by Peter Twitchell
My grandson “Agyaq” (Rising Star) loves cottonwood smoked strips and dried fish, first try! I guess all us Yup’iks love our subsistence foods. Its in our DNA and in our body. Our subsistence foods have given us longevity since time immemorial. Native Foods is our sustenance.
I became hypothermic and I know hypothermia has killed a lot of people. I could not longer control my shivering and I knew the heart can stop once the cold sinks to our organs and bones.
It’s a good thing my friend and hunting partner Arthur Gunlik noticed me, because he produced a jar of seal oil, which literally saved my life.
He opened it and told me to take two mouthfuls of seal oil and swallow. Within a short time, perhaps 8 minutes, my shivering which was uncontrollable ceased and I felt a warm feeling in the pit of my belly.
And that warmth started radiating outward first to my arms and my body. My face became warm and then my legs!
All the way back from the Bering Sea and back to the village of Kipnuk I did not feel the cold. I was not only amazed but thankful seal oil saved my life!!! It really did.
I never hunted without seal oil again in the cold.
I read the book, “Shackleton’s Valiant Voyage” – an expedition to the North Pole when ice disabled the ship’s crew from moving and ice pack stranded them in the frigid north. All they had to eat was seals and miraculously they made it, except for sick crew members. Those who lived were able to tell their story.
