This post was due a while ago but I kept putting it off.. Since it's spring break and I am not working today, I thought I might as well write the post... I am going to write about village life.
I grew up in a little Inupiaq village called White Mountain. The Eskimo name for my village is Natchirsvik. I am Iġaluiђmuit (Fish River Tribe). Our population is between 200-250.
We rely mostly on our subsistence foods. Most of the village spends a good portion of their summers at fish camp. We catch most of our fish by seining but, we also use rod & reel, and some folks still go out late and use spears to catch white fish. A good portion of the fish caught, gets cut and hung for dry fish. The rest get smoked (dry smoked) and the rest (10-15ish) gets packaged and put in the freezer for winter. During the middle/end of summer, the women gather blueberries, blackberries (crow berries), salmonberries, high and low bush cranberries, puyuguaghaqs (raspberry-like, there isn’t really and English name for these), kuchimaks (wild rhubarb), wild chives, fire weed, clovers, chura, tukaiyuks, chiutђeaqs matchu, and atchaluk. Most of the greens get soaked in seal oil and jarred.
When we aren’t fishing, the men are hunting seal, moose, and caribou. Both women and men butcher and package these. Some people save the moose and caribou hides to put down in their sleds for long snow machine rides and all of the seal skins are cleaned and tanned so they can be used for hats, gloves, mitts, mukluks, and parkas.
This is only a small peek into village life and I would like to write more but this is only a blog post and not meant to be very long, people may get bored. ☺
No comments:
Post a Comment