The Arctic Virtual Tour Transcript

[Drumming]

Visual: The logo of the Hudson Museum followed by the dynamic entry of an image of a museum exhibit with the text “Native American Galleries Tour: The Arctic”.

Visual: Photograph of an arctic landscape with bare dirt in the foreground, a snowy plain in the mid-distance, and snow-covered mountains behind, all beneath a bright blue sky with one thin white cloud. This transitions briefly to a grainy photograph of a flat, snow-covered landscape beneath a blue sky, then back. Finally, it transitions to a flat, snowy plain studded with tufts of low, scrubby growth beneath a deep blue sky.

Voice of Narrator: The Arctic is actually a desert characterized by a tundra environment. Trees don’t grow here because of low temperature and short growing season. The ground remains frozen permafrost just below the surface year-round. And only low-growing vegetation such as shrubs and grasses, lichen, and mosses emerge during the brief summer season.

Visual: A pair of mittens made of hide with reddish-brown fur. They are long, made to reach partway up the arm, have bare leather patches at the inner fingers and palm, and are decorated with hide tassels along the inner edges. A peak of a cotton lining can be seen at the opening of one.

Narrator: The Hudson Museum features collections from the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, and Labrador.

Visual: A small model of a dogsled made of bone with five small, bone dogs attached with a fan hitch. This is followed quickly by a drawing of people and dogs on a snowy landscape featuring a cluster of around 14 igloos, then by a photograph of the inside of a tent, poorly focused, showing a variety of metal cooking containers on a wooden box.

Narrator: Some were collected by the Museum’s founding Director, Richard Emerick, others by military personnel stationed in the region during WWII.

Visual: A photograph of a bleak snowy landscape featuring a snow-covered tent set up in the remains of an igloo. The sun is very near the horizon, and is barely visible through clouds. This is followed by a rapid series of photographs :a variety of hunting and fishing implements made with wood, bone, and metal; a fur parka on a mannequin in a museum display; a small model of a boat containing five small people and surrounded by tiny models of various objects such as a cooking pot, a roll of fur, a stone lamp or vessel, and other unknown implements.

Narrator: These objects document traditional Arctic material culture [and are] largely everyday objects such as gear for hunting and fishing, clothing, and models of boats and tools.

Visual: A rapid series of black and white photographs: First, a group of nine people. A line of five women stand facing the camera, a man stands behind the central woman, and two others of indeterminate age kneel or sit at their feet. The right-most woman carries a small baby on her back. Next, a portrait of a young woman with long, black hair in two braids, wearing a small, sleeping child on her back in a fur-lined carrier.

Narrator: The people of this region are the Inuit, the word for “people” in their language.

Visual: A dogsled drawn by five dogs hitched with one in front followed by two pairs. Two figures occupy the sled, one seated and the other standing on the back. Then, a landscape with only very low vegetation and scattered with wide, circular tents. Finally, an igloo in the process of being constructed. A woman carrying a baby on her back stands on the left, a man holds a block of snow before a partially-built wall in the center, and a group of three children stand on the right near other blocks ready to be placed.

Narrator: They are hunters and gatherers who live traditionally in skin tents in the summer and igloos in the winter.

Visual: A panning shot of a museum case featuring a full-size kayak covered in skin in the back. Snowshoes, paddles, and smaller models of boats are displayed in the front.

Narrator: Here we have examples of boat and sled forms. The kayak is an Indigenous Inuit invention – it’s a one-person boat that was used for hunting marine mammals and transporting meat from the hunt during the summer season. The frame is made from driftwood or whalebone and covered with a waterproof covering, often made from walrus hides. It’s extremely maneuverable and was propelled by a double-bladed paddle.

Visual: A smaller boat model from the exhibit. It has an inner wood frame and small paddles and is covered with hide. It is double-pointed though narrower at one end, and much wider and more open than the kayak. Beside it is a model of a kayak frame, only the wooden portion, and this can be seen to be much narrower.

Narrator: In addition to kayaks, larger, open boats called umiaks were also built. These boats transported people and goods from winter camps to summer hunting grounds and were used for the summer hunts. Like the kayak, the frame was made with scavenged materials and covered with walrus hide.

Visual: A different portion of the museum exhibit, with snowshoes and small models of dog sleds displayed. We then transition to the photograph of a dogsled with a five-dog team seen earlier in the video, then to a different black and white photograph showing two heavily-loaded dogsleds and a scattering of attached dogs.

