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Review of Point Hope Alaska: life on frozen water, by Berit
Arnestad Foote (2009). Fairbanks: University of Alaska
Press. 244 pp. ISBN 978-1-60223-065-1.

This beautifully illustrated book documents three years in
the life of Point Hope, Alaska. Point Hope has been a
whaling camp site of the Inupiat people for over 2500
years, based on archaeological studies. Up until the
1950s, the settlement here had remained much as it had
been since its inhabitants first began having contact with
outsiders. Missionaries, school teachers and supplies had
arrived from the USA in the 20th century, as the Territory
of Alaska started to receive greater attention from the
government and people of the “lower 48” states. But in
the 1950s, two rather momentous events conspired to
change Point Hope, and the rest of rural Alaska. In 1959
Alaska became the 49th state of the Union. One year
earlier, the nuclear physicist Edward Teller proposed to
the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) that they explode
an atomic bomb 100 times more powerful than the one
dropped on Hiroshima in north-west Alaska, in order to
create a man-made harbour. The site selected by the AEC
was Ogotoruk Creek, 50 km south-east of Point Hope.
This proposal seems ludicrous to most people in the 21st
century. Indeed, the author’s brother-in-law, Joseph
Foote, described it as “harebrained but frightening” in his
essay near the start of the book. Nevertheless, the project
was adopted by the AEC, under the code name of Project
Chariot. The full story of this bizarre chapter in American
history has been very well told in Dan O’Neill’s book,
The firecracker boys (1994).

Project Chariot brought a young American geographer,
Don Foote, and his Norwegian wife, Berit Arnestad Foote,
to Point Hope. They formed part of the team of scientists
sent to determine the effects of the nuclear blast on the
surrounding environment. Berit arrived in November
1959, and ended up staying three years at Point Hope, or
TikiGaq, as it is called by the indigenous population. This
book represents a photographic album of her time there.
It presents a fascinating ethnographic study of a people
who, at that time, were still maintaining the essential
elements of a traditional hunter–gatherer lifestyle. There
were no cars or trucks in Point Hope at that time, and no
snowmobiles. Transportation was by foot, dog sled or skin
boat. Winters were spent in flimsy-looking wooden
shacks or sod houses. Much of the summer was spent in

canvas tents. Hunting was the primary occupation of
the men. The different seasons of the year initiated the
hunting of various prey animals, including caribou on
land and various marine mammals at sea. But, these
people and their ancestors chose to settle at Point Hope
because it offers excellent opportunities to hunt hump-
back whales.

There is very little text in this book. It is almost com-
pletely devoted to the author’s photographs. Fifty photos
are reproduced in colour, and more than a hundred black
and white photos are provided. The book itself is in a
rather large format: 25 ¥ 28 cm. Because the photographs
were snapshots taken with an ordinary camera of 1950s
vintage, many of them appear quite grainy in these
large-format reproductions. However, this does not really
detract from the book. In fact, it adds a sort of naive
charm. Berit Foote was not a professional photographer,
but if she had been, she probably would not have been
given such complete access to photograph the intimate
details and daily lives of the inhabitants. Therein lies both
the beauty and usefulness of this exceptional book.
Looking at these pictures gives you a set of very vivid
impressions of what life was like for the Inupiat of Point
Hope at this critical juncture in their history. It quite
literally documents their passage from traditional

Correspondence
Scott Elias, Geography Department, Royal Holloway, University of London,

Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK. E-mail: S.Elias@rhul.ac.uk

Polar Research 28 2009 468–469 © 2009 the authors, journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd468

mailto:Elias@rhul.ac.uk


hunter–gatherers into residents of the 49th state of the
Union. Parts of the traditional whale hunting lifestyle
remain in Point Hope and other Inupiat villages today,
but it will never be the same as it was before contact with
people from outside the Arctic.

The pictures are placed in groups, depicting the differ-
ent seasons of the year. Many of the photographs show
how hard the life was. The native people were battling
the elements: the bitter cold of winter, and the ever-
shifting pack ice in spring and early summer. They were
battling the mighty whales, not from the safety of some
modern, iron-clad whaling ship, with cannon-fired har-
poons, but from small skin umiaks, using traditional
weapons. Survival, both of the individual and of the
community, was not to be taken for granted. The village
had faced starvation only a few decades earlier, as docu-
mented by Charles Brower in his classic book about life in
Arctic Alaska, Fifty years below zero (1942). The people had
to rely on each other in order to survive. Whale hunting
involved all the able-bodied men of the community.
Whale carcass butchering involved all of the adults. This
was the fierce, frightening, dangerous side of life at Point
Hope, and it is well documented here. But, there is
another side of life, in the home, at clan gatherings and at
play. The pictures in this book capture the cosy feel of
family life, with kids playing, women sharing chores and

men sitting around a fire at a hunting camp. The good
humour of these people shines through, time and again.
There is much smiling and laughter. There is an indelible
mark of community shown here.

That small community was galvanized by the threat of
destruction brought by Project Chariot, and they eventu-
ally managed to defeat their high-powered foes in
Washington, D.C.: Project Chariot was cancelled in 1962.
The people of TikiGaq founded a Native Alaskan environ-
mental movement that is still active today, almost 50
years later. Ironically, the AEC scientists wanted to test
their nuclear civil engineering plans in north-west Alaska
precisely because they thought there was nothing of
value there—no one would care what happened. This
book documents precisely what would have been
destroyed: a fascinating and rich native culture.

Scott Elias

References

Brower C. 1942. Fifty years below zero: a lifetime of adventure in
the Far North. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. Reprinted in
2008, Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing.

O’Neill D. 1994. The firecracker boys. H-bombs, Inupiat Eskimos,
and the roots of the environmental movement. New York:
St. Martins Press.

Book review

Polar Research 28 2009 468–469 © 2009 the authors, journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 469