This Time Only Small Bullheads Were Caught in the
Hole Made with Chisel and Scoop
Like her sisters, this islander wears a gay cover over her reindeer-skin parka.  Mukluks, her ornamented sealskin boots, are waterproof for wading.

When the Hunters Return with Tons of Walrus Meat,
Wives Get Busy Cleaning the Skins
 Hides strewing the ice must be fleshed and split.  Meat and blubber are stored in a cave, a natural home freezer.  Here children lie on a rock and watch the excitement.  An umiak frame awaits a walrus-hide cover.  Gasoline for outboard motors is stored in the drums.

As Women Pare Blubber from Sealskins, Hungry Dogs
Stand Watch to Gobble Any Morsel Thrown Aside
 Women flesh skins with the ulu, a broad steel blade shaped like a wedge of pie.  Their splitting boards are heirlooms, generations old.  This skin will be converted into soft, water-resistant boots; the carcass will be eaten; the oil will be burned in lamps.

Nine-year-old Girls Take Baby Sisters Pickaback for an Airing
 After wintering on King Island, they have returned to Nome, where their parents carve walrus ivory for sale to travelers.  Most islanders own temporary homes just outside Nome in a settlement nicknamed "King Island Village."

Dogs, Boys, and Men Drag Home a 300-pound 
Bearded Seal Shot on the Ice
Sealing begins when the first ice forms.  Most big bearded seals are caught late in the season.  Their hides provide leather for boots and kayak covers; intestines are converted into waterproof parka covers.

Villagers Returning from a Seal Hunt
Unload Gear and Turn Over Boats
 Every hunter in Ukivok went on winter sealing expeditions; almost every man bagged one or two.  Rie Munoz and her husband taught in the big white school in the center.  Ukivok's church perches at upper right.  Household waste smudges the snow below the stilt-legged houses.  Fresh water comes from clean surfaces higher on the cliff.  Offshore ice served as a baseball field for boys.

Hunters Bag a Rare Prize, a Beluga, or White Whale
 King Islanders harpooned only one or two whales in a season.  they eat the savory skin and a layer of blubber.  Lean meat they feed to the dogs.  The Arctic Ocean's white whales migrate as far south as Cook Inlet.  Only adults are entirely white; newborn calves are gray.