Soapstone Carvings and Sculptures

Broadband comes to the North

2005-08-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

(Part 1): High-speed satellite links will bring Canada's remote communities into the 21st century. It's about time, say residents


Jeff Buckstein
The Ottawa Citizen

August 11, 2005

CREDIT: Photo Composite: Robert Cross, The Ottawa Citizen

The photo illustration above shows the Baffin Island village of Pangnirtung, which receives state-of-the-art wireless broadband access via satellite. Donna Copeland manages a lodge for trekking backpackers and other tourists. She looks forward to providing speedy Internet and e-mail access to cruise ship passengers making stopov

Tucked into a jagged glacier carved fiord off the aquatic rich Cumberland Sound in southeastern Baffin Island, the village of Pangnirtung, population 1,276, is nestled on a tundra flat flanked by majestic granite mountains towering up to 1,000 metres. It seems like one of the most remote communities on earth.

But the large satellite dish on the picturesque hamlet's western shore symbolizes a very different scenario. Newly connected state-of-the-art 2.5 GHz wireless broadband technology provides Pangnirtung and 24 other fly-in communities in Nunavut, who are connected to a network called QINIQ -- named after the Inuktituk root word for search -- with vital high-speed Internet access to the outside world and to each other.

The residents of Pangnirtung (which means "place of the bull caribou'') are excited about the effect high-speed broadband access might have on their personal and business lives. Mika Etooangat, 21, has already noticed several significant improvements over dial-up access. "I can download music a lot quicker, and it's great for instant e-mail and chatting with friends. Before when I used dial-up, it was not only slower but would sometimes disconnect on its own,'' says the assistant senior administrative officer of the Pangnirtung Hamlet Office & People's Community Centre.

Peter Wilson, general manager of the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts, which sells Inuit artifacts around the world, including soapstone carvings, prints, and tapestries, is bullish on the potential economic advantages broadband access to the Internet will present. He plans to have an e-commerce website up and running before the end of the year. And he's also looking at broadband-enabled, voice over Internet protocol telephony.

"Long-distance telephone charges for business are so high here. But with voice over IP, we could end up paying a lower fee and, if all is working well, have better sound quality, too. That's a real important way broadband can improve business telecommunications not just in Pangnirtung, but throughout Nunavut as well,'' he says.

Donna Copeland, manager of the town's Auyuittuq Lodge, also has dreams for broadband access. Her lodge houses many of the region's backpackers before and after their trek through the pristine Auyuittuq National Park (translation -- "the land that never melts''), site of the 5,100 square-kilometre Penny Ice Pack glacier and many of Nunavut's highest mountain peaks. She'd like to have the service available for cruise ship passengers -- seven ships will visit Pangnirtung this summer, for instance -- to be able to come into her motel and get quick access to their office and personal e-mail.

Copeland already enjoys broadband Internet access personally, calling it a "godsend'' in part because it features speed "that is just phenomenal.'' The 19-year resident of Pangnirtung signed up for a broadband connection in her home at the first opportunity last winter when she volunteered to sample one of the new modems, several months before they went live to the rest of the hamlet.

She became an instant convert. "Dial-up served a purpose, but now that I can compare the two, there's really no comparison,'' Copeland says. "Broadband offers the power and speed I need to complete my transactions.''

The fact wireless broadband access has been deployed across Nunavut at all is, in and of itself, a magnificent technological feat. At 1.994 million square kilometres, Canada's newest territory occupies one-fifth of Canada's total area. But it is isolated. Only about 30,000 people inhabit this vast, mostly pristine space, whose largely treeless landscape sparks to life in the perpetual light of summer, sporting brilliant hues of tiny purple and yellow flowers like Purple saxifrage and Arctic poppies on its hillsides.

The population is dispersed over 25 communities and three time zones. Approximately 7,000 live in the capital Iqaluit (meaning "place of many fish''), near the southern end of Baffin Island.

Travel from one community to the next is usually only possible by air. Some ports also have a limited shipping season (generally from July to October in the Eastern Arctic). Only two communities -- Arctic Bay and Nanisivik, some 20 kilometres apart at the northern end of Baffin Island -- are connected by road.

How then, did wireless broadband Internet access become a territorial-wide reality?

One of the early visionairies was Adamee Itorcheak, who founded a small Internet Service Provider company named Nunanet Worldwide Communications Inc. in August 1995. "Adamee has worked tirelessly not just for Iqaluit, but all Nunavut access, for so long,'' says Lorraine Thomas, secretary-treasurer of the Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation. "Adamee had a vision of this wireless connectivity scenario in the late 1990s when nobody else had a clue about it, and he has devoted a lot of his energy, time and money into it.''

Itorcheak, a native of Iqaluit who in 2001 was named to the National Broadband Task Force, painstakingly built his business to help give Nunavut's capital city a leg up on technology when the new Territory officially came into being on April 1, 1999. But only 10 other communities in Nunavut at that time had Internet connectivity -- and that was mostly confined to government workers, many of whom heralded from southern Canada.

Despite the efforts of a few pioneering ISPs such as Nunanet, Sakku Arctic Technologies in Rankin Inlet, and PolarNet in Cambridge Bay, there weren't many cost-effective Internet services available to the Inuit people at that time, who comprise about 85 per cent of Nunavut's population. But things began to look up when the federal government signaled its intention of connecting Canada's North to the high-speed information freeway.

Industry Canada announced ia subsidy program in October 2000 (which many believed would have cost at least $1 billion), for the goal of providing all Canadian communities with high-speed broadband access by 2004. This was quietly shelved and replaced by the $105-million Broadband for Rural and Northern Development (BRAND) program in September 2002.

In 2001, the Nunavut Broadband Task Force was established as a local conduit to the National Broadband Task Force so that the fledgling territory's voice could be heard. It made 27 recommendations before completing its mandate, and was succeeded by the not-for-profit Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation (NBDC) in 2003. NBDC's initial job, in part, was to oversee implementation of several key recommendations from the territorial Task Force, including one calling for affordable, easy access to broadband services for residents of all communities, no matter how remote.

"When you actually do the math on how much it costs to put in a satellite infrastructure to, say Grise Fiord (Canada's northernmost settlement, with a population of less than 200 on Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic) versus Iqaluit, then compare that to the number of possible users and divide it on a per-capita cost, no business person would have connected Grise Fiord,'' Thomas points out.

But consistent with the Task Force's recommendation, the project wasn't assessed on a pure business model basis. All communities were connected, and basic broadband subscriptions for all users are now equitably priced at $60 a month across Nunavut. This equality exists in spite of the special challenges and costs that were involved to make high speed access a reality in the most remote communities.

Another major responsibility of NBDC is to ensure that broadband access enhances economic development within Nunavut. One strategy designed to fulfill this is by having community service providers (CSP) located in each of the Territory's 25 venues, thus ensuring some of the subscription revenues stay within the community.

In Pangnirtung, for instance, the Uqqurmiut Inuit Artists Association is the local CSP, represented by Wilson and craft gallery supervisor Jackie Maniapik of the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts. The CSPs in all 25 communities collect a margin of approximately 20 per cent of gross revenue for their endeavours. In return, they assist customers hook up their modems (which requires a downpayment of $150), and act as the initial troubleshooter should any problems occur.

NBDC also tendered bids for a contractor to build both the satellite infrastructure, and provide the so-called "last mile'' hooking up all houses and buildings to the satellite dish within communities. SSI Micro Ltd. of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, was awarded the contract for both those jobs in May 2003.

Although located in the neighbouring territory, SSI Micro had previous experience in Nunavut. In fact, they'd previously built satellite infrastructure in ten communities, including each of Nunavut's three regional capitals -Iqaluit, for the Baffin Region, Rankin Inlet, for Keewatin and Cambridge Bay in Kitikmeot, so those were among the first communities targeted for deployment.

The logistics of laying satellite infrastructure for the other 15 communities posed a number of significant challenges, admits Ryan Walker, manager of the solutions group at SSI Micro. "One of the toughest parts of building these sites was getting the civil work done. The satellite dish is 4.5 metres, so it's got quite a wind load on it, and you need a fairly sturdy foundation to handle that,'' he says.

Moreover, the weather was often a major thorn in the side. Nothing moves in a blizzard, and accommodations are notoriously expensive in Nunavut because of supply and demand, so SSI Micro faced extra costs of about $250/night per person when forced to keep crews weathered in for days at a time.

Even when equipment did move during the construction phase in 2004 and 2005, things didn't always go according to script. "The biggest surprise we had was when our dish for Clyde River showed up in Grise Fiord, which is of course the most inaccessible, furthest away community you can imagine,'' Walker says, adding that it took about one and a half months to charter an airplane to get the extra dish moved to its proper destination.

Improvisation was often the order of the day, too, when smaller communities didn't have all the necessary equipment for installation. In one, SSI Micro's crew had to set up an artificial pulley system using a long gin pole at the end of a loader in order to get the elevation required to put the satellite dish in place.

There was also pressure from the federal government -- as a condition of its $3.885 million in funding -- to complete the project in one year, rather than two as originally planned. To meet the new March 31, 2005 installation deadline, SSI Micro had to order equipment a year earlier in order to ensure it would be aboard the sealift barges in time. There was little or no margin for error given the brief shipping season in the southern Arctic, and even shorter one in the higher latitudes where some communities can only expect one boat a year -- provided the ice breaks up enough to let it through safely.

Today however, with approximately $10 million having been spent to put the infrastructure in place as a resulting of funding from all three levels of government and private business, 2.5 GHz wireless broadband has become a reality across the Territory, with most of the smaller communities having joined the QINIQ network between May and July of this year. Concerns about whether this technological feat could really be pulled off have been replaced by the hopes and dreams of residents across Nunavut.

In Sanikiluaq, a town of about 700 in the Belcher Islands about 165 kilometres west of Quebec in Hudson Bay (territory belonging to Nunavut), Bob McLean, manager of Sanny Internet Services, is the hamlet's CSP. He helped establish a website listing various local artists' carvings, entitled Soapstone Artists of Sanikiluaq, back in 1998. The site subsequently became e-commerce enabled to sell Inuit art over the Internet to clients all over the world. He hopes the new broadband capacity will provide a much more cost-effective and quicker means for customers to transact through that website.

Darrell Ohokannoak is the manager of PolarNet, an ISP based in Cambridge Bay, capital of Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region, located on Victoria Island some 300 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.

Only about 15 per cent of Cambridge Bay's 1,400 residents are connected to the Internet, but those who've chosen to take advantage of broadband access are "excited it's finally here,'' says Ohokannoak, who also chairs the NBDC board of directors.

Subscribers in the distant northern community are using it in much the same fashion as their counterparts in the south -- online shopping for items like electronics and clothing, online games such as poker, and Internet booked flights, hotels and car rentals for vacations outside Nunavut.

