Left: a woman standing in Atka with an inflated intestine propped up to dry. Right: photo of a person cutting dried intestine into strips. Lower right: Three types of traditional Yup’ik foods.

IDENTITY: KNOWLEDGE

Gut Processing

Left: Native woman holding a sea lion intestine 75’ long. Atka, AK 1931. Richard Alan Wood collection. Top right: Darlene Ulak cuts a straight tube of bearded seal along the crease. Scammon Bay, 2019. Photo by Ellen Carrlee. Bottom right: Yup’ik delicacies: qiaq (outer intestine) on the black plate, qetget (horsetail root mouse food) in the white bowl, and beluga whale flipper on the white dish to the right. Scammon Bay 2019. Photo by Ellen Carrlee.

7. Drying

  • Gut is often stretched straight for drying to ensure a straight tube that will give a reasonably flat strip when cut.
  • Summer-processed gut is translucent and waterproof from being dried on a sunny, breezy day in temperatures above freezing.
  • Winter-processed gut is white from being freeze dried in sub-zero windy conditions. The white material is more flexible than the translucent, and still blocks water, but the satiny white finish is lost when exposed to liquid water.

8. Cutting

  • The dried tube is flattened and cut along the crease.
  • If the intestinal tube dries in a curve, the choice to cut along the inner vs outer curve.
  • Cutting on the outer curve is most common and yields a strip with ruffled edges. Sometimes a white mesentery line can be seen down the center.
  • Cutting on the inner curve is rare but sometimes seen in the Bering Strait area. This results in a strip with bowl-shaped bulges.
  • Strips of gut are roll up until needed.
  • Final width and thickness of the strip varies with species and individual animal. Whale and walrus intestine tends to be widest and thickest, while northern fur seal and Steller sea lion are among the narrower and thinner intestines.
  • Streamers of gut may be thrown in celebration. The sound is said to be heard in the spirit world.