They are from way up here.
In my opinion, these native people live in one of the harshest environments in the world – snow and ice, constant daylight in the summer and constant darkness in the winter. Their diet is almost all fish but sometimes they eat sea mammals too.
Man, those Yup’ik were creative and smart. Things may be different for this group today, but even 50 years ago they figured out ways to adapt to their wild and harsh environment with no modern luxuries. Take for example how they used every part of a seal. Of course they would eat the meat, but what about all the other stuff? Click on the exhibition website to see lots of ways the Yup'ik used sea mammals. (You may want to explore the rest of the website too. Can you find the "sun glasses"?)
Pretty impressive, huh? Could your mom construct a diaper like this when she's out of pampers?
At the museum I took a billion pictures of this jacket.
Isn’t it a nice rain jacket? It is thin and waterproof. Translucent enough to show your fashion fur underneath for warmth.It would be excellent protection in a sleet storm - or if wanted to keep your mukluks dry when fishing in your kayak for dinner.
It is sewn out of seal intestines – or if you prefer the more common name – guts. After eating the seal meat, the Yup’ik would get started with the leftover parts. They would turn the intestines insideout, scrape them clean with a clam shell, let them soak in salt water then blow air into them to dry. The women would hand sew the strands together to make this super duper waterproof coat. Just another day on the tundra....
This lesson focused on the Yup'ik people. Here is a link to learn more about the Tlingit tribe, those native to southeastern Alaksa. We saw many beautiful, tall totem poles in our travels. Click here to learn about the different totem pole symbols and click here to make a make a totem pole craft at home.
