 Most of the Eskimo people in the world live in the Arctic regions of North America. Altogether, there are only about 35,000 Eskimos. Here in the frozen North, the land is barren and food is very scarce. Our villages are small and far apart. In this Arctic region, the summers are short and cool. Our winters last for nearly six months and are very cold and stormy. My home is one of the snow-covered houses in the village called Point Hope. It is on the shore of the Arctic Ocean in northwestern Alaska. Our lighthouse helps us to find our way across the flat snow-covered land. Even in the summer, only a few ships come to Point Hope. None at all come after the winter storms begin in November. Many people depend upon the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean for much of their living. Alaska is a territory of the United States and the Eskimos who live here are American citizens. My name is Harry. Vera is my sister. In the cold winter weather, the fish tossed up on the shore are quickly frozen. Whenever we find frozen fish, we pick them up. We are always watching for food from the sea. Whenever my father hears a seal barking, he tells us to be quiet. The sound of voices frightens the sea animals. From seals, we obtain food and clothing. When father kills a sea animal, he throws out a hook on the end of a long line to wall the catch ashore. Our people hunt walrus and small whales only during the summer. But seal hunting goes on all through the year. Sometimes we hunt them from the shore, sometimes from boats, and other times we catch them by cutting holes in the ice. It is too cold for us to have farms. Only by hunting and fishing can we get enough to eat. Even the sea birds are used for food. The loon my father has shot is brought to shore in the same way as the seal. This big loon will make a fine meal for our family. If we Eskimos were not good hunters, we would all starve to death. Father uses a homemade harness to drag the seal home. Harnesses are made of skin or from cloth bought at the trading post. Father got his rifle and cartridges at the trading post too. Like most Eskimo villages, Point Hope is close to the ocean. Although in summer we have many hours of daylight, from November until February we will not see the sun at all. It is already so cold that our seal and loon have frozen during the short trip home. But no matter how cold it is out of doors, our home is always comfortable. For cooking, mother uses an iron stove bought from the trading post. The stove heats the one room of our house. We use driftwood when we can find it. But most of our meals are cooked over a fire of seal fat. This is called blubber and makes a very hot fire. We eat lots of raw fish. When fish are frozen, we let them thaw so the skin will come off easily. Explorers who come to the Arctic have grown to like our meals of raw fish. It is our custom to dip the fish in seal oil. The combination of fish and oil gives us some of the vitamins we need. Most of the wood we have is found drifting in the ocean. For trees cannot grow in our land of snow and ice. My father uses his umiak to bring in a floating log. The umiak is his open boat. He also has a boat called a kayak, which is covered. Some of our boats are made of skin stretched over frames of walrus bone. Others we make from canvas and wood bought at the trading post. We eskimos continually watch the shoreline. Always hoping that something useful will come floating in from the sea. Driftwood from the ocean was used to help build our home. The walls are made of wood and stones, banked with earth and snow. During the long evenings, father makes bracelets or other trinkets from the ivory of walrus tusks. It is easier for him to work when he holds the drill in his teeth. My mother, like all eskimo women, is very good at making boots and fur clothing. She chews the edges of the skins to make them soft. Then she bites the places where the skins will be sewn together. Father wants me to be able to use his harpoon gun when we go hunting for whales in the spring. Mother is teaching my sister to sew. The boots mother is making will be taken to the trading post to exchange for something the family needs. She has already made us our winter clothing. Except for hunting and visiting our neighbors, we seldom leave home during the winter. Once in a while, we go to the trading post. Our village, Point Hall, is very small and there is only one store. We have seen everything the storekeeper has on his shelves many times before, but we enjoy looking at them again. The trader knows the value of the skins, furs, and other things we want to trade. He will send them to stores in the cities of southern Alaska. I found these old-fashioned spears in an abandoned settlement. Perhaps some museum we want to buy them from the trader. The trader makes a fair offer for the hatchet my father helped me make. Many more things can be bought at the trading post than when my father was a boy. Ships and airplanes have brought us into closer contact with the rest of the world. We buy the things we cannot make ourselves. Trading is the only way in which we can get many of the supplies we need, for almost nothing grows in our cold land. Although we can buy many things today, our life still depends on hunting. Unless we are successful when we hunt, we will have nothing to trade at the store. As winter nears, everyone waits for the ocean to freeze. When the salt water begins to turn to ice, it is soft and is carried by the tide and ocean currents. Later it will become solid and remain frozen for months. The best time for hunting seals is when they come up through the ice for air. Before the sea ice has frozen hard, father learns that there is a herd of caribou in the neighborhood. We take the dog team because we need the sled to carry supplies and to bring back the caribou meat if we are lucky. Past the graveyard of an abandoned village, the fence is made of whale ribs. Nothing but the cemetery is left of this old village for all of the people moved to Point Hope years ago. Our sled dogs are the only domestic animals we have. We could not travel far over the winter snow without our dogs. Father does not know exactly where the caribou may be feeding. For all we know, they may have wandered miles from where they were first seen. All we can do is to keep moving and hope to find them. When we come to a place where the snow is soft, the dogs have difficulty hauling the sled. If there is no way to get around the soft snow, we must stop and lighten the load. This is a good place to make camp. We have brought enough food and fuel for several days. To build a shelter, we cut blocks of snow for the walls. Because we will be here only a day or two, we just place sticks of driftwood against the snow walls and use a piece of canvas for a roof. Canvas is very valuable here in the Arctic. It is a product from the outside world that we have been able to get only in recent years. Now that the supplies have been stored at the camp, our dog sled can travel fast even over soft snow. When Father thinks we are near the caribou, we leave the sled. By turning it on its side, we keep the dogs from running away with it. We try not to frighten the caribou. Father is a good shot. We hope that the animal he has shot is fat, for we must eat fat meat to keep our bodies warm during the cold winter. On our hunting trips, we seldom see other eskimos, as there are very few people in our part of the world. It often takes a day by dog sled to reach the nearest village. With so few of us living on so much land, we do not expect to meet other hunters from our own or neighboring villages, even when the weather is good. The camp is just as we left it. We must skin the caribou before it freezes, otherwise it would be difficult to remove the hide and cut off the meat. My father teaches me to care for the hides and the meat. By cutting and skinning the animal first, we make the load lighter. Only the useful parts of the caribou will be carried home, the way our village looks in midwinter. Until spring, the snow will become deeper, and in some places the wind will pilot in drips many feet high. Sometimes the thermometer will register 50 degrees below zero. For months on end, when the snow is deep, the only sound besides the wind will be the barking of our dogs. Father and I have been lucky on our hunting trip. We are coming home with caribou meat to add to our winter supply of food. We keep the frozen meat on a framework of driftwood. It is high enough above ground so that snow will not bury it. But what is more important, our dogs cannot steal it. My puppy has made a nest deep in the snow to protect himself from the wind. We are happy to get inside the house on a cold day like this. My mother is glad that we are back safely and pleased that we shot a caribou. Sometimes on winter nights, we go to neighborhood parties at the schoolhouse. The school has a gasoline engine which makes enough electricity to light the building. Our musicians are very proud of their ability. The music is played on Eskimo instruments. And Talom seems to enjoy dancing. We think our Eskimo village is a pleasant place, even though it is in one of the loneliest parts of the world. In order to get enough food and clothing for ourselves, everyone must work hard. We depend for help on our faithful dogs. It is because Eskimos hunt and fish and make use of everything which nature provides that we are able to live on the cold, barren shores of the Arctic Ocean.