Traditional Hunting Practices
Due to the geographical advantages of the territory position of the Yup'ik tribes, there is a considerable amount of resources and game. Another advantage of having such a variety is that there are resources that are available during all seasons of the year. During the year Caribou, moose, and birds are plentiful in the colder months during the fall and winter months, and during the other half of the year Sea Animals are migrating back to colder waters which give the Yup'ik opportunities to hunt Whales, Walruses, seals, and sea lions in the spring and summer months.
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The harsh winters didn't make tracking Caribou and large game any easier, but there were specific ways of hunting that made it possible and made it so these steps got passed down from generation to generation. The process of hunting big game in the winter comprised Tracking, Abush Hunting, and using weapons that were available at the time.(Redwood,2019) During a Hunt the Yup'ik would use tracks, feces, and food remains to track prey. From these animal remains the Yup'ik were able to tell what direction heard were moving towards, how long it had been since they left the previous location, and even what the demographic of the herd was based on the size of prints. After using tracking to find the current location of these herds the Yup'ik will ambush these heads by surrounding the herds on all sides so they have no way to escape. From there the Yup'ik will use spears, bows and arrows, clubs, and other hand-made weapons to strike down animals in that herd one by one.
In addition to caribou, the Yup'ik people also relied on mammals from the Sea for many resources. From Whales and seals, Indigenous people would skin their hides because of their affinity to repel water. Due to this, the tribe would use these hides for garments to wear in the harsh weather as well as make waterproof coverings for dwellings. Along with hides, sea mammals contain high percentages of fat which is then harvested as blubber. This blubber had a multitude of uses from using it as a heat source in dwellings all the way to using it as a nutritious calorie-dense snack that is used to keep energy up during the winter months.
For Seals, there are two different types of hunting Ice hunting and Open water hunting. During the winter months, the Yup'ik would walk on large sheets looking for air holes that seals use to breathe. After waiting for a seal to surface the Yup'ik would attack and strike the emerged seal. During Open water hunting, the Yup'ik would push themselves out to Sea in kayaks and slowly paddle around taking extra precautions to do this quietly.(Morseth,1997) When a sea is spotted the boat will move slowly towards the seal until they are able to strike the animal with a harpoon or spear. For whales, the process is quite similar, but since this is a much larger animal the steps are done on a much larger scale. The species of whale that was most common in the area is the bow whale so many accounts of whale hunting call it specifically Bowhead Hunting. In order to do this the Yup'ik would build large whaling boats out of animal hides that could accommodate as many hunters as are needed to safely killer whales.(Morseth,1997)In the springtime, a specific kind of hunting style would be used where kayaks and large boats would connect themselves to ice sheets and hide on the edges so they would be confused as being part of the ice. When Whales would come close then the Yup'ik would attack them and pierce them with harpoons and spears.
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