Alaska Yupik Eskimo throwing stick -atlatl

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Alaska Yupik Eskimo throwing stick -atlatl

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Sold Date: 09/12/2007
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Ethnic, Folk & Native American Art

One wooden hand carved Alaska Yupik Eskimo throwing stick-Atlatl. Carved from white spruce wood and moose bone. This throwing stick was carved and painted by Margaret "Mesaq" Wisecarver (deceased) from Newtok, Alask, a small Yupik village on Alaska's Bering Sea coast. It was completed in 1999 before she got sick. Unforunately, she was unable to complete a seal hunting dart or duck spear. It is plain on the working side, with pegs made from moose bone. On the back she painted the Inua or spirit figure of the Thunderbird "Tingmiaqpuq" of Yupik legends. The design was expected to bring good luck to the hunter. It is 16.5 " (42 cm.). The length is taken from the distance of the inside of the elbow to the tip of the index finger (I was the hunter she used for a model) Maximum width is 2.5" (6.3 cm.). The working side contains a long groove with a catching peg that catches the base end of a dart or spear. The Hand end contains a notches to catch the thumb and finger grips and a peg to grip the fore finger. It was used to throw a seal dart with accuracy up to 50 yards (meters) at a seal and used to throw a duck spear at geese or swans overhead or thrown side handed at eider ducks on the water. Margaret's father used sticks like this to throw duck spears as late as the 1970's. The Yupik word for atlatl is "nuqaq" To unerstand its use see picture that accompanies the picture of the atlatl.