13
Climate Change Adaptation: Traditional Knowledge of
Indigenous Peoples Inhabiting the Arctic and Far North
Marine Hunters of Chukotka
Eskimo hunter, Malya, told the land surveyor V. Shatalov in the 1930s: “Our
people never shoot at animals if they are minding their own business and not
attacking. The animals understand a lot too. If you hurt an animal, it will hurt you
back. Offended wolves will later go to the herd and scare away the reindeer. They
can kill a lot of reindeer just out of spite. Not for food. They’ll just kill and leave
them. The elders taught us to stay on friendly terms with the wolves and not to
offend them needlessly.”
Sacred Animals
The hunters, especially the Eskimo, treat the killer whale with the utmost respect.
They believe that the killer whale is a male hunter. Up to the end of the twentieth
century in Sireniki the steersmen on hunting boats, upon seeing a killer whale,
would pour tea or drop a piece of tobacco into the sea, or crumble a cigarette if
there was no tobacco. The sea mammal hunters believed that killer whales were
their helpers. The killer whales scared the walruses, making them jump out onto
the ice and thus become an easy prey for the hunters. Killer whales were never
hunted, and older hunters still try not to disturb the wolves. Both animals are
considered sacred in the traditional culture of eastern Chukotka.
Fish and the Invertebrates
Fish are the second most important source of protein and fat for the residents of
eastern Chukotka. Arctic char and pink salmon are the predominant catch during
the summer salmon migration period. Calico salmon are less common, and chinook
salmon are a rare catch. The southeastern coast is home to a population of red
sockeye salmon (the fish and its meat are bright red). The indigenous residents
love red salmon, especially smoked.
Fish suitable for harvest are few in the inland waters of the Chukotka Peninsula.
The indigenous residents have always caught most of their fish in the sea (Arctic
cod, navaga, codfish, flounder, and gobies).
Aside from fish the indigenous residents of the Provideniya and Novoye Chaplino
settlements also catch an invertebrate called ascidian, or upa (the sea squirt). Sea
squirts (upa) and other invertebrates, crab, shrimp, sea urchins and star fish, small
octopus, shellfish (mussels and whelks), and also seaweed are all important
components of the daily diet of the Eskimo and coastal Chukchi people to these
days.
14
Climate Change Adaptation: Traditional Knowledge of
Indigenous Peoples Inhabiting the Arctic and Far North
Marine Hunters of Chukotka
Birds
Birds are the third most important source of protein for the residents of eastern
Chukotka. Geese and ducks, as well as large sandpipers play an important role in
Eskimo and Chukchi diet. There are four types of loons nesting in eastern
Chukotka. Although these are considered sacred by many peoples of the world, the
Eskimo and the Chukchi use them for food. The sacred bird of the Eskimo is the
marbled murrelet, a small, plain but very rare bird. Colonies of sea birds also play
a significant role in the diet of the local residents. Indigenous people eat bird
chicks and collect bird eggs. They mostly collect the eggs of the thick-billed and
thin-billed murres. Both Eskimo and Chukchi know that these birds can lay up to
two sets of eggs, and they time the egg gathering so that the birds can still lay eggs
a second time and have chicks.
Plants
The Eskimo and coastal Chukchi use around sixty types of land and sea plants in
their diet. Half of those plants are used in food on a regular basis. The languages of
the Yupik Eskimo do not have a general word for the whole plant, but instead have
individual words for its edible parts, for instance, the stem with its leaves or the
root. Anything that is not used in food is called “grass”, or “flower”.
Gathering and preparing plants for winter is an important responsibility of the
women and is even called “women’s hunt”.
Seaweed is an essential part of the diet; hunters also gather it on their way home
after hunting sea mammals.
The Bering Strait region lacks tanning plants to be used for tanning of the leather
cover of the boat, called baidara. Therefore during long trips sea mammal hunters
should periodically dry up the covers of their skin boats, they cannot resume
sailing until they are dry and would sound as a tambourine.
Hunting Gear
Traditional Weapons and Personal Gear
The indigenous people of eastern Chukotka, the Yupik Eskimo and coastal
Chukchi, have retained to this day the main components of hunting equipment used
by the ancient whale, walrus and seal hunters. This gear included a skin-covered
boat with a wooden framework tied together with thongs, a toggling harpoon with