A few pieces of Gambell we will Treasure forever!

Over the past few weeks about every other night either at school or at our house we have native people coming to sell us carvings! We have seem some truly AMAZING things and were finally able to purchase a few pieces after payday!  

This is a whale bone mask carved into a face with polar bear fur around the head like a hood!

This is my Walrus he is pretty big even though you can't really tell. He is made out of Ivory.

This is our Beulah doll, he is a drummer. The drum he is holding is a very small version of the drums the Gambell men use during Yupik dance on Fridays. We were in our classrooms last week when this tiny old women walks in with this amazing doll. I was so shocked to actually see a Beulah doll and meet Beulah as well! I told her I would love to buy her doll, it would make a great Gambell Birthday present! I think she was very happy!

I found this bit of information about Beulah on the internet about how she makes the dolls and why they are so special.
   Beautiful Eskimo Dolls made from a variety of native materials by Beulah Oittilliah, her Granddauter Stephani and Maxine Ungott of Gambell, Alaska, Yup'ik Eskimo village of about 700 people on St. Lawrence Island; just south of the Bering Straits. The Yup'ik people have occupied the Bering Straits for thousands of years.
Beulah, Stephanie and Maxine are master Yup'ik doll makers. Beulah’s work is featured in a book titled “Ivory Carvers of St. Lawrence Island” by Dale Kessler. Each doll is unique and one of a kind. They have maintained their uniqueness because of the isolated nature of the island. The dolls are made from a wide variety of native materials. The face, hands are ivory from the tusk of a walrus. The eyes are inlaid baleen. The parkas are traditional walrus gut and gray-silver spotted fur seal. The trousers and mukluks are also spotted fur seal. They are generally mounted on an old walrus vertebrate or whale "ooziva". 

This is Ty's buy. His little Walrus family! The mama walrus has a baby under her side you can barely see behind the tusks.