Alaska Native Collections – Sharing Knowledge

2001 (1)

Jacob Ahwinona: My grandfather had several of those but not as fancy. He used to wear them when I was a boy. He made them out of wood, the soft wood. They form it to their own head. They had those small slits like that. Whenever you go out hunting or when the sun is shining, you’d take those along. Especially the long daylight hours in the spring they wear those. They won’t get snow blind out there.

Aron Crowell: How about on St. Lawrence Island?

Estelle Oozevaseuk: They have all kinds, all shapes. And some of them have that visor-like thing [eye shade], very narrow up here up above the [eye-slits] because of the glare of the sun is pretty bad, and mostly, even at white-out, these are very handy. That’s what they say. It’s the same thing when they’re hunting. When spring comes, the sun is very bright. They take them, that kind of goggles.

Branson Tungiyan: Whangkutestun atepigitat?

(Don’t these have a Yupik name for them?)

Estelle Oozevaseuk: We have iyegaan [eyeglasses], what we use now.(2)

Branson Tungiyan: Unaghsimeng taakutlu pikaagut.

(They are made of wood.)

Estelle Oozevaseuk: Some of them are made of wood. Some are beautiful ivory. I think the collection here has some here too. I saw them when Dr. Collins was collecting. And when they have nothing like this, they even use a stiff kind of skin, just make a slit like that and put a string around it. I think just because in springtime, sore eyes are pretty bad, [which they can get when] they’ve been out all the time walking, hunting, around. I think this is even good for wind.

Suzi Jones: Out in a boat on the water, did they used these as well?

Estelle Oozevaseuk: They’ll work.

[From discussion with Jacob Ahwinona, Estelle Oozevaseuk, Marie Saclamana and Branson Tungiyan (Kawerak, Inc.) at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 5/07/2001-5/11/2001. Also participating: Aron Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA).]

1. The Elders did not look at this snow goggles, but discussed another pair E044256, from which these comments are taken.

2. According to St. Lawrence Island Yupik Elder Vera Kaneshiro, these are called iyegaatek, which means “snow goggles” and also means “eyeglasses” or “sunglasses.”

In the spring, men of northern Alaska and eastern Siberia wore snow goggles to protect their eyes from snow blindness. This condition occurs when ultraviolet light reflects from the snow and burns the retina. Snow goggles prevented this painful, debilitating condition by reducing the amount of glare that reached the wearer’s eyes.(1)

1. Birket-Smith 1936:121; Bockstoce 1977:65; Bogoras 1904-09:260; Fitzhugh and Kaplan 1982:100; Nelson 1899:169