Yup'ik

The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg & pl) and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Central Yup'ik, Alaskan Yup'ik (own name Yup'ik sg Yupiik dual Yupiit pl; Russian: Юпики центральной Аляски), are an Eskimo people of western and southwestern Alaska ranging from southern Norton Sound southwards along the coast of the Bering Sea on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (including living on Nelson and Nunivak Islands) and along the northern coast of Bristol Bay as far east as Nushagak Bay and the northern Alaska Peninsula at Naknek River and Egegik Bay. They are also known as Cup'ik by the Chevak Cup'ik dialect-speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect-speaking Eskimo of Nunivak Island.

"Cup'ik" redirects here. For other uses, see Cup'ik (disambiguation).

Yup'ik, Cup'ig, Cup'ik
(Central Alaskan Yup'ik)

Total population
34,000 (2010 U.S. Census)
Regions with significant populations
United States (Alaska)	34,000
Languages
Yup'ik (and dialects: Cup'ik, Cup'ig), English, Russian
Religion
Christianity (Moravian Protestant, Jesuit Catholic, Russian Orthodox) and Shamanism
Related ethnic groups
Siberian Yupik, Sugpiaq/Alutiiq, Naukan, Iñupiat, Inuit, Aleut

A Nunivak Island Cup'ig man in 1929

Both Chevak Cup'ik and Nunivak Cup'ig Eskimos are also known as Cup'ik.[1] The Yup'ik, Cup'ik, and Cup'ig speakers can converse without difficulty, and the regional population is often described using the larger term of Yup'ik. They are one of the four Yupik peoples of Alaska and Siberia, closely related to the Sugpiaq ~ Alutiiq (Pacific Yupik) of south-central Alaska, the Siberian Yupik of St. Lawrence Island and Russian Far East, and the Naukan of Russian Far East. The Yupiit speak the Yup'ik language. Of a total population of about 21,000 people, about 10,000 speak the language.[2]

The Yup'ik Eskimo combine a contemporary and a traditional subsistence lifestyle in a blend unique to the Southwest Alaska. Today, the Yup'ik generally work and live in western style but still hunt and fish in traditional subsistence ways and gather traditional foods. Most Yup'ik people still speak the native language and bilingual education has been in force since the 1970s.

The Yupiit are the most numerous of the various Alaska Native groups and speak the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, a member of the Eskimo–Aleut family of languages. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the Yupiit population in the United States numbered over 24,000,[3] of whom over 22,000 lived in Alaska. The vast majority of these live in the seventy or so communities in the traditional Yup'ik territory of western and southwestern Alaska.[4]

As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the Yup'ik at 34,000 people is the largest Alaska Native tribal grouping, either alone or in combination, closely followed by the Inupiat (33,000). The Yup'ik had the greatest number of people who identified with one tribal grouping and no other race (29,000).[5] In that census, nearly half of American Indians and Alaska Natives identified as being of mixed race.

The neighbours of the Yup'ik Eskimos are the Iñupiaq Eskimo to the north, Aleutized Alutiiq ~ Sugpiaq Eskimos to the south, and Alaskan Athabaskans, such as Yup'ikized Holikachuk and Deg Hit'an, non-Yup'ikized Koyukon and Dena'ina, to the east.[6]

Naming

Originally the form Yup'ik was used in the northern area (Norton Sound, Yukon, some Nelson Island) while the form Yupiaq was used in the southern area (Kuskokwim, Canineq [around Kwigillingok, Kipnuk, Kongiganek, and Chefornak], Bristol Bay). Certain places (Chevak, Nunivak, Egegik) had other forms (Cup'ik, Cup'ig, Tarupiaq).

The form Yup'ik is now used as a common term (though not replacing Cup'ik and Cup'ig).[7] Yup'ik (plural Yupiit) comes from the Yup'ik word yuk meaning "person" plus the postbase -pik or -piaq meaning "real" or "genuine"; thus, Yup'ik literally means "real people".[8] The ethnographic literature sometimes refers to the Yup'ik people or their language as Yuk or Yuit. In the Hooper Bay-Chevak and Nunivak dialects of Yup'ik, both the language and the people are given the name Cup'ik.[2]

The use of an apostrophe in the name "Yup'ik", compared to Siberian "Yupik", exemplifies the Central Yup'ik's orthography. "The apostrophe represents gemination [or lengthening] of the 'p' sound".[9]

