This year is our 40^th anniversary of being in the butterfly business so I was bound to pick up some stories along that long crazy road. For instance a quick story about our name. We chose the name ‘Hole-In-Hand’ Butterfly Farm because I have always admired the Inuit people for their philosophies of life and conservation. For example, often their symbol for hunting was a hand with a hole in the center. That meant whenever you go hunting take only what you need and let the rest slip the hole in your hand, in that way there will be for all times. Come on now how cool is that. The odd part is that the Inuit were not actually crazy about butterflies and they especially did not like caterpillars at all. It goes way back to an ancient tale of some crazy lady and her pet blood-sucking pet caterpillar. The Inuit word for caterpillar is Miqqulingiaq “the little furry one”  and although they didn’t have individual names for the various butterflies in general they were referred to as miqqulingiaviniq, “that which was a caterpillar”.

The Yupik people who also inhabited Alaska called caterpillars kuprlguk, a chrysalis was kuglugiak and butterflies are called kalukisak. I would venture to bet that I maybe the only one on this list with an “Indigenous People of Alaska” dictionary. Please keep in mind that the collective term Eskimo is considered offensive to the Inuit and Yupik people.