Broadband makes things much easier for members of such a remote community, not only because the service is much faster, but also significantly more affordable. "Before when we had to buy our bandwidth, it was really, really costly and we could only afford so much. To cover that bandwidth, we had to charge customers a rate probably 50 times higher than in the south, but we'd probably be 100 times slower because of our small population and base of users,'' Ohokannoak says.

In Cape Dorset, in southwest Baffin Island, Jim Williams is taking advantage of broadband access to teach an introductory business course at Fanshawe College in London, Ont. The newly appointed training and development officer with the Government of Nunavut's Department of Community and Government Services moved to Nunavut from southern Ontario in April 2005.

"I was teaching that course when I came up here, and (Fanshawe) asked me if I'd finish it online,'' he says. "When I first came up, we didn't have broadband, and (trying to do) that was awful. You would eventually get through (via dial-up) but it just took so long. Now with broadband access, it's so much easier. You can get back to students right away; it's phenomenal,'' he adds.

In Sanikiluaq, housing foreman Arthur Lebsack of the QAMMAQ Housing Association, who is responsible for inspecting all public housing maintenance in the hamlet, says broadband access to the Internet for such activities as pricing materials has saved him a considerable amount of time inside the office. This, in turn, allows him to get out in the field more to inspect buildings and "take care of the men I'm responsible for.''

The only downside to broadband access, Lebsack jokes, is that it gives him less time to satisfy his caffeine fix. "With dial-up, you could go out for coffee and then come back into the room,'' he laughs.

Broadband access could also potentially enhance the educational experience by allowing for greater online interconnectivity between students in schools within Nunavut and the rest of Canada, as well as for professional development of teachers, according to Murray Horn, Iqaluit based director of corporate services for the Government of Nunavut's Department of Education.

Broadband technology could also allow a specialized teacher based elsewhere to supplement secondary school instruction in a particular subject area such as physics to a remote community, where there might only be a single teacher to cover all subjects and perhaps multiple grades as well, he adds.

"I think we're limited only by our imagination in terms of what we can do with this technology,'' Horn says.

Another important civil application will be to improve municipal operations through shared knowledge. For instance, municipalities within Nunavut often experience a rapid turnover of knowledgeable staff in senior level positions, particularly those that involve southerners, who only tend to stay in Nunavut for a few years. Thus, each new person, particularly in a remote community, tends to "reinvent the wheel because they don't have access to what the other municipalities are doing,'' Thomas says.

"A new senior administrative officer (SAO) in Kimmirut, for example, may have no idea how to handle water truck delivery and sewage management. They'll run into a whole series of problems that other municipalities solved long ago. If they've never done it, how do they connect with other SAOs to figure out how? The way out is to provide training opportunities for people who live there,'' and broadband access will "connect these communities via the Internet in a useful way,'' she adds.

Another potential application in the planning stages is to provide residents of Nunavut with a geo-science software program that will give them satellite images of the Territory, which can in turn be further scaled down in considerable detail. This is especially important in a culture whose traditional activities are intensely land-based, such as hunting and fishing. Moreover, the Inuit people must first be consulted by business and government with respect to proposed commercial activities such as mining or oil drilling because of the potential environmental impact such activities could have on animal migration routes or other matters of importance to their traditional way of life.

For broadband access to ultimately succeed in Nunavut, admits Itorcheak, there will be a nurturing period involving a lot of trial and error and growing pains. "It's like with a newborn, where it takes time to learn to crawl, then to walk, then to run. Eventually people will pick up on it like they did with video and desktop conferencing. You can do a lot of different things, but it will take time,'' he says.

In the process, he adds, it is important that the traditional knowledge of the Inuit culture be respected and not completely trumped by technology. For instance, no matter what computer models say, there is no substitute for the experience of hunters who've passed down oral knowledge about things such as routes to avoid because of ice shifting at various times of the year.

"We've got to incorporate what we've learned about technology into our communication, but at the same time, keep in the back of our minds that we cannot abandon everything we learned from our parents and forefathers. We must also take into account traditional knowledge,'' Itorcheak says.

Inuit population growing

2005-07-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

Canada’s Inuit population still growing fast

By 2017, Inuit population will reach 68,400

JANE GEORGE

Twelve years from now, the face of Nunavut will look much the same as it does today: four out of five residents will be young Inuit.

But there will be more Inuit in Nunavut and across Canada, says a recently-released Statistics Canada report that projects what Canada’s aboriginal population will be in 2017.

Of all the aboriginal populations in Canada, the Inuit population is growing most rapidly. The Inuit population will reach 68,400 in 2017 from 47,600 in 2001.

Only a major economic or climatic change could alter these projections, said the report’s main author.

That’s because Inuit women have a higher birth rate and more children than any other aboriginal group in Canada, the report says.

And fewer Inuit migrate to other regions than other aboriginal groups, says the report, but the main reason for the greater population increase is the high fertility rate among Inuit women.

According to Statistics Canada, by 2017, there will 971,200 Indians, 380,500 Métis and 68,400 Inuit in Canada.

The overall composition of Canada’s aboriginal population would not change significantly. The majority, 68 per cent, would be North American Indian; Métis would represent 27 per cent, and Inuit about five per cent — up from 4.5 per cent in 2001.

The study also says that in 2017:

Inuit population will still be the youngest of all aboriginal populations in Canada. In 2001 the median age was 20.9. It will be 24 in 2017;
Inuit children 14 and under will continue to represent a large share of the Inuit population. In 2017, one out of every three Inuit will be under 15;
Inuit will remain the majority in Nunavut, with 84 per cent of the population;
Eighty-five per cent of children in Nunavut will be Inuit;
The number of Inuit children in Nunavut will increase from 9,700 in 2001 to 12,300. “It seems that early education could be a future pressure point,” the report says.
The number of aboriginal youth in Canada aged 20 to 29 is expected to increase by 40 per cent. This age group is projected to increase to 242,000, more than four times the projected growth rate among the same age group in the general Canadian population.
The number of aboriginal seniors aged 65 and older could double, although their share of the population would rise from only 4 per cent to 6.5 per cent.

Usually statistical studies cover longer periods of time, such as 20 years or more, but Statistics Canada performed the analysis of information collected in the 2001 census after a request from the Department of Heritage: the federal government wants more information about what Canada will look like on the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

Hunters decry caribou protection decision

2005-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

IQALUIT – Hunters in Grise Fiord say the federal environment minister is acting too fast by calling for the Peary caribou to be protected under the Species at Risk Act. The small caribou is found mainly in the high Arctic islands. Scientists say global warming has made it harder for the animals to feed, and they've seen a 70 per cent drop in the herd's population in some areas. Federal Environment Minister Stéphane Dion announced earlier this week that he wants the Peary caribou to be listed as endangered under the environmental protection legislation.

FROM MAY 18, 2005: Wildlife board clashes with minister over caribou designation

But it has turned into another in a series of confrontations between Inuit hunters and federal officials over the listing of species under the act, with locals saying the facts aren't all in yet. The head of the Iviq Hunters and Trappers Association in Grise Fiord, Jaypetee Akeeagok, says he's tired of people who don't live in the territory or have much contact with wildlife deciding what species are at risk. He feels the information on the Peary caribou is still incomplete. Akeeagok says population estimates are still underway, and a survey his community did last year hasn't been published yet. He says many hunters believe the Peary caribou are following their normal cycle, with increases some years and drops in the population during others. Akeeagok says there still needs to be more use of Inuit qaujimajtuqangit, or traditional knowledge, before listing species in Nunavut. "The people who are directly connected to the Peary caribou, who harvest them and who practically live on the same geographically area have not even been consulted," he says. The committee that lists the species says Inuit were consulted. But the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board says it wasn't enough, and board member Harry Flaherty says the federal minister failed to send his proposed list of species to the NWMB before it went public. "It was unfortunate this came about and we're proceeding in writing a letter to the minister regarding our concerns," he says.

Inuit art advocate James Houston dies

2005-04-21T05:31:00.000-07:00

NEW LONDON, CONN. - Canadian artist James A. Houston, who helped introduce Inuit art and culture to the world during the 1950s and 1960s, has died.

Houston died Sunday at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn., the Day newspaper reported Wednesday. He was 83.

Born in Toronto in 1921, Houston began his study of art early on. At age 11, he studied with the Group of Seven's Arthur Lismer at what is now the Art Gallery of Ontario. He later studied at the Ontario College of Art.

After spending five years serving with the Toronto Scottish Regiment during the Second World War, Houston briefly studied in Paris before deciding to travel to the Canadian Arctic for artistic inspiration. He made his first contact with the Inuit in 1948, when they showed him their carvings. He lived among them for the next 14 years and became a civil administrator for west Baffin Island.

Houston became a major proponent of Inuit arts and culture, introducing stone, ivory and bone carvings created by local artists to the Canadian Guild of Crafts, the federal government, the Hudson's Bay Company and, eventually, the world.

In addition to creating glass and sculptural art, Houston was a documentary filmmaker and author of numerous award-winning novels and children's books about the Inuit people and their stories. His White Dawn was adapted for film in 1974.

For the last 43 years of his life, he worked as a designer at New York City's Steuben Glass Company, where he introduced the use of gold, silver and other precious metals into the company's glass sculptures.

In 1974, Houston was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for acting as a representative of Inuit artists and craftspeople and, in 1997, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society awarded him its Massey Medal.

In 1981, Houston's son John opened the Houston North Gallery in Lunenburg, N.S. – the province where his mother, Houston's first wife, Alma, who was also an advocate of Inuit art, was born.

According to his wishes, Houston will be cremated, with half his remains to stay with his family in Stonington, Conn., and the other half scattered over the hills of Cape Dorset off Baffin Island.

A memorial celebration is scheduled for May 21 at Mystic Seaport, a historical museum region located 16 kilometres east of New London.

CNN.com - WWF: Chemical waste�polluting�Arctic - Feb 18, 2005

2005-02-18T21:09:00.000-08:00

CNN.com - WWF: Chemical waste�polluting�Arctic - Feb 18, 2005

Musk Oxen Sculpture

2005-02-03T15:32:00.000-08:00

Stunning Musk Oxen sculpture 'Tenacity' 16 inches long, one piece of soapstone with horns carved from genuine Walrus tusk.
SOLD

Sculpture by Jim
http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Polar Bear sculpture

2005-02-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

SOLD: 'Nanuk' Polar Bear in beautiful white Alabaster stone. 9 inches in length.
Sculpture by Jim

Arctic Ozone Hole

2005-02-03T13:45:00.000-08:00

Arctic ozone hole may open wider, scientists warn
Last Updated Tue, 01 Feb 2005 18:56:23 EST
CBC News

IQALUIT - Unusually cold temperatures above the Arctic could cause a record loss of ozone over the Arctic this year, increasing the danger from ultraviolet radiation, European scientists warn.

Temperatures in the stratosphere – about eight kilometres above the Earth's surface – have plunged much lower than normal in the last two months and the ozone layer that shields the planet is already being affected, the European Commission scientists say.
Widening holes in the ozone layer could let more UV radiation hit bears and other creatures in polar regions.

