‘In the lake there was a walrus. It floated on the surface. A girl was sitting on the walrus’s head. The girl was beautiful. The man went for her immediately. But a polar bear appeared between the land and water. It took the walrus in its mouth, and went down with it.’ Told by Asatchaq Jimmie Killigivuk, Point Hope 1976.

The Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens), called aiviq in Iñupiaq, lives on the southern edge of the pack ice. It follows the ice southwards to the southern Bering Sea in winter, and northwards to the Arctic Ocean in summer. Walrus are social animals that congregate in large herds. They like to haul out to rest, preferably on ice floes or pack ice. The nineteenth-century Iñupiaq carvers were certainly familiar with these habits, as reflected in the depiction of walrus in the engravings (Fig. 2 and 3). In the engravings, walrus are easily recognizable by their tusks. Up to one metre long in males, the tusks are used by male walrus to establish social dominance, and more generally for climbing onto ice floes and pack ice.

In the nineteenth century, walrus were an important source of meat, skin and ivory for the Iñupiat. But they were dangerous to hunt. When provoked, they could become very aggressive, attacking the hunters and even sinking kayaks or umiaqs (boats) by tearing the skin cover with their tusks. Thus, hunters tried to approach walrus sleeping on the ice.

On their northward migration in spring, walrus pass through the Bering Strait, where they were hunted from kayaks with harpoons fitted with floats (Fig. 1), often by several hunters who worked together to surround the animals. Further north, on the shores of the Beaufort Sea, walrus arrived shortly after the end of the bowhead whale hunt. They were hunted from umiaqs with harpoons (Fig. 2).