Since we are talking knives, not that I am an expert or anything, I do have a little story.
In 1997, I spent 2 weeks in the Alaska interior visiting my native cousins. While I have a ton of stories from that vacation, this is the story of the ulak knife.
I went there to fish salmon as well as visit family. My cousin dropped me off at a nice place to fish, at a confluence of two rivers, east of the village. I was the only one fishing there. There were several other visitors fishing farther down the main river, they didn't appear to be catching anything. My cousin said it wasn't good fishing on that side of the main river. This was during a time, known as the Silver Salmon Derby. I didn't have any luck on the first day. When my cousin came to pick me up and seen I got skunked, he said, "how were you fishing, to not catch anything?". I responded that I was using these dare devil looking things with different colors and I was casting and reeling in like I do for Northern Pike.
The next day, he dropped me off and gave me a silver spoon with a red egg cluster center. He said just cast out along the point in the fast moving water of the confluence, and let it sit/drift on the gravel. I guess the salmon see it and it looks like salmon eggs. They don't eat the eggs, they will pick them up, as they are not in a place that they should be, I guess they carry them to a more safe spot? In a few hours, I had caught several fish.
When we get back to their place, we set up to clean fish. I had brought my typical fish fillet knife. My Cousin's Mom brings out a strange looking broad knife, looked like it was made from a set of thin brass knuckles. She called it a ulak. I later learned the name that would be more familiar to those of us in the lower 48, is ulu.
By the time I had one fish filleted, she had 8 Silvers cut up and and boned. She told me that she never seen anyone cut up a salmon like I did, then she asked if I wanted to do surgery on the last one. Did I mention she is a Nurse? She was near retirement age at that time of my visit, and she had been a nurse in that region most of her adult life. The Tribe built a new clinic, just a few years prior to my visit there, I was surprised and impressed that it was named after her.
Clara Morgan Subregional Clinic (aniak Subregional Clinic) is a Community Health Center in Aniak AK
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