Every day was full of interesting stories. Thanks to Henry and Stevie for the amazing anecdotes that follow.

The Bowl
Henry is carving driftwood. It's a thick, round piece of driftwood that is transforming from nothing into a traditional bowl. When he's finished, he will donate the bowl to the Inupiaq Heritage Center in Barrow. This kind of bowl was used in the traditional sod houses. The sod houses had an opening in the living area in the ceiling. This let out smoke and provided for fresh air, and sun/moonlight. During a full moon, before the hunt, the umailik's wife would hold a bowl such as this, filled with seal oil, at the sod house ceiling opening. The purpose of this action was make an offering and to ask Amayuk (who lives on the moon and is keeper of all of the animals) for a successful hunt.

The Umailik's Wife
I was captivated by the stories about the actions required of the umailik's wife during the whale hunt. More than once, Stevie reminded us that the whale is the center of their lives. "Without the whale, we would be nothing", he said. So, it stands to reason that the whale, the hunters, the umailiks and their wives are deeply tied to the spirit of the whale.

When a new umailik is named, the wives of elder umailiks go to the house to visit the wife to instruct her on the acceptable practices of the wife during the hunt. To this day, during the hunt, the umailik's wife must abide by certain restrictions in her movements. It is understood that the umailik's wife's movements are mimicked by the whale. The whale essentially becomes the umailik's wife. If the wife gets up suddenly, the whale will jump up suddenly when it is approached. If the wife keeps her movements calm, the whale will approach the umiaq in a smooth and calm manner. If the wife combs her hair (which always causes some hair to fall out) the skin on the whale that is caught will be really thin. The wife is not allowed to cut anything, for this will cause the line on the whale, when caught, to be cut. So she must be careful and follow all of the acceptable practices that are passed on to new wives by elder wives.

The Polar Bear Skin
Hank sleeps on a nanuq skin in the kitchen tent. We all sit on the nanuq when we're in the tent (it is amazingly, but not surprisingly, warm). There are also two pieces of nanuq fur that Hank uses on his four wheeler to keep the driver and passenger a little warmer and more comfortable during trips. I have always felt a particular bond with all bears and love the nanuq skins. At the end of our trip, Hank gifted me with one of the small skins we had used on the fourwheelers. It is important that I make it clear what a huge honor this was. Hank said it was because I helped him particularly in putting away some of the remaining ugruk meat (he was going to do it by himself, and I insisted on helping because I had learned no one ever does a task alone), and again when I helped in making the seal skin rope. He said very few women have ever helped with this task and he thought it was special that I volunteered. These were reasons he gave me for gifting the nanuq skin to me. Seriously, I was so excited I was jumping up and down like a little girl and I had tears in my eyes. I have those same tears now as I write this. I am truly blessed. Now, each time I look at my share of nanuq, I remember the story of how the bear was caught.

During one whaling trip, three boys were in the camp tent while the hunters were out on the edge of the ice. While they were hanging out, one of the boys just happened to take a peek out of the door of the tent. There strolled nanuq, not five feet away! He and the other boys tried to figure out what to do; one of them was only 9 years old. They discovered they only had two knives with them! The two older boys gathered the 9 year old between them and grabbed their knives.

They listened at the tent door for nanuq. They could hear him snuffling around the tent. When they heard nanuq move around to the back of the tent, they, hurried out of the tent, being careful not to attract nanuq's attention and down to the umiaq where the hunters and, more importantly, the rifle was. It turns out that one of those boys was Hank's nephew and he grabbed the rifle from the umiaq. The nephew carefully returned to camp and noticed that nanuq was still hanging around. Nanuq did not seem to want to leave the camping site. So, the nephew wound up shooting the bear. Because it was the nephew's first polar bear, he had to give away his catch (as is the custom for all hunters in the Inupiaq culture). The nephew gave his nanuq to his Uncle Hank, and that is how Hank got the polar bear skin, one piece of which I now have. I will be using it this winter on the vinyl seat of my car to keep my "sitter" warm when it's -40 degrees out.

Atiqs and Umas
Atiq is the person with whom you share the same name; it can be your Inupiaq name, or your English name. Uma is the spouse of your atiq. In Pt. Hope, these are strong relationships. Stevie tells stories of his Uma. Umas take a great interest in their spouses' atiqs. During dances, the atiq always dances with his Uma. The Uma will see the atiq in the store and always go up to greet that atiq and see how s/he is doing.

Stevie tells the story of the day a new preacher came to town. It turned out the preacher was Stevie's atiq, so the preacher's wife was his uma. Around the time of their arrival, Point Hope was having a masquerade dance. The custom for this dance was for the umailiks to set out lots of masks, parkas, and dress up clothes in the front rooms of their houses. The men would come by and use the masks and clothes to disguise themselves for the dance. Participants took great care with the disguises, trying hard to make sure no one would recognize them; they often dressed up in women's parkas and put nylon stockings over their faces. On this night, Stevie put on a red woman's parka. He also put a nylon stocking over his face. Just as he was going out the door, it ripped. He put another one over his face, but that ripped too. Still wanting to disguise himself, he spied a devil's mask complete with horns sticking up. 'Aha', he thought, 'that will be a good disguise'!
When he finally arrives at the dance, the first thing he sees is his long-time uma ...who just happens to be sitting with his new uma, the preachers wife. So, he approaches them both in character, dancing in front of them and trying to get them to dance with him. He is taken up in the moment and doesn't really realize he is "the devil" approaching his two umas (particularly the preacher's wife). Both umas are frightened and tell him to go away. They do NOT want to dance with him. The next day Stevie sees his new uma in the store and greets her with, "Hi Uma".  Thinking back to the night before and the devil who danced in front of her trying to entice her to dance, she carefully considered him and said, "I'm not too sure I want to be YOUR uma"!