Notes: This is my experience of eating Native food. I respect the people and their love for the foods they grew up with and that have sustained them for generations. I use the word ‘Eskimo’ because that is how the people I knew identified themselves and how they wanted to e identified. This was to make a distinction between themselves and Native Alaskan people who were not Eskimos. Also, I have changed the name of the village in question, calling it simply ‘Village.’
Where Did You Learn to Eat This Food? Part Three
At another potluck, one guy brought his contribution. Out of a plastic grocery bag, he took a fish that was frozen solid, a cutting board and a curved knife (called an ulu). Here was ease of preparation for sure! The fish is caught and allowed to freeze (this is quaq). When it is time to eat, you slice pieces of the frozen fish and pop them in your mouth. There is not much taste to this, but the texture of what is essentially a fish popsicle is strange. And being someone who has never cared for fish, it is not something I cared for much. Still, it was better than black meat! Then there was the “Eskimo ice cream” or akutuq. The first time I had this, it was berries mixed with some shortening. Not what I would have chosen, but at least it was not a sea mammal! Now it was there again, so I took some and saved it for a treat at the end. I was in for another surprise! This had been made the traditional way—with fish oil instead of shortening. Once again, I was chewing and smiling while my stomach churned.
Bill, on the other hand, genuinely liked the food. He did make a bit of a mistake when he was introduced to seal oil. He thought he should use it like gravy and took too much. It’s seal blubber allowed to disintegrate into oil and it’s strong. Very strong. I was informed that beluga oil is lighter. I did not notice this, but I was willing to defer to people who knew about such things. Every time we would go to someone’s house for niqipiaq, we would sit there with the elders and they would be so happy that someone was trying to learn their language and they would ask, “Where did you learn to eat this food?”
One day, we were having lunch and the jar of seal oil came around the table. Seal oil is used as a topping and a dip. It was a very difficult thing for me to eat. As the jar made it to me, I passed it to the elderly woman sitting next to me without taking any. I hoped this would go unnoticed. It didn’t. “It’s seal oil, don’t you want any?” she asked, thrusting the jar back at me. “Oh, seal oil, sure,” I replied and poured some on my plate.
I can honestly say that I have not missed this food. I understand how important it is to people in many different ways and I respect that. For elders, it is an important part of their identities and they crave it when they’re away from home, just like we all crave food that we love and grew up with. Interestingly, planes would fly from villages to Fairbanks and Anchorage with Native food and fly from Fairbanks and Anchorage with fast food, requested by the younger people.
Native food was actually healthy for the people who ate it. As is true all over the US, when Native people switch from their traditional food sources to the standard American diet (SAD), health problems like diabetes and heart disease increase.
As a practical matter, when food in a grocery store is as expensive as it is in villages, where there are no roads in or out and food comes by plane or barge, Native food is important. When I was in the village, a gallon of milk was $7. People rely on Native food to survive. Unlike many Native groups in the lower 48, the subsistence foods were not deliberately wiped out by the colonizers. However, even when we were there, the climate crisis was already starting to cause problems and migration routes were changing, so some foods were not as abundant as they used to be. The Climate crisis is also causing some villages to have to be relocated or they will fall into the sea. This could change subsistence practices as well. There is much concern for the future.
