AN OVERVIEW OF SUBSISTENCE USES OF THE NORTHERN ALASKA PENINSULA CARIBOU HERD BY COMMUNITIES OF GAME MANAGEMENT UNITS 9C AND 9E

By

James A. Fall

Excerpted from Alaska Departement of Fish & Game Technical Paper No. 224, June 1993

SUBSISTENCE HARVESTS AND USES OF CARIBOU

Prehistoric and Historical Uses

Archaeological evidence has demonstrated that the human inhabitants of the Alaska Peninsula have used caribou for about 9,000 years (Dumond 1977:40). At the time of the arrival of European and American explorers and traders to Alaska in the late 18th and 19th centuries, most of the northern Alaska Peninsula above Port Moller was occupied by small communities of people speaking the Alutiiq language. Caribou, along with salmon and other fish and marine mammals, were important subsistence resources during this period (Clark 1984:189). Tuten (1977) and Morris (1985,1987) summarize the limited available information on the history of this area in the Russian and early American periods.

Contemporary Levels of Participation in Subsistence Use of Caribou

Caribou are today among the most important subsistence resources for northern Alaska Peninsula communities. Virtually every household in South Naknek, Egegik, Pilot Point, Ugashik, Port Heiden, and Chignik Lake used caribou meat in the 1980s. Levels of use were high in the remaining communities as well. In addition, a very large percentage of households in these communities hunt caribou, including the majority in King Salmon, South Naknek, Egegik, Pilot Point, Ugashik, Port Heiden, Chignik Lake, and Ivanof Bay, and more than 25 percent in the other communities.

It is commonplace in these communities for successful caribou hunters to share their harvests with others. Hunters share meat with relatives, the elderly, and the disabled. In most communities, there is a core of very active hunters who supply many of the other households in their villages with caribou meat. These hunters account for a large percentage of each community's annual take of caribou. For example, in 1986/87, 21 percent of the hunters in Port Heiden produced about 50 percent of the caribou harvest. In the same year, 51 percent of the caribou taken in Pilot Point were harvested by 18 percent of the hunters.

Hunting Patterns and Harvest Timing in the 1980s and 1990s

The typical caribou hunting party in the northern Alaska Peninsula communities consists of two or more men. Virtually all the caribou hunters in these communities are male. Means of access to hunting areas varies by season and community. In the fall, the most common methods are commercial fishing boats, skiffs, and all-terrain vehicles. After freeze-up and depending upon snow conditions, snowmachines and ATVs are used. These are also used in early spring, before the season closure. Highway vehicles are used along the Bristol Bay Borough road system (Morris 1983:85). In a few communities, limited use of private aircraft occurs to transport hunters to hunting areas and camps. Some hunters in Perryville now take advantage of commercial flights to travel to Port Heiden in the fall and spring to hunt because of the scarcity of caribou near their village during the open season.

Although caribou hunting may occur at any time throughout the season, there are distinct periods throughout the year when hunting efforts concentrate on caribou. These for the most part depend upon the seasonal migration patterns of the Northern Alaska Peninsula Herd (ADF&G 1985a), as well as regulatory seasons. Consequently, the timing of caribou harvest varies considerably between communities. Those in the central and southern portions of GMU 9E have most hunting opportunities in the late summer and early fall as the herd migrates from the calving grounds south of Port Heiden northward (August and September), and again in the late winter and early spring (March and April) when the herd passes south. In contrast, Egegik in the northern portion of GMU 9E and communities of GMU 9C have access to caribou in the winter months as the herd winters in the Naknek and Egegik river drainages. Small subherds do not follow this broad seasonal migration pattern and remain more locally available to communities south of the Ugashik River in the winter.

At Port Heiden, caribou hunting begins in August. Some hunters use their commercial fishing boats to travel south to hunt in the Unangashak River and Ilnik areas. More intensive hunting occurs near the community as the herd passes by, usually in September. This is when most of the winter supply of meat is harvested, distributed, and processed. Hunting stops as the preferred bull caribou enter the rut by the end of September. Over the winter, occasional hunting takes place, especially in years of good snow cover. However, in most years, the major late winter/early spring hunt takes place in March as the herd passes south to the calving grounds. Enough caribou are taken to refill freezers for the summer meat supply. If caribou are available, hunting in March has generally been preferred over April, primarily because the caribou are needed in March and travel conditions may deteriorate rapidly in April. A similar hunting pattern is followed at Pilot Point and Ugashik; at these two communities, caribou are generally available slightly later in the fall, and earlier in the spring, than at Port Heiden (Fall and Morris 1987:108).

