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Eskimos go whale hunting in April/when the ice on the Bering Sea starts to break up. In 1983,/I went whale hunting for the first time/at Point Hope. The hunters wait on top of an iceberg for the whales. When the right moment arrives,/they sail out on boats called “umiak.”
They are not always successful in whale hunting. But if they are lucky,/all the villagers come running/to pull the whale onto the ice. I still remember/seeing an old Eskimo lady come dancing and singing,/to give thanks for the gift from the sea.
Once the whale is placed on the ice,/an elder of the village says a prayer. Then the young people start cutting it up,/carefully following the elder’s instructions. The meat is shared by all the villagers,/and in the end/they push the huge head bone of the whale back into the sea,/saying, “Come back again next year!”
Eskimos go whale hunting in April/when the ice on the Bering Sea starts to break up. In 1983,/I went whale hunting for the first time/at Point Hope. The hunters wait on top of an iceberg for the whales. When the right moment arrives,/they sail out on boats called “umiak.”
They are not always successful in whale hunting. But if they are lucky,/all the villagers come running/to pull the whale onto the ice. I still remember/seeing an old Eskimo lady come dancing and singing,/to give thanks for the gift from the sea.
Once the whale is placed on the ice,/an elder of the village says a prayer. Then the young people start cutting it up,/carefully following the elder’s instructions. The meat is shared by all the villagers,/and in the end/they push the huge head bone of the whale back into the sea,/saying, “Come back again next year!”