1. 1 The word "Eskimo" refers here to Alaska's Arctic Eskimo and is the term the elders prefer.
2. 2 1994 Update (Juneau, Alaska: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence in Alaska), March 1, 1994, p.1.
3. 3 In 1995 the Arctic scholar Rob Stapleton stated that "Eskimo subsistence practices will be gone within ten years." Personal interview, April 1995.
4. 4 A discrete cuisine becomes evident when we apply food historian Giuliano Bugialli's definition of cuisine to the foods of the Arctic. His five criteria are: 1) indigenous foodstuffs 2) a specific heat source 3) unique cooking methods and preserving techniques 4) specialized cooking implements and preserving equipment or tools 5) a distinctive flavoring or seasoning base giving all foods a unified taste (Personal Interview with Giuliano Bugialli, April 1989). A sixth criterion, creativity, should also be added. It is mentioned by Phyllis Pray Bober in Art, Culture, & Cuisine: Ancient & Medieval Gastronomy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
5. 5 There were some regional and seasonal differences. Seal oil was traded between villages, but when it was in short supply, fish or whale oil was substituted when possible. Fat from caribou, bear, or mountain sheep was used when nothing else was available.