Umiak (Angyapik)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 22 Dec 2017
name: label: Donor Name
content: University of Oregon
notes: label: Notes
content: Umiak or angyapik, an open boat with a wooden frame, covered with split walrus hides. The outside is painted white. There is also a rudder and three wooden pieces, probably associated with the rudder, and two rawhide strips. It was purchased by a wealthy collector Paul Jensen for the "Jensen Arctic Museum" in Monmouth, OR, a part of Western Oregon University. It was transferred to the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History in 2013 when the Jensen museum closed its doors. It reportedly once belonged to the well-known Yupik family of John Apangalook in Gambell, St Lawrence Island. Dr. Stephen R Braund, anthropologist in Anchorage and author of the book The Skin Boats of St Lawrence Island, Alaska (1988) states "The wooden frame is not driftwood, but imported hard wood that is steam-bent to make the bent-rib boat. [...] [T]his bent-rib boat is unique in Arctic watercraft..."
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 10.14, p. 231 in Luukkanen, Harri, Fitzhugh, William W., and Evguenia Anichtchenko. 2020. The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of Northern Eurasia. Washington DC: Smithsonian Scholarly Press. "... The boat dates to the 1950s, when it was used for whaling on St. Lawrence Island. Later it was purchased by [Paul] Jensen for his circumnavigation of St. Lawrence Island with Yupik hunters. Its design reflects mid-20th-century changes resulting from the introduction of the outboard motor, which was mounted in an inboard well, and it has bentwood ribs for added strength. The boat's exterior is painted white, which helped preserve the skin and camouflaged the boat among ice floes."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Mar 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 5
place: label: Place
content: St. Lawrence Island / Gambell, Bering Sea / St. Lawrence Quad, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yupik, St. Lawrence Island
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2081576
label: USNM Number
content: E436141-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Umiak
physicalDescription: label: Length - Umiak
content: 566 cm
label: Width - Umiak
content: 41 cm
label: Height - Umiak
content: 81 cm
label: Maximum Length - Umiak
content: 610 cm