High in the Arctic !! Eskimo....

[Palgie]

You have started a small debate in my house

just thought i would ask, if you go whale hunting how would you kill it and take it back to the shore? as wales are huge right??

Also where do you get electricity from as water from the ice and electric don't really go too well with each other

Thanks for the updates so far very informative and i will keep checking this post for more updates

Palgie.

 

[Majik Imaje]

Home made wood stoves are very dependable. if you have wood!

We have lots of different ways to get / find wood! Along the beaches,

the point catches lots of driftwood.. even telephone poles are in the water.

the point catches lots of different items. wood is one of the many things we find when beach combing.. the most valuable by far is "fossilized walrus ivory that is thousands of years old. It takes many many thousands of years for a white piece of ivory to turn black down to the core of that piece. 10,000 years or more to be exact! That ivory has to be bashed around in the ocean for centuries for it to absorb all the elements of the sea.

if we don't have any wood.. then we will purchase some at the store.
sometimes the only wood we have .. is very very wet. but we use it,
immediately. how do you get wet wood to burn. "Sicpan" (sick pun)

"sicpan" is small piece of seal blubber. about the size of a strip of bacon,
slightly thicker.. you must be very careful when using sicpan because it is
so extremly flammable. But when placed on top of the wood that is in the woodstove. it melts into a very thick oil and coats the wood. Many a tent has been burnt down becasue too much sicpan has been used.

Eskimo's live off of blubber. = fat = flammable fat!

We eat lots more than just blubber. or muktuk, caribou, fish, berries, seal, walrus, ugruk, ducks, eggs.. ptarmign, Our menu is quite assorted with many different types of food. This is the main reason Point Hope has been established and cointinuing for so long.. Animals are so plentiful in this one spot.

 

[Majik Imaje]

yes.. time to move.. every week we have to move everything, because due to the heat from the woodstove, the plywood floor will start to siink into the ice. The ice is 20 feet thick, but we move a short distance away and clean everything and set it back up again

not much area to work in considering food has to be prepared for about ten or moe people on each crew. That is a tremendous amount of work for the cooks 3 - 4 times a day!

But even out on the ocean ice. There is just one thing that has to be present at every camp.. see if you can guess what that ONE ITEM is.!

yes !! Music! That plywood floor has to be hand washed very morning, and later during the day.! All trash is gatheed up and transported back to the village for disposal. That is a 3-4 hour drive that is very time consuming and seldom taken unless necessary. Where are the bathrooms?

They are located behind every tall piece of ice! Alapa!! ah la pah= COLD!

YES.. OUTSIDE! HIDING BEHIND A LARGE PIECE OF ICE! ALAPA!!
alapah.. = cold ah la PA is colder.. ALAPA IS COLDER STILL

PULL DOWN YOUR PANTS AND SLIDE ON THE ICE! (joking)

DEPENDING ON HOW.. you say that word.. is how you communicate how cold it is.
this person "missed the boat" because he was off.. going to the bathroom

hey! wait for me!!​

Waiting, watching, waiting, watching, waiting, watching ! this is fun!

Beluga's are very plentiful but nothing has arrived yet!

Midnight in May- Alaska, Land of the Midnight Sun. and you can see the sun & the moon at the same time in the sky! One is east the other is west and they revolve in the sky together in full view! may - August it never ever gets darkl

 

[cosmonaut]

Great pictures, but how in the world did you ever develope color film in such a harsh enviroment?
Cosmo

 

[Majik Imaje]

whales!!.. sssshhhh!! hide... ! QUIET~~~ SSSHH~!

EVERYTING CHANGES SUDDENLY.. sssshhhh!!

The color red is not allowed down at / near the lead opening. the tents are a 1/2 - 3/4 mile back from the lead.

hush ... skinboats (umiaq's)Quietly slip into the water, NO ONE IS TALKING NOW.. this is the GRAND FINALE...!!

we have been WAITING FOR SIX WEEKS!!

LIGHT COLORS ONLY sky blue, white ..

it is 2 a. m. here we go.. sssshhhhh.. all you can hear is the wind.

the adrenallin is pumping.. the excitement is building.. everyone is holding their breath.

STOP RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW! WE ARE SCARED !!!


of failure!........! This is not. like the old days. due to restrictions placed on us by the International Whaling commisson.. we only can TRY..