The "person/people" (human being) and ethnic self name in the Yup'ik dialects

dialects	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Unaliq-Pastuliq, Yukon, Nelson Island, Hooper Bay	yuk	yuuk	yuut (< yuuget) ~ yug'et	Yup'ik	Yupiik	Yupiit
Kuskokwim, Kwigillingok, Kipnuk, Kongiganek, Chefornak, Bristol Bay	yuk	yuuk	yuut (< yuuget) ~ yug'et	Yupiaq	Yupiak	Yupiat
Chevak	cuk	cuugek	cuuget	Cup'ik	Cupiik	Cupiit
Nunivak	cug	cuug	cuuget	Cup'ig	Cupiig	Cupiit
Egegik	taru ~ taruq			Tarupiaq	Tarupiak	Tarupiat

The names given to them by their neighbors:

• Alutiiq ~ Sugpiaq: Pamana'rmiu'aq (Northern Kodiak), Pamanirmiuq (Southern Kodiak)
• Deg Xinag Athabaskan: Dodz xit'an [lit. Downriver people], Novogh xit'an [lit. Coast people]
• Holikachuk Athabaskan: Namagh hit'an [lit. Coast people]
• Koyukon Athabaskan: Nobaagha hut'aankkaa [lit. Coast people]
• Dena'ina Athabaskan: Dutna, Naghelghazhna
• Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan: Dodina sg Dodinayu pl

History

Origins

The common ancestors of the Eskimo and the Aleut (as well as various Paleo-Siberian groups) are believed by archaeologists to have their origin in eastern Siberia. Migrating east, they reached the Bering Sea area about 10,000 years ago.[10][11] Research on blood types and linguistics suggests that the ancestors of American Indians reached North America in waves of migration before the ancestors of the Eskimo and Aleut; there were three major waves of migration from Siberia to the Americas by way of the Bering land bridge.[12] This causeway became exposed between 20,000 and 8,000 years ago during periods of glaciation.

By about 3,000 years ago the progenitors of the Yupiit had settled along the coastal areas of what would become western Alaska, with migrations up the coastal rivers—notably the Yukon and Kuskokwim—around 1400 C.E., eventually reaching as far upriver as Paimiut on the Yukon and Crow Village (Tulukarugmiut) on the Kuskokwim.[8]

Before a Russian colonial presence emerged in the area, the Aleut and Eskimo spent most of their time sea-hunting animals such as seals, walruses, and sea lions. They used mainly wood, stone, or bone weapons and had limited experience fishing. Families lived together in large groups during the winter and split up into smaller huts during the summer.[13]

Russian Period

The Russian colonization of the Americas lasted from 1732 to 1867. The Russian Empire supported ships traveling from Siberia to America for whaling and fishing expeditions. Gradually the crews established hunting and trading posts of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company in the Aleutian Islands and northern Alaska indigenous settlements. (These were the basis for the Russian-American Company). Approximately half of the fur traders were Russians, such as promyshlenniki from various European parts of the Russian Empire or from Siberia.

After the Bering expedition in 1741, Russians raced to explore the Aleutian Islands and gain control of its resources. The native Aleuts and Eskimos were forced to pay taxes in the form of beaver and seal fur, and opted to do so rather than fight the ever-growing stream of Russian hunters.[14]

Grigory Shelikhov led attacks on Kodiak Island against the indigenous Alutiiq (Sugpiaqs) in 1784, known as the Awa'uq Massacre. According to some estimates, Russian employees of the trading company killed more than 2,000 Alutiiq. The company then took over control of the island. By the late 1790s, its trading posts had become the centers of permanent settlements of Russian America (1799–1867). Until about 1819, Russian settlement and activity was largely confined to the Aleutian Islands, the Pribilof Islands, Kodiak Island, and to scattered coastal locations on the mainland.[15] Russian Orthodox missionaries went to these islands, where in 1800 priests conducted services in the local language on Kodiak Island, and by 1824 in the Aleutian Islands. An Orthodox priest translated the Holy Scripture and the liturgy into Tlingit language, which was used by another major people of Alaska Natives.