Ozone depletion is usually blamed on chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, but scientists are pinning this year's loss on unusual cloud formations caused by the frigid weather.

"We get a lot of these polar stratospheric clouds forming, but the problem is they accelerate, or lead to ozone depletion," said Dr. Neil Harris of Cambridge University in England, who heads the international team of scientists monitoring the ozone layer.

If the subnormal temperatures continue until spring, it could lead to the biggest loss of ozone in more than 50 years, Harris warned.

"That's the big 'if' here," he said. "But if it stays cold – and there's no sign of it warming up in our 10-day forecasts – then these large losses are very likely to happen.

"At particular altitudes, it would be 50, 60, 70 per cent."

Harris said the greatest loss in ozone would likely occur above the Arctic Circle, posing more health hazards for people and animals there. They're already exposed to higher than average ultraviolet radiation, which has been linked to a rise in some types of skin cancer.

While there's a debate over what caused the low temperatures, Harris is one of many scientists who blame global warming.

"Just as the polar regions are probably most affected by climate change at the ground, there may well be a strong link in the upper atmosphere, as well."

Nunavut woman reaches South Pole

2004-12-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

Nunavut woman reaches South Pole
Last Updated Fri, 24 Dec 2004

SOUTH POLE - A Nunavut woman and her two grown-up children reached the South Pole on Thursday after a trek of nearly 1,100 kilometres, setting a new record along the way.

Matty McNair, a U.S. citizen who makes Iqaluit her home, became the first female resident of Canada to reach the South Pole on foot without help when her team reached the bottom of the world at about 3 p.m. EST on Thursday.

"I feel exhilarated and exhausted both," said McNair.

McNair made the 1,085 km trek from Hercules Inlet on the edge of Antarctica to the Pole with her children Eric and Sarah Landry, 20 and 18 respectively.

The group, which also included British couple Conrad and Hilary Dickinson, set out on skis Nov. 1, dragging their supplies on sleds and received no help along the way.

"I cannot believe we're here. It still amazes me and it's been such an incredible journey to do this with my kids," said McNair, who in 1997 led the first women's expedition to the North Pole.

From the South Pole, the team plans to set another record in their return to Hercules Inlet, making their expedition the longest foot journey on the southern continent.

They hope to make the return trip in 25 days by using kites to pull them across the ice.

Inuit Climate rights

2004-12-20T13:01:00.000-08:00

Canadian-led global Inuit group seeks link between rights and climate change
BOB WEBER

(CP) - A Canadian-led international Inuit group is beginning legal procedures to convince a major international organization that global warming violates their human rights.

"The destruction of Inuit hunting culture through climate change caused by emission of greenhouse gases is a violation of the human rights of Inuit," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. "This is rather new to the international world, but I think we're breaking new ground here."

Speaking from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she was to address a UN-sponsored conference on climate change Friday, Watt-Cloutier said her group will ask an arm of the Organization of American States to rule on the issue.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has no enforcement power. But a ruling in favour of the Inuit could bolster their case - especially against countries such as the United States, which have signed on to the Organization of American States but have been reluctant to take action against climate change.

"Because they signed on, they have assumed certain obligations they must uphold, and the commission and international law have shown that those obligations translate into respect for human rights," said Paul Crowley, lawyer for the Inuit group, which represents 155,000 Inuit around the world.

"We're looking at what may be a small jump, but a jump that is ready to be made, in terms of environmental security and international law and international human rights."

Crowley said a positive ruling from the commission, which has been in existence since 1948, would give the Inuit a greater presence and voice at international conferences.

"It is a well-respected commission that does make decisions that enter into the body of international law," he said.

"You win in terms of credibility into global negotiations such as those that are happening here."

Crowley noted that out of the two weeks of discussion at the current UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, only a few three-minute blocks were given to aboriginal groups to explain how they are being affected by global warming. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference was given one of those blocks.

The petition to the Inter-American Commission will take a while to complete, Crowley said. Interviews in Inuit communities will be conducted this winter and the document could be ready by the spring.

Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian who lives in Iqaluit, said studies suggest the Inuit way of life could be wiped out by global warming.

"Here we are, Inuit of the world who have lived in harmony with our surroundings, and we're being bombarded by toxins," she said.

"Now our climate and our environment is being impacted. What recourse do we have to tell the world to stop?"

© The Canadian Press, 2004

The Legend of the Giant

2004-09-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

The Legend of the Giant
“In the land of the Inukjuangmiut there once lived a giant who captured an Inuit hunter and carried him off inland
on his back. It was a long journey and the hunter contrived by various means to tire his captor so that the time
came when the giant was forced to lie down and rest. Once he was asleep, the hunter saw his chance, hacked
off the giant's head and made his escape.
But the giant's wife gave chase and caught up with the hunter. When she struck out at him he dodged behind
a rock and her blow smote the rock, splitting it in two. From the crack poured a mighty torrent of water that soon
formed a river. The woman, exhausted from the chase, stopped to drink from it and drank so much that she burst.
Thus did the Inuit hunter overcome his enemies and return to his family.
The river, which flows to this day, is called Inukjuak – the Giant. The settlement at it's mouth takes the same name
and those who live there are known as Inukjuangmiut – the People of the Inukjuak”.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part L

2004-09-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

Native American Recipe

Boiled Salmon-Guts

Mestag.ilaku

After the woman has cut open the silver-salmon caught by her husband by trolling, she squeezes out the food that is in the stomach, and the slime that is on the gills. She turns the stomach inside out; and when she has cleaned many, she takes a kettle and pours water into it.
When the kettle is half full of water, she puts the stomach of the silver-salmon into it. After they are all in she puts the kettle on the fire; and when it is on the fire, she takes her tongs and stirs them. When (the contents) begin to boil, she stops stirring. The reason for stirring is to make the stomachs hard before the water gets too hot; for if they do not stir them, they remain soft and tough, and are not hard. Then the woman always takes up one of (the stomachs) with the tongs; and when she can hold it in the tongs, it is done; but when it is slippery, it is not done.
(When it is done,) she takes off the fire what she is cooking. It is said that if, in cooking it, it stays on the fire too long, it gets slippery. Then she will pour it away outside of the house, for it is not good if it is that way.
If it should be eaten when it is boiled too long, (those who eat it) could keep it only a short time. They would vomit. Therefore they watch it carefully. When it is done, the woman takes her dishes and her spoons, and she puts them down at the place where she is seated; but her husband invites whomever he wants to invite.
When the guests come in, his wife takes a large ladle and dips the liquid out of the kettle into the dishes. When they are half full of the liquid of what she has been cooking, she takes the tongs and takes out the boiled stomachs and puts them into the dishes. When all the dishes are full, she takes food-mats and spreads them in front of the guests. Finally she takes the dishes and places them in front of the guests. There is one dish for every four guests. Then she gives a spoon to each guest.
Water is never given with this, and they never pour oil on it, for oil does not agree with the boiled stomach; and therefore also they do not drink water before they eat it, for it makes those who eat it thirsty. Then they eat with spoons; and after they have eaten, the host takes the dishes and puts them down at the place where his wife sits.
Then he takes water and gives it to them. Then they rinse their mouths on account of the salty taste, for the boiled stomach is really salt. After rinsing the mouth, they drink some water; and after drinking, they go out of the house.
This finishes what I have to say about the cooking of various kinds of salmon. They never sing when eating steamed salmon-heads or boiled salmon-heads, or when they eat boiled stomachs, for these are eaten quickly when they first go trolling silver-salmon.
The stomach of the dog-salmon is not eaten when it is first caught at the mouth of the river, nor when it is caught on the upper part of the rivers; but they boil the heads when it is caught in the upper part of the river, also those of the humpback-salmon. At last it is finished.

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The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part K

2004-09-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

Still, if cooperation remained an important value for most families in the 1950s and early 60s, the increased geographical mobility of village residents reduced the opportunity for its active expression. In families where traditional subsistence pursuits were regularly followed, expectations regarding labor exchange, borrowing, and sharing continued to be reinforced. Men hunted together and shared their catch. Women assisted each other with baby tending, carrying water, and similar household-related responsibilities. Members of related families helped each other too, constructing, repairing, and painting houses, borrowing another's boat, sled or dogs, and sharing the use of electric generators. However, as more individuals left their communities for seasonal or year-round employment elsewhere, this cooperative pattern became steadily harder to follow.

By the mid-1960s, seasonal migration was evident in all Arctic villages. Men left home for summer jobs as soon as spring seal hunting was over in early June. Many sought jobs in central and southern Alaska, or at one of the numerous military sites scattered throughout the newly-formed State. Often they were hired as common laborers or cannery workers, although a few became skilled carpenters, heavy equipment operators, fire fighters, and mechanics. Those joining a union found summer jobs through the employment office in Fairbanks, thereby enabling them to leave directly for their work site. Working "outside" also brought expections that at least part of the wages would be sent home, an arrangement that was upheld by older married men far more often than by younger single adults.

In other villages like Barrow and Kaktovik, jobs were available locally. But even here, the nature of the work left men inadequate amounts of time to engage in subsistence hunting and fishing. Working a six-day week, few individuals could give more than minimal assistance to others and therefore, could expect little in return. With sufficient cash income to purchase most of their food and other required goods, it might have been possible to share these items with the fulltime hunter in exchange for fresh meat, fish, and other traditional food products. But this modern version of reciprocal exchange was unusual, and the transaction most often occurred through the medium of the village Native store.

Many Inupiat expressed great concern over this turn of events; on the one hand wanting the material advantages of a good cash income, and on the other, disliking the penalty that it seemed to require. As the importance of the extended family continued to decline, further reductions in the traditional patterns of cooperation occurred. Could the expression of this value find another institutional base outside the extended family? Non-kin based institutions carrying the greatest meaning for the majority of adult Inupiat were the Christian churches. Here, members contributed freely of their time and energy in support of numerous religious activities ranging from weekday services and mother's club meetings to summer bible schools. Similar efforts were put into the maintainance of church buildings, missionary residences, and the like. But few thought such collective endeavors could replace the deteriorating cooperative ties linking families and generations together.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part J

2004-09-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

While these comments reflect an especially strong alienation derived in large part from his acceptance of Euro-American stereotypes learned during his life in the "States," many youths in the 1960s showed lessened regard for old Inupiat ways; and after leaving home, simply ignored the traditional pressures to conform. When their actions disrupted village life, as was the case of individuals who became aggressive after drinking, they might be brought before the village council. But the effectiveness of the council as a deterrent depended largely on the prestige of the councilors, their previous experience, the type of problem brought before them, and the degree of support given by local Whites.

A few village councils such as the one at Point Hope were organized as early as the 1920s when they were encouraged by resident missionaries. But at best they were only nominally effective. The only significant legal authority they had was the ability to file a complaint with the U.S. Marshall. The major impetus for the development of local self-government - Euro-American style - on the North Slope came in the mid-1930s after governmental responsibility for the Inupiat had been placed under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; although one or more councils were organized as early as the teens farther south in the Kotzebue area. With the passing of the Indian Reorganization Act [IRA], the Inupiat and other Native Americans were urged to draft village constitutions and bylaws, ratify them by majority vote, and submit them for approval to the U. S. Secretary of the Interior.

