Maniilaq Health Center

Gilbert’s department, along with Maniilaq’s Diabetes program coordinated with SeaShare to distribute the fish. Gilbert said in total over 7,000 pounds of salmon were handed out in Kotzebue.

Largely self-taught, Keats walked in two worlds, combining traditional and Western medicine. She was born in a sod house on the Noatak River in 1907 and learned from anatomy books and from processing caribou and other animals. She began practicing medicine in her 20s and worked as a midwife, helping women deliver babies. A large part of her knowledge came from listening to older generations.

“It's for promoting local foods and living off the land, trying to encourage younger people and everybody just to go out and harvest and eat healthier,” Tessier said.

Like many Iñupiaq people in the Northwest Arctic, Harris grew up eating traditional foods such as seal oil, caribou and musk ox. When his relatives moved into Maniilaq Health Center’s elder care facility, Utuqqanaat Inaat, he found they weren’t able to eat the same food they’d lived off for years.

With a focus on community wellness and removing stigma for the controversial topic, an Alaska nonprofit is hosting a series of listening circles in Kotzebue aimed at younger community members.