The Artist: Sean Gallagher
Hello my name is Sean Gallagher, and I am part of the 13th region corporation an Alaskan native. I have had an interest in skin boats as far back as I can remember. I have always felt the need to be close to my culture and learn of the things people before me made and did. When growing up I watched my uncles carving King Island style soap stone figures and I started to learn that my family was a little different than the rest. I was part of the only King Island family in Massachusetts.
The culture in my family was rich; everything I learned was filled with the arts and the ways of the tribe. As I grew I found a place for art through drawing and painting. The ideas my uncles' art instilled in my mind started to appear on the pages of my sketchbooks and through my paintings. Even early on in life I wanted to keep the traditions of the native people alive.
I became interested in skin boats because it was once the life blood of the people in the north. The King Islanders were surrounded with water and it was the only place to get food. The first Kayak I made gave me a sense of identity that I had never found before. It was a sense of pride that came from my soul but had never been let out. This was a great feeling, and it was something I wanted to keep.
My plan is to make Kayaks and also to develop a skill level to feel confident to teach other King Islanders the art of skin boat making and to bring the art to them once more.
There is a place for us all on this planet. The identity of ethnic people is constantly stretched and being diminished. The regaining my culture is important to me. I give thanks to people like David W. Zimmerly for doing the research to preserve this craft and also my teacher Cory Freedman for being passionate with skin boat design. He is a constant wealth of knowledge in skin boat design and the revival of the King Island Kayak in the native community. This revival begins now. Thank-you for your support.
Brief History of the King Island Kayak and Its Role in Inupiaq Life ~ By: Sean Gallagher
The King Island kayak was invented out of necessity to survive the harsh conditions on King Island, which is located in the Bering Sea off the coast of Willy Lagoon by about 70 miles. Willy Lagoon is in between Nome and Teller on the Teller road. Kayaks were necessary for trade, hunting and also transportation while living in this very remote village. The kayak itself is said to date back about three to five thousand years, but this is up for debate because there was no written history of the kayak. There is only the history of words passed down through generations, the oral history of the native people of the north. Thus it is very possible that it dates back even further in pre-history than we know.
The construction of the King Island Kayak was done in the summer months on the small beaches of the island. In the summer months there was more beach and fewer waves to interfere with the construction. The frames were constructed with driftwood that they found in coves and on the island, sometimes they would take the time to travel to the mainland were they would find areas with driftwood and pick out what they needed. Picking out pieces was an art in itself. The builder looked for the parts he needed and his experience from making past Kayaks gave him the knowledge of what to look for. The parts would show themselves to the builder in driftwood form and this was how the builder would pick the pieces off the beach. It was less work to find a piece that looked like the one he needed than to cut a piece to the right shape.
Kayak construction was done with minimal tools. The tools used were a bow drill that was stabilized with a mouth piece for the ultimate in accuracy; a straight knife and a crook knife were also used. The construction was done without the aid of metal fasteners or nails, using wood pegs and lashing instead. The lashing was a sinew that they got from the caribou people on the mainland through trade, or it was strips of baleen from past wale hunts. The skin of the kayaks was split walrus skin from the early spring hunts.
The women were in charge of the skin preparation and also the sowing of the skin to the Kayaks. The walrus skins used were female walrus; this was done because the spirit of the kayak was thought to be female. After the skin was put on the kayak the men would discourage the women from making contact with the kayak in fear of bad luck. The relation between the men and their kayaks was considered to be like a marriage in a sense, this is why they discouraged their wives from making contact with the kayaks. It went both ways; he wanted to avoid jealousy from the wife and also the kayak. A jealous kayak makes a hunt sour and not very profitable. Kayaks were considered to have a life force and the men would go as far as to make grooves in the kayak gunnels to give it a blood line. The relation with the Kayak had to be strong and healthy because this was the life blood of the community. It was the gate way for food and supplies for the King Island people.
