Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Life below zero

Were 9,000 people in the Northwest Arctic Borough, larger than the state of Indiana.
We have a 'hub', Kotzebue with almost 4,000 people and 11 outlying villages spread along the coast and interior rivers.
We have the Western Arctic Caribou Herd ''WACH' with 250,000 Caribou currently.
The Caribou are all on the North Slope in the Summer onteh North side of the Brooks Range, and then south to the Seward Peninsula in winter, in a never ending migration.
We , when here in Noorvik, have them pass by in Fall and again in Spring. Fat in Fall, good for dark cold Winter, and lean in 24 hours sunny, breezy Spring, good times for drying to save and eat all Summer.
Subsistence is a poor word for a wonderful life style of hard work Hunting, Fishing and Gathering.......... It should be called ''Wild food gathering''.....has a better, truer sound to it, eh?
Since people here depend on the meat, we are ''Subsistence Hunters'' meaning we hunt for Wild Meat. One Bull Caribou , in our house alone, lasts about a week. We simply cannot tire of Caribou meat..........can Germans tire of Beer? LOL!!
Subsistence is for EVERYONE in Alaska........ There is no age , color or income that would disqualify anyone who is a State resident from hunting for meat. If your a millionaire, and you want Caribou meat, because maybe you were raised on it and maybe your from up this way, well, you still cant buy that in a store. People on food stamps generally dont hunt , but often supplement their source of food, while a lot of guys work oil fields or the Red Dog Mine and work 2 weeks on, 2 weeks hunting. Caribou is the core of a traditional diet here, much like Spaghetti is for Italians. Food is the core of a culture, no matter how its outward appearance is.
Our limit is 5 per day. No one hunts more than a few days,usuall only one, as 5 Caribou is a days work, 10 fill a boat, 4 fill a sled.... and we give alot of our catch to my wifes extended family, some old, some single, some kids, some fish, some babysit, some exchange is always going on, and food is a great medium to exchange.



We hunt alot of Caribou, but we also trade for things like berries, if we didnt get enough of our own, or dryed /smoked fish, etc.
We also make art and clothing to sell from them as well, so we can have money to keep hunting. Its a big cirlce, and no different than anyone else whop works for them selfs. The skins at various times of year are usefull for clothing, sleeping bags, tent floors, thermos covers, ect. Antlers can be fashioned into a lot of things and sold for gas $
We did a few Museum displays and such, made some serious Money