The Russian period, lasting roughly 120 years, can be divided into three 40-year periods: 1745 to 1785, 1785 to 1825, and 1825 to 1865.[16]

The first phase of the Russian period (1745 to 1785) affected only the Aleut (Unangan) and Alutiiq (Sugpiaq) profoundly. During this period, large sectors of the Bering Sea coast were mapped by the English explorer James Cook, rather than by the Russians. In 1778, Cook discovered and named Bristol Bay and then sailed northward around Cape Newenham into Kuskokwim Bay.[16]

During the second phase of the Russian period (1785 to 1825), the Shelikhov-Golikov Company and later the Russian-American Company was organized and continued in the exploration of the lucrative north Pacific Ocean sea otter trade.[16] During this time, they improved their treatment of the native people, skipping massacres for virtual enslavement and exploitation. The major portion of Alaska remained little known, and the Yup'ik Eskimo of the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta were not strongly affected.[16] The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 was signed in St. Petersburg between representatives of Russian Empire and the United States on April 17, 1824, and went into effect on January 12, 1825.

During the last phase of the Russian period (1825 to 1865), the Alaska Natives began to suffer the effects of introduced infectious diseases, to which they had no acquired immunity. In addition, their societies were disrupted by increasing reliance on European trade goods from the permanent Russian trading posts. A third influence were the early Russian Orthodox missionaries, who sought to convert the peoples to their form of Christianity.[16] The missionaries learned native languages, and conducted services in those languages from the early decades of the 19th century. The Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 1825 defined the boundaries between Russian America and British Empire claims and possessions in the Pacific Northwest.

American Period

The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska (1867–1884), the area was renamed as the District of Alaska (1884–1912) and the Territory of Alaska (1912–1959) before it was admitted to the Union as the State of Alaska (1959–present).[17]

During the Early American Period (1867–1939), the federal government generally neglected the territory, other than using positions in territorial government for political patronage. There was an effort to exploit the natural resources in the years following the purchase of Alaska. Moravian Protestant (1885) and Jesuit Catholic (1888) missions and schools were established along the Kuskokwim and lower Yukon rivers, respectively. The Qasgiq disappeared due to missionary coercion. During the early American period, native languages were forbidden in the mission schools, where only English was permitted.[18]

The economy of the islands also took a hit under American ownership. Hutchinson, Cool & Co., an American trading company, took advantage of its position as the only trader in the area and charged the natives as much as possible for its goods. The combination of high costs and low hunting and fishing productivity persisted until the Russo-Japanese war cut off contact from Russia.[13]

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law on December 18, 1971. The ANCSA is central to both Alaska's history and current Alaska Native economies and political structures.[19]

Historiography

Before European contact (until in the 1800s), the history of the Yup'ik, like that of other Alaska Natives, was oral history. Each society or village had storytellers (qulirarta) who were known for their memories, and those were the people who told the young about the group's history. Their stories (traditional legends qulirat and historical narratives qanemcit) express crucial parts of Alaska's earliest history.

The historiography of the Yup'ik ethnohistory, as a part of Eskimology, is slowly emerging. The first academic studies of the Yup'ik Eskimo tended to generalize all Eskimo cultures as homogeneous and changeless.[20]

While the personal experiences of non-natives who visited the Eskimo formed the basis of early research, by the mid-20th century archaeological excavations in southwestern Alaska allowed scholars to study the effects of foreign trade goods on 19th-century Eskimo material culture.[20] Also, translations of pertinent journals and documents from Russian explorers and the Russian-American Company added breadth to the primary source base.[20] The first ethnographic information about the Yup'ik of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta was recorded by the Russian explorer Lieutenant Lavrenty Zagoskin, during his explorations for the Russian-American Company in 1842–1844.[21]

The first academic cultural studies of southwestern Alaska Eskimos were developed only in the late 1940s. This was due in part to a dearth of English-language documentation, as well as competition in the field of other subject areas.[20] American anthropologist Margaret Lantis (1906–2006) published The Social Culture of the Nunivak Eskimo in 1946; it was the first complete description of any Alaskan indigenous group. She began Alaskan Eskimo Ceremonialism (1947) as a broad study of Alaskan Eskimo.[20] James W. VanStone (1925–2001), an American cultural anthropologist, and Wendell H. Oswalt were among the earliest scholars to undertake significant archaeological research in the Yup'ik region.[20] VanStone demonstrates the ethnographic approach to cultural history in Eskimos of the Nushagak River: An Ethnographic History (1967).[20] Wendell Oswalt published a comprehensive ethnographic history of the Yukon–Kuskokwim delta region, the longest and most detailed work on Yup'ik history to date in Bashful No Longer: An Alaskan Eskimo ethnohistory, 1778–1988 (1988).[20] Ann Fienup-Riordan (born 1948) began writing extensively about the Yukon-Kuskokwim Eskimo in the 1980s; she melded Yup'ik voices with traditional anthropology and history in an unprecedented fashion.[20]

