Qughsatkut! King Polar Bear

The namesake of our school and the subject of lively discussion with my first hour sophmores. Qughsatkut is "King Polar Bear" in Siberian Yupik and seems a fitting mascott for a community bound together with the ecosystem of the polar bear. At once elusive and opportunistic, "Nanuuk" as the animal is referred to in both Yupik and Inupiak (eskimo peoples further north) dialects, has frequented Gambell over the past few winters in significant numbers. Nanuuk is greatly revered here as a kind of "elder" hunter in kind who shares a carnivore's passion with the Siberian Yupik Eskimo for the several species of ice seal who make the Bering Straits their home. Thirteen Nanuuk were harvested last year in or around the village, and a mother and cubs were discovered making a curious but agressive foray into a residents front porch on the west beach. According to Junior Soonigruk, in my first period social studies calss, " Nanuuk comes with the first pack ice in December hungry for the ice (bearded) seal. You can can find him at the dump or in town when there's a big storm." Junior's implication, I think, was that Gabmbell, indeed the island of Sivuqaq, is a sort of way station for the hungry bear out on the Bering Sea ice pack ice. He may also have been trying to unnerve me in the face of a class of students eager to test the mettle of their new teachers. One thing's for sure: Junior knows what he's talking about. His father, Gerald Soonigook Sr., an experienced Nanuuk hunter is also the chairperson of one of thirteen chapters of the Alaska Nanuuk Commission, a native polar bear watchdog that provides regional/ local oversight of the annual polar bear harvest in accordance with both federal law and international treaties with Russia. Though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service impose no anual limit on the harvest of these animals, guidelines clearly stipualte that the hide and skull of each animal taken must be presented to conservation officials. The sale of Nanuuk's hide and claws are also strictly regualted within the village's boundaries. The Nanuuk hide pictured here was harvested last January along the north beach as one individual stayed a bit too long on the polar bear way-station that is Sivuqaq.