The Duck In Documentary Analysis

You are starving and your family is starving, but the law told you that you could not feed your family, would you obey the law or do you decide to feed your family anyway despite what the law says? To Tommy Pikok Sr., “When I am hungry, I can protest the law. I can use my stomach as a reason to protest the law” (Edwardsen, Duck-In). In the documentary, The Duck-In, the Iñupiat people of Barrow, Alaska fought against the law by coming together as a whole community to get what should be their right as native people. The Iñupiat people would rather hunt for their food than consume white people food on a daily basis. It is our culture, tradition, and duty to hunt for food and no one or anything could change our way of thinking. The citizens of Barrow, Alaska should watch the Duck-In because the documentary informs the citizens

of Barrow, Alaska that the Iñupiat fought for our hunting rights, the documentary describes what life was like back then, tells how unified the North Slope was, and lastly, the documentary makes us want to take pride in our culture.
Hunting to some people is just a fun activity and gives parents a chance to bond with their kids, but to the Iñupiat people of Barrow, hunting is something the Iñupiaq people have to do in order to survive. Back then, before Alaska became a state, the native people did not have a store to buy meat from, the family had to go out and hunt for their food and that is what the people of Barrow continued to do for years. They lived according to the laws of their ancestors and harvested the animals. However, when the game warden came up to Barrow in 1961, hunting ducks would come to an end. The game warden would arrest people who had ducks that were caught off-season and in the documentary, Pasty Aamodt said that, “It seemed unthinkable to be arrested to be able to have duck soup.” (Edwardsen, Duck-In) From the documentary, two people were arrested, the first person arrested was John Nusunginya and the second person was Tommy Pikok Sr. or also known as, Nipik. Pikok stated in his interview, “I went to see the game warden (back at the hotel) and told them to arrest me” (Edwardsen, Duck-In). As a result of the arrests, 138 people of Barrow shot and killed ducks showed up to the game warden’s door and told the game warden to arrest them all. The game warden claimed that he did not have enough paperwork to arrest all 138 people, and then the game warden left them alone. Also, about 300 people of Barrow signed a petition to change the regulation law and sent it to the president. The law said that duck hunting season was October, but no ducks were in Barrow during that month. The Inupiat people were determined to get rid of the law, it does not matter in what way, and they wanted the law gone. Tommy Pikok Sr. had fighting words that had drawn attention to him by the game warden, “But I also warned them I said: ‘If I get out of jail, if I ever come home and find my children and my wife hungry and skinny… I’m telling you now, that if this happens I will use all my monies, down to the last pennies to look for you, where ever you may be. And I will kill you and feed you to my dogs.” (Edwardsen, Duck-In)
The documentary is a great history lesson about Barrow.

In the documentary, there are several photos from 1961, and even before then. There were photos of the houses the native people used to live in, the old Top of the World Hotel, pictures of families that were associated with the Duck-In, and even photographs of newspapers that were written about the hunting law. Included in the documentary, before Eben Hopson and Sadie Brower passed away, the film and editing crew added old conversations from them and incorporated the conversations into the documentary. Clips of life back then were included in the video, which involved people gathered around outside eating and sharing food. Beverly Long explained that, “How you grew up, they cannot take that away from you,” (Edwardsen, Duck-In) and Long also said, “It is so important we know who our ancestors are” (Edwardsen, Duck-In). What Long said about the past could make you realize that if it was not for your ancestors, tradition would not carry on and the things you do today, such as hunting, sewing, cooking, and speaking the language, would all be gone if your ancestors did not carry on those

ways.
Living in such a small place, unity plays a huge part in a community, once one person goes down, everyone else follows, and that is how the people of Barrow got the law overridden. In a place like the North Slope, you cannot survive being by yourself, there needs to be someone who has your back and in the Duck-In, the whole town was involved. When Pikok almost got arrested, the community of Barrow had a plan and the plan was to have people shoot and kill ducks and the wives, children, and men joined in on the action. If someone did not catch a duck, someone would be more than happy to give that person one. After that, a total of 138 people had a duck and started off to the game warden. The people knocked and knocked on the game warden’s door, but no one answered. The native people thought that he ran away because he could not arrest them all. Furthermore, the villages got in on the idea too, Ahkiviana stated, “We are considered as one, as the Inupiat people of the North Slope. We are eight villages and we are one, all together we represent one group of people. If something goes wrong at Barter Island, we all get together and come to their aid. If Point Hope needs our help, we have to help them. The same with Anaktuvuk Pass, Nuiqsut, Wainwright, and Barrow; we are a group of people, together as one person. We help each other as Inupiat, living life together.” (Edwardsen, Duck-In)
As an Iñupiaq person, you should have pride in who you are. The people in Barrow back in 1961 would not let the white man take their culture away from them. Without pride, how does a person know who they are? In the Duck-In, the Iñupiaq values were shown, such as humor, family roles, hunter success, and cooperation. Humor was expressed when the 138 people with ducks in their hand came knocking the game warden’s door to arrest them all; family roles were expressed when the men in the family are responsible for catching food for the family; hunter success was shown when the community of Barrow changed the law of the hunting seasons, and cooperation was shown throughout the whole documentary, from the first arrest, to the second arrest, to making a plan that involved the whole community to participate. If the Iñupiat people did not take pride in their culture and traditions, the Iñupiaq values would not even be around, and the people would not have been able to change the law. Etok Edwardsen, who witnessed the Duck-In, said, “…that’s the first time I saw Eskimo power at play,” (Edwardsen, Duck-In) which he later explained was the best feeling that you would ever feel.
The 1961 Duck-In is an important aspect of the history of Barrow. It was a time when people’s lives were at risk because families were scared they could not hunt ducks for food, a time when the Iñupiat people came together as one to fight the law, and a time when taking pride in your culture could overpower the United States government. John Nusunginya and Tommy Pikok Sr. were not the only heroes in this story; it was also the community of Barrow. If the people did not react the way they reacted when those two men got arrested, who knew what the hunting laws would be like now. The citizens on Barrow, Alaska should watch The Duck-In because the documentary educates us that the hunting laws we have now, were fought for, it informs us what Barrow was like back then, the documentary teaches us that the North Slope was unified, and it makes us want to take pride in our culture. Always remember that, ““We are the Inupiat. We are hunters. The Arctic is our home” (Edwardsen, Duck-In).