Seal Hunting

On a nice sunny day, I was asked to go for a “boat ride.” With excitement, I went home after a day of teaching and quickly threw on my coat, borrowed Theresa’s boots, and grabbed a couple granola bars and some money. I was going with our school secretary’s family—her son is in my class. Although I hadn’t asked where we were going, I figured we might be traveling up the river to Emmonak, a village about 9 miles away (which has a better store with groceries and a restaurant).

As I walked to their house and followed them to the boat, I still had no idea what to expect. The day was beautiful, laughter and giddiness was in the air, and we waited anxiously as the boat maneuvered through the water to get ready to head out to the mouth of the Yukon. As we waited to get the boat filled up on gas, their daughter Dylani and I played with some stray rocks that were on the plywood floor of their motorboat.

Before I knew it we were headed toward the Bering Sea and Jadon was grabbing his spear. I finally realized the plan was to go hunt for Mukluk! I was impressed to see the skill of my 4^th grader as he held a spear to catch a Mukluk. After the seal popped his head above the surface of the water a few times and Jadon had no luck, some people announced Mukluk in a different area on the VHF (which reminds me of a CB radio, but runs off of different wavelengths.)

While the boat closed in on a group of other boats, I started to learn how the Yupik culture views seal hunting. It is not a competitive sport, but they work together as a team to surround and catch the Mukluk. The females and kids also have their own spears and try their hand at catching Mukluk. If one person spots Mukluk, they all start their motors and speed towards it. The closest person throws their spears. Everyone waits patiently and is good humored while the exciting hunt continues.

We hunted until a few people speared the Mukluk we had been chasing for hours. They putted in close so I could see them pulling the bleeding seal up on the boat. I forget the order of how they share the seal, but they split up who gets the skin, the meat, etc. After saying goodbye and gliding off into the sunset amidst the glassy Bering Sea, we zipped around enjoying the last bit of sunshine for the day and looking for more Mukluk.

On our way into the Alakanuk Slough, we spotted a Mukluk and a Nayiq. My students chose group names at the start of the year and the groups were the Mukluks, the Nayiqs, and the dolphins. The day I went seal hunting, I was able to connect the Yupik name to the actual seal. Mukluks have wider necks and are larger seals. Nayiqs are smaller with thinner necks and more pointed noses. It’s strange to not really know the English names for the seals. The Mukluks are called bearded seals, but I forget the other English names for seals. And I can’t spell the third common type of seal around here.

One memorable moment was Dylani throwing her spear at a seal in the slough. Her spear went the distance, but was a little ways to the left of where the seal had popped up. Her family laughed about it a little bit and we retrieved the spear. After about 6 hours of being around this smiley giggly 8-year old, I was surprised to see her mood change so drastically. The line of her mouth was as flat as her once-sparkling eyes. I quietly said to her, “Hey, that wasn’t too bad.” Her little mouth spurted, “Yes it was!” I let her know that she did a really good job. And if we never made mistakes, how could we learn to get better? Her reply made me think. “Ya, but I’ve been throwing a spear since I was 3!” I couldn't imagine how Dylani felt and it revealed a new perspective of growing up as a girl in Alakanuk. At 8 years old, I didn't even know seal hunting existed!
My day out on the water with the Ayunerak family was the most exciting day since I moved. It was a great feeling to be out with the community rather than cooped up in teacher housing. I was honored to be invited on such a fun hunting trip!