It’s known at the Alaska State Fair as “The Gathering Place,” sort of a town square nestled within the fairgrounds, to showcase the talents of Alaska Native singers, dancers and artists from across the state.
It’s also where Bessie Meyer demonstrates how to filet salmon.
From the crowd that gathers around her, the Inupiaq elder would appear to be a celebrity in her own right.
“It’s so red,” Meyer says to her audience, as her ulu knife slices effortlessly through the silver salmon’s bright flesh. “I can taste how good it tastes.”
She then makes quick work of six salmon, freshly caught in Nikiski.
“And these bones you pull up to here,” she says, as she picks out a few of the remaining bones from a filet.
Meyer credits her precision cutting to her ulu, which her father fashioned for her out of sawblade in the 1940s. In fact, it was her dad who convinced her mom to let her learn to cut fish at the age of five, when she asked to try. That was on the banks of the Flambeau River near Nome. Sixty-six years later, she’s still at it.
“Sometimes I always feel like I could close my eyes and cut if I had to,” Meyer said.
When she cuts fish, she gets into a zone, and those who gather round seem almost mesmerized by her smooth, swift movements. She says, some of the same people show up, year after year to watch again.
“I like to help people learn something that's different, for one,” she said. “It feels like when you do something like that, you get things back in return in different ways, and it makes me happy.”
Bessie is also happy that her fish-cutting demonstration now helps to promote her daughter and son-in-law’s seafood grill at the entrance of “The Gathering Place.”
When Bessie is finished with her filets, they go on the grill. Her daughter, Buffy, says it helps customers appreciate the freshness and beauty of the fish.
“It is more than an advertisement,” Buffy says. “It's kind of like welcome into the culture!”
And the culture runs deep. Buffy has her own handmade ulu, also made by her grandfather. She says it took her awhile to master her mom’s techniques, but now it’s second nature.
“It’s a muscle memory,” Buffy said. “There’s something from fileting a fish like that you just yearn to do it. It eventually started feeling like it’s a part of your soul.”
And along with her passion for the subsistence lifestyle, lives an entrepreneurial spirt.
Buffy has added another food concession at the Gathering Place called Eskimo Pie Desserts, where you’ll find her hard at work inside a cherry red food trailer.
“The Eskimo Pie, I created as a cheesecake-stuffed fry bread,” she said, as she finishes it off with a dollop of homemade lemony whipped cream, graham cracker crumbles and berry pie topping.
But before you get to the dessert, you might want to try one of her sockeye sluggers at Buffy’s Fish On Camp Grill, which is basically a salmon bratwurst. The habanero pineapple glaze is optional.
Then go sit in front of the Dena’ People’s stage and take in some Yup’ik dancing. With a little taste of culture, you’re good to go.
