Eskimo Voice - 2. Ayauniq, Part 1

This article was first published in Whispering Wind - American Indian: Past and Present Vol 36 No 1,
 Issue # 251

Ayauniq, better known today as Effie Hadley, was born January 7, 1939 in a sod logged top hut far from anything that most of us would come close to calling civilization. Other than a midwife, mother, and father everyone else in her group had already left the temporary camp for Buckland. Ayauniq's mother was due anytime and traveling was not an option.

Effie said that when she was born she was scrawny and cross-eyed. She said that it reminded her years later of what Quasimodo must have looked like. However, she was her mother's youngest, her mother's favorite. "Mother thought I was beautiful and was going to fatten me up." Effie attributes much to her mother and promised me she would write down some remembrances to share with anyone who might be interested.

She did tell me that her mother was smart and wise. To make pliable and remove the hair off seal skins for the making of mukluks, leggings, and shirts, "She would give each one of us a skin, showed us how to fold t, and send us outside to sled down the hills during winter. This loosened the fur and made it much easier to peal off. " Tom Sawyer and his fence was not a new idea.

Effie said that another way to loosen the fur was to bury the skin in the corner of the hut and let it stay there for a week or so.  There was some sort of chemical reaction with the fat, meat, and fur so that after digging it up it fur  pealed of easily. The trouble she said was, "It smelled terrible. You had to ware seal skin pants or an apron and gloves, but the stink would never go away. You could wash and wash and the stink just stayed and stayed, it seemed like forever. But it was something that needed to be done. All needed mukluks, pants, and parkas."

Effie recalls that the men of the village use to make a pumgayuq, loosely translated as bobsled because it was so close to the ground. It doubled as a sort of a boat that could be taken out on the ice and shallows while looking for seal. The kill wold be brought back to the village, distributed, and the pumgayuq would be used for fuel.      Continued in Part 2.