Non-Food Plants
Nunungiuk Iñupiaq Name: Nunungiuk phonetic spelling: new-nu-ing-iuk plural: Nunungiut translation /other information none known English Name: Alder Scientific Name Alnus crispus Source: (Ait.) Pursh
This tall shrub grows very well in Golovin. The plants sometime reach 9 feet, but are usually about 5-6 feet tall in Golovin. The dark green leaves have slightly serrated edges and are oval shaped. The small cones are dark brown and bear small brown seeds. The bark is dark reddish-brown. Nunungiuk is used in dyeing skins that the Iñupiaq Eskimo use to sew clothing, boots or mukluks, and other small items like Eskimo yo-yo's and miniature key chain mukluks. Maggie Olson showed my how to prepare the bark for dyeing. The bark must be peeled. Maggie used an instrument that her grandmother had used over 50 years ago. She soaked the bark shavings in hot water over night and said that the water brings out the color. The deep red color was used to darken squirrel skins. The next day she put the shavings on the inside of the squirrel skin and let that sit over night. The next day she rubbed the skins until they were dry. The skins were considerably darker and had a warm reddish color, that the undyed skins did not have. Maggie uses the skins she dyes to make inside parkas and miniature mukluks on key chains that she sells in her store. Nunungiuk is also used in making smoked fish. My Uncle Craig made some smoked salmon strips in the fall of 1993, and they were still good this summer that I was there. I had him give me his recipe for his smoke fish. The fish must be cut into thin 1/2 inch strips. The strips are soaked in a brine of rock salt and brown sugar for a few hours. Then the fish is put in a smoke house and nunungiuk is burned in the fire pit for about 3 days. Then the fish are hung to dry in the normal fashion that dry fish are made. It takes the fish about one or two weeks to be totally dry. Some other traditional uses of nunungiuk included the making of snowshoes, bows and arrows, and in constructing large walrus-skin boats, called umiaks and smaller one man boats, called kayaks. These items are no longer made in Golovin, but perhaps one day the skills for making these items will be revived.