The Blanket Toss
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Photo By: Kristen Kemmerling
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Visitors participate in the Eskimo blanket toss
The blanket toss is now conducted as entertainment, but it didn't originate that way. The Inupiaq hunter would be tossed in the air, enabling them to see across the horizon to hunt game. Now thirty or more Inupiaq gather in a circle, holding the edges of a large skin made from walrus hides, and toss someone into the air as high as possible. The person being tossed throws gifts into the crowd and loses their turn when they lose their balance. The object: to maintain balance and return to the blanket without falling over.
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