Barrow, Alaska Whaling Tradition

The tradition of the whale hunt is alive and well in Alaska's most northern commmunity


Matilda and George Adams outside their home in Browerville. Matilda is holding the family whaling crew flag. George wears his traditional white hunting parky and holds the harpon used to hunt whales.

Whaling Couple


The grinning Aiken crew is the first of the whaling boats to pull into shore and receive congratulations from Barrow villagers awaiting their arrival. The family whaling flag with a smiley face flies above the boat's canopy.

Whaling Boat


Successful Hunt


A Barrow youngster plays on the top of Jonathan Aiken Sr.'s whale as another peers into the mouth of the 49-foot bowhead.

Giant Slide


Joe Mello's silhouette is caught in the roiling steam from the still-warm whale hours after its death as he cuts strips of skin and blubber to be divided among whaling crews and village residents. The landing and butchering of bowhead whales in Alaska's North Slope villages is a cultural ritual that binds together the residents that live there.

Steaming Whale


Paxton Itta, 3 years, is dwarfed by the piles of muktuk divided into crew shares. Whaling crews from the Alaska North Slope village of Barrow landed a record 20 whales this past fall whaling season.

Boy and Food


On the living room floor of the Aiken home Mabel and Dee Dee Aiken and Anna Stanaiewicz (with her daughter Amelia, 3) prepare the heart, liver, and intestines from Jonathan Aiken's whale for the public feast.

Meat Processing

 

 

 

© Jim Lavrakas/ Anchorage Daily News


Burton Rexford, head of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.

Whaling Capt.

 

Joash Tukle hosts a mikigaq feast at his home several weeks after he and his crew brought in their fall whale. Mikigaq, whale meat and muktuk fermented in a blood bath, is considered a delicacy by Inupiaqs.

Delicacy