Some animals were taken from kayaks with harpoons, but it was easier to capture them at rookeries. With clubs and spears, hunters would sneak up on resting sea lions, particularly during the summer pupping season. In addition to food, sea lions provide an array of raw materials. Sea lion bone was fashioned into tools, intestine was used for clothing and containers, and whiskers decorated hunting hats. The most important resource, however, was the animal s skin.
Sea lions are one of the only sources of large hides in the Kodiak Archipelago.
Kayaks and larger open skin boats were covered with sea lion skins - particularly those of cows. Skins were also used to cover the smoke hole in a sod house and to wrap the dead for burial.