Marines simulate
seizing a building
in Utqiaġvik, Alaska,
the northernmost city
in the United States.
Marine Corps com-
mandant Gen. Robert
Neller recently told
senators that after
years of focusing on
the Middle East and
Pacific, the Marines “had
gotten back into the
cold-weather business.”LATE ON A GRAY NOVEMBER AFTERNOON
Marvin Atqittuq, a newly elected patrol
commander in the Arctic community
of Gjoa Haven, stood on the frozen sea
outside town and called his troops in for
a meeting. A frigid wind flicked snow
in from the south, and it was about 20
below zero, cold but not that cold for the
Arctic. The company of some 20 Inuit
men and a few women gathered around
with rifles slung over their shoulders,
dressed in hand-sewn jackets of caribou
hide or pants made of polar bear fur or
wearing the usual store-bought stuff,
which was far less warm but namuktuk,
good enough for now. ¶ Atqittuq (pro-
nounced At-kee-TUK) pulled on a pair
of sealskin gloves and outlined the plan
for the day. The group was part of the
Canadian Rangers, a reserve component
of Canada’s armed forces, and Atqittuq
would now lead them on his first mission
as their commander: a weeklong patrol
by snowmobile down the treeless coast
of King William Island. There would be
Photography for this
story was supported
by grants from the
John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation
and the Pulitzer Center.56 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC