This tall shrub grows very well in Golovin. The plants
sometime reach 9 feet, but are usually about 5-6 feet tall
in Golovin. The dark green leaves have slightly serrated
edges and are oval shaped. The small cones are dark brown
and bear small brown seeds. The bark is dark
reddish-brown.
Nunungiuk is used in dyeing skins that the
Iñupiaq Eskimo use to sew clothing, boots or mukluks,
and other small items like Eskimo yo-yo's and miniature key
chain mukluks. Maggie Olson showed my how to prepare the
bark for dyeing. The bark must be peeled. Maggie used an
instrument that her grandmother had used over 50 years ago.
She soaked the bark shavings in hot water over night and
said that the water brings out the color. The deep red color
was used to darken squirrel skins. The next day she put the
shavings on the inside of the squirrel skin and let that sit
over night. The next day she rubbed the skins until they
were dry. The skins were considerably darker and had a warm
reddish color, that the undyed skins did not have. Maggie
uses the skins she dyes to make inside parkas and miniature
mukluks on key chains that she sells in her store.
Nunungiuk is also used in making smoked fish. My
Uncle Craig made some smoked salmon strips in the fall of
1993, and they were still good this summer that I was there.
I had him give me his recipe for his smoke fish. The fish
must be cut into thin 1/2 inch strips. The strips are soaked
in a brine of rock salt and brown sugar for a few hours.
Then the fish is put in a smoke house and nunungiuk
is burned in the fire pit for about 3 days. Then the fish
are hung to dry in the normal fashion that dry fish are
made. It takes the fish about one or two weeks to be totally
dry.
Some other traditional uses of nunungiuk included the
making of snowshoes, bows and arrows, and in constructing
large walrus-skin boats, called umiaks and smaller
one man boats, called kayaks. These items are no
longer made in Golovin, but perhaps one day the skills for
making these items will be revived.
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