By 1960, all Inupiat villages with a population of 100 or more had some form of self-government. Most were organized formally with an elected president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and several councilors. They met at regular intervals and took action on such common problems as supervising the operation of Native cooperative stores, spring village cleanup, promoting civic improvements, and making and enforcing local regulations. In every instance, elected officials were Inupiat men.

One difficult problem facing the councilors was that of coordinating community activity, such as village cleanup. Not only did these village leaders have to contend with lack of precedent, but they had to be careful not to identify themselves too closely with White power figures for fear that other village members would conclude they no longer represented Inupiat needs and interests. Leaders who ceased sharing the norms, objectives, and aspirations of the larger group ceased being leaders. Nor could they assume an authoritarian or aggressive stance in their actions for such behavior went directly against traditional Inupiat values.

An illustration of how these factors resulted in the replacement of a village leader at Point Hope is reflected in the efforts to build a community-wide electric power plant. Most local residents were in favor of obtaining a power plant, but they had little knowledge of how to implement such a plan. Nevertheless, with the urging of the council president, arrangements were made and the plant constructed. Problems arose immediately, most of them linked to monthly charges each family had to pay for electricity. Locally designated "bill collectors" refused to press for these payments, at which point the council president, faced with the possibility of backruptcy, aggresssively reminded the villagers of what happens to White Americans who refused to pay their bills. Although the installation of meters eventually resolved the immediate financial problem, this leader lost much of his influence and was not re-elected to the council. Similar problems emerged elsewhere at this time as the primary qualification for election to village councils began shifting from older prestigous community leaders who had the respect of the community to younger, more educated, individuals who had the ability to speak and write good English, but little other knowledge or experience.

But it was in the area of law enforcement that the councils faced their greatest dilemma. Having established regulations against the importation of intoxicating beverages, the members had no way of enforcing their rulings. The same problem occurred with gambling, curfews, and the confinement of dogs. With the exception of Barrow, by 1960, no community had obtained sufficient funds to hire an outside law enforcement officer - and few local local Whites, even if requested, had any interest in becoming involved in such a responsibility.

When an individual disregarded a local regulation, he or she was usually approached by a council member, reminded of the ruling, and told to conform. If the individual persisted, the person was brought before the council and asked to account for the behavior. This practice was most effective with village youths, but was pursued with adults as well. For more serious offenses like minor theft, a combination of council and family pressures would be applied to the offender who was usually a teenager. Before the 1960s, theft was uncommon among the Inupiat, and adults spoke of this misdemeanor with strong feelings of indignation. However, by this time the problem had become of sufficient concern that in most Arctic villages, householders locked their doors on leaving home for any length of time.

The issues which the councilors were the least able to resolve concerned drinking and the curfew. Although liquor was forbidden by local ordinances, the moderate drinkers were seldom criticized as long as they indulged in the quiet of their own homes. Beer and alcohol were obtained by air freight from Fairbanks, through a resident White, or from a friend recently returned from the "outside." Drinking was considered a problem when it resulted in such open hostility as destruction of property, picking a fight, or wife-beating. There were also instances of young Inupiat who under the influence of liquor, killed the lead dog of another hunter, destroyed furniture and other household items, and broke into government buildings for purposes of theft. Generally, under such circumstances, public opinion did not support taking firm sanctions against the offender. This was largely due the Inupiat perception that those who drank were not responsible for their actions - and thus, couldn't be held accountable. That is, "being drunk" was not only an explanation for damaging behavior, it was also a justifiable excuse.

Given this increase in social problems, the Inupiat remained committed to a common set of cooperative standards covering a wide range of behavior, and, with relatively few exceptions, actively conformed to these standards. In the villages, there was no overall sense of lawlessness, no rampant vandalism, delinquency, crime, sexual misconduct, or alcoholism.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part I

2004-09-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

Law and Social Control

Traditional Inupiat society has always characterized as having few social institutions beyond the family. Thus, in many respects, settlements and villages represented a community of interest rather than a corporate unit. Since there was no political organization, various social sanctions, customary law, common goals and norms had to provide the essential fabric of settled life. Individuals had great freedom of choice in their actions, but their security lay in cooperating and sharing with one another.

Nonconforming individuals, such as an aggressive bully or persistent womanizer, presented a continual problem in these localities. If nonconformists could not be curbed by the actions of kin or the force of public opinion, the one remaining alternative was to exclude them from participation in the community's economic and social life - a rather effective sanction given the unpredictable conditions of Arctic life. If severe interpersonal conflicts arose between one or more members of different kin groups, the villagers were faced with a serious dilemma, for there was no available technique for resolving feuds once they had begun. It was not until long after the government had assigned U.S. marshals to police this northern area that interfamily feuds resulting in bloodshed disappeared entirely.

As long as Inupiat economic and social security depended on the assistance and support of others, gossip, ridicule, and ostracism was quite effective in ensuring conformity to group norms. Inupiat socialization, emphasizing as it did rapid fulfillment of the child's needs and wants, freedom of action in many spheres, early participation in adult-like responsibilities with appropriate recognition for achievement, and the rejection of violence in any form, also encouraged the formation of a conforming rather than a rebellious personality type. However, this method of social control was considerably weakened when family groups became less cohesive, when greater opportunities for wage labor brought increased economic independence, and when substantial value conflicts began occurring between generations. All these trends had become fully developed by the early 1960s.

Given these changes, it was hardly surprising that traditional mechanisms of social control soon lost much of their effectiveness. One teenager from Barrow summed up this perspective in his comments on the strict curfew in effect at Wainwright in 1961:

When I visited the village, I didn't know about the midnight curfew for young people. I went out until about three in the morning with a local girl. I went out late the next night and on the following day a village council member spoke to me at the post office about the curfew. I told him I was a visitor from Barrow and I shouldn't have to obey the curfew. He said I did, but I kept going out late anyway. Finally, the whole council called me in and told me I could not go out after twelve o'clock anymore, and I said, "This is America, not Russia and I can go out as much as I like." The council didn't like that, but there was nothing they could do. I left soon afterwards, though. That Wainwright is a strict place.

After a similar visit to Kaktovik, this same youth gave further insight into the reasons behind his negative attitude toward the more isolated Inupiat villages:

After living in the States, I can't stand this place for very long. The people here, they don't know what it is like outside. Some of the boys brag about how good they are, but I just keep quiet, laughing inside. They haven't seen anything like I have. And another thing, they don't have any respect for privacy. Why, they just come into your house without being invited and drink your coffee, or anything. The people at Barrow don't do things like that. They have much better manners and aren't so backward.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part H

2004-09-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Finally, they came back up and the man saw an igloo along the edge of the ice pack. Then went inside and the man saw another bear with a spear in his haunch. The first bear said, "If you can take that spear out of the bear and make him well, you will become a good hunter." The man broke off the shaft, eased the spear point out of the bear's haunch, and the wound began to heal. Then the first bear took off his bearskin "parka" and became a man. After the wound was healed completely, the bear-man put back on his bearskin "parka," told the poor hunter to climb on his back and close his eyes, and together they went back into the sea. When the bear finally stopped, he asked the man to open his eyes. Looking around, the man realized he had been returned to the spot from which he began his journey. He thought he had only been gone a day, but on arriving home, he found that he had been away a month. From then on, the man was always a good hunter.

In this, as in many other myths, spirits of animals represented the controlling powers. Essentially, the Inupiat perception of the universe was one in which the various supernatural forces were largely hostile toward human beings. By means of ritual and magic, however, the Inupiat could influence the supernatural forces toward a desired end - be it influencing the weather and food supply, ensuring protection against illness, or curing illness when it struck. The power to influence these events came from the use of charms, amnulets, and magical formulas, observance of taboos, and the practice of sorcery.

Although all individuals had access to supernatural power, some were considered to be especially endowed. With proper training, these individuals could become a practicing shaman, or angatqaq. The Inupiat angatqaq was a dominant personality and powerful leader. Due to their great intimacy with the world of the supernatural they were considered particularly well qualified to cure the sick, control the forces of nature, and predict future events. At the same time, they were also believed to have the power to bring illness, either to avenge some actual or imagined wrong, or to profit materially from its subsequent cure.

The Inupiat of this region traditionally saw illness as resulting from one or two major causes: the loss of one's soul or the intrusion of a foreign object. A person's soul could wander away during one's sleep, be taken away by a malevolent shaman, or leave because the individual failed to follow certain restrictions placed on her or him by a shaman or the culture in general. Illness caused by intrusion was usually the work of a hostile shaman, but in either case, an effective cure for a serious illness could only be achieved through the services of a competent Native curer.

Although shamans had extensive powers, lay Inupiat were not without their own sources of supernatural influence. By means of various songs, charms, magical incantations, and even names, individuals could ensure the desired end. The acquisition of these instruments of supernatural power came through inheritance, purchase, or trade, with charms and songs changing hands most easily and often. The major difference between the shaman and the lay Inupiat was the greater degree of supernatural power assumed to be held by the former. The shaman did have one particular advantage, however - access to a tuungaq - or "helping spirit." Similar to the concept of guardian spirit found throughout many Native American groups, the tuungaq was commonly an animal spirit, often a land mammal that could be called upon at any time to assist the shaman. When it was to the shaman's advantage, it was believed that he might turn himself into the animal represented by the spirit.

The influence of the shaman began to decline following the arrival of White whalers who, without regard for the numerous taboos rigidly enforced by the Inupiat shamans, consistently killed large numbers of whales. Native converts to Christianity, holding the bible aloft, also flaunted traditional taboos without suffering, By the early 1960s, shamanism was rarely if ever practiced in northern Alaska. This does not mean, however, that individuals once known to be shamans, or capable of becoming shamans, were ignored. On the contrary, the Inupiat felt quite uneasy about such people.

At this time, the Presbyterian, Catholic, and Episcopal churches on the North Slope had been joined by several new denominations including the Assembly of God in Barrow and Kaktovik and, to a lesser extent, the Evangelical Friends in the area of Point Hope. All of these church groups stressed the efficacy of prayer - that is, the immediate intervention of God in daily affairs. This intervention was usually asked in two major areas: hunting and health. The churches preached that God could heal directly, although the evangelical churches put forward this doctrine more forcefully. Presbyterians, for example, used prayer as a supplement to medicine whereas the Assembly of God members frequently reversed the emphasis. In the Presbyterian church, the minister or congregation as a whole might be asked to pray for an ill member. In the Assembly of God church, any small group of members regardless of status were commonly called upon to help "lay on [healing] hands" when someone was sick.

