by Peter Twitchell
We had stable food. All Alaskan Natives that had access to the sea and its tributaries. Seals and the walruses were our natural foods that gave us strength and longevity. We looked forward to this food source during break up and the summer and fall.
When I was a boy in the 1950s Mom and Dad depended on the coastal people. One person I remember Mom and Dad looked forward to seeing again was a man from Nunivak Island who came up the Kuskokwim River in his boat. Dad called the watercraft “took took”, which was covered throughout from stern to bow to keep the ocean water out and the rain. It had an inboard motor that made a took-took sound.
Amos, his wife, and family members arrived every late May-early June with their boat full of sacks of seal skin minus the hair. Dad called those hairless seal skins ‘pokes’.
Mom and Dad were happy to have fresh seal oil and cooked walrus blubber. I did too as it was a real delicacy for all residents who lived In the villages of Tuntutuliak, Napakiak, Napakiak, Oscarville, Bethel, Kwethluk, Akiachuk, Akiak, and Tuluksak.
We finally could replenish the seal oil that would last us that summer and winter until the following spring when the boats arrived again from the island.
Our bought seal oil/walrus blubber poke contents were shared with grandmas, grandpas, and their families. I loved seal oil and cooked walrus blubber. Today as an Elder, I am grateful and thankful that the people from the island of Mekoryuk shared this food that I no longer see as an Elder.
When dad bought the pokes he excavated dirt down to the permafrost to keep the seal oil and the walrus blubber cold and shared what we had with Grandma Hannah and Mom’s sisters.
I am now residing in the Anchorage area and some days I hunger for the seal oil that was always available to me when I lived in Bethel. Where are my Nuliacungs out there in the bush? I wish you would share with me some salmon berries and seal oil. I would make your purses a little fuller if you did!
