BRUCE INGLANGASAK

“I am originally from Canada. I have dual citizenship. So I can come and work here or live here. My parents and grandparents are from here; they moved to Canada back in the ‘30s. I am a subsistence hunter and gatherer and I run tourist boat tours here. I am Kaktovik’s first polar bear guide. I started it. I am the one who started this polar bear tourism. When I came here, the State of Alaska had an economic problem; they had no work here for any of the local guys. The only people that were working are the people that had a position with the North Slope Borough, power plant, clinic, or school. Nothing for the community. I was the first one [to provide boat tours], then the second year it started picking up, then the next year I got a picture of five boats sitting in front of polar bears. Now there is about seven boats running around. I started with one freelance photographer, he and I did a polar bear denning west of here. We stayed out for three weeks. From there, the guy I took out guiding that time, his book publisher got me a boat and a motor, and then he and I worked together for three years. Just he and I alone, so he got about three or four years of a jump start on photographers for this area. Then I met a lady through Circumpolar Expeditions through economic development. The community posted up some stuff around the community about this lady coming here to interview somebody that wanted to do tourism. Nobody went there. I was out of town when she was here, and then I came here and Robert Thompson told me, “there is a lady here, go check it out.” So I was the only guy that got to get an interview with her the day she was leaving. The following year, a bunch of senators and state representatives came here and I took them all out. That’s when everything started picking up for me. And now, I have got two years piled up on clients. I have to get a new boat. I am going to be running two boats next summer. 2016 and 2017 are booked.”