SCOTT SIMON, Host:
From member station KYUK in Bethel, Alaska, Angela Denning-Barnes reports on steam cleaning the Yupii way.
ANGELA DENNING: They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but are often just many plywood shacks with an old oil drum stove inside that's covered in rocks, with a pail of water nearby and some kind of ladle for pouring.
(SOUNDBITE OF STEAM)
DENNING: There are many variables. For some longtime steamers, getting it hot enough can be tricky.
MICHELLE GEORGE: You're burning but you don't feel like you're totally burning, like it's not going in because you damage your skin too much. And you should - could just pour coals so the heat could go in.
DENNING: Michelle George jokes with her friend about it. But the 21- year-old from Nightmute on the Bering Sea coast really likes it hot.
GEORGE: To me, I want to feel the heat inside, not just on the outside but inside like you're totally...
(SOUNDBITE OF GASPING)
DENNING: The fact that Nightmute doesn't have many trees for firewood doesn't matter. George and her friend, Nelly Igimok(ph), say you can compensate with pallet wood and a few extras.
GEORGE: Shoes are the best. If you get shoes...
NELLY IGIMOK: Because there's a rubber inside it.
GEORGE: Yeah. And those really smooth kinds.
IGIMOT: Or like old clothes that you don't want to use anymore.
GEORGE: And you put, like, seal oil and - but it has to be old. It's better if it's old. And with the okuk(ph)...
IGIMOT: And it's hot.
GEORGE: ...really hot, it's good. We put lots of shoes, seal oil and the blubber part with wood.
DENNING: Just how hot a person can stand it can be somewhat competitive. George says the women she steams with always see who can stay in longer, which took her over the limit one time.
GEORGE: I was just sitting there and then I was, like, please, God, please, God, I'm not going to be first. And then, they'd just kept pouring. And I guess I had passed out. And they told me (unintelligible).
DENNING: According to these YK Delta residents, dry heat doesn't even compare to a steam. George remembers a disappointing sauna in an Anchorage hotel.
GEORGE: It says do not pour water. And I was, like, how would the heck are we going to get hot. And we turn the thing on, we waited an hour and later - nothing, like, you're just sitting in there like you're just getting tired and you're like such a waste, like, you just get - feels like you're just dirtier.
DENNING: The only way to get really clean is in a good hot steam bath, really hot.
GEORGE: And when you really burn and burn and burn and pour and pour, when you're done, you're like everything's gone and like you have no problem.
(SOUNDBITE OF STEAM)
DENNING: For NPR News, I'm Angela Denning-Barnes in Bethel, Alaska.