
- 
Figure 9.--Bone harpoon head with iron tip, used at Little Diomede. The 
harpoon head is lashed to an ivory foreshaft, which is set in a whale- 
bone base. (Photo by Kenyon) 
Dunbar's (1956) discussion of walrus hunting by Canadian 
Eskimos applies equally well to hunting at Little Diomede. 
".,. the introduction of the rifle has, amongst other things, 
had the effect of making increasing numbers of Eskimos ‘trigger- 
happy',.... The result is that hunting parties, formerly models of 
stealth and cunning, now rival those fairy-tale hunters in ‘Peter 
and the Wolf', ‘coming through the forest, and shooting as they 
come.' The total fire-power of the hunting party is let loose on 
the herd of walruses, wounding rather than killing and allowing 
many maimed animals to escape, to die later. Pregnant females are 
killed and wounded as well as males, so that the total waste is 
difficult to estimate. Quite apart from the waste involved in the 
escape of mortally wounded animals, there is also the danger, in 
summer, of animals sinking before they can be harpooned, particularly 
in this haphazard method of hunting." 
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