Alaskan Bush
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The Bush is a cultural as well as geographic division of the state of Alaska in the United States. Most Alaskans refer to any place besides Fairbanks, Juneau, and the towns of the Kenai Peninsula as falling within the Bush.
Two kinds of Bush communities exist in Alaska: The Bush Hub and The Bush Village.
The Bush Hub
These are the hub towns of a few thousand people: Barrow, Nome, Kotzebue, St. Mary's, Bethel, Dillingham, Dutch Harbor, and Cordova. Bush hub towns tend to share a number of defining characteristics. These generally include:
- isolated road systems (roads do not connect to the lower 48).
- effects of permafrost (exposed sewage/water pipes, raised buildings, buckled roads).
- restrictions on alcohol ("damp," i.e. legal to consume, illegal to sell).
- busy airports.
The Bush Village
Each hub town services a multitude of rural settlements and villages. The Bush Village presents a way of life that differs vastly from that of even its closely related parent hub. The Bush Village has a unique and profound kind of isolation that seldom is fully understood or appreciated by non-village dwellers. The following is a description of a particular village in S.W Alaska, but the isolation of any Bush Village can be characterized by at least part of the following:
- no roads or cars, but boardwalks for four-wheelers and paths for snow machines.
- no sewage treatment or water piped into homes, rather the use of a honey bucket and the collection of rainwater for drinking.
- no bathrooms with showers or hot running water; steam baths are used exclusively for bathing.
- no restaurants or prepared foods available for sale, except for a few tiny village stores with odd hours.
- most of the food eaten in the village is caught near the village (or at seasonal "fish camps") by those living in the village. (some very interesting foods are enjoyed, such as fermented fish and "stink heads")
- the exception to these is at the school, where lunch, hot water and a flush toilet can be found. There is also a "washeteria" building where clothes can be washed and a shower can be taken for cost.
- few jobs, no economic base, very high energy costs.
- more or less daily power outages.
- delivery of US Mail is regularly delayed, sometimes for more than a week at a time.
- restrictions on alcohol ("dry," illegal to consume and possess).
- the native language is spoken during official village functions and is taught at the school exclusively through third grade.
- a tiny unpaved runway with frequently unflyable conditions.--Knowmoore 08:37, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
More to Add
Native ANSCA corporations, federal government lands, airstrips,
| Regions of Alaska | Missing image Alaska_state_flag.png Flag of Alaska |
|---|---|
| Alaskan Bush | Interior | North Slope | Panhandle | South Central | Tanana Valley | |
| Largest cities | |
| Anchorage | Barrow | Bethel | Fairbanks | Homer | Juneau | Kenai | Ketchikan | Kodiak | Kotzebue | Nome | Palmer | Petersburg | Seward | Sitka | Unalaska | Valdez | Wasilla | |
| Boroughs and census areas | |
| Aleutians East | Aleutians West | Anchorage | Bethel | Bristol Bay | Denali | Dillingham | Fairbanks North Star | Haines | Juneau | Kenai Peninsula | Ketchikan Gateway | Kodiak Island | Lake and Peninsula | Matanuska-Susitna | Nome | North Slope | Northwest Arctic | Prince of Wales - Outer Ketchikan | Sitka | Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon | Southeast Fairbanks | Valdez-Cordova | Wade Hampton | Wrangell-Petersburg | Yakutat | Yukon-Koyukuk |