Prior to the arrival of the evangelical missionaries, each village had one established church. There is little question that the homogeneity of religious belief arising from this arrangement encouraged a sense of identity within the village as well as with the Judeo-Christian world. Regular services brought together most village residents in a common ritual. The establishment of local church offices provided a structure for the emergence of new leaders. And a common doctrine set a standard by which Inupiat could measure their own religious and moral behavior. So too, resentment against others within our outside the community found expression in the act of refusing to attend church - an action that was quite effective since attendance at that time was one of the few activities expected of all village residents. Only salaried employees could be considered exempt, and even then, the more religious felt considerable qualms about working on the Sabbath.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part G

2004-09-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

Following a period of general relaxation, informal conversation, and further serving of meat and tea, the nalukatak skin ["skin for tossing"] was brought out. Of all the Inupiat ceremonial customs, the nalukatak or "blanket toss" is probably the most well known to Euro-Americans; and it was an exciting event to watch.

After bringing out a skin [made by sewing numerous walrus hides together], thirty or more Inupiat took their places in a circle, grasping firmly with both hands the rope handgrips or rolled edge. The object of the game was to toss a person into the air as high as possible - sometimes reaching more than twenty feet. Such people were expected to keep their balance and return upright to the blanket. Especially skilled individuals might do turns and flips. Usually the first to be tossed were the successful umialit. In earlier days, while high in the air, they were expected to throw out gifts of baleen, tobacco and other items to the crowd. More recently, candy has been used as a substitute. Once an individual lost her or his footing, another took a turn until all had a chance to participate.

In the late afternoon or evening, a dance was scheduled. When a permanent dance floor or temporary board platform had been made ready, five or ten male drummers, supported by a chorus of men and women, announced the beginning of the dance. The first dance, called the umialikit, was obligatory for the umialik, his wife and crew. All other crew members then danced in turn, followed by other men and women in the village. The affair usually lasted well into the night.

Christian and national holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, Easter, and Independence Day, were actively celebrated by the Inupiat as well.

Religion and Health

At this time, contradictions between traditional Inupiat beliefs and those of Christianity were given little direct attention. Most adult villagers considered themselves to be staunch supporters of Christianity. But they also held other beliefs that they knew EuroAmericans didn't share - and thus were cautious about discussing them with outsiders.

One way to learn about earlier Inupiat religious beliefs was to ask the elders to relate legends that had passed down from generation to generation. A well-known story shared by an elderly Barrow resident illustrates the animistic nature of Inupiat religion:

Once there was a poor hunter. He always went out but never got anything. Finally, one day he saw a polar bear. As he crawled toward it over the ice, the bear said to him, "Don't shoot me. If you follow me and do what I say, I will make it so you will always be able to get whatever animals you think about." The bear told the man to climb on his back and close his eyes. "Do not open them until I tell you to." Then, the man and the bear went down into the sea a long way. "Do not open your eyes," the bear reminded him.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part F

2004-09-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

All Inupiat children from six to sixteen were required to attend local Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA] schools. Parents generally agreed that school was a necessary part of the modern child's education, and children themselves enjoyed the contrast of school and home. Still, the themes addressed in the classroom differed markedly from those of everyday Inupiat life, and many a youth would have preferred lessons in hunting and skin sewing to those in arithmetic, geography, social studies, and English. Nor did they see much benefit in following newly arrived BIA teachers admonitions that they learn to "Be prompt," Work hard to achieve success," Learn the values of banking and budgeting," and particularly "Keep clean," for such middle class American values had little meaning for life at home.

Beyond Kin: Social and Cultural Life

Although the core of aboriginal Inupiat life centered around the nuclear and extended family, the relationship was continually reinforced by patterns of mutual aid and reciprocal obligation. Beyond the immediate circle of kin, there existed additional social groups, some of which were kin-based and others which were not. Joking partners, for example were usually cross-cousins. Hunting partners were often related, though not always. The qargi club houses, primarily used by extended families for educational and ceremonial purposes, also served as socializing centers for unrelated others. In the large whaling community of Barrow, there were once three qargit, each linked with a whaling captain [umialik] and his crew, although additional family members and their wives were not excluded. It was through participation in institutions such as the qargi that the Inupiat developed a larger sense of identity with a particular locality or settlement.

At one time, the qargi was the meeting place of one of the most important aboriginal festivals held on the North Slope - the Messenger Feast. Usually organized in December, it was a ceremony with both social and economic significance. In early winter, an umialik of a given settlement sent messegers to a nearby locality to invite its residents to participate in an economic exchange. Because of the effort that had to be expended, no one group could afford to give such a feast each year. The choice of the invited settlement was based on the number of trading partners involved and the length of time lapsed since the previous invitation. Elaborate gift exchange between residents added to the development of inter-community solidarity, as did the opportunity for distant kin to re-establish social and economic ties while participating in the activities of the feast.

By the early 1960s, neither the qargi ceremonial centers nor the Messenger Feast were significant community institutions on the North Slope. No qargi remained at Barrow or Wainwright, and at Point Hope the two qargit were only meaningful in so far as they affected the patterning of the Christmas and spring whaling feasts. Similarly, only a vestige of the Messenger Feast was held between Christmas and New Year's Day.

The one important traditional ceremony still actively participated in through the 1960s [and continuing to the present] was the nalukatak, or spring whaling festival. Arrangements for this celebration, which took place at the end of the whaling season, were made by the successful umialiks and their families. If no whales were caught, there was no ceremony. Formerly, the festival took place in the qargi of the successful umialik. One of its purposes was to propitiate the spirits of the deceased whales and ensure through magical means the success of future hunting seasons. A modern adaptation of this religious belief is seen on those occasions when Christian prayers of thanksgiving are recited during the ceremony.

On the day chosen for the event, every boat crew that had killed one or more whales during the season hauled their umiaq out of the sea and dragged them to the ceremonial site. The boats were then turned on their side to serve as windbreaks and temporary shelter for the participants, and braced with paddles or forked sticks. Masts were erected at the bow and from the top were flown the small bright-colored flags of each umialik. Before Christian teaching changed the practice, the captain placed his hunting charms and amulets on these masts. When the site had been arranged completely and a prayer given, the families of the umialik cut off the flukes and other choice sections of a whale, and distributed them along with tea, buscuits, and other food to all invited guests.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part E

2004-09-26T06:27:00.000-07:00

Young girls, and to a lesser extent young boys, learned techniques of butchering while on hunting trips with older siblings and adults. In most instances, however, neither girls nor boys became at all proficient in this skill until their late-teens or early twenties. Prior to complusory school attendance and the hospitalization of large numbers of youths for tuberculosis, such knowledge was attained at an earlier age. A girl, especially, learned butchering as a young teenager since this skill was essential in attracting a good husband. But by the 1960s, it was more likely to be picked up after marriage - and not always then.

Still, while a gender division of labor among youths was clearly recognized by the Inupiat, it was far from rigid. Boys occasionally swept up the house and helped with cooking. Girls and their mothers went on fishing and duck hunting trips; and sometimes caribou hunting as well. Thus, among the youths, each gender learned that it could assume the reponsibilities of the other when the occasion arose, albeit in an auxilary role.

Siblings played together more happily than is often the case in American society, but sibling rivalry was not completely absent. Hostility was generally expressed by tattling or engaging in some form of minor physical abuse. However, anyone indulging in hard pushing, elbowing, pinching, or hitting was told immediately to stop. Rather than fight back, the injured party was more likely to request help from an older sibling or near adult. Verbal abuse was also rare.

By contrast, competiveness, derived from pride of achievement or skill attainment, characterized many children's activities. In games involving athletic prowess, a child would say, "Look how far I can throw the stone," rather than "I can throw the stone farther than you." When rivalry was more direct, it was expected that the game be undertaken in good spirit and the skills of one participant not be flouted at the expense of the other. Aggressive competitiveness was explicitly condemned, as when a father childed his son, "Why you always wanting to win?"

Only very young children limited their play to those of like age. After reaching five or six, the age range of playmates widened considerably. Team games such as "Eskimo football," were particularly popular and had as participants children of both sexes ranging in age from five to twelve. The game combined elements of soccer and `keepaway,'and when played by older boys, elements of rugby as well. It was not until adolescence that a young person actively set herself or himself apart from other children. Youths of this age group briefly watched youngsters play volleyball or some other game, but seldom participated. Adults encouraged this separation, and when they saw a teen-age boy or girl playing with younger children, they would say, "That person is a little slow in his [or her] development."

Many other popular games were played as well. Some, involving feats of skill and strength such as hand wrestling, have had a long history among the Inupiat. Others such as kick-the-can, volleyball, and board games like monopoly and scrabble, were introduced by Whites. Still other games combined elements of both. Haku, an Inupiat team game in which the object was to make the members of the opposite team laugh, included the offering of amusing portraits of Hawaiian and Spanish dances, done, if possible, with a straight face. A few traditional Inupiat games like putigarok, a form of tag where the person who was "it" tried to touch another on the same spot on the body in which he or she was tagged, closely resembled the western game of tag. Some children occasionally played a fantasy game called "polar bear" in which one child took the role of an old woman who fell asleep. The polar bear then came and took away her child. She then woke up and attempted to discover where the bear had hidden it. At Barrow, Inupiat children played a slightly different version of the same game called "old woman." A youth played the role of an old woman who pretended to be blind. When several of her posessions were stolen, she "accused" other children of taking them. This game required a fair amount of verbal exchange. The more able the talker, the more likely the winner. Story telling was one of the most popular forms of Inupiat entertainment, especially during the winter months when outside activity was sharply diminished. Typical stories involved autobiographical or biographical accounts of unusual incidents, accidents, hunting trips, or other events deemed interesting to the listener. Following the evening meal, a father might call all the children around him and recount his last whale hunt, or how he shot his first polar bear. A good storyteller acted out part of the tale, demonstrating how he threw the harpoon at the whale's back, or how the bear scooped up the lead dog and sent him flying across the ice. Other stories told by other people described life long ago before the tanniks arrived. Myths and folk tales portrayed exploits of northern animals and birds endowed with supernatural qualities.

Children, too, liked to tell stories to each other. These short tales usually described some recent activity, real or imagined. Young Inupiat were passionately fond of horror stories, and a vivid description of raw heads and bloody bones quickly elicited delighted screams of fear from the throats of the listeners. If the teller acted out part of the story, so much the better.

The Inupiat child's creative imagination was reflected in all the activities of story telling, imitating others, playing store, and inventing new games. Young girls turned a bolt of cloth into a regal gown which they wore to an imaginary ball. Boys of four or five climbed under a worn blanket with make-believe airplanes to practice night flying. Charging over the tundra with sharply pointed sticks, a pair of six year olds cornered their supposed furry opponent. This kind of spontaneity, supported by flexible routines and a minimum of rules, continued until the early teens when events of the real world began to offer greater challenges. Only in the confines of the classroom did these children find their psychic freedom curtailed.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part D

2004-09-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

A youngster who wined, sulked, cried, or expressed some other unacceptable emotion, was told flatly, "Be nice!" If it appeared to be getting into mischief, it was warned, "Don't pakak!" There were other frequently offered admonitions as well: "Don't ipagak! meaning do not play in the water or on the beach; "shut the door," to keep out the cold; "Put your parka on," guaranteeing adequate dress for outside; "Don't go in someone else's house when no one is at home," reflecting concern for others' property. Most common was "Don't fight!" which was directed not only against personal assaults and rock throwing, but also verbal quarrels.

