JUNEAU – A week ago Tuesday, my wife, four daughters and nine other family members (including myself) embarked on a trip of a lifetime – a cruise from Seattle to southern Alaska and back. The Carnival Spirit ship was enjoyable, but the excursions made the trip unbelievable and unreal for me, creating sights and sounds of a lifetime.
We had only scheduled two excursions but on our third day at sea, my wife approached me and said, “An excursion this afternoon has three openings, and many of the comments from previous guests says that their only regret was not doing the Tracy Arm Fjord one: how about doing it? Jesse (our son-in-law) has already booked it, so let’s go.”
A little tired of the big boat, I agreed.
After separating from the mothership, we headed up the fjord, flushing several strange birds off the water. Their mostly black with white wing patches and bright orange feet told me that they were pigeon guillemots.
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Soon the captain announced a bear ahead. It moved off into the brush before we got there. Water from melting snowfields was cascading off the steep sides, but the falling water was did not create “waterfalls” until we arrived at a huge, true waterfall — the only one in the fjord.
Ice Falls, originating from Ice Lake, was beautiful, but I was ready to see some living creature when the woman behind me yelled, “Bear!” The caption slowed up, turned the boat around and we slowly headed back. Sure enough, there was a small black bear digging up mussels where the low tide had exposed a large table of things bears like to eat.
A Black bear munches on mussels and other food exposed by the low tide in Tracy Arm Fjord. | Courtesy Bill Schiess
After allowing everyone a chance to photograph the bear we continued up the fjord with large hunks of ice floating by us. Some of the icebergs were a bright blue while others were painted by “rock dust” that the South Sawyer Glacier had ground off the steep sides hundreds of years ago. The naturalist with us explained to us that the blue ice was created by over 100 inches of snow compressed together to create an inch of glacial ice.
Icebergs in the Tracy Arm Fjord gets its blue color from compressed snow which fell over 150 years ago. | Courtesy Bill Schiess
It was not too long before we could see the top of the glacier, and we began to move slowly enough to push some of the smaller chunks of ice out of the way or to maneuver around the larger icebergs. The naturalist explained that 90 percent of the icebergs were under the water and explained that the color of the water that changed so quickly was created by the melting ice containing the rock dust.
Hundreds of harbor seals were relaxing on some of the floating ice while a bald eagle perched on the top of a large iceberg. Arctic terns flew back and forth over their nesting area on a large rock near a beautiful granite cliff.
Harbor seals enjoy sunning themselves on the ice broken off from the South Sawyer Glacier. | Courtesy Bill Schiess
We also watched as large chunks of 150-year-old blue ice split from the glacier, sending significant waves down to us. There were two other boats there with us playing a tag game with the ice, and after about an hour, we started working away from the glacier.
Large chunks of ice break off the South Sawyer Glacier as several boats watch it. | Courtesy Bill Schiess
As we rounded a corner, we saw the Carnival Spirit working its way up through the ice. I had been visiting with the excursion captain, and when he saw the ship he exclaimed, “What the heck is he doing!!!! Ships never come up this close to the glacier!”
We moved passed the Carnival Spirit as all the passengers got a view of the glacier while the ship moved very, very slowly navigating through the floating ice. But we could not hook up with the Spirit until we got enough room so that chunks of ice would not get caught between the two boats.
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The Carnival Spirit approaches the South Sawyer Glacier close enough for all its passengers to view it. | Courtesy Bill Schiess
We found out later that the captain of the Spirit was a new captain, this was his first trip up into the Tracy Arm Fjord and he wanted to see the glacier. We also noticed while out in the open sea, when a pod of whales was located, the captain “kind of” turned in that direction to give the passengers a better view of them.
My wife and I were both happy that the rest of our family was able to enjoy the trip up to see the magnificent South Sawyer Glacier. She and I enjoyed the time that we spent up there watching the wildlife and the movement of the glacier. It was well worth the extra time and funds that we paid.
My recommendation to any of you who have not been on an Alaskan cruise or not taken advantage of excursions on a cruise is to do them. As beautiful and enjoyable as the trip up the Tracy Arm Fjord was, it was not my favorite – that story is for next week.
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The first Jesuit missionaries in Alaska sailed up the Yukon River in 1887. By the turn of the 20th century, the religious order of the Catholic Church had as many as 50 Jesuits in the state.
Now, only two remain. And by the end of June, there will be none.