In the Pacific drainage communities, caribou hunting along the coast takes place in the late summer between commercial fishing openings (Morris 1987:88-89). In the past, when July hunting seasons were available, bull caribou were taken near Ivanof Bay and Perryville prior to their northward movement.1 In August and September, some hunters also travel by plane to Ilnik or the Port Heiden area to hunt caribou and waterfowl. Winter caribou hunting is important at Chignik Lake, especially following freeze-up when snowmachines can be used to access hunting areas such as Black Lake. This hunting continues into the spring when preparations for salmon fishing resume (Morris 1987:91-92).

The late winter/early spring hunt is particularly important for the communities of GMU 9E for several economic and cultural reasons. These were expressed as follows by a health aid in one community.

We mainly eat caribou and fish. . . For most of the winter, people haven't had anything that is fresh. In spring time, you get hungry for fresh caribou. Everyone's out of meat. That's usually when our freezers are cleaned out [i.e. empty]. Salmon don't arrive until the end of May or even June, like last year [1992]; there was no fish until June. . . People get paid in September [after commercial fishing] and then they don't get paid again until fishing starts. So spring is a stressful time. They need to hunt for fresh caribou. They need to see the promise that new stuff is coming. By the middle to the end of January, everybody is waiting for fresh caribou. It's like having a new lease on life. . .

These observations probably pertain to other villages as well.

Other Use Patterns

Respondents in Port Heiden and Chignik Lake report that a large variety of edible parts of caribou are regularly used. In addition to the meat, parts of the animal that are regularly used include the ribs, liver, heart, kidneys, portions of the intestine, and stomach fat. Animals taken near the village are brought back to the community with the heads intact. After the antlers are removed, the head is commonly skinned, then boiled. Portions used for food include the head meat, the tongue, the eyes, and the brain. If caribou are harvested more distant from the community, the head is left in the field after the tongue is removed. The latter is a particularly desirable part of the animal and is always used. Stomach fat is salvaged for use in making ground meat or sausage. Slabs of fat are wrapped around roasts.

Similarly, a Chignik Lake resident described contemporary uses of caribou as follows:

With caribou . . . we take even the insides and clean them up. They are sort of like a delicacy. We take and clean the whole insides out and certain parts, like the tripe . . . we take and use it. . . To me when I get a caribou, I have to save everything, the tongue and everything, . . . [and] the liver, the heart, the tongue, and part of the digestive track. . . Then there's what they call the "football."2 It is like a bag that is surrounded by fat and you just take and wash that out and turn everything over. And there's the main artery that goes from the heart to the brain. We save that and that is really good stuff. . . We boil it up with ribs and put certain seasonings in it. The heart is really good. You fix it up and use it for snack later on. You boil it up. You add vinegar and garlic powder, bay leaves. And you eat it cold. You slice it up like salami or something. It is really good. . . The kidneys too. That's my daughter's favorite. The liver too. . . We don't keep the hide, but a long time ago they did. They used them for mattresses, and were real warm.

At Port Heiden, after the caribou is butchered and the meat hung outside for several days, most meat is frozen. A few households produce some dry meat using purchased dehydrating machines. Caribou is prepared and served in a variety of forms, including steaks, roasts, soups, and stews. Similar patterns of use occur in the other communities.

1 The communities of Ivanof Bay and Perryville, and the Chignik Fish and Game Advisory Committee, submitted a proposal to the Alaska Board of Game for consideration during its spring 1993 meeting to open a portion of GMU 9E to caribou hunting beginning July 1. An amended version of this proposal was adopted by the Board. 2 Identification of this and other internal organs is tentatively as follows. The "football" is perhaps the pancreas. Other local terms for portions of the caribou which are used for food, which may vary by community, include "the accordion" (the intestines), the "army cap" (the stomach), and "the hose" (perhaps the pulmonary artery) (Orville Lind, Port Heiden, personal communication, 1992).