Narrator: During the winter season dog sleds provided the main source of transportation. Dogs were essential to life in the Arctic, moving people, goods, and gear over frozen ground. The sleds were pulled by dogs harnessed either in a fan hitch or in a gang line, depending upon the terrain.

Visual: We return to the museum display of the model dogsleds and the snowshoes. The snowshoes are egg-shaped, with a wider rounded front and narrower rounded back, made of wood strung with sinew webbing.

Narrator: While some groups in the Arctic also used snowshoes, not all did as the snow in the region was generally hardpack so that none were needed.

Visual: A carved bone handle, slightly curved, with a loop of braided cordage attached at each end.

Narrator: Individual possessions were limited as you could only take with you those things you could carry or load on a dogsled.

Visual: A museum exhibit with a large, semi-circular stone basin, and two knives in the form of semi-circles with attached wooden handles above. Then a quick transition to a color photograph of a group of men butchering walruses.

Narrator: Essential items included a soapstone lamp, which used chunks of blubber to render oil and produce heat and light in the igloo,

Visual: A detail photograph of one of the two knives from the exhibit. The blade is widely triangular, with the long, lower edge forming a distinct curve and the wooden handle attached by a brass extension from the top point of the blade. A label reads “HM5765”. We then return to the museum exhibit.

Narrator: ulus, or women’s knives, used for food processing and preparing hides for clothing, tents, and boats, a snow knife for cutting blocks of snow to make an igloo,

Visual: The hunting implements seen previously. All are made with wooden shafts. From left to right: two triangular copper arrows mounted on bone foreshafts, a copper arrow with serrated back edge and mounted directly to wooden shaft, a wide, blunt bone “stunning” tip mounted to the wooden shaft, a toggling harpoon tip of bone or ivory with a bone or ivory foreshaft and attached to shaft with sinew line, a wide, leaf-shaped bone or ivory arrow, a narrower, single-edged bone or ivory arrow, and a three-bladed arrow with serrated bone or ivory prongs.

Narrator: and bows and arrows, spears, harpoons, and fishooks.

Visual: A museum exhibit displaying a fur parka along with various fur boots and mittens.

Narrator: Arctic clothing was made from hides and furs. Both men and women wore parkas, snow pants, boots, and mittens. In winter two layers of each were worn. In the summer only the inner layer of clothing was worn. The outer layer of clothing had the fur turned to the weather, and in the inner layer the hair was placed toward the body.

Visual: A closer shot of the fur parka. The fur is mostly brown, but what fur has been pieced in at the cuffs, elbows, around the hood, and at the bottom edge.

Narrator: This is an example of a caribou hide parka. Caribou hair is hollow, providing a high level of protection from the elements, and was extremely warm. Pants were generally made from seal skin, making them waterproof.

Visual: A photograph of a pair of tall boots. The upper portion is pale fur with a decorative pattern of dark fur stitched in to create a stack of chevrons between two dark vertical lines. The lower portion is made of a white hide or leather one the very top with a darker sole that wraps up around the foot.

Narrator: Boots generally featured seal skin uppers and tougher walrus hide soles.

Visual: A pair of mittens made of skin with a fish-scale pattern. The cuffs are made with rows of different hides, creating a decorative pattern, and fur edged.

Narrator: Mittens could be made from seal or other fur-bearing animals. Sometimes they were even made from fish skins.

Visual: A black and white photograph of a man standing in a large building with multiple levels of museum exhibits visible behind him. He looks directly at the camera, leaning against a railing casually with one hand in a pocket.

Narrator: If you want to explore traditional lifeways in the Arctic, you may wish to watch a documentary film produced by Director Emerick in the mid-1950s. You’ll find this film on the Hudson Museum’s YouTube channel.

Visual: A small artwork – a hunter in a kayak is carved from speckled tan stone. He wears a parka with the hood up around his face and holds aloft a spear made of wood with a small stone or metal point. This is attached to a base by means of two small wooden or bone dowels. The base is carved of a darker gray stone and seems to represent the ocean, with an etched representation of a seal on the front, apparently “beneath the surface” of the water. An etched inscription reads “snowball”. A label reads “HM6720.”

Narrator: The Museum also has examples of contemporary Inuit art, especially carvings from serpentine and soapstone.

Visual: A stone carving depicting a man standing in a dynamic pose on a rocky ledge holding a bone implement. He wears boots, mittens, fur snow pants, and a parka. A label reads “HM6718”.

Narrator: These carvings depict marine mammals, supernatural beings, and individuals engaged in traditional activities.

Visual: University of Maine logo.