The Jesuits’ nearly 140 years in the state was honored at an event at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church on June 16. A procession of priests wearing long white gowns with red hems walked down the aisle to open the event. The Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Stephen Maekawa, thumped the ground with a shimmering silver staff known as a clozier as he approached the altar.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, walks toward the altar at the Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
“My brothers and sisters, we gather together to celebrate this wonderful and blessed occasion to acknowledge the love of God and the work of God through the 139 year mission of the Society of Jesus of the Jesuit fathers,” Maekawa said to open the event.
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A traditional Catholic mass followed, with readings in both English and Yup’ik. During the sermon, Maekawa acknowledged the vastness of the Fairbanks diocese, and the tremendous amount of work done by the Jesuits to establish it.
“All of the 46 churches of the Diocese of Fairbanks that we currently have were established by either the Jesuit fathers or by direction of a Jesuit bishop,” Maekawa said. “We have a long history of the Society of Jesus’ presence and ministry here in all of Alaska.”
The Jesuits are an order within the Catholic Church, akin to the Dominicans or Franciscans. They have a reputation for taking on some of the Catholic Church’s most remote assignments.
That missionary spirit brought the Jesuits to the Yukon River in 1887, where they built churches, schools, and ministries. Without their work, Catholicism may not have taken root in huge swaths of Alaska, particularly among Alaska Native communities.
The Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
But the Jesuits leave a complicated legacy. Their methods of converting Native people to the religion, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, created generational traumas still felt to this day.
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Fr. Sean Carroll is the provincial of the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Alaska and nine other states.
Fr. Sean Carroll, provincial of the Jesuits West Province, speaks at an event recognizing nearly 140 years of Jesuit service in Alaska.
“Thank you for all that you have taught us about who Jesus is and how to love and serve Him wholeheartedly,” Carroll said. “I also thank you for your patience with us. For there have been times when we have sinned and when we have hurt you.”
Missionaries, including the Jesuits, forcefully converted and assimilated Alaska Native people into Western culture and religion. Students at Jesuit-run boarding schools were forced to abandon their Native languages and physically punished when caught speaking languages other than English. Native dancing and drumming were also banned.
The Jesuits West Province maintains a list of 150 Jesuits with credible claims of sexual abuse against minors or vulnerable adults. A quarter of the accused Jesuits served in Alaska at some point in time.
“I ask for your forgiveness for all that we have done that was not rooted in Christ and love for Him, and for when we did not value your culture nor recognize the presence of God in you,” Carroll said.
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Carroll gave the order to withdraw from the state last spring. A big issue was the recruitment of Jesuits willing to travel and serve in remote villages. He told the congregation that the Jesuits’ work would continue, just without a permanent presence.
Fr. Rich Magner, one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska, attends a ceremony in Bethel.
Fr. Rich Magner is one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska. His last day serving Chevak, Hooper Bay, and Scammon Bay is June 30.
“We all always knew coming in, or should have known, that we’re not going to be here forever. It’s going to be mission accomplished at some point,” Magner said. “And then we hand it off to the diocese that we’ve helped create, and so that’s a good feeling.”
Magner’s next stop is a Clinical Pastoral Education residency in Tacoma, Washington.
The other remaining priest, Fr. Tom Provinsal, first came to Alaska in 1968 to teach. A fond memory, he said, was meeting Elders that practiced traditional subsistence lifestyles.
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“Some of the grandmothers, their fingers were just all bent with arthritis and stuff like that, you know, their whole lives they’ve been working out in the cold and the wet, doing food, sewing, all that kind of stuff,” Provinsal said. “I’d say I just feel very privileged to have come when I did come and to see that.”
Provinsal returned in 1975 as a priest and has served in the region ever since. After moving away, he plans to take a five month sabbatical. What happens next, he said, is in God’s hands.
Two lines formed in the aisle for communion at the end of the mass. After taking communion, Bethel’s Parish Administrator Susan Murphy gave a final thank you.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have been a part of our lives for so long,” Murphy said. “We know that you have done what was yours to do, and have taught us to do what is ours to do. We are grateful.”
Jesuit priests form a row along the altar of Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church as members of the congregation lift their arms and pray.
Dominic Hunt, a Yup’ik deacon that flew in from Emmonak for the event, led the congregation through a final prayer.
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“Bless them with your wisdom, that they may be a word of hope, a world in need. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen,” Hunt said.
About 70 people posed for a photo on the altar – priests, deacons, parishioners, Elders and children — many of them smiling, some standing quietly.
The photo doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s a moment when gratitude, grief, and memory all shared the same room.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, stands in the middle of a crowd waiting to take a photo at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
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