Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442Murdoch, John
History
Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442
Murdoch, John
Eskimos -- Alaska -- Barrow, Point, Region
_The polar bear._--Bears are occasionally met with in the winter by
the seal hunters, roaming about the ice fields at some distance from
the shore. They usually run from a man and often do not make a stand
even when wounded. Occasionally, however, a bear rendered bold by
hunger comes in from the sea and makes an attack on some native’s
storehouse of seal meat even in the midst of the village. Of course,
in such a case he has very little chance of escape, as the natives all
turn out with their rifles and cut off his retreat. Two bears were
killed in this way at Utkiavwĭñ in the winter of 1882-’83. The bear is
always attacked with the rifle, often with the help of dogs to bring
him to bay. The umiaks when walrus hunting sometimes meet with bears
among the loose ice. If the bear is caught in the water, there is very
little difficulty in paddling up close enough to him to shoot him.
_The wolf._--The wolf can hardly be considered a regular object of
pursuit. Wolves are often seen and occasionally shot by deer hunters
in the winter, and one family in the summer of 1883 managed to catch a
couple of young wolf cubs alive, somewhere between Point Barrow and
the Colville. These they brought home with them and kept them picketed
on the tundra just outside of the village, with a little kennel of
snow to shelter them, carefully feeding them till winter, when their
fur had grown long enough for use in trimming hoods. They were then
killed with a stone-headed arrow, which we were told was necessary for
the purpose, and their skins dressed and cut into strips which were
sold around the village. Superstition required that the man who killed
these wolves should sleep outside of the house in a tent or snow hut
for “one moon” after killing them. We did not learn the reason for
this practice beyond that it would be “bad” to do otherwise.
_The fox._--Foxes are sometimes shot, but are generally taken in the
traps described above, which are usually set some distance from the
village so as to avoid catching prowling dogs. Though generally
exceedingly shy, the fox is sometimes rendered careless by hunger. One
of the women at the deer-hunters’ camp in the spring of 1882 caught
one in the little snow house built to store the meat and killed him
with a stick.
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