Inupiat Heritage center

We went to an Inupiat heritage center yesterday.  It had tons of interesting things there. They had an model of a whale that was its actual size! It was huge!! There was a whole room with displays explaining about whale hunting, and they showed some of the clothes that they wore. They had a water bag made out of swan feet! On every woman's coat or dress, at least for those who make their own clothes, there is a different design.  So you can tell the difference between different women's clothing.
Hunting for whales is a very delicate process. They must not wear bright colors or else the whales will be alarmed, and the hunters will never see it again. They mustn't wear strong smells, or have a messy camp either. They must use boats made of animal skins. It has to be very quiet. Then one of the men throws a harpoon (like an arrow) at the whale, then they attack it more just in case it isn't dead yet. The motorized boat comes and drags the whale to shore.  A lot of blood is spilled, a lot! Every part of the whale is used.  They have a big celebration when they catch a whale. They also share it with everyone because that is part of their culture.
 We got a chance to feel and hold a whale ear drum. It is really heavy! It weighed maybe a couple pounds, and that was our guess.  We also got to hold a baleen.  A baleen is really just whale teeth. It is the same material as your fingernails.  They can grow up to 12 feet long!!  The one on the right is maybe 9 feet long. It's not even propped all the way up.  This is how the whale eats with the baleen. A whale does a kind of filter feeding with it. The whale opens its mouth widely and catches fish (such as krill, copepods, and some more small fish).  Large amounts of water come in with the fish too.  The whale almost shuts its mouth and presses the tongue up. It then forces the water to go out sideways out the baleen. Then the fish is swallowed.  I found it very interesting.  Only native people can sell baleens. They carve and make very beautiful etchings on them. 



Did you know........
that the pipes that heat the buildings (like a furnace) give off so much heat and are so hard to control, that they have to open the doors or windows for it to be comfortable inside the buildings?