A tourist shoulders a mammoth tusk he has just purchased from a local young man who found it in the tundra. Mammoth and mastodon, as well as many other exotic critters, were once common in the area around Kotzebue, which was part of the mammoth steppe. The price of this tusk was probably around $5,000. The blue color is characteristic of tusks when they are fresh from the soil. It will polish up to look like the aged ivory it is.