The
traditional territory of the Gwich'in Nation is also home to
the 200,000
members of the Porcupine Caribou Heard. The Porcupine Caribou
winter in the Ogilvie Mountains. They summer in the Alaska
National Wildlife Refuge where they calve and raise their
young before migrating south once more to the Ogilvies
on a never-ending cycle of survival.
The Porcupine
Caribou Herd is one of the largest free-roaming hears of
animals in the world and have been harvested for thousands
of years by the Gwich'in for meat, skins for clothing,
bones, and antlers or tools, and sinew for sewing.
In the past,
the caribou would be harvested with bows and arrows, spears,
snares and caribou corrals.
The caribou is
the staple of the Gwich'in diet. The meat is dried and
smoked to keep longer and used on hunting trips in the
winter and summer.
The
Gwich'in "The
People"