Certain acts like "taking without asking" and those involving potential dangers did lead to punishment. If admonitions were unsuccessful, threats of such a fearsome creature as an inuqugauzat [little spirit people], a nanuq [polar bear], or tanik [White man] were brought in for support. Or the threat might be unspecified, as in "somebody out there, somebody gonna get you." If this did not have the desired effect, the misbehaving child was dealt with more severely. The adult would shout, threaten, or actually strike the child, although physical punishment was relatively rare. More likely, the child would be isolated, a form of punishment reserved for serious breaches like fighting or playing with water in below-freezing temperatures. In keeping with the attitude that children were ignorant and forgetful, punishment was accompanied by explanation and reasoning. Seldom was anything more than mild humiliation or teasing used as a negative sanction.

A child's reaction to any of these treatments ranged from compliance, temporary fears, or unhappy looks - all of which were usually ignored - to sulking, rebellious shrieks, or silent resistance. This latter took the form of ignoring orders or repeating the behavior to see if the adult would take notice. It was rare indeed to hear a child talk back, verbally refuse to perform the action, or say petulantly, "I don't want to." Sometimes a child did threaten vengence - when it was angry at another child or an outsider such as a tanik - but it was most unusual to hear threats directed at parents or adult relatives. By adolescence, discipline seemed to consist entirely of lectures, though still delivered in the harsh tone characterizing Inupiat cautions.

After the age of five, a child was less restricted in its activities in and around the village although walking on the beach or ice still required an adult. During the dark winter season, the child remained indoors or stayed close to the house to prevent it from getting lost and to protect it from polar bears which occasionally entered a village looking for food. In summer, children played at all hours of the day and "night," or at least until their parents went to bed.

By the eighth year, some of the responsibility for a child's socialization had been passed from adults to peers. Children frequently lectured each other using the same admonitions as told to them earlier: "Don't fight," "Don't pakak," "You supposed to knock," and "Shut the door." Rule-breaking might also be reported to a nearby adult: "Mom. Sammy ipagak." Tattling was not depreciated to the extent that it had once been. Still, while older children regularly "played parent" in which they imposed adult rulings on younger ones, all children instructed each other irrespective of their age. Such instruction was generally taken in good spirit. Thus, when an younger child reminded an older one, "You supposed to knock," the latter was likely to smile sheepishly, go out of the room, knock, and enter again.

Although not burdened with responsibility, boys and girls were both expected to take an active role in family activities. In the early years, these were shared, depending on who was available. Regardless of gender, it was important for a child to know how to perform a wide variety of tasks and give assistance when needed. Both sexes collected and chopped wood, got water, helped carry meat and other supplies, oversaw younger siblings, ran errands for adults, fed the dogs, and burned trash. As children grew older, more specific responsibilities were allocated according to gender. Boys as young as seven might be given an opportunity to shoot a .22 rifle, and at least a few boys in every village had taken their first caribou by the time they were ten or eleven.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part C

2004-09-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

Concepts of hygiene varied widely and appeared to be in direct proportion to the degree of association and identification with the outside world. But few if any mothers expressed serious concern about a baby putting a dirty object from the floor in its mouth, or passing a bottle from a sick child to a well one. In short, infant care consisted primarily of keeping the baby happy. For the baby this meant being cuddled, fed, rested, warmed, and kept dry.

Without question, the warmth and affection given infants by parents, siblings, and other relatives provided them with a deep sense of well-being and security. Young children also felt important because they learned early that they were expected to be useful, working members of the family. While this included a number of tedious chores, involvement in the daily round of activities nevertheless enhanced their feeling of family participation and cohesion. Parents rarely denied children their company or excluded them from the adult world.

This pattern reflected the parents' views of child rearing. Adults felt that they had more experience in living and it was their responsibility to share this experience with their children, "to tell them how to live." Children had to be told repeatedly because they tended to forget. Misbehavior was due to a child's forgetfulness, or to improper teaching in the first place. There was rarely any thought that the child was basically nasty, willful, or sinful. Where many Americans applauded children for their good behavior, the Inupiat praised them for remembering. This attitude was reflected in many situations. In the early 1960s, for example, a father was observed lecturing in Inupiat to his children before they set out on a short camping trip. Asked to expand on his remarks, he said:

We stir them up a little to live right. Tell them to obey the parents; do what people tell them to do. And like now, when they go on a camping trip, not to take a new pillow. It get's dirty on the trip. Take the old one. They young. They don't know what to do. We tell them how to do things. Like our parents used to tell us. Same they used to talk to us. We used to talk a lot like that but we haven't lately. We begin again. Stir them up. They forget.

Another man discussed his nephew's helpless panic during a hunting trip when a severe storm threatened to wipe out the camp. Waking at night to find the tent blowing away and their boat temporarily lost, the boy had become frozen with fear. Never suggesting that he was cowardly or weak, the man was critical of the nephew's behavior, but explained it in terms of his not having had sufficient experience to know what to do.

Fathers actively participated in the daily life of the family; and in disciplinary matters, appeared to fulfil a function similar to that existing in many other American homes. Thus, a mother might say to a recalcitrant child, "Wait till I tell your father!" or "Wait till your father comes home. You gonna get a licking!" Among families with limited outside contact, the father retained a more dominant, rather than equal-participant, role. Here, the child was expected to be restrained, quiet, and respectful in his or her father's presence.

By the time children reached the age of three or four, the parents' earlier demonstrativeness had become tempered with an increased interest in their activities and skill level. They watched them play with obvious pleasure, responded warmly to their conversation, and made jokes with them. Though children were given considerable autonomy and its whims and wishes were treated with respect, they were nevertheless taught to obey all older people. To an outsider unfamiliar with parent-child relations, the tone of Inupiat commands and admonitions sometimes sounded harsh and angry. Yet in few instances did a child respond as if he or she had been addressed with hostility. This was due to the fact admonitions that were given tended to be indirect and general rather than geared to the specific individual.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part B

2004-09-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

Commonly, the baby was carried in the back of a parka by the mother or other female relative. If the mother was busy and no one else was available to carry it, she might put the child in a crib to play or sleep. If it cried, she would pick it up and play with it for several minutes. A few women, especially those strongly inculcated with middle class American values, might complain that the baby wanted to be held "too much" and was "spoiled." Seldom, however, would any Inupiat mother disregard her child's cries.

When outside, the mother customarily carried her baby until it was two years old or until another child was born. Strapped in place by a belt that went around the mother's waist and under the child's buttocks, it had little freedom of movement. Still, by the age of two, it had been given sufficient opportunity to move around that it was able to walk quite well. Sometimes a child older than two asked to be carried, and although the mother might fulfill the child's wish, siblings and friends were likely to discourage such requests through good-natured teasing.

The Inupiat infant rarely had a set feeding or sleeping time - which was hardly surprising considering the similar lack of schedule of most adults. When the baby cried it was fed, whether by breast or bottle. Following World War II, bottle feeding was encouraged for those adults with sufficient cash income to obtain canned milk. By the age of one, all children were eating solid foods including homemade broths and premasticated meat. Weaning was a gradual process that might not be completed until the third or even fourth year. An older child rarely was rejected in favor of a younger one, and the transition occurred with little difficulty.

Toilet training, by contrast, was begun early, usually by the first birthday. The mother held the child on a pot or on her lap, blowing gently on its head. When the desired result had been achieved, she indicated her pleasure with a few kind words and playful movements. By the 1960s, the soft caribou skin and moss undergarments used by earlier Inupiat mothers to clothe their children had been replaced by cloth diapers; and as a baby grew older, it was given "training pants" - cast off clothing open at the crotch. Accidents and near misses were treated very lightly although they might bring a gentle rebuke. Even chronic bed-wetters were not punished, except among more acculturated families where the offender was made to stay in bed longer than usual. In general, there was no aura of shame or secrecy about excretory functions, and no reticence in discussing them. During the course of her field work, young girls might say to Jean Briggs "don't look," but girls under four and all boys urinated unconcernedly anywhere out of doors.

Given the combination of large families and small houses, Inupiat sleeping arrangements varied markedly from middle class American patterns. Formerly, infants slept with their parents; but by the early 1960s, the youngest slept in cribs, the next oldest child or children with their parents, and still older ones with each other. As many as four siblings of different sexes might sleep in the same bed, all covered by the same large blanket. Youths were given separate beds on reaching adolescence, and if the size of the room permitted, they might even have a cubbyhole or corner of a room to themselves. However, if the house was small and crowded, quite grown-up children slept in the same room with their parents. Only among the most affluent families would a child have a bed of its own.

Discipline was seldom imposed on the child before it was one year old. This was of little significance, however, since a child carried on the mother's back most of the time presented few problems. Only when it had sufficient freedom of movement to pakak - get into things it shouldn't - was it carefully observed.

The Inupiat of Northern Alaska Part A

2004-09-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

Alaskan Native Knowledge Network

Inupiat

Part 2 of 2

Growing Up in an Inupiat Village

Infancy and Childhood

In the decades immediately following World War II, children continued to be a dominant feature of North Alaskan village life. An Inupiat child was considered a vital part of the family and enjoyed much love and affection from both parents. Families, most ranging in size from seven to twelve, were also much larger than in previous generations, due in large part to the more sedentary life style and the lowered infant mortality rate brought on by improved health care services. Few parents had knowledge of ways to effectively limit the number of offspring. No strong preference was expressed for one sex as opposed to the other. Some families hoped the first-born would be a girl who could assist in caring for those that followed. Others wanted a boy because he could eventually be of assistance in hunting. No matter what the parent's preference, a baby of either sex was welcomed on arrival with great affection.

Occasionally a family had more children than it could adequately support. When this occurred, the infant was "offered" to another family with fewer than it desired; or perhaps to grandparents. This form of adoption has a long history and is still prevalent today. A child was also adopted because the adoptive parents were childless, the parents had died, they were close friends, or because the child was illegitimate and could be given a better upbringing in a home with a father. Illegitimacy itself, however, carried none of the stigma characteristic of middle class American society. Adoption was usually, though not necessarily, arranged between kin. An adopted child always used the terms "father" and "mother" for her or his foster parents even when closely related to them. The child's origin was never concealed and in many instances it was considered as belonging to both families. The child might even call the two sets of parents by the same terms and maintain strong bonds with the real parents and siblings as with the foster ones. Whatever the reasons for adoption, parents treated the new child with as much warmth and affection as they did their own.

