As for sensational news, we saw a polar bear Monday.
It was off the road a few miles north of here, along the beach. It had apparently swam over a hundred miles from the sea ice, and was clearly exhausted and barely moving. Occasionally it would lift its head up and then lay it down in a different position, as if trying to get comfortable. It was huge. There were quite a lot of people, probably about thirty, lining the road, some with guns and some taking pictures, and I felt myself participating in an odd group mentality that made the bear seem less dangerous. We were actually very close, about 70 ft or so, on the hill next to the road. At this spot, standing on the road itself, you couldn't actually see the bear or the beach, but had to climb a hill and the bear would suddenly come startling into view. We hung around for about half an hour and then left.
Later that night, about eleven, my friend Martijn and I decided to go back. We were driving on the dirt road back toward the point on our ATV, passing several cars and trucks driving back. When we approached the site, only two or three trucks were parked on the side. I slowed down, and stopped when they came into view so I could climb the hill on the side of the road to see down the beach to where the site was. I saw a person walking over the embankment near where the bear had been. A second later I was looking over the hill myself, and saw the huge white body of the bear still in the same place, and two people standing next to it.
Martijn and I approached and saw the bear laying on its back. The belly was cut down the middle and splayed open and scooped out very cleanly already, and the curved frame of ribs could clearly be seen in the sort of banana shaped bowl. The rest of the bear was strangely normal, the head and the body and huge paws, so that if they'd turned the bear over again, it will still look like it was sleeping.
The two people standing next to it were a short white guy with a red beard talking with an Inupiat. After a few moments I said, "Why'd they shoot it?"
"A hunter from the village wanted it," the white guy explained, meaning Barrow.
"Oh." I said.
I didn't take my camera out. We looked for a few minutes, and walked around it. I lifted up a paw, and then touched the fur and it occurred to me it was so clean becuase it had been swimming for so long. A few minutes later two more guys white guys came up over the embankment and towards us. "Why'd they kill it?" One of them asked me. I shrugged.
Dude. That sucks so bad. I thought alaskans might be all for not slaughtering amazing animals and stopping the spread of industry and all that shit but apparently being a manatee or an evicted polar bear in alaska is pretty much a death sentence.
ReplyDeleteso... Inuit tribesmen are bastards for living off the land. OK. The way it was gutted indicated it was going to be properly used for its meat and fur, as those tribes have done for as long as time. Many tribesmen try to live off the land as much as possible, and an exhausted bear that can't fight back presents a perfect low-risk/high-gain resource opportunity. But go ahead, be narrow-minded and judgmental of an entire ancient culture, Mr. San Diego College Man.
ReplyDeleteYeah- that's some real hunting there- shooting an endangered, exhausted and defenseless bear with a high powered rifle from what amounts to point blank range.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing Inuit about this. Not the trucks, not the high powered rifle, nothing.
I've been to Barrow. The population there is hardly all native Alaskans. They do have a grocery store and they all have large storage containers with their personal shipments of food and goods in them, too. Yes, some people try to live off the land. It has worked for thousands of years. It has driven numerous species to extinction, too. Sometimes, we are called upon as humans to rise above being the animals we are truly are.
ReplyDeleteCalling on tradition over rational is just an excuse to be an asshole and get your way in the modern world.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, refocus. It's not about killing an amazing animal... It's about "Why is this amazing animal not somewhere else, out on polar ice, doing what polar bears do?" I feel sorry for the Inuit who won't have their "way of life" and the destruction of a planet that has some pretty neat stuff to offer... I'm trying not to be fatalistic, but find myself saying, "It was nice while it lasted..."
ReplyDeleteI used to be a homeless rodeo clown but now I am a world class magician !
ReplyDeletesad story, bro :(
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt for many Inuit folk, their hunting tradition is a profound part of their personal and cultural identity. I have little doubt that the careless treatment of animal life at the hands of their callous native brethren is much more offensive to the beliefs and traditions they hold sacred than to even you or me. I would disagree with the claim that this was an example of an Inuit hunter participating in a sacred traditional right, but rather an example of someone exploiting a privilege in a way that is offensive to his traditions and ultimately is to the determent of fellow tribesman. But then again, maybe I'm not spiritual enough to recognize the divinity therein.
ReplyDeleteFor ancient tradition or 'modern' tradition, endangered or non endangered, a threat of danger or not, killed with a riffle or with a lance, for food or for ornament, for need or for pride..... Fair or unfair, I can't help it but feel sad when looking at your pictures aware of the story behind.
ReplyDelete