EDWARD REXFORD SR.

"I was born in Utqiagvik in 1958, and I was adopted and raised here all my life. I was a harpooner on my uncle’s crew until he retired and then I took over. I don’t know how many whales I caught—maybe five with his crew. State biologists keep track of how many whales we have caught. In our culture, we don’t boast. We were taught that the whales know; they know who has a clean ice cellar and who is preparing. There are stories that the whales already know who is good and bad. I still have an ice cellar, probably the only one in Barter Island that has survived. We are trying to build a community ice cellar too with modern technology. We hunt bowhead whales, and beluga too. Our quota is stuck at three it depends on the size of the village, it’s not quit enough for the village. I think Utqiagvik has 16, it must be some kind of whaling out there, combat whaling. [Laughs]

In the old days, there was no size limit, we would go after big, huge ones and would have to learn the hard way, it takes forever to butcher and everyone would quit helping. So we quit hunting big ones. The biggest we got was 59 feet (it took three days of butchering), long ago when there was ice, now days there is no ice when we go hunting. We noticed it start changing in the late '90s. There used to be a lot of ice, where you could park and look out, have lunch. Not anymore. The good old days are gone. They were drilling one year, it deflected the whales way out. We had to go a long ways to get whales then, 18 hours of towing the whale back. Now we wish for the ice. — Edward Rexford Sr. is Inupiaq from Kaktovik, Alaska.