Nanook
Ditch-Runner
Member Posts: 25,236 ✭✭✭✭
my whole life I have heard references to Nanook of the north . I never looked into it just thought maybe a old movie or just a general term used in conversations referring to the north pole Alaska settings
any way I was up and not being able to sleep I was just letting youtube run wild then a hour or two ago Nanook of the north popped up so I had to watch it honest not what I was expecting
Its a silent amateur ? move from 1922 about a native man and his family the narrator/ camara fellow followed them for a while in daily struggles and day to day life obvious it was edited down to make it interesting
honest if you never seen it watch it I think its just over a hour long if nothing else it will make you feel better about your daily life remember this was filmed in 1922
I will say its not PETA approved for sure and no way would I even try to live like they did
here is a link to a version on youtube
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I remember watching that in 7th grade social studies…
He must have come through it alright, he's a GB member now. Still got the old car from 1922 also.
Thanks for the post!!!
Combat Vet VN
D.A.V Life Member
I ask my wife to chew my boots each morning to soften them up for the day like Nanook's wife had to do just one mor chore she had to do do . and eating raw walrus and seal well for the most part every thing they killed did not look all that appetizing and I may watch it Agin after thinking on it I think he had two wifes ?
poor old fellow Nanook the narrator said two years after the movie and he had left he gor word Nanook went into the wilds searching for food and starved to death looking for it
still a interesting hour of a life style
Yep, that's a good show. A lot of it is accurate, but some has been kinda set up to fool you. Like, it was filmed in summer, not winter, or it would be dark outside. Some real neat details there, notice they're pretty much dressed in sealskin except for the polar bear pants. And when they pull up in the q'ayaq (kayak) they're wearing furs... that would never happen because a wave would sink you. They made jackets out of seal gut, translucent with overlapping seams so they're waterproof. The umiaq looked right, and building an iglu in an hour? Forget it. That's 2 or 3 hours work, and he didn't build a kunnysuk on the entrance to keep the wind out. When we build them we cut a hole near the top, and use the snow to make a little shelf, then make a snowball to fit the hole, so we can let extra heat out. Yeah you read that right... it will be 45 degrees in there in the morning with those thick walls. That means the snow wants to melt and drip, which is why they're on an elevated platform.
Chewing boots to soften them only works when they haven't froze overnight. Your feet sweat which causes that. When I take my troop out camping we keep our boots inside the tent (if we even use a tent) and in the morning first thing you do is go for a walk to thaw your boots and get your blood moving.
It's all about finding just enough food to keep from starving. They don't waste anything. That seal flipper wouldn't get used up in tug-o-war, they'd wrap it and bury it for a few months to let it rot, that's called Stink Flipper. Seal meat IS the best, and it gives off a lot of oil. They use seal oil to flavor things like the black meat.
If you're lucky you'll find a real sealskin hat and coat made by a real eskimo some day. There is nothing warmer. I have two, lined with sea otter fur. There are lots of styles, but the Iñupiaq design is best, it reaches clear to your neck and goes low over your forehead. Mine were made by a dear old friend named Helen Pootoogooluk in Shishmaref. The store in Kotzebue has a website https://www.sulianich.org/ and when winter starts to get close they'll put up some more real fur goods like that.
That was actually really well done. Don't feel bad for the dogs, they were sitting there looking pathetic, but they were really just waiting for the snow to blow around them and make piles, so they could bury themselves down in the snow and stay warm. I know it sounds weird, but cold dry snow is an excellent insulator.
Thanks for the video! "Nanuq" is "polar bear", "Aklaq" is "black bear", "Qanniq" is "snowflake", "Irniq" is "son", "Paniq" is "daughter" but "Buniq" is "sweet daughter".
Thank you for letting me be part of your Ilagiit here at GunBroker!
Pretty sure that old expression "Come on over and let's chew the fat" has its roots from that north country! I remember from my days in grade school how easy it was to gross out little girls just by mentioning that I had a BLUBBER sandwich in my lunch pail! 😁
I even used to stretch the truth a bit back then!!
Thanks
Nanuq 907
I guessed some was staged but still based on facts
I knew about the dogs getting covered or burying them self in snow from way back as a kid reading about it makes sense
So the old saying three dog night letting the dogs in to help keep warm and block the entrance ? Or something to that effect I was just a young kid when reading about it ?
Honest I was hoping you would post and add more details about it
Still a tough life no matter the small details
Thanks
Yes a very hard life. What the movie shows is the motions they go through to survive, but it doesn't show the people themselves. Nowdays racism against the gussuk (white man) is rampant in the villages. They just don't want you there. But they're not all like that, just like any cultural group. The silent majority are the gentlest, kindest, toughest, most sensitive people you'd ever want to know. They'll give you the shirt off their back, and share anything they have with you. Because they know you'll do the same. They talk slow, move slow, think twice as much as they speak, and HATE to have attention focused on them. They will never look you in the eyes until you're a close friend, and once you reach that stature it can never be broken.
A friend of mine was a traveling missionary around the state for decades, and he knows every elder in every village. He remembers the first time he moved to Barrow (now called Utqiagvi'q) they put him up in a tiny house and in the morning he made a cup of coffee and stepped out the front kunnysuk to get the cold wind, and there was a huge walrus head lying there. He ran back inside and called over to the host that invited him, thinking it was something like the horse-head-in-the-bed scene from Godfather. His buddy laughed and said "No, someone is showing you massive respect and gave you the best gift he has to offer."
The Alaskan natives have the same concepts of aloha and ohana like in Hawai'i they just use different words for them.
sounds like a lot of good people over all I cant hold it against them for the racism against whites just like the native Americans here in the lower 48
and will add a lot people could take lessons about friendships and especially thinking 2x as much as they speak