In earlier times numerous taboos relating to pregnancy had to be followed - for if broken, harm could easily befall the mother, child, or both. For instance, a pregnant woman who walked backward out of a house could have a breech delivery; putting a pot over her head could cause her extreme difficulty in delivering the placenta; and sleeping at odd hours might give her a lazy child. Births also took place in a special parturition lodge, known as the aanigutyak. In winter, it was a snow house built for the purpose by the father, and the woman entered it as soon as she began labor. She gave birth in a kneeling position with the help of an assistant, usually a female relative with some experience in delivering babies.

In the 1950s, women without access to the public health hospital at Barrow had their children at home helped by specially trained midwives of which there were six at Point Hope. At Wainwright and Kaktovik, mothers were more likely to go to the Barrow hospital for their delivery. Still, numerous stories were told of the hardiness of Inupiat women giving birth under difficult circumstances. In 1962, for example, the anthropologist James VanStone wrote of a woman traveling by small boat to Point Hope who at a particular moment asked to be put ashore. As the craft slowly moved on without her, she gave birth to her child. After cutting the cord and scraping sand over the afterbirth, she put the newborn in her parka and ran along the beach, eventually catching up with the boat.

By the time an Inupiat child was a month old, it was customarily baptized by a missionary and given a name. Every child received an English and at least one Inupiat name. Chosen by parents, they were almost always those of recently deceased relatives or highly respected individuals. When English names were introduced early in the 20th century, Inupiat ones often became family names. According to custom, the name given the child carried with it the qualities of the individual from whom it was taken. When an elderly living person's name was used, the person would give the child gifts. This action was prompted by the belief that after the older person's death, the doner's spirit would survive in the namesake.

When the baby was two or three months old, the mother passed on some of the responsibility for its care to grandmothers, older siblings and unmarried sisters and cousins. In these circumstances, a child soon became accustomed to having a variety of tenders, a pattern which continued until it could care for itself.

visit: Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Inuit legends - How the Caribou came to be

2004-07-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

Origin of Caribou

Back in the days when animals and men could change themselves and all spoke one language, a spirit came and took a human woman for a wife. He dwelt among the humans but does not hunt for food for he needs none.

The other hunters work hard to provide the needed materials for their families and slowly grow angry that such a one among them does not hunt. The hunters angrily say he must hunt or will be exiled from the camp. Angrily, the spirit leaves the camp and after walking several miles, the spirit punches a hole into the ground and out jumps a caribou which he immediately kills, then covers the hole returning back to the camp.

He says to the hunters "There, this animal is food, I am a hunter".

The next day the spirit goes out to hunt again, but this time another hunter secretly follows him. When he gets out of sight of the camp, the spirit once again punches a hole into the earth and once again out jumps a caribou. Once again the spirit slays it and covers the hole. Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched.

After the spirit leaves, the man runs to the hole and uncovers it, again a caribou jumps out frightening the man so he runs away, leaving the hole open so that all the caribou come out. They dot the land for there are many many.

The spirit seeing them, runs to them and kicks them in the head, flattening their foreheads and says "You must always wander the land now; and you will always fear man".

This is how the caribou came to be, why they have flat heads, why their colouring comes from the land and they are timid for they always remember a man kicking them.

My good friends

2004-07-14T08:09:00.012-07:00

My good friends Jeela and Jomie are two Inuit artists living and studying in Yellowknife Canada.
Their works are amazing to see. You will be hearing and seeing more of these outstanding artists in the Inuit Art world very soon.

Itu (grandfather) Jim

visit their web site at http://www.geocities.com/jeela_jomie

Apparently my friends Jeela and Jomie have changed their email address and messages through their (still active?) web site are not going through.

If you know either of them, please relay this message: "All the best of luck old friends, Itu Jim"

Inuit Legends -The Legend Of Sedna

2004-07-14T08:09:00.010-07:00

The Legend Of Sedna

Once upon a time, before the white men and all others, the Inuit hunted the land and fished the land. In this time, was a great hunter, whose wife had died long ago leaving a girl child. The hunter would raise the child himself.

The child grew to become a very beautiful woman with many suitors seeking her hand. The hunter was proud for his daughter, she could sew good clothing and in all the land none was so pretty . Finally the hunter had decided who would marry his daughter, with pride he called his daughter to his side and said, "Daughter I have chosen your husband, it will be this man".

The daughter disagreed and would not take the man selected, the great hunter felt shamed and in anger, the great hunter said " You have shamed me, since you will not accept a man, then you will have my dog, for that is all that is fit for a girl child who dishonors her father".

During that night, the hunter's dog came in and visited the daughter, on this night he took her as his wife. When the great hunter realized what had occurred, once again he was shamed and cried out "Daughter, you are with the child of my dog and shame me again, you will be placed in isolation as you deserve no better". With that the great hunter took his daughter and isolated his daughter so no others would be shamed by her.

But the dog husband loved the daughter for she was gentle and kind and so to save his love and the mother of his litter, Dog would swim out to the island, his packs laden with food and skins. And lo and behold, the daughter survived and gave birth to a litter, some human and some dog children.

The great hunter finding out about this perceived atrocity was enraged, unknowingly to Dog, the hunter filled the packs with heavy stones and so the Dog swam out with supplies. But the pack was too heavy and the seas too rough, Dog sank to the bottom and drowned.

Several days later, the great hunter feeling remorse for his only child, set out in his kayak laden with food to make amends, but was driven back, when in her grief the daughter sent her dog children to attack their grandfather. Fearing reprisals from her father, the daughter in efforts to save her children, placed her dog children in a seal skin boot and set them adrift upon the seas praying to the gods of air to see them safe. And so they were, they floated out to sea and became the ancestors of the white men. With her remaining boot, the daughter placed her human children inside, and once again prayed to the gods, and set them adrift. The human children floated away to become the ancestors to the Indians.

Now the daughter was alone and without food for the great hunter was fearful to return with supplies. Each day before hunting he would look across the sea and his daughter but never would he venture out to her again.

The one day as he glanced out, his daughter was no longer there, she had disappeared. For during his hunt, a handsome man in a kayak appeared and seeing the beautiful daughter, stopped. "Come with me, daughter, for I am a great hunter and will provide you with food and home" said the handsome man. And so the daughter went.

En route to her new far off home, they stopped along the way, and the handsome man removed his clothing for the sun was high and kayaking is hard work. The girl burst out into tears, for now standing before her was not a handsome man but a northern fulmar (Bird man) in human form. His eyes black, his muscles bulging. Without the need for human clothing, the fulmar now made good speed and soon he and the daughter were at his nest tent.

Time went by and true to his word, the fulmar provided food and warmth to the daughter and she did not want for anything. Together they had a child.

The Father had continued his search for his daughter feeling remorse at how pride had made him treat his only child and after many years of travel he once again found his daughter in the land of the Fulmar. The father arrived when the fulmar was away and seeing his daughter he burst into tears "Forgive me daughter, I have come to take you home". With those words, the father scooped up his daughter and with his kayak began making his way home.

The fulmar returned and seeing his wife gone, set out to rescue her, and in his bird form was able to catch up and try to regain his wife. His wings beat down upon the water as he swooped trying to make the father turn back. The waves grew bigger and almost capsized the kayak, the father in fear of dying, threw his daughter overboard so he could get away, but she held upon the kayak by her fingers.

The hunter in abject terror now took his knife and with one blow chopped off a finger, it fell into the sea and behold, it became a seal and swam away. The hunter chopped another finger, and it too became a walrus. The hunter chopped a third finger, and it became the bearded seal. With each finger being chopped, so the sea mammals were made.

Finally, not being able to grasp the kayak, the daughter sank to the bottom of the seas. As she sank, the Moon Spirit (Tatqeq) and The Air Spirit (Sila) combined together and said "For your hardship, we give you the power of all so that you will become the guardian for the Inuit". With that, Sedna was born and created a kingdom which lies at the bottom of the sea and was once again reunited with her Dog husband.

The father made good his escape, but memories of his daughter gave him great remorse so that one day, he lay down at the edge of the sea and asked his daughter to forgive him. As he slept, the tide came out and reunited him with his daughter. Together all dwell at the bottom of the sea.

Now when the Inuit transgress against other Inuit or the land, Sedna will make the sea mammals scarce and cause the seas and the air to storm, displaying her anger to her people. It is then that the shaman must travel down to the kingdom and discover the roots of the problems then solve and rectify them with the people. Only then will Sedna be placated and calm the weather and release the mammals so the Inuit do not suffer starvation.

In some cases, the shaman can enter a trance like state to visit with Sedna or can be given the ability to breath underwater. Sedna keeps a comb and when shamans visit, it is expected that they comb her hair from algae for she can not hold the comb herself.

visit: Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Inuit Legends -Origin of the Raven

2004-07-14T08:09:00.009-07:00

Origin of the Raven

Once upon a time, two birds were together and decided to become more beautiful
than any of the other birds. They decided that they would tattoo each other, creating designs upon themselves which would be the envy of all other birds.

As one bird began painting the other, the bird being painted would not hold still. Even after repeated scoldings by the one doing the painting, the painted bird would simply not hold still.

Finally, with his patience wearing thin and finally exhausted, the painter bird dumped all the black colour all over the colourfully painted bird and thus the first raven came into existence.

visit: Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Inuit Legends - Origin of Mosquitoes

2004-07-14T08:09:00.008-07:00

Origin of Mosquitoes

Once upon a time, there was a camp of Inuit, but it faced hard times, for there was no game nor was there fish or seals for the taking. Slowly, one by one the people starved to death except for two old women.

They survived by eating the lice found on each other. When eventually, a new group of Inuit arrived, they found all dead except the two old ladies.

Suspecting them of cannibalism, the old women were immediately killed and their stomachs cut open. Frightened, the lice grew wings and flew away and so the Mosquito was born.

visit: Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Inuit Legends - Two Shamans Contest

2004-07-14T08:09:00.007-07:00

Two Shamans Contest

Once upon a time, in a large camp, lived a shaman. He was good and benevolent and had the power to change his form into whatever animal he wanted. He helped his people and was considered a fair and just man.

But in the camp lived another, a hunter who was jealous with the respect that the shaman had gained with the other people. Secretly, this hunter began to practice shamanism, after many months he had gained the power to shape shift too.

One evening when all were assembled for games, singing and contests, the evil hunter addressed the respected shaman.

"You are getting old shaman, and should be replaced." This was shouted over the din so all people could hear. The old shaman just smiled.

The evil hunter challenged the shaman to a contest, let us see this shape shifting ability of yours, perform for us. The shaman would not do so at first.

Finally, after being continuously harassed by the evil hunter the shaman agreed to a shapeshifting contest, no one knew that the evil hunter had gained the ability to change form.

The old shaman demonstrated his powers, first changing into a graceful bird, flying around the sky, then changing into a playful seal and finally, into a bear. All who were there clapped at this display of magic.

The evil hunter laughed and said, "Watch this."

