Baleen Basketry of the North Alaskan Eskimo. Molly Lee

FIGURE 5. Corset with baleen (“whalebone”) stays. From The Very Best English Goods, 1907. Photograph by Richard Serros.

      Baleen is the fibrous material forming the sieve-like mouth parts of the plankton-eating whales. Called whalebone by the Yankees, it is, in fact, composed of keratin, the proteinaceous substance forming hair, horn, and fingernails. An extension of the upper gum, baleen hangs down on either side of the whale’s tongue in overlapping fronds called plates (fig. 4). A feeding whale moves through the water with mouth agape,² and the plankton are trapped on the inner surface of the baleen plates, where long, bristle-like hairs intertwine to form a coarse, tangled mat (Slijper 1962). Not the biggest mysticetous whale, the bowhead was nonetheless the one most highly prized by commercial whalers. Compared to other species, its larger jaw holds a greater quantity of bigger-sized plates. A single bowhead can yield as many as 700 plates up to 12 feet long; their total weight can be as much as 3,500 pounds (Scoresby 1820; Scammon 1874).

      Strong and flexible, baleen in the nineteenth century was a valuable raw material comparable to present-day plastics. After soaking, it could be cut or split into pieces almost as fine as thread while retaining its tensile strength, and once heated, it could be permanently reshaped (Stevenson 1907; Tressler 1923). The most common commercial use of baleen was for women’s corset stays (fig. 5), but among the many other articles made from it were buggy whips, umbrella ribs, scrubbing brushes, trunk frames, fishing rods, and mattress stuffing (Ellis 1892; Flayderman 1972).

      At first whalers came intermittently to the Arctic in search of bowhead baleen, but contact intensified after 1885, with the introduction of steam-powered whaling vessels (Leet 1974). About the same time some ships began wintering over at Point Hope for earlier access to the migrating herds, and onshore whaling stations were established in the region, primarily those at Point Hope and Point Barrow (Burch 1971; Bockstoce 1977). In the 1890s the first schools and missions were founded in the arctic communities, and within a generation, Christianity had been grafted onto the existing belief system (Milan 1964; Burch 1971).

      The Yankee whaling period also brought about changes in the subsistence patterns and material culture in North Alaska. Although the Eskimos continued to hunt for the bulk of their food, modern firearms soon replaced their traditional hunting weapons. About the same time, north Alaskans began to develop a taste for imported foodstuffs³ such as coffee, tea, sugar, and flour; and soon, foreign household wares of metal and tin displaced those made locally of wood, bone, and pottery (Jenness 1918; Spencer 1959).

      Before the 1950s, when currency came into common use (VanStone 1962), the Eskimos secured imported goods through barter. During the Yankee whaling period, baleen was their most valuable exchange commodity (Murdoch 1892). North Alaskans hired as crew members were sometimes paid in “whalebone” (Bailey 1921). Another resource for exchange was handmade objects of ivory and other indigenous materials. Long accustomed to trade with outside groups, Eskimos elsewhere in Alaska had as early as the eighteenth century made articles, such as model kayaks, especially for the nonnative market (Ray 1980). At Barrow they had begun making masks and ivory carvings expressly for this purpose by 1881 (Murdoch 1892).

      Nevertheless, east of Point Hope, arts and crafts production has never flourished to the same extent as farther south around the Bering Sea (Ray 1977). In North Alaska, except in cases of old age or infirmity, arts production has been supplemental rather than full-time. Here, participation in arts and crafts occupations has increased only during economic depressions when other means of obtaining trade goods were lacking (Spencer 1959; Graburn 1979).

      Between 1908 and 1914, commercial whaling gradually ceased. The drastic depletion of the bowheads⁴ and the invention of baleen substitutes such as spring steel and celluloid both contributed to its demise. In 1907 baleen was selling on the American market for $5 a pound; by 1912 the price had plummeted to 7 ½ cents, and soon after 1914 American whaling stopped entirely (Brower 1942; VanStone 1958; Bockstoce 1977, 1980). Subsequently, the Eskimos resumed both their traditional subsistence patterns and the cooperative social patterns they entailed (Spencer 1959). Even so, things were never again the same. During the whaling period, imported goods were incorporated into everyday life. A second economy, based on trade, now supplemented subsistence hunting; ever since, comfort and well-being in North Alaska have required successful participation in both these networks (VanStone 1962; Hippler 1969). Immediately following the collapse of Yankee whaling, the Eskimos endured a period of hardship. Itinerant trade vessels and local trading stations provided continued access to the coveted goods, but baleen, once so valuable as barter, now was worthless (Brower 1942).

      Between about 1918 and 1929, the fur trade filled the economic vacuum to some extent, but this option was soon closed by the Great Depression, recognition of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent repeal of the embargo on Russian furs (Stuck 1920; Spencer 1959). In the next decade, arts and crafts became the most reliable trade resource (Spencer 1959). During this time production of baleen baskets began in earnest.

      The Eskimos’ contact with the outside world continued in the form of visits from government officials and longer stays of schoolteachers and missionaries (VanStone 1962; Milan 1964). But not until the onset of World War II did economic relief first glimmer in the arctic villages. So pervasive was the cultural upheaval that the war years there have been described as “a Rubicon with the past” (Hughes 1965). Military bases were established along the arctic coast, and in 1946, at the Barrow installation, Eskimos were first hired as full-time wage employees (Roberts 1954). In the intervening years, local employment opportunities have continued to rise. Between 1953 and 1982 the population of Barrow has doubled. With more than 2,800 residents in 1982, it is the largest Eskimo settlement in the world.

      The 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s have seen an ever narrowing gap between Eskimo and Western cultures. Besides wage employment, expanded public education, development of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields, construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, and enactment of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act have all contributed to the changes. Among them are a shift from extended family groups to conjugal family units (Burch 1975), and the need of wage earners to confine subsistence hunting to weekends and vacations (Chance 1966; Nelson 1969).

      Despite these cataclysmic changes the rudiments of Eskimo culture survive. Bowhead whaling is still the major yearly event and now the only cooperative activity left to reinforce group cohesion in the arctic villages (Marquette 1977). But the continuity subsistence whaling once provided is now severely threatened. The balance maintained between the Eskimos and bowheads for a thousand years was overturned in half a century of Yankee depredations. Future continuance of Eskimo whaling will depend on a satisfactory resolution to the present conflict⁵ between the bowhead’s endangered status and the fragile condition of Eskimo society, whose members continue to look to the whale for a source of bodily nourishment and a sense of cultural identity.