A Great Cultural Experience

A man was hunting for seal and he got one. I'm not sure how they hunt them. It is legal for Natives to hunt sea mammals but illegal for anyone else. He offered to have it be brought to the school so two women could butcher it and tell us how at the same time. Ruby began butchering the seal by cutting of the flippers (back and front) with an ulu. Then she turned it on it's belly and cut down the middle making sure not to cut the meat. First, she had to seperate the blubber and hide from the meat. After she did that she made sure to tell us it is best not get any meat on the blubber so it is good to make for seal oil. They cut the blubber off in pieces and sometimes use a board to put the hide on so the blubber is easier to cut off. Once the blubber is off the hide, they cut it only half way and then turn it around and cut it half again. They put all the blubber in a 5 gallon bucket and leave it; this makes the seal oil. They use the seal oil to eat with dry fish, sura (willow greens eaten in early Summer), agutuk (eskimo ice-cream-berries mixed together with seal oil).

Then she cut the seal from neck to bottom. The stomach came out and then she split the stomach and all the intestines came out. Here is what one of my students said, "Are those snakes? I didn't know whales eat snakes? " I reminded him it was a seal. Then he asked, "Do seals have teeth? Is the seal dead?" It was so incredible to be part of this boy's understanding of what was happening. The Ruby and Jean (our secretary) quartered it. It kind of stunk but not too bad. The kids made a big deal about it.

Long ago, the Inupiat women used the intestines to eat and also to make a rain coat. They first blew in them, dried them, dyed them and then dried them again. Then they split them down the middle and had a piece to sew together to make a raincoat. I was amazed at how much my kids remembered and how well they listened. They told me the whole process themselves when we came back it. We then wrote stories about our experience. I also learned that they blew up the seal hide and dried it to make a waterproof bag to store berries or other food. I'm not sure if they scraped the blubber or not out. I'm guessing they would becasue I did read from studying the culturals that they used the seal oil in lanterns. This was so amazing and am glad I got pictures to remember it by.