Yes, the tusks are tagged with a metal wire with a number. I did pay per pound. As a native I’m allowed to carve ivory and sell what I make with it. Not a lot of tourists come through our small town but locals still buy ivory handle ulus, knives, and jewelry. It’s not often we can buy it at the prices it’s going for. Usual price is $40-50 a pound but I’m not paying that. As for whale hunting I’m an Alaskan native so I can participate in whaling and harvesting sea mammals.
I guess the tusks are tagged on the island after the hunts. I’ve bought quite a few with tags. Walrus came close to sealing point last spring and a few people were able to get a few. I wasn’t lucky enough to get out there. I’m not the airport manager it doesn’t pay enough for the headache it is. I commercial fish during summer and it more than makes up for any raise I’d get being the manager. 16 years so far. Jen said good luck putting her picture in my post. Lol

I'll find someone else to see a pic of her!, Haha

A couple pictures from this spring bear hunt.

Found another musk ox skull.

My two sons on a brant hunt this spring.

Spring ugruk hunt. Younger boy got his first ugruk.

Got 2 beluga in the beluga net a week apart.

Very cool!!

Started making ivory rings out of walrus and I laying them with gemstones, and pigment.

Great pics, love the rings

Gut after the catch. The ugruk needs to be gutted and cooled off before loading. The insides will start to rot quick if they aren’t.

The three is us ended up with covid so we went seal hunting. 2 different days.

Older boy and I went out one more time. Got twice the amount of seals shown in the picture. Days of work ahead and plenty of good meals.

Nice work. I remember watching them pull out a beluga from the nets when I worked up there for Crowley.

Good looking bear! Looks like you got a few birds And ALOT of meat there You tan the seals? What are you selling the rings for? They look pretty cool! Raising those youngsters right and creating memories! Thank you for sharing!

I got seals tanned for years but the best tannery shut down. Frontier tanning was the best place to send seals. I tried Sitka tribal and another outfit in wasilla but nobody comes close to frontier. I wanted to try my hand at tanning but I never have enough time. So now I just throw the skins when I drive out of town. The foxes get the left over blubber and maybe they eat the skin I don’t know. As for the rings I get $125 per. I’ll post a few more pictures of them.

I had a buddy from St Paul Island gift one to me. He sent about a hundred to Alpha Tannery in Anchorage they did a pretty good job. Would love to see more pic's of those rings!

You posted as I was writing

Here’s another picture. I can’t get the light right to show how good they look.