07/16/2026
Our Cultural Engagement team is proud to share another Yup’ik Teaching Moment.
This feature explores the qamigaun (Gah-MEE-gown), a traditional sled used to transport a qayaq during spring sea mammal hunting.
Learn more in Calista Corporation’s post below.
Yup'ik Teaching Moment: Qamigaun
Presented by Calista Education & Culture
In the past, hunters along the Bering Sea coast used a qayaq (kayak) to hunt sea mammals in the spring. Each hunter had a qayaq that was built for him using his body measurements. The qayaq had essential equipment including a sled called qamigaun or qamigautek used to haul the qayaq from place to place and keep it off the ground or ice, which could damage it.
Qamigaun (Gah-MEE-gown) is a Kayak Sled in Yugtun.
It was a small flat sled, measuring about six feet long, one and a half feet wide and standing about six inches off the ground. It was mainly used to transport the qayaq but also used to haul other things after building handlebars onto it.
During the spring hunting season, hunters walked for miles before reaching the edge of the shore ice. They would tow their qayaq on the qamigaun along with other hunting equipment like paddles, spears, throwing boards, gaff with a hook, grass windbreakers and provisions. They towed it with a rope that went over their shoulder and was tied to the tote hole of the qayaq.
The qayaq had essential equipment including a sled called qamigaun or qamigautek used to haul the qayaq from place to place and keep it off the ground or ice, which could damage it.
When a hunter reached the ice floe edge, he would launch his qayaq in the water using a negcik ‘gaff with a hook’ to prevent it from wobbling as they sat inside. They would then store the qamigaun at the back end on the top of the qayaq while hunting.
In his book Paitarkiutenka: My Legacy to You, Frank Miisaq Andrew talked about how it was important to secure the qamigaun onto the qayaq with a specific knot for safety. If a hunter encountered a walrus that emerged from the water and hooked its tusks to the qamigaun, he would pull on the end of the knot and it would slide off the qayaq, preventing injury.
Miisaq also talked about a qayaq launching ceremony called keniruaq. Hunters would burn small wood kindling and labrador tea plant on the ice and once it started to smoke, they would tow their qayaq sitting on the qamigaun over the smoke to cleanse it before hunting.
Although a qayaq and qamigaun are no longer used for sea mammal hunting today, hunters continue to use the term qamigaq when they talk about seal hunting in the spring.
Quyana to CEC Cultural Engagement Manager Alice Cucuaq Rearden for providing this Yup'ik Teaching Moment in our March/April Storyknife newsletter.
📷: Hand-colored lantern slide of Yup’ik hunters resting on the ice during spring seal hunting in 1935. The hunters have planted their gaffs to support a grass mat as a windbreak. Photo courtesy: National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute (NMAI-003_lnt_000_L02275).
🌐: https://www.calistacorp.com/news/yupik-teaching-moment-qamigaun/
