Harpoon

Item Name & ID#: Harpoon foreshaft, 1975-0551

Donor: Dennis Corrington

Area: Wales, Alaska.

Culture: Iñupiaq.

Material: Bone, antler.

Measurements: 10 cm length x 3 cm width.

Description: Broken off point with a sharp edge, and a hole on the inside.

The village of Wales lies on the very tip of the Seward Peninsula of Alaska, at the westernmost point of North America (National Park Service n/d). Wales is an Iñupiaq village, known by the people who live there as Kingigin, and the people who live there call themselves the Kingikmiut. “The people of Kingigin” (Kawerak Inc. 2022). 

The harpoon part is constructed of antler and measures ten centimeters in length by three centimeters in width. In the center of the piece is a carved hole of approximately one-centimeter length and of a stretched oval shape. The bottom of the item is smooth and the back of the item is broken off (University of Missouri Museum of Anthropology n/d). Importantly, this item does not have a slit at the fore end for the attachment of a blade, as is common for harpoon points, nor does it have a side blade slot or barbs (Lorain n/d). This, coupled with the small size of the item means that this is not the harpoon head but rather a foreshaft for a toggling harpoon (Lorain n/d). 

A toggle harpoon is designed to come apart during use with the head of the harpoon digging deep into the skin of the hunted animal and twisting sideways, while the foreshaft and accompanying wood shaft are slipped off (Crowell 2010). In the Iñupiaq language, a toggle harpoon is called a naulaq (Seiler 2012). The harpoon head has a hole drilled in it that a seal skin line is run through that attaches to a similar hole in the foreshaft of the harpoon (Smithsonian Institution n/d). The shaft of the harpoon is tied by a much longer line to the boat of the hunter. The shaft also comes equipped with a seal skin float, which acts as a balloon to keep the shaft afloat while the hunter gets the animal (Smithsonian Institution n/d). Once the animal is retrieved, the hunter can easily put the toggle harpoon back together again to continue hunting. Various types of seals, as well as beluga whales, are the most frequently hunted marine mammals using toggle harpoons. The skin of bearded seals was most commonly used in the region for making lines as the skin is thick and easy to make into long strips that can be used like rope (Arnold 1989). 

The hunting of animals is a very important activity for coastal Alaska Native communities. Seal hunting starts in the spring, normally around April or when the weather begins to permit (Fienup-Riordan 2007). In the Yup'ik tradition, Spring camps would be set up for the hunting and processing stages. Men would go hunting while women would process the seal from earlier catches. Before a hunt commences, the hunter would cleanse themselves and their boat in the smoke from a fire made from Labrador Tea plants, as well as make an offering of food and water (Fienup-Riordan 2007). All parts of an animal would be used in some way, the importance being to give respect for what has been provided by the animal that gave itself up to sustain the community. Sharing resources harvested from the sea is also important. “Sharing is something that was of traditional importance in Wales and is also still practiced today, and is considered to be a community value” (Raymond-Yakoubian 2015). Trading and bartering resources are also regular occurrences.

 Iñupiaq dart  for use with a throwing board, also for seal hunting at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

 Iñupiaq toggle harpoon head  and a  harpoon foreshaft  made of animal bone at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

Arnold, Charles D. (1989) Artic Harpoons. Arctic Institute of North America 42. (1): 80–81.

Calista Elders Council (2015) Tools for Ocean Hunting. Yuungnaqpiallerput - The Way We Genuinely Live - Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival.  https://www.yupikscience.org/3coastspring/3-1a.html . Accessed April 20, 2023.

Crowell, Aron L. (2010) Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (2007) On the Coast During Spring.  In Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival: Yuungnaqpiallerput, the Way We Genuinely Live, Pp: 136–42. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Kawerak Inc. (2022) Wales.  https://kawerak.org/ourregion/wales/ . Accessed April 25, 2023. 

Lorrin, Michael (n/d) Arctic Archaeology and the Importance of Harpoon Heads.   Museum of the North.  https://www.uaf.edu/museum/collections/archaeo/online-exhibits/mrap/mike/ . Accessed April 20, 2023. 

National Park Service (n/d) Wales Sites National Historic Landmark. U.S. Department of the Interior.  https://www.nps.gov/places/wales-sites.htm . Accessed April 25, 2023.

Raymond-Yakoubian, Brenden and Julie Raymond-Yakoubian. (2015) “‘Always Taught Not to Waste’: Traditional Knowledge and Norton Sound/Bering Strait Salmon Populations.” Kawerak.org.  https://kawerak.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TK-of-Salmon-Final-Report.pdf   Accessed April 28, 2023. 

Seiler, Wolf A. (2012) Inupiatun Eskimo Dictionary. SIL International. 

University of Missouri Museum of Anthropology (n/d) Online Databases  https://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/onlinedatabases . Accessed April 25, 2023.