nigaqtutilaaġun “net measure, net gauge” Language:North Slope Iñupiaq
This design is all seals. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight seals on the front. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten on the top. Nigaqtutilaaġun [net gauge]. So this is a gauge for making seal nets.
—Ronald Brower, Sr., 2002
During winter, seals can be caught with nets as they swim beneath the sea ice. The ivory gauge shown here was a tool for net making, used to measure the distance between knots so that the mesh would be just large enough for a seal’s head. Numerous seals are etched on the tool, indicating how productive this method of hunting can be; dozens of seals may be caught on a good night.
Culture:Iñupiaq Region:Northwest Alaska Object Category:Hunting Dimensions:Length 28cm Accession Date:1915 Source:Mrs. Thea Page (collector) Museum:National Museum of the American Indian Museum ID Number:045319.000
Ron Brower, Sr.:Natchiqsiun. Kuvraliuqtuam uuktuutaa uvva. Natchiqsiunnamun kuvraliuqtuam.
(For a seal. This is a tool and measure for net maker. Seal net maker.)
Jane Brower:Naġlututilaaŋa aŋitilaaŋa?
(Is it for length or for size?)
Kenneth Toovak:Nigaqtutilaaŋa.
(The net’s mesh size.)
Ron Brower, Sr.:Niggat.
(Net meshes.)
Kenneth Toovak:Nigaqtutilaaġun.
(Net measure/net gauge.(1))
Ron Brower, Sr.: This is a net gauge. It’s called nigaqtutilaaġun. This one is designed with seals.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight seals on the mesh gauge [blade]. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten on the top of the gauge. So this is a gauge for making a seal net.
Jane Brower:Kuvraq.
(Seal net.)
[From discussion with Jane Brower, Ron Brower, Sr. (Iñupiat Heritage Center), Doreen Simmonds (Commission on Iñupiaq History, Language & Culture) and Kenneth Toovak at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 2/04/2002-2/06/2002. Also participating: Karen Brewster, Wanda Chin and Terry Dickey (University of Alaska Museum) and Aron Crowell (NMNH).]
1. According to Iñupiaq Elder Martha Aiken, a nigaqtutilaaġun, also called a kuvriñ, is used to size net mesh and make each mesh the same size. Kuvriruq means “he is making a net.” A nuvixxautaq is an “object with pointed shape that is filled with twine for making a net” (net shuttle).
Iñupiaq people used charms to attract animals, and amulets for protection against harm or illness.(1) However, the two terms overlap in meaning and are often used interchangeably. According to Ron Brower, Sr., of Barrow, a tuunġaq [charm, devil, helping spirit of a shaman] has “the power of killing,” whereas an aanġuaq [amulet] has the “power of bringing” animals.(2) Froelich Rainey—reporting from Point Hope in 1940—learned that “a tupitkaq is a simple charm worn on the body or clothing, while an angoak is a charm kept in a special place, as, for example, the bow of a whaling boat.” He found that by 1940 the two terms were used interchangeably but “angoak” was more commonly used. A man’s “angoaks” associated him spiritually with various animals that, in addition to assisting him when hunting, acted as “guardians” who would “protect him in war or fighting, and rescue him from danger.”(3)
Along the North Alaska coast, hunters used charm figures—animals carved of ivory, bone, stone or wood—to gain the assistance of animal spirits.
They wore the small carvings around their necks, on belts, and in their clothing, and fastened others to hunting equipment and boats. The charms had various powers—to guide hunters to game or to give them sharper vision, to attract animals, or to make weapons more effective.(4) Charms and amulets could include other kinds of items, such as old ivory harpoon heads, special stones, raven skins, eagle feathers, seal claws, wolverine tails, wolf teeth, or polar bear noses.(5)
In Norton Sound, people often wore charms representing men, animals, and fish, carved from beluga whale teeth or walrus ivory.(6) William H. Dall—who visited Norton Sound during 1866-67—observed that men put ivory carvings of birds, walrus or seals on their kayaks.(7) In a report from Port Clarence in 1894, Miner Bruce stated that men decorated their tools and weapons with ivory carvings, including seal heads “lashed to their harpoons or strung on the seal thongs stretched over their canoes.”(8) One “charm for good luck” reported by John Murdoch—in the Barrow area from 1881 to 1883—was a tern bill secured in the lashings of a seal harpoon.
(9) A boy told him that it would help a hunter to catch “lots of seals,” and Murdoch supposed that the beak was selected to guide the harpoon to “plunge down upon the seal with as sure an aim as the tern does upon its prey.”(10) Murdoch reported that many carvings of bowhead whales and seals were made in the Barrow area, which hunters used for good luck.(11)
In his book People of Kauwerak, Iñupiaq Elder William Oquilluk discussed the use of animal figurine amulets as well as dried noses and claws. These were carried or worn by men, women and children who “thought that if they called on the spirits of the dolls or charms they would protect them from evil spirits. They kept these things with them always. It seemed they believed anyone that had them was safe.” He explained that the use of charms faded away at the beginning of the twentieth century with the arrival of missionaries.(12)
Carved figures had other uses, including dolls and animal toys for children.(13) Murdoch reported that some carvings were made just for sale to collectors.
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