The Kayakers of Igdlorssuit

• Published in: ARCTIC
• Main Author: Drever, H.I.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1958
• Subjects: Birds; Gwich'in language; Indians; Traditional knowledge; Inuit; Inuit languages; Social interaction; Alaska; Northern; Old Crow; Yukon; Greenland; Igdlorssuit; Kayak; Arctic; inuit
• Online Access: https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/66789

. The Greenland kayak, although very manoeuvrable and efficient, is at the same time so absurdly small and frail that to chase a seal in it seems almost an impertinence. The contempt that no doubt the seal must feel on seeing a kayak usually coincides with the swift arrival of a harpoon thrown with unerring accuracy at the base of its neck. But that is not always the end of the hunt; it is sometimes the end of the hunter. Very few families in Igdlorssuit have not lost a father, a brother or a son by drowning during a seal's last frantic fight for its life. .