The tundra of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is studded with botanical gifts: plump, dark crowberries, hot-pink fireweed, wormwood plants and blackberries found in the region have all been used for kitchen-made balms and salves by the Native people who have inhabited the area for thousands of years.

Now, three sisters from Bethel are launching a high-end skincare line that features the tundra's bounty. Triplets Michelle, Cika and Amy Sparck plan to take the antioxidant-rich raw botanicals of Arctic Alaska to boutiques across the country, and in doing so, start what they hope will be a new, green gathering economy in Western Alaska. They held a party for their Arxotica line on Friday, Oct. 23 in Anchorage.

Their debut product is an anti-aging facial serum called Quyunglii, which means "the potent one" in the Cu'pik language. It's made with tundra crowberries, fireweed, Arctic sage (the Cu'pik name for that translates to "nothing bad about it") and is fortified with Alaskan glacier water and omega oil from salmon. They expect it to wholesale for more than $170 per ounce.

After the sisters, who are Cu'pik Eskimos of the Qissunamuit Tribe of Chevak, conceived the business they approached elders in areas they wanted to collect from to ask for permission and get advice. The response was positive: People told them where to find the disturbed ground that begets the best fireweed and tipped them off about particularly rich spots for blackberries or crowberries.

Concerns

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that harvesting the plants would exhaust the resources are misplaced, they say.

"We would never do that," Cika says. "Respect is built inherently into our philosophy and business plan."

Their long-term goal includes hiring people in the region to do everything from ethnobotany to seasonal gatherering.

"A gathering economy," says Michelle, "is what we want to start."

Another goal is avoiding waste: They make soaps from parts of the plants that can't be used for other products, and buy last season's berries from the freezers of people who want to get rid of them. In the past, the women have hand-harvested the plants themselves.

They encountered what they describe as a "humorous comedy of errors" trying to set up a supply-chain system in the Alaskan Bush, where there are no roads and infrastructure is limited. Michelle and Cika found themselves on the tundra with hundreds of pounds of gathered crowberries waiting for their ride out in a small plane. When it arrived, the pilot took one look at the women and said "no way," before flying off. It turned out he was planning on making a few stops in other Delta villages, and he came back and let them on in the end.

The sisters, who grew up in Bethel but spent summers in the village of Chevak, got their start with the help of two grants from the Alaska Federation of Natives' Alaska Marketplace program, which helps small business owners in rural Alaska get seed money. Running a business as triplets has been a joy, not a challenge, the sisters say.

"We're simpatico," says Amy.

Michelle has worked in public service, consulting tribal leadership groups, and with NGOs focused on rural Alaska. Cika is a graphic designer and art director, and Amy Sparck Dobmeier has worked in leadership roles in the tribal operations sector. She was the Rural Affairs Coordinator for the City of Anchorage until the position was cut earlier this year.

For now, the sisters are focusing on placing the products - the line will always remain small and high-end to avoid competing with subsistence use of the botanicals it relies on - in boutiques across the country, and in preparing for next year's gathering season.

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