I hate saying it but I would support a mandatory meat processing and respect weekend for hunters both in the villages and in the cities too. I have seen way to many racks of moose ribs in the dumpsters. Let's say you are a single military guy stationed up in Ft. Wainwright and you shoot a large moose. What do you do with the extra moose? I have seen time after time military wives coming in to Sportsman's with a look of pure terror. What do I do? My husband expects me to process this cow sized animal and I don't know how.
I remember that when I taught in Ambler I would take my students hunting. Most had never gone before and the ones that had didn't have the proper respect for the animal and meat. I would have Minnie Gray who just passed on teach them how to process the caribou the traditional way. Two days later they would be done and would have a different outlook. Just because a kid lives in a village doesn't mean his or her family taught them how to cut up meat. It doesn't always work that way. I can imagine that Chip and his family have probably taught many, many, many young people how to properly process meat without leaving much. Most people don't keep the lace fat, the bible, the intestines, the kidneys and the tongue and head anymore.
I remember that the first caribou that my father shot when I was eight was a mess. He really didn't know how to properly butcher the caribou. He had me do it. I decided that I would learn how to do it right so I sought out help from Frank Billum who was an old Ahtna hunter and chief. We went up to the Denali Highway and took quite a few caribou and moose for a couple of years and he made sure that I saved everything. He had learned how to hunt sheep and caribou with bow and arrow. He was in his 90s when I was 10. His first rifle was a muzzleloader and then he got a 44-40 model 73 that I am sure is lost in time and space. He was using a 30-30 prewar model 94 when I was hunting with him and would just work quietly still hunting to get close. I would guess that a majority of the meat that we took went to families that didn't know how to hunt. They had lost that and the kids were not willing to go with Frank because he worked very hard. Frank was retired from the railroad and worked hard right up to his death. We would go from before dawn to darkness and in early September days were still long.
The Frank Billums and Minnie Grays are rapidly disappearing in Alaska. Think about it. Art, you are in a position to probably teach many of the young people what to do with a moose and how to cut it up. There are not many people that really know how to do it right. We are talking about respecting the meat of the animal and the sacrifice that it makes.