The historiography of western Alaska has few Yup'ik scholars contributing writings. Harold Napoleon, an elder of Hooper Bay, presents an interesting premise in his book Yuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being (1988).[20] A more scholarly, yet similar, treatment of cultural change can be found in Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley's A Yupiaq Worldview: a Pathway to Ecology and Spirit (2001), which focuses on the intersection of Western and Yup'ik values.[20]

Yuuyaraq

Yuuyaraq or Way of life (yuuyaraq sg yuuyarat pl in Yup'ik, cuuyaraq in Cup'ik, cuuyarar in Cupig) is the term for the Yup'ik way of life as a human being. The expression encompasses interactions with others, subsistence or traditional knowledge, environmental or traditional ecological knowledge, and understanding, indigenous psychology, and spiritual balance.[22]

Yuuyaraq defined the correct way of thinking and speaking about all living things, especially the great sea and land mammals on which the Yup'ik relied for food, clothing, shelter, tools, kayaks, and other essentials. These great creatures were sensitive; they were believed able to understand human conversations, and they demanded and received respect. Yuuyaraq prescribed the correct method of hunting and fishing, and the correct way of handling all fish and game caught by the hunter in order to honor and appease the spirits and maintain a harmonious relationship with the fish and game. Although unwritten, this way can be compared to Mosaic law because it governed all aspects of a human being's life.[23]

Elders

An Alaska Native elder (tegganeq sg tegganrek dual tegganret pl in Yup'ik, teggneq sg teggnerek ~ teggenrek dual teggneret ~ teggenret pl in Cup'ik, taqnelug in Cupig) is a respected elder. The elder is defined as an individual who has lived an extended life, maintains a healthy lifestyle, and has a wealth of cultural information and knowledge. The elder has expertise based upon know-how and provides consultation to the community and family when needed.[24] Traditionally, knowledge was passed down from the elders to the youth through storytelling.[25] A naucaqun is a lesson or reminder by which the younger generation learns from the experience of the elders.[7]

Tegganeq is derived from the Yup'ik word tegge- meaning "to be hard; to be tough".[7] Yup'ik discipline is different from Western discipline. The discipline and authority within Yup'ik child-rearing practices have at its core respect for the children.[24]

More recently, elders have been invited to attend and present at national conferences and workshops.[24] Elders-in-residence is a program that involves elders in teaching and curriculum development in a formal educational setting (oftentimes a university), and is intended to influence the content of courses and the way the material is taught.[26]

Society

A Hooper Bay Askinarmiut boy poses wearing a circular cap (uivqurraq) and fur parka, photograph by Edward S Curtis (1930).[27]

Kinship

The Yup'ik kinship is based on what is formally classified in academia as an Eskimo kinship or lineal kinship. This kinship system is bilateral and a basic social unit consisted of from two to four generations, including parents, offspring, and parents' parents. Kinship terminologies in the Yup'ik societies exhibit a Yuman type of social organization with bilateral descent, and Iroquois cousin terminology. Bilateral descent provides each individual with his or her own unique set of relatives or kindred: some consanguineal members from the father's kin group and some from the mother's, with all four grandparents affiliated equally to the individual. Parallel cousins are referenced by the same terms as siblings, and cross cousins are differentiated.[28] Marriages were arranged by parents. Yup'ik societies (regional or socioterritorial groups) were shown to have a band organization characterized by extensive bilaterally structured kinship with multifamily groups aggregating annually.[28]

Community

The Yup'ik created larger settlements in winter to take advantage of group subsistence activities. Villages were organized in certain ways. Cultural rules of kinship served to define relationships among the individuals of the group.[28] Villages ranged in size from just two to more than a dozen sod houses (ena) for women and girls, one (or more in large villages) qasgiq for men and boys, and warehouses.

