At that time the skins are scraped free of hair, sewn together with a waterproof stitch, and then stretched over the wooden frame and tied into place using the sinew from caribou.

With a new skin on the frame, the umiak is placed out in the wind and cold, to dry. In May when the bowhead whales migrate eastward past Point Barrow, umiak skin boats are hauled on sleds pulled by snowmobiles out onto the ice.

Name

Although it is sometimes called a "woman's

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