Village Life Stories
Hunting walrus we need to go in the ocean. Walrus do not be on the ground they be on the ice. Walrus snore really loud. When we shoot not too far from the walrus, they don’t wake up. Hunting walrus it is very dangerous. The walrus can make a hole in our boat. Some Walruses live together. They have two tusks. Walrus sink if you shoot them if they are in freshwater.
If caribou looks too skinny, we do not shoot them. We eat the tunnuq. This is the fat from the caribou. The caribou can run very far. If they see us they will run away and if they smell us. Caribou have lots of fur. They fight with their horns. But only the male caribou fight with their horns. The female caribou got tiny horns.
Caribou live in the tundra. We use their skin for our sled. We use binoculars to find them. They sometimes be in a herd. They like to live alone sometimes and they eat alone. We go to camp to get the caribou. We go different places to find the caribou.
We bring guns when we go hunting and a harpoon for the seals. When we go caribou hunting, we make sure they do not smell us. We have to watch for the bears because they might attack us. If there is something stink a bear might come to it. If you don’t bring a gun when you go walrus hunting, you would not kill them.
I like hunting with my dad because I can learn more. And I do not like to be lonely. He can show me how to cut the caribou. And he can tell me where to go. He will tell me the right thing to do if I get something wrong. If I go alone, I wouldn’t know where to go. We cut the skin off first then cut the meat.
Shishmaref has about 600 people living. We play Eskimo games. We go ice fishing on the ice. Some people pick berries on the Island. Other people pick berries by their camp. Animals give their lives to us so we can live longer. We play Eskimo baseball, mana mana maa, izrigaa.
We have a picnic here at the beach. At the picnic we play Eskimo games. We go sliding at 18 mile or in town. We go biking on the paved roads and with our friends. We go bird hunt in the springtime. We use a bb gun to kill the birds. We do not use iron boats only some people use them. We go ride around. People go dog sledding in winter.
We eat qauq, it is frozen fish. We get tomcod, smelt, herring, white fish, bullheads, flounders and salmon. From the caribou we eat fried meat, meat and gravy, roast soup, dried ribs, tongue and heart soup, caribou stew. We eat izza, eider, duck, canadian goose, mallard, snow geese, loon, iugaq. We get seals, there are lots of kind of seals, there is common seal and spotted seal.
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This piece was submitted to the Bering Straits School District’s 2019 “Honoring My Culture” Writing Contest.