Leadership

Formerly, social status was attained by successful hunters who could provide food and skins. Successful hunters were recognized as leaders by members of the social group.[29] Although there were no formally recognized leaders, informal leadership was practiced by or in the men who held the title Nukalpiaq ("man in his prime; successful hunter and good provider"). The nukalpiaq, or good provider, was a man of considerable importance in village life. This man was consulted in any affair of importance affecting the village in general, particularly in determining participation in the Kevgiq and Itruka'ar ceremonies.[28] He was said to be a major contributor to those ceremonies and provider to orphans and widows.[28]

The position of the nukalpiaq was not, however, comparable to that of the umialik (whaling captain) of the northern and northwestern Alaska Iñupiaq Eskimo. The captain had the power to collect the surplus of the village, and much of the basic production of individual family members, and later redistribute it.[30]

Residence

Qasgiq entry in the Yup'ik village of Stebbins (Tapraq), 1900

Traditionally, in the winter the Yup'ik lived in semi-permanent subterranean houses, with some for the men and others for the women (with their children) . The Yup'ik men lived together in a larger communal house (qasgiq), while women and children lived in a smaller different sod houses (ena). Although the men and women lived separately, they had many interactions. Depending on the village, qasgiq and ena were connected by a tunnel. Both qasgiq and ena also served as school and workshop for young boys and girls. Among the Akulmiut, the residential pattern of separate houses for women and children and a single residence for men and boys persisted until about 1930.[28]

The women's house or Ena ([e]na sg nek dual net pl in Yup'ik, ena sg enet pl in Cup'ik, ena in Cup'ig) was an individual or semi-communal smaller sod house. They looked similar in construction to the qasgiqs but were only about half the size. Women and children lived in houses that served as residences for two to five women and their children. Raising children was the women's responsibility until young boys left the home to join other males in the qasgiq to learn discipline and how to make a living.[28] The ena also served as a school and workshop for young girls, where they could learn the art and craft of skin sewing, food preparation, and other important survival skills.

Wooden qasgiruaq (qasgiq model) with walrus ivory dolls. Ethnological Museum of Berlin.

Men's house or Qasgiq (is pronounced as "kaz-geek" and often referred to as kashigi, kasgee, kashim, kazhim, or casine in the old literature; qasgi ~ qasgiq sg qasgik dual qasgit pl in Yup'ik, qaygiq sg qaygit pl in Cup'ik, kiiyar in Cup'ig; qasgimi "in the qasgi") is a communal larger sod house. The qasgiq was used and occupied from November through March.[28] The qasgiq housed all adult males in the community and male youth about seven years and older. The women prepared meals in their houses, known as ena. These were taken to the males in the qasgiq by young women and girls.[28]

The qasgiq was served as a school and workshop for young boys, where they could learn the art and craft of mask making, tool making, and kayak construction. It was also a place for learning hunting and fishing skills. At times, the men created a firebath, where hot fires and rocks produced heat to aid in body cleansing. Thus, the qasgiq was a residence, bathhouse, and workshop for all but the youngest male community members who still lived with their mothers.[28] Although there were no formally recognized leaders or offices to be held, men and boys were assigned specific places within the qasgiq that distinguished rank of males by age and residence.[28] The qasgiq was a ceremonial and spiritual center for the community.

In primary villages, all ceremonies (and Yup'ik dancing) and gatherings (within and between villages among the socioterritorial and neighboring groups) took place in the qasgiq.[28] During the early 20th century, Christian church services were held in the qasgiq before churches were constructed.[28] Virtually all official business, within the group, between groups and villages, and between villagers and non-Yup'ik (such as early missionaries) was conducted in the qasgiq.[28]

The Yup'ik Eskimo did not live in igloos or snow houses. But, the northern and northwestern Alaskan Iñupiaq Eskimo built snow houses for temporary shelter during their winter hunting trips. The word iglu means "house" in Iñupiaq. This word is the Iñupiaq cognate of the Yup'ik word ngel'u ("beaver lodge, beaver house"), which it resembled in shape.[7]

Regional groups

Among the Yup'ik of southwestern Alaska, societies (regional or socioterritorial groups), like those of the Iñupiat of northwestern Alaska, were differentiated by territory, speech patterns, clothing details, annual cycles, and ceremonial life.[28]

Prior to and during the mid-19th century, the time of Russian exploration and presence in the area, the Yupiit were organized into at least twelve, and perhaps as many as twenty, territorially distinct regional or socioterritorial groups (their native names will generally be found ending in -miut postbase which signifies "inhabitants of ..." tied together by kinship[31][32] — hence the Yup'ik word tungelquqellriit, meaning "those who share ancestors (are related)".[32] These groups included:

• Unalirmiut (Unaligmiut), inhabiting the Norton Sound area.[33][34][35] The name derives from the Yup'ik word Unaliq, