiting Orin's 10th grade classroom. It was great! Our favorite moment was probably when they went through their session on "Teaching the Polar Husky Team to speak Canadian!!!!" Yes, we got scolded for not always using the correct Inuktitut phrases, but we loved it! On that note, during our Team Chat, Island Lake School in Minnesota asked if any students up here would be interested in getting pen pals. As we told you in the chat many of Orin's students thought that would be great. So, visit Collaboration Zone 07, make a pen pal, and contribute to globalization of the Polar Husky community!

Orin's students looking at the map to determine our route ahead. Watch Charlene talk about the trip to Africa that she will be going on this summer.

See, our "five-cents" on this week's chat topic, "Globalization," is that it is important to recognize that Globalization is not always negative, as we often hear in the news. From last week's report, remember Charlene who is traveling to Africa this summer for two months to experience another culture? We think that is a great example of globalization. Make sure to join the chat on Friday March 19th at 12 PM CST and let your voice be heard!

Polar Husky Superstar Timber is without doubt one of the happiest, most spirited, and noisiest Polar Huskies on the Arctic Transect 2004 Expedition.

Speaking of letting your voice be heard. This week's Polar Husky Superstars, Timber and Nuka, are great talkers!

Timber is without doubt the noisiest, loudest, most vocal Polar Husky out here. He and Peto are the first to start howling every morning. The sleds are usually not stopped for long before he starts talking and barking, letting it be known that he thinks it is time to go again. He is the warning dog in camp if any animals are around or if anybody approaches the camp. He is our number-one polar bear alert dog, just going crazy if he sees a bear. And, he always talks to people when they pet him, seemingly to tell you how much he enjoys it. Timber is simply a great joy to be around and one of the greatest Polar Huskies - always ready to roar!

This week's other Polar Husky Superstar, Nuka, is a very charming and smart lead dog.

Nuka is not quite as noisy as Timber, but she LOVES to talk, just like her mother Cola. She has a very sweet way of carrying on a conversation. With her beautiful voice she has one of the prettiest and very deep howls. An excellent lead dog, Nuka will bang in her harness, jumping up into the air while she is loudly letting the team know that it is time to boogie.