Eskimo Heritage Reader part 11

The Omalik Mine

In the old days, people traveled into the mountains to hunt caribou. They would drive them to Inuguk and the lake there. As the caribou swam ashore, the hunters would spear them. Or they chased them with a kayak on the lake. This was a traditional butchering place.
Once my great-grandfather, Tugua, was driving the caribou down to the valley. He saw rocks shining on the ground in the mountains. The rocks were very heavy, so they called the place Omalik, which means “heavy.” Later, they learned they could make bullets out of these heavy rocks.
One summer, when they went to Golovin, a ship was there. They showed the rock to the captain. He wanted to know where it came from. The natives did not know any better so they showed him. They brought the captain and some others to Omalik. The white men staked a claim there and later patented it. That’s where the first gold and silver were mined on the Seward Peninsula.
They hired the Eskimos as workers in the mine. They hired their boats, too, for three seasons. My grandpa, John Ahwinona, was hired as a driller in the shaft. Each man was paid one fifty pound sack of flour for a season’s work. For clothing, they were given only gunny sacks. While they almost starved, they were hauling all this silver and gold ore to the ship.
The two brothers who took the Captain to Omalik went to the owners. They asked for food for the men and their hungry families. Instead of flour, they asked for pay. But the mine owners took those two men and shot them in front of their wives and children.
After they had done this, they shut down the mine and returned to their ship. The miners knew they killed two tribal leaders. They hurried to leave. Another ship was seen offshore. The Captain did not want anyone else to know all about their gold and silver ore.
This was in the fall, when the storms are fierce. The Captain had been warned to wait until after the storm, but he left anyway. When he got out on the high seas, the ship split in two. All those perished, including the Captain. Only a young cabin boy was saved. He did not even know what the ship was hauling.

By Carl Ahwinona, Sr.