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
Other temporary structures of snow, sometimes erected in the village,
serve as workshops. One of these, which was built at the edge of the
village in April, 1883, was an oblong building long enough to hold an
umiak, giving sufficient room to get around it and work, and between 6
and 7 feet high. The walls were of blocks of snow and the roof of
canvas stretched over poles. One end was left open, but covered by a
canvas curtain, and a banquette of snow ran along each side. It was
lighted by oblong slabs of clear ice set into the walls, and warmed by
several lamps. Several men in succession used this house for repairing
and rigging up their umiaks, and others who had whittling to do
brought their work to the same place.
Such boat shops are sometimes built by digging a broad trench in a
snowbank and roofing it with canvas. Women dig small holes in the
snow, which they roof over with canvas and use for work-rooms in which
to dress seal skins. In such cases there is probably some
superstitious reason, which we failed to learn, for not doing the work
in the iglu. The tools used in building the snow houses are the
universal wooden snow-shovel and the ivory snow-knife, for cutting and
trimming the blocks. At the present day saws are very much used for
cutting the blocks, and also large iron knives (whalemen’s “boarding
knives,” etc.) obtained from the ships.
_Tents_ (_tupĕk_).--During the summer all the natives live in tents,
which are pitched on dry places upon the top of the cliffs or upon the
gravel beach, usually in small camps of four or five tents each. A few
families go no farther than the dry banks just southwest of the
village, while the rest of the inhabitants who have not gone eastward
trading or to the rivers hunting reindeer are strung along the coast.
The first camp below Utkiavwĭñ is just beyond the double lagoon of
Nunava, about 4 miles away, and the rest at intervals of 2 or 3 miles,
usually at some little inlet or stream at places called Sê´kqluka,
Nakĕ´drixo, Kuosu´gru, Nună´ktuau, Ĭpersua, Wă´lăkpa (Refuge Inlet,
according to Capt. Maguire’s map, Parl. Rep. for 1854, opp. p. 186),
Er´nĭvwĭñ, Sĭ´ñaru, and Sa´kămna. It is these summer camps seen from
passing ships which have given rise to the accounts of numerous
villages along this coast. There is usually a small camp on the beach
at Sĭ´nnyû and one at Imê´kpûñ, while a few go to Pernyû even early in
the season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account