Human Impacts on Seals, Sea Lions, and Sea Otters: Integrating Archaeology and Ecology in the Northeast Pacific

3. The Historical Ecology of Walrus Exploitation in the North Pacific

41 3 The Historical Ecology of Walrus Exploitation in the North Pacific Erica Hill The pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) is a highly salient species of sea mammal and was a fundamental resource for prehistoric maritime peoples in the North Pacific. For at least 2000 years, inhabitants of the coasts of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, and the Chukchi Peninsula of Chukotka have relied upon walrus as either a primary or secondary resource. At some highly debated point in time, Eskimo on both sides of the Bering Strait adopted whaling, and in most areas the use of walrus as a resource declined (for discussion of possible dates, see Mason and Gerlach 1995). Modern inhabitants of these regions continue their whaling traditions, focusing on gray and bowhead whales (both baleen whales), as well as the smaller belugas, or “white whales.” Also living along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula at contact were the so-called maritime Chukchi (also called “coastal” or “settled” Chukchi). Though unrelated linguistically to the Eskimo, the Chukchi pursued many of the same subsistence practices as their Eskimo neighbors, including walrusing and whaling. When they arrived on the coast is unknown; however, the Chukchi presence was recorded by mid-18thcentury Russian observers (Krupnik 1993a). On the eastern side of the Bering Strait, Alaska Eskimos included caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and ringed (Phoca hispida) and bearded (Erignathus barbatus) seals in their subsistence economies (Giddings 1964; Larsen and Rainey 1948; Stanford 1976), with walrus and whales most important at sites near sea mammal migration routes. At specific sites along the Alaska coast, such as the western tip of the Seward Peninsula and Point Hope, farther north, Eskimo appear to have followed the same general subsistence trajectory as the coastal populations of Chukotka; that is, a long history of seal and walrus exploitation followed by a shift to whaling. The composition of the zooarchaeological assemblages at these sites is very similar to patterns seen across the strait in Chukotka, Human Impacts on Seals, Sea Lions, and Sea Otters: Integrating Archaeology and Ecology in the Northeast Pacific, edited by Todd J. Braje and Torben C. Rick. Copyright © by The Regents of the University of California. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 42 historical ec olog y of wal rus e xp loi tation understanding of how cooperative hunting developed along the coasts of the Bering and Chukchi seas. Hunting by large crews aboard umiat (large, open skin boats) is a strategy that has long been associated—exclusively—with whaling. But emerging archaeological evidence has the potential to demonstrate that North Pacific Eskimos around the Bering Strait lived and hunted in large, cooperative kin groups before whaling emerged as the preferred subsistence strategy. By the early first millennium AD, walrus had become one component of a diet that included but the distribution of sites is significantly different (Figure 3.1) (see Harritt 1995 for a brief overview of prehistoric subsistence in northwest Alaska). In this chapter, I examine the historical ecology of the Pacific walrus considering the association between human settlements and walrus migration routes along the North Paci fic coast on both sides of the Bering Strait. I also discuss how humans adapted their hunting strategies to deal with the habitat preferences of female and juvenile walruses. These observations have major implications for our FIGURE 3.1. Key archaeological sites containing walrus located along the coasts of the Bering and Chukchi seas. Compare the site density along the coasts of Chukotka and St. Lawrence Island with the Alaska coast. wrangel island: 1 = Chertov Ovrag (Devil’s Gorge). chukotka: 2 = Cape Vankarem; 3 = Seshan; 4 = Inchouan; 5 = Uelen; 6 = Ekven; 7 = Yandygay; 8 = Cape Chaplino; 9 = Kivak (Kiwak); 10 = Sireniki (Sirhenik); 11 = Unanan (Nunligran). st. lawrence island: 12 = Gambell site complex (including Ievoghiyoq, Hillside, Miyowagh, and Seklowaghyaget); 13 = Kukulik; 14 = Punuk Islands. alaska mainland: 15 = Iyatayet and Nukleet; 16 = Kurigitavik Mound (Wales); 17 = Ipiutak (Pt. Hope); 18 = Utqiagvik (Barrow). his tor ica l ecology of wa lr us exploitation 43 Because whaling has been a major focus of research in both the western and eastern Arctic , the importance of walrus to prehistoric diet, material culture, and social organization has been largely underestimated, with a few notable exceptions (e.g., Rainey 1941). I will therefore discuss sites on both sides of the Bering Strait that contain walrus remains in significant numbers. Sites yielding only...