3 times! This is now a baseball game! 3 strikes and your OUT!

GO HOME! you can't eat your food!.. and we have to obey!

last year.. no whales.. we struck out!

Japan is curretnly harvesting 1000 whales.. for scientific purposes !
bullshat! they refuse to obey! and we can't eat. now.we have to pay
60 bucks for a tiny frozen turkey.. TURKEY CAN'T KEEP US WARM

WE NEED MAKTAK (MUCK TUCK) A = aH .... 'blubber'


3 whales is no way enough to feed this entire village for a year.

we now are limited to "snacks" of our food which we need to survive.

FLOYD Oktollik.. just couldn't resist.. ! atta boy floyd! -=click=-

see how calm. the water is there. close to the ice.. ? Just after they left.

I walked over to that edge, and stood there, looking all around all over the place. I am totally ALONE!... I mean.. alone.. hey! this is pretty cool.

So I walked a wee bit closer to that edge. where the umiaq went into the water.. I walked right up to that edge.. and stuck the TIPS OF MY BOOTS just over the edge by about 2 - 3 "... the water was like glass.

it is very calm.. no noise ... no WARNING!.. camera is around my neck hanging, and I got my hands behind my back.THAT GLASS LIKE mirror reflection never moved one bit. not even the slighest ripple. that whale just came up with no noisie.. no water movement.it just appeared.
A huge whale was right there.. I can see the blow hole about a foot or two from my boot tips and i could have easily stuck my foot into that basket ball size hole and that whale blew! WHOOOSSSSSHHH! and I got soaking wet. ! oh my gosh what a STINK! and I got this stink all over me. I am running back to the camp.. the tent.

I got water dripping all over on me and it is starting to freeze.. but this STENCH is all over me.. when i reach that tent.. ( I dont know why I didn;t have someone take a pic of me) Well I know why.. them women were rolling on the ground laughing so hard when they saw me !
they knew what happened just by looking at all the ice hanging off me.

DONT COME IN THIS TENT! and they fell back on the ground laughing as hard as they could! THIS IS A TRUE STORY..

i NEVER EVER went near the edge of that ice ever again to this day!

I got a couple of Questons I want to ask the Lord when we finally meet..

1. whose idea was that Lord ? yours? or that whale?

2.. who laughed the hardest Lord.. you? or that whale !

Akauq is cutting Tuttu with an Ulu.. that's got a catchy ring to it eh?

Got to start cooking lots and lots of food. when the Hunters get back with a whale or without anything.
Everyone will be very hungry.

 

[Chicagophotoshop]

cool pics. thanks for sharing. we live in as opposite of places as you can get. but talking on this forum as if you are next to me. very cool

 

[Majik Imaje]

.. and that cop was so mad he got out of the car and came up to me!

he was so mad! I said: (no spelling mistake) sorry Ossifer!

he started to chewed me out.. then it dawned on him what I had just said..! he looked.. hesitated.. and just left!:mrgreen:

 

[Majik Imaje]

.. and the work begins!

The flipper is taken back to town. brought before the elders left in town and the CHURCH bell is rung, over and over and over again!

 

[Majik Imaje]

now the work begins.. A bowhead whale weights an astonishing TON per FOOT!

WE HAVE a 48 foot whale! hundreds of people.. now.. we have to pull this whale up on the ICE!

This required 17 straight hours work! The Ice kept breaking! Everyone is exhausted.. all this.. just to eat.

TIME OUT!! WHEW.. everyone is going to be very busy for a while,
I am going to head back to the village and develop some "frozen film"
yeah! I got ?? how many rolls of exposed film on me, and at least 20 rolls of unexposed film, one huge tripod. camera(s) including a Mamiya RB 67

I am exhausted, carrying around all this Xtra weight. I have to take time out, and reorganize. I have to have a system for how to handle this 120 film which pocket for what and where. Fully dressed I have over 38 pockets ha ha ha.. you bet I lost a lot of stuff.! just couldn't find it.
systematic searches had to be performed UNTIL I learned how to organize my "body" ! ha ha ha.. ROFL.. I had to figure out a way to oragnize all my pockets.

Back to the village on a snowmobile. ! this takes hours.. Ocean Ice is not smooth. everywhere. trails have to be cut in certain areas.. it is slow going over all the little hills and such.

