Ice Scratcher Or Seal Call
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Nov 1878
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "33143-4. USED IN HUNTING WINTER SEAL. 33143-ILLUS. IN BAE 18TH AR, PT. 1; PL. LII-4,11; P.126. 33144-PASTOLIK, YUKON RIVER (MOUTH), ALASKA."
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=140 , retrieved 12-29-2021; see web page for additional information: Ice Scratcher, Inupiaq. Seals are comforted and attracted by the sound of another seal scratching the ice, which this tool imitates. Hunters used it when stalking seals on the frozen ocean, or to lure swimming animals within range. This type of tool, called an ice scratcher or seal call, was used by Iñupiaq seal hunters from Point Barrow to Norton Sound. It consists of seal claws lashed to a short wooden handle. This example, collected by Edward Nelson at Unalakleet in 1878, is made with bearded seal claws and has a sinew wrist strap. In late winter and early spring, hunters in the Norton Sound area stalked seals as the animals slept or sunned themselves on the sea ice. They wore parkas with gray or white fur trim on the hood, knee protectors, and a single large mitten made from polar bear or white dog skin. In the other hand, they carried a gun or harpoon. At first walking, then crawling, a hunter slowly approached the seal, using the mitten and hood to hide his body and to blend in with the background of ice and snow. If the seal sensed danger and raised its head, the hunter stopped and gently raked the ice with his scratcher, imitating a seal digging its breathing hole. This reassuring sound would lull the animal back to sleep. If a seal was spotted in the water, a hunter would use the tool as a call, to lure it up onto the ice and into range. Writing from Port Clarence in 1894, Miner Bruce gave an account of how Iñupiaq men of the area called seals: "When one is seen, the native cautiously crawls toward it, until he gets as near as he can on the ice. He then crouches down, and with a stick, on the end of which is fastened the claws of [a seal], he scratches the ice. A noise is made with this that resembles the cry of the seal, and seeing the native it thinks it is one of its own species, and quickly swims toward him, and when it comes within a few feet of the native he throws the harpoon at it. If the point strikes the seal, which it is pretty sure to do, as natives seldom make an attack until they are near enough to the seal to be sure of striking it, it quickly succumbs and is hauled out on the ice." Men at Barrow and along the north coast of Alaska also used ice scratchers or other scratching tools-such as the ice pick on the end of a harpoon-when stalking seals or hunting them along open water leads. They also used scratchers along with special seal rattles to lure the animals into underwater nets.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 29 Dec 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Unalakleet, Norton Sound, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inupiaq
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 78A00080
label: USNM Number
content: E33143-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Ice Scratcher
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 30 cm