Mitch Poling was born in Ketchikan, Alaska, in 1941. His father, John Poling, was a BIA teacher at Chenega, Prince William Sound, Alaska, from 1944-1948.

Chenega was a Chugach Aleut village, and was the last village building traditional baidarkas. Mitch learned to paddle in his fathers' three man baidarka, and spent a lot of time observing and hanging out at the boathouse where the baidarkas were built and maintained. Mitch was baptized by Steve Vlasoff, at the Russian Orthodox Church, in Chenega. His godparents were Sam and Anna Ribaloff of Chenega.
  
After Chenega, he lived in Metlakatla (Tsimpsian Indian village), Quinhagak (Yupik Eskimo), and Juneau (Tlinget Indian), where he graduated from high school.
  
He went to the University of Alaska, then Stanford University, and then worked for the University of Alaska Marine lab in Juneau until 1964. He then joined the Peace Corps and taught math and science in a village in Nigeria. In 1967 he went to the University of Washington graduate school, where he met his wife, Sandra. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemistry, and did research for five years. He taught math and science at the community colleges in Seattle until 1989. From then until 1994 he and his family (daughter Victoria, son Andrew) lived in Germany, where Sandra was a doctor in the Air Force. Since 1996 he and his family have lived in Port Townsend, where he has retired.
  
In 2000 Mitch built a one man Kodiak baidarka. In 2002 he measured and sketched Steve Vlasoff's baidarka at the Cordova , Alaska museum. This is the last remaining Chugach baidarka, all the others were lost in the 1964 tsunami/earthquake that destroyed Chenega in 1964. Mitch built a replica and found it to be a very fine handling kayak.
  
In 2003 he was invited to the Nuchek Spirit Camp (Prince William Sound, near Cordova) run by the Chugach Heritage Foundation. He and the Nuchek campers built another three man baidarka. In the following years at Nuchek he and the Nuchek campers have built a 22' angyak (open boat), a 17' angyak, a one man and a two man baidarka, and three more three man baidarkas. Mitch is looking forward to building more baidarkas and teaching others how to build them, so that these marvelous kayaks can be a legacy to future generations.