Mountain Village

The ones here are the bowls they use for fish. They’re different sizes. Their children would have small ones like these, and the bigger ones, their parents would have bigger ones like these. They filled them with various foods. They even cooked horsetail. Now, they make cooked horstails from the plants that grow in ponds. And the [?] blood, they would add blood from sea animals to the water there. That was good cooked horsetail. Those who knew would make them well. These various ways today of making soup, what we call soup

But they’re not the same. The smell of what our ancestors made were completely different. And they would gather them, including the food voles gathered in the ground Including what they call mare’s-tail tubers, and what they call tall cottongrass. They would add those to their soups. And like this... These various masks like this are asked to be made by those whom they call shamans. They ask for various masks to be made.

They, only the shamans, asked for these various masks to made with only a single eye on each. And these Cupiit would not be done with them like this. These would be used when we practiced traditional dancing. They would have to use them, and called them masks. Do you what the one above was? I don’t know what this was. And these were different. But these are different. I don’t know what these here are. What about the bottom? From what I saw about these here You know, we have names for everything, even if they seem insignificant or unimportant.

This had a name, one of them had the name of the spirit of a fish, sometimes had the name of the spirit of a living being. Their shamans would instruct them to add those for their rituals when they were going to use them in mask ceremonies. They would also speak about them when they were going to go out to dance. Those shamans? Those shamans, and the Cupiit wouldn’t. But even though these are not their helping spirits, they would put these as decoration. They would also always decorate these parts of the long-tailed ducks like this. And the living being on land that I’m looking at here is one of the animals of the land.

But I’ve never seen the ones up there before. But up there on it’s forehead, it needs to have ears. These living things have different ears that are visible. [?] bring these up. I don’t see anyone with those up there in these villages. I’ve never seen these before, but the ones who make them decorate them. What would they do when they used it?

When they were going to use it, they would explain what it is, saying what it is. They also called these the spirits of thigns. They called them spirits. And these here, I think they say that this is the spirit of some living thing, a marine animal. The one around it like this You know when they surface, the ones that surface are sometimes up to here, sometimes up to here, sometimes up to here, and can have their mouths here. However, this is supposed to have a crooked mouth here.

It’s supposed to have teeth like this. And these across from each other, this animal would eat them when it’s hungry. I don’t see hands like that. Everything has hands that don’t go up to five that are like this. But the maker made it in their way like this. We look at it with awe.

Since they’re made for shamans, we Cupiit cannot watch them because they’re made for shamans. Even we try to understand this, I will not understand it. They would say that this was a certain thing. And they would always do it like this with their hands here. It’s hands are here. And if it’s hungry, it will take these things around the hands and it can eat it with its hands. Do you understand it? Yes. I used to only hear of them long ago. I’ve never seen one finished like this.

Because some people would make two mouths like this They would make two of them on the chin here. And then if they found something very strange and if they thought it was something scary They would depict them being removed from the top, then being removed from the bottom, removing them with increasing speed. They called the ones on the bottom cegtullret. They called them cegtullret. Is that all? (Yes.)

I don’t see too much of those that [?]. But they’re also different. There were also different kinds of marine animals that we didn’t see long ago. Now, however, we don’t commonly see them anymore, becoming very rare, becoming rare, and some [?have low populations]. This part that goes like this seems to be a large ice floe. It will go on the large ice floe. But I don’t understand what this is. What is it? What is it?

What’s the angenqaq? What is it? Angenqaq. What’s an angenqaq? You know, the thick ice that goes toward land from far out in the ocean, sometimes thick. Those are called angenqat. (Tagenqat.) Angenqat. (Angenqat.) Angenqat. However, the one that comes from the north that breaks easily, some of them are cekullallret, cekullaq. But even if I try to explain these, I have no idea about it, even the eyes like this. But this, I think that this is something on land here. Its mouth here is round in the face.

I think they would always put water beside us in the fall and spring They would tell us sleep like that long ago, and I used to as well. They would tell me to sleep in the fall with water beside me, even just filling a cup and placing it by me. Then he would tell me to put something, even a kettle. They say that this creature uses its mouth, bends down to a sleeping person, and eats him with that. It will suck him dry. It will suck him dry.

And then the one that was sucked dry by this cannot breathe like this, cannot live. That’s getting sucked dry by Meriiq. One is instructed to always have water nearby. And when they notice them jumping, when they jump into the water, they don’t splash, but they [?]. Is that all? (Yes.) ...but it has no tail. This is actually a fish but it has no tail, and doesn’t have those things. This one too seems to be complete with a tail. Its tail is up there. This isn’t supposed to have [?] like this as well.

It’s a fish [?]. It’s also because the fish that swim down in the ocean like this are different. And through my understanding with that, after having no idea what it was, I recognize it with this one’s mouth. Long ago, they would suck out the water from them at night. Would the shamans use those? (Yes.) But when they used this fish mask, it would never be without a tail because they are shamans. I don’t know about this. I don’t know. I have no idea about htis. I can’t talk about the one with this on its forehead.

The people on the Yukon, when I spoke to them, thye said that it belonged to one of the Yukon shamans. They say they have owners. But in my village down there, because there weren’t just single shamans When they reveal or explain things, they would use metaphors, they would use metaphors. The ones I see wouldn’t have these white things. But when they makers had them made, they would decorate them with little creatures. I’ve never once heard of any with one.

The ones around it, it seems that it would have two eyes. Maybe I should get Peter to hold the mic. Would that be better? Peter, would you hold this one too? I think it might work better. I’ve never seen anything with four eyes like this. It’s a little different from what would be a half-seal mermaid. If this had one single eye, and this was sharp, sharp like this, if it were this sharp And a mouth under that sharp part, it’s supposed to have a small mouth. The maker seemed to make those to remember those. What, is that wood down in the middle? No.

These half-seal mermaids have decorations like this depicted seal gut rain parkas. We had one of those down at home with a seal gut rain parka, a seal gut rain parka [fastened] like this. I have no idea what this is either. This one has what are supposed to be arms about to take this. These here surface in the ocean. These surface in the ocean. And up there are their back flippers, these ones. And these are their foreflippers.

I think the one around it depicts water. I have nothing more to say about what I know.