12"H

Food Chain

7"Diameter

Caribou Totem

Mask of each of the caribou hunting grounds.

   My grandfather would trap and hunt a large variety of animals for food, clothing, and trades.  His trap lines would stretch for miles.  As a way of getting to these trap lines in a more efficient way, he would travel by dog team.  Yup'ik men would also have races with the dog teams to show who had the fastest team.  

   This doll is wearing a parka made from muskrat and beaver, decorated with calfskin and glass beads.  The mittens are sewn from seal and pigskin leather.  The mukluks are spotted seal, beaver, and cowhide.   The face is carved from basswood and the goggles are teak.

14"L x 8"H

Seal Hunter

   The Yup'ik People of Alaska had the year-round chore of gathering food for survival.  The hunters fashioned their tools from the surrounding materials of their village, things traded with nearby villages and traders and from the animals they hunted.  This hunter is using a seal scratcher made from ivory and driftwood.  The hunter would find a seal's breathing hole in the ice and use the ice scratcher to make a seal noise to coax the seal to come to the surface.  The hunter would then use his harpoon to catch the seal.  

   This doll is wearing a kuspuk made from cloth trimmed with beaver.  The mittens are sewn from sealskin and pigskin leather.  The face is carved from basswood.  The tools are fashioned from walrus ivory and ebony wood.  The snow goggles are carved from teak wood.

   The Yup'ik People of Alaska used dancing as a way of making prayer, storytelling, mourning, and basically a way of expression.  The dances often involved tales of animals encountered by the people of the village. 

   This doll tells a story of an old shaman who befriended an eagle during a hunting trip.  The shaman was out on the tundra and came upon an eagle with a broken wing.  The man took the eagle home and nursed it back to health. He tried to release the eagle back into the wild, but the eagle refused to leave the man.  Every time the man would leave his home to hunt the eagle would soar overhead and help him to spot his prey. The shaman would share the first bite of the food with the eagle.  After a time the man began to see through the eagle's eyes and he often felt as if he, himself, were flying.  

   This doll's kuspuk is sewn from beaver, wolf, and cloth.  The mukluks are made from beaver, calfskin, and pig leather.  The cape is muskrat.  The mittens are sewn from fur seal.  The hair is rabbit.  The face and eagle headdress is carved from basswood.  The headdress is decorated with acrylic paint and pheasant feathers.

   The Yup'ik women and children often spent much time together.  It was the mother's duty to teach the little girls the Yup'ik ways.  This included the teaching of sewing, basket-weaving, skin preparing, harvesting of animals, food preparation, and many other everyday  tasks.  This often created a strong bond between mother and daughter.  

   The kuspuks are made from cloth trimmed with beaver.  The mukluks are made with calfskin, beaver, and pigskin. The faces are carved from basswood and the hair is made with wool.  The haircomb is carved from ivory.