Being a subsistance people, the Inupiat rely on the animals from their environment for food. I don't want to mislead the general public to think that skin boats and ivory harpoons are used to hunt whales in the Arctic. Whaling and other subsistance hunting have incorporated modern technology.
There are snowmobiles that drag the boats from village to the ocean, and those boats can be aluminum or skin. The harpoons aimed at the whales contain explosive tips that cause great damage, death being the ultimate goal. Afterall, the Inupiat eat these animals. It is a source of food for them. However, unlike the European slaughter of thousands of whales for oil and fashion in the early 1900s, the Inupiat take and store what they need to survive.
And as it is in any society, there are a few that take more and waste it.
ATVs have replaced dog sleds as the primary mode of transportation in hauling the whale meat from kill site to home cache. Technology has made it's mark in the Arctic.
Humans will remain to be the tip of the top in this food chain, until the food chain is broken and the whales, walrus, and seal have moved on. The native people, the Inupiat, will not be the cause of this species extinction. As always, it will be the humans hailing from the outside of the ice crystal house, making judgement calls, again.