Ancient Ruins of a Caribou Hunting Camp
Kokolik River Highlands, AK
June 17, 2006
While traversing the high ridges above the Kokolik River drainage, we found ancient ruins that were probably part of a caribou hunting camp several centuries old.
Among the ruins, we found collapsed stone structures (see photo), a vast mitten of caribou bones, and arrowhead fragments made from volcanic glass rock not indigeneous to this area.
The site was completely undisturbed, with no sign of recent human investigation. We tread carefully, and left it that way.
Slow-growing moss and lichen had overgrown much of the rock and mitten bones - evidence that this community camp was a relic from many generations ago.
Our cursory and undisturbing inspection made it impossible to accurately assess the purpose or time period of this camp.
However, the arrowhead fragments suggest that this camp came in a time where indigeneous caribou hunters had to employ more strategic tactics for hunting than what is done today.
Ancient Inupiat Indians used to build sophisticated corraling systems, consisting of (occupied) stone structures arranged in a "V" formation that would funnel caribou herds into valley constructions, where skilled hunters with bow and arrow, or spear, would make the final kill. The wide parts of the "V" would be found high on adjacent, parallel ridges. We suspect that the structures we found here comprised the widest parts of such a corral. The stone monuments are called inuksuks.
This hunting practice occured for centuries among the Inpupiat, and effectively ended in the mid-1940s, when the last of the Inupiat arrowheads were traded in for bullet and barrel.
