Winter also was the time for making and repairing tools and equipment, and for ceremonies and dances. These took place in the village's men's house (qargi), which on these occasions served as a community hall. Among the Iñupiat, one of the most important winter ceremonies, celebrated at the end of the year, was the Messenger Feast, in which messengers were sent to invite another community to a large gathering. During the feast, guests were offered vast amounts of foods and given lavish gifts. They were expected to return the invitation the following year. The following story, told by Tukummiq Carol Omnik of Point Hope in 1976, gives an insight into the importance of dancing:

‘A man said: “When I’m dead I’ll go on dancing!” After he died, some people travelled to that dancer’s place of burial. They remembered his words, and suddenly the dead man rose. He took his shoulder blade and a bone from his forearm. Drumming with these, he sang and started dancing…’

On the coast, whale hunting, accompanied by extensive ritual, took place in spring (Fig. 3 and 4). This is the time when the bowhead whales pass the coast, as they migrate north along moving ice sheets from which the hunt is launched. This extract about a whale boat owner is from a story told by Asatchaq Jimmie Killigivuk of Point Hope:

‘Here is Qipuġaluatchiaq. He was a whale boat owner, and it was whale hunting time. Now when he caught a whale, a young girl left the village and walked over the sea ice to help haul back meat and blubber. She was going to take some home to grandmother.’

Similarly, in the coastal areas of the Bering Strait, walrus were hunted in spring and autumn when they pass through Bering Strait on their annual migration. Further inland, caribou were hunted during the summer, but especially during their migrations to and from the coast in spring and autumn.