He turned from sight and then turned back, before the assembly stood a man with a caribou head, so shocked was the man's wife and child, they dropped dead from fright. So grieved at what he did, the evil hunter forgot the magic words to transform back.

visit: Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Inuit Legends - Origin of Ptarmigan

2004-07-14T08:09:00.006-07:00

Origin of Ptarmigan (a grouse with completely feathered feet)

When the land was young, an old woman was known as a prankster. This was in the time when forms could be interchanged. Anyhow, the old woman would play tricks on all the people, much to their consternation but to the humour of all.

One day, the old woman decided to play a trick on a small group of children who were engrossed in their play. The prankster crept silently up behind and suddenly she loudly clapped her hands.

The children frightened beyond belief, immediately transformed into Ptarmigan and flew away. Because they were but children, they did not know how to transform back and so the race of ptarmigan was born.

visit: Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Inuit Legends - History of these stories

2004-07-14T08:09:00.005-07:00

Inuit Stories and legends

When time first began, it was believed by the Inuit who were the first people that all things, humans, animals, spirits, etc., could all talk one language and transform readily into various forms. Humans could become shaped like animals, animals to humans, etc. In many of the tales that grew from their culture, certain other species living in the Arctic are explained as coming into being in this manner.

Before the Inuit came in contact with what we refer to as church and state they had certainly developed their own meaning for family values, community, friendship, trust, safety, courage and fear, love and hate, care and respect for the elderly, good and evil, Arctic survival and so on. All these important things were passed on in stories as there was no written language then.

In reading these stories, which were told time and time again, hopefully we can begin to understand a tiny bit of the culture of these Arctic Nomads the Inuit, our friends and neighbours.

These are some of the samples that I have collected or been given. Please note that some tales may be somewhat different due to the various regions of the North they came from and of course the passing from person to person through time. Each time a tale is told it may change just a bit from grandmother to grandchild and over and over but the message or moral to be learned stays pretty well the same.

Enjoy and share them with others.

visit: Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Inuit Legends - The Weasel and the Muskox

2004-07-14T08:09:00.004-07:00

The Weasel and the Muskox

One time during one of the seasons, much starvation spread across the land, so much so that there was nothing to eat. A group of hungry foxes spying a big fat muskox turned to the wolf and said, "Please go kill the muskox so that all of us can eat and we will survive."

The wolf responded, "I am too weak and cannot kill such a big animal."

Suddenly a small voice piped up, it was the weasel who said, "If you wish, I will kill the muskox and there will be food for all."

All the animals laughed at him for how could such a small insignificant animal, such as a weasel, harvest a muskox when the mighty wolf could not.

The little weasel went off, sneaking and creeping around the muskox, then swift as a striking snake, the weasel dug into the muskox's behind and the muskox bled to death. The weasel became a hero to the other starving animals for with his cunning he saved the day.

Moral: Even the smallest can triumph.

visit: Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji

Inuit Legends- The Lumack Legend

2004-07-14T08:09:00.003-07:00

The Lumack Legend

Once upon a time, lived a blind boy, his sister and an evil stepmother. The blind boy was strong and could hunt and provided much food to the stepmother. One spring day a bear attacked the hut, the stepmother yelled out for the boy to shoot the bear with his bow and arrow and so he did.

But the greedy stepmother wanted all the food for herself and the daughter and lied to the blind boy and cried out "Aiyyeee, you have shot our dog, our dog is no more, for this you will be punished."

The stepmother exiles the blind boy to another snow house, one that is old and smelly and is falling down. The blind boy knows he shot the bear for he heard the animal, much larger than a dog, fall dead. The stepmother keeps the bear and as the blind boy starves, she has much food. She only feeds him bits of walrus skin.

Seqineq, the boy's sister feels remorse, and so begins sneaking her blind brother food from the bear. He knows now that he has been cheated but can do nothing for he is blind.

As the weather warms, the blind boy makes his way down to the lake to think and while he is there a loon comes up and asks " Why are your eyes funny?"

The blind boy responds " I am blind and can not see. I see only darkness." The boy tells everything to the loon, about his stepmother, about his sister.

The loon calls over his loon friends and after much talking, the loon says to the boy, "We are loons and see far and wide, if you trust us, we will give you back your sight, for you have suffered much."

The loons take hold of the boy and begin to fly over the lake, suddenly diving with the boy in their grasps, he nearly drowns but does not tell them to stop for he trusts them. Suddenly he sees, for the water is so clear, it clears his eyes. The loons return him to shore. He can now see like a loon.

The boy returns to his hut that he was given, only to see, that there were much better ones that his stepmother could have given him. His was the worse. The next day, the evil stepmother comes to him and calls, "Come, we need more food, you must get us food or we will starve." But he sees that this is not true, for the stepmother is fat from bear.

The boy continues to act blind, and taking up his harpoon, he and his evil stepmother and his sister travel to the sea, where they spy two white whales. One small, one large. The blind boy turns to his stepmother and says "Tie the line around your waist and help brace when I harpoon the whale".

The evil stepmother is happy for she will eat whale soon, and thus she ties the rope around her waists and says, "There is a small whale ten feet away, harpoon it and we can eat, but do not miss like you did the bear". The evil stepmother plans to cheat him again from his share by saying it was not a whale but a small fish.

The boy, with all his might then flings his harpoon out, but not at the small white whale, but at the much larger one further out. His aim is true and the harpoon sinks deep, and as the whale thrashes and pulls out towards the sea, the boy who was once blind, steps aside, and his evil stepmother is dragged into the water.

The evil step mother changed then into the first narwhal with her plaited hair becoming the long spiral horn, as the stepmother is about to be pulled underwater, she mournfully cries out "lumack, lumack, lumack". Even today, out over the water, one can still hear her crying out as she is dragged around the seas.

The boy turns to his sister and says "Seqineq, I can now see and am I strong hunter, we will leave this place and seek our fortune with others far and wide."

And so the boy that was once blind and his sister begin their travels. Together, they wander the land, having many adventures until finally they find a group of families to stay with. All is good in the world, until one night, in the snow house, someone enters and has pleasure with Seqineq.

Thereafter, each and every night, someone enters the sister's snow house and makes pleasure with her. But it is too dark and she can not see who it is. In the morning as she glances around, no one looks at her.

Seqineq seeks counsel with one of the old women of the camp and explains what is happening for all men are married. The old woman says to Seqineq, "On this night, take the black from the kudlik (seal oil lamp) and rub it unto your face and body. When we know who does this, he will be punished." Seqineq does so.

That night, Seqeniq is once again visited in the dark and once again the man has his way with her.

Seqeniq arises and steps out in front of the camp, her body smudged and blackened, and looking across from her from the fire is her brother, he too is blackened and smudged. In horror of her find, she cuts off her breast and screams "If you are so fond of my body, there you can have it". She then grabs a torch and runs out. Jumping up realizing that he is about to be found out, the boy who once was blind begins to chase his sister, he too carries a torch.

Round and round the snow house they run, faster and faster, so fast do they run, that they begin to ascend into the very skies, but still they run faster until finally in one last desperate surge, she becomes the Sun and he becomes the Moon, Sila.

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Inuit Legends- Why There Are No Trees in the Arctic

2004-07-14T08:09:00.002-07:00

Why There Are No Trees

One day as Kiviok traveled, he came upon a lake and as night was nearing, Kiviok made camp. Seeing how ice would form over the water, Kiviok decided to make a fire and so he took out his great axe and began to chop a tree for fuel.

As Kiviok chopped, a wood chip splashed into the water and a fish was born. The fish looking at Kiviok, mocked him and said he could see the sky as he looked up Kiviok's behind, for Kiviok was not much in substance.

Kiviok attempted to ignore the fish, but as more wood chips splashed into the water, they too became fish and mocked him even more.

Kiviok enraged began chopping everything, flying chips turned day to night while the sun was still up so much did Kiviok chop, and as each chip splashed into the lake, it turned into fish. Each different tree produced different kinds of fishes, from trout to char to grayling. Kiviok chopped and chopped when finally his rage abating, Kiviok looked around. Behold there were no more trees left, but all the lakes and seas were plentiful with fish.

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Inuit Legends-Kiviok, The Most Powerful Shaman

2004-07-14T08:09:00.001-07:00

The Most Powerful Shaman

It is believed that shamans or angokoqs are made and not born with some inherent powers. To the Inuit, everyone is born equal but what you do during your life will determine your lot. It is believed that the spirit world looks down upon the people, and will see a potential shaman by the white light the breaks through the darkness of the nether world. The spirit will then approach the Inuit and ask to dwell within the warmth and the light, in exchange the spirit will endow the Inuit with the power that such a spirit can control. The greater the light, the more spirits will be attracted and so it will continue. This is what happened a long time ago when the land was new.

A shaman known as Kiviok allowed spirits his light and warmth, and so he was endowed with the powers, many spirits came and none but evil was turned away. So he became the most powerful shaman known and went on a great many adventures as he traveled the land.

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An Inuit legend _Kautyayuk

2004-07-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Kautyayuk

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a family was killed by bears, all that was left was a scrawny orphan who nobody wanted because he was small and was another mouth to feed. The orphan was called Kautyayuk.

Kautyayuk tried to become friends with the village people but they beat him. To keep warm, he slept with the sled dogs or inside the entrances to the camps of the people. To eat, he fought the dogs for scraps of meat. The village people would ridicule him and beat him for they did not want him around.

When he longed for human company, he would crawl inside the camp, both for warmth and to hear the people talk but if they noticed him they would beat him and haul him outside with their fingers hooked into his nostrils.

They would laugh and just throw scraps of walrus hide to him for food. Poor little Kautyayuk was always beaten and his nose now had big nostrils from always being pulled and thrown outside.

Finally, one night, the bears who killed Kautyayuk's family, came to the village. They could smell the cooking of food and were hungry because there were only a few seals to catch. "Give us food" shouted the bears. "We do not have enough to eat ourselves, for the caribou are gone and there are not many seals", cried back the people.

"Give us food or we will eat you" demanded the bears.

The people knew that the group of hungry bears would not stop until they had something to eat and they would attack soon killing all if no food was given, so the people who did not like Kautyayuk demanded that he go outside. They wanted him to be eaten instead of themselves.

Kautyayuk refused, but the people ganged up on him and whipped and beat him to the outside where the bears waited. The bears reared up, but a strange thing happened when Kautyayuk stood up to face his death.

The moonlight shone upon him and him alone, and he started to grow big and powerful. His clothes split and his muscles bulged so big did he grow. The bears attacked, but Kautyayuk was now strong for the Moon Spirit (Sila) empowered him.

Kautyayuk fights the bears who killed his family and he breaks them up like little twigs, Kautyayuk wins and the bears who wanted to eat him are dead.

Quickly the people rushed out, to get the meat for their houses but Kautyayuk said no so they attacked him with knifes but he killed them all but two old women.

"I have spared your lives, so that you will be abandoned and that you will know loneliness as you have taught me to know it" pronounced Kautyayuk. And so he left to travel the land, leaving behind two old women who pulled him by his nostrils and who beat him.

visit Jim's Soapstone Carvings at http://www3.sympatico.ca/ve3jji