Timeline / Defining Rights and Responsibilities / 1848: Commercial whaling destroys Yup‘ik, Inuit traditions
1848: Commercial whaling destroys Yup‘ik, Inuit traditions
After U.S. whalers kill a bowhead whale near Big Diomede Island, commercial whalers begin hunting in the waters of the Bering Strait. In time, commercial whaling to supply a world market erodes the whale and walrus populations on which Yup‘ik and Inuit rely for food and materials.
- Theme
- Land and Water
- Region
- Arctic
Commercial whalers cutting blubber from their harvest in Point Barrow, Alaska, 1899–1908. This later image may look similar to scenes that brought about the end of a way of life for Yup'ik and Inuit.
Courtesy Alaska State Library, Rev. Samuel Spriggs Photograph Collection
Early photograph of the Pacific Steam Whaling Company trading station, Cape Lisburne, Alaska
Courtesy The New Bedford Whaling Museum