I am back in a flash. so to speak.. 11 x 14 prints and everyone is excited to see. that which just happend hours earlier! ALL PHOTOS were for FREE!... to eveyone in the village! 11 x 14 ! THOUSANDS ARE PRINTED UP!.. handed out .. !

now.. Kodak.. says.. ha ha ha ha.. I gotta wait for this film to warm up..
sorry .. I dont' have the time.. winding frozen film in my changing bag..

into the stainless steel tanks.. I know my adjustment factors and I fill the tank with WATER.. for 30 sec.. dump it out and get the developer in at 101.. this film is FROZEN.. !! plop! right into developing this film is thawing
in my pre-wash.. to get everything EXACTLY to 100.5

OUT ON THE OCEAN ICE WITH BRAND NEW PHOTOGRAPHS!!

This has to be a first! ha ha ha.!

earlier..when we had to evacuate the ice .. THIS is what was chasing us.! south wind..
GET OUT FAST.. ice will run right over everything.

Success! We have landed the whale, whew, hours were spent taking muktuk off that beast, before we could successfully get it on the ice. Everytime we thought we had it UP.. that ice would break. We don't give up and we can't take long breaks! TOO MUCH work. FOR DAYS!! no one is sleeping now.!!

HOW DOES A TINY SKIN BOAT with 8 people in it,
take down a massive whale ?

EASY.. the whale has to GIVE ITSELF to the captain of its CHOICE!

This SOUNDS like a "fairy tale"! That is exactly what I thought when this was explained to me. A whale GIVES itself ?

to the CAPTAIN of ITS CHOICE? That sounds preposterous!

 

[Majik Imaje]

This is a very dangerous situation. There is an incredible amount of Stress

Strain to pull an Animal of that size, out of the ocean. 48 TONS.

Accidents can happen.. in a huge variety of ways. EVERYBODY ...

OUT OF THE WAY-STAND BACK!​

This actually happened
Barrow Alaska, 1990, Pulling up a 60 ton whale onto the ocean ice. ( no pics)... See the "block & tackle on the far right..??

The captain. (standing in same position as in this pic) noticed that the 0 ring on the block and tackle was taking on an incredible strain.. He told three "white women" that were standing on the side in back of him.. GET OUT OF THE WAY......... move back.. GET OUT OF THE WAY.. (they didn't listen.) The 0 ring.. snapped and broke!!!!! That block & tackle took off like a bullet @ 200 mph.. !! it decapitated two of them women.. the third is alive as a "vegtable" she will never regain her "self"!!!

the mess had to be cleaned up. and then everyone. "BACK TO WORK' !!! tisk tisk tisk..

 

[Majik Imaje]

Elijah is the President of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commisson!

what a beautiful day, below zero!

 

[Majik Imaje]

THESE huge slabs of blubber, are extremly heavy and much work is required to drag them and distruibe the entire whale out into shares for each crew, as they reach the whale!

 

[Majik Imaje]

A huge 4 foot piece is taken out. We can't eat this whale yet. UNLESS we cook it.. the pink muktuk turns grey it is quite good, with mustard! Once the muktuk has been "cured" FROZEN .. then it can be eaten, but the very outside of the black part has a thin skin like the skin from certain types of lunch meat.. this must be taken off and thrown away.

 

[Majik Imaje]

AND HOPE for another strike!

I want you to look at the situation here. Eighth people in a fragile skin boat. In the Chuckchi Sea.. waiting for a whale to GIVE itself? HOW preposterous! Right ? We know better than that! Or do we!

An elder was explaing this to me in this manner. A whale can swim much faster than we can paddle. We have to wait, for that whale to GIVE ISTELF to the CAPTAIN of ITS choice! That whale can see, very well.
and to just give itself over to that crew is something you would have to see and expericnce to undersand. I will explain this in detail and you will be quite surprised at what you will read AND YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE what happens!

 

[Majik Imaje]

A young whaling captain.. .. .. who will soon learn the ways of the Whale, they are one with the whale & the weather. It doesn't matter which year a Captain catches a whale. That whale no matter which year, will always do the same thing for THAT captain. The whale will match the Captains personality. And act / behave accordingly. (have I lost you yet?).