To: Journey North
From: Tikigaq School, Point Hope, Alaska
Point Hope is an ancient Inupiat Eskimo village located on the coast of the Chucki Sea. We started a list on the board of signs of spring in Point Hope. Here is a summary of our list with my explanation of each item:
PEOPLE PUTTING SKINS ON THE BOATS
The boats used to hunt whales are umiaqs--wooden frames covered with seal
skins. At the end of the whaling season the skins are taken off the boats
and stored. In anticipation of spring whaling, the skins are taken out of
storage and soaked in sea water until they are pliable. Then they are
stretched on to the boat frames. This doesn't smell very good, but the
boats are beautiful to see.
SEAL HUNTING.
Before whaling begins, people in the village accumulate seals. The seal
meat is used to feed crews in whaling camp, and the blubber of the seal is
used as fuel in the stoves that heat the tents pitched out onthe sea ice.
SNOW BUNTINGS.
Snow buntings are among the first birds to return from the south. They
have a remarkably cheery song, and after a winter of hearing nothing but
the wind, their song is like the Hallelujah Chorus heralding spring from
the highest perches in the village. Every spring when I hear the first
bunting, the song melts my winter heart and I find myself in tears.
LEADS,BOWHEADS AND BELUGAS.
As the weather warms, wind and ocean currents push the pack ice away from
the shore ice that is frozen from the top to the bottom where it rests on
the sea floor. In the open water bowheads and beluga whales can be seen
migrating through to their summer feeding grounds in the high arctic. Last
Sunday (April 14), John Oktolik's whaling crew landed the first whale of
the season for our village. Though it meant a great deal of work, it was
a joyous occasion for the village. This event has been repeated many times
here, in much the same way for thousands of years. And like their
ancestors, the people of Point Hope will make use of almost everything on
the whale--the bone, meat, organs, muktuk, and baleen.
DRIPS.
Sometimes, as the angle of the sun climbs in the sky, the sun generates
enough warmth as it shines on dark objects like the side of a building or a
roof top to melt some snow, even though the air temperatures are still
below freezing. Unlike many cold places in the lower-48, we generally do
not have a pattern of freezing and thawing. Once the cold settles in
(around late September) it does not release its grip until late April or
May, so a drip is unusual, and definately cause for celebration!
GET TO PLAY OUT LATE.
This is due to the lengthing days. The sun comes back in January after our
winter darkness. By the Spring Equinox we have 12 hours of sunlight, and
by the first week in April we have almost no darkness at all. The sun is
still setting, but only just. So instead of darkness, we have several
hours of twilight from around midnight until 4 or 5 in the morning.
MORE HONDAS THAN SNOWMACHINES.
This is a roadless area, and Honda-All-Terrain- Vehicles and snowmachines
are the major forms of motorized transport. When the snow does start to
melt, and the gravel and tundra appears, snowmachines have to be put away
for the summer, leaving Hondas as the main transportation.
My husband and I took our snow machine out to Oktolik's whaling camp to see the whale and offer our help in pulling it out of the water and on to the ice where it could be butchered. It felt good to be allowed to participate in this important event in some small way and to see open water again! Now that there is a substantial lead only a couple miles off the beach and open water south of here, break up will happen fairly quickly. As it does, we will see the return of thousands of ducks and geese, walrus and other whales like Greys, and Orcas whose dorsal fins prevent them from coming through when there is still a possibility of floating ice. For now, we wait.
Sheila Gaquin, Point Hope, Alaska
sgaquin@arctic.nsbsd.k12.ak.us
or at home: sgaquin@aol.com
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