It was a Monday in February. Fifth-grader Bruce Turner squirmed in his
seat. It was -20 degrees outside and a blizzard was burying streets and
driving the snow against doorways. There had been no outdoor recess
today. Bruce was bored. He wanted to be outside where he spent hours
year-round, following animal tracks, observing snow geese during nesting
season, finding tuttu antlers on the tundra, watching gulls and ravens
soar overhead in the wind, and jigging for fish under the river ice.
Bruce thought his village, Nuiqsut, was the best place in the world
because he could do all the things he loved right here. But for now,
Bruce was inside in the classroom getting ready for a visit by an elder,
George Reilly, who would tell ancient stories called unipkaat about
tuttut. A few minutes later, Shirley, Bruce's teacher, welcomed George
to the classroom. So begins the story of Bruce Bruce Turner, a fifth
grader living in the Inuit village Nuiqsut, Alaska. His class is
learning from village elders about the importance of Caribou in their
culture and how though they are hunted. The animals must be respected if
they are to return every year. Afterwards Bruce joins his father on a
hunt, and they return with a caribou. Bruce's parents and aaka
(grandmother) then show Bruce how the caribou is put to use in many
ways, from food, to clothing, to using its sinew to develop sewing
thread. Later that summer, Bruce joins local scientists on the annual
caribou count, where he learns more about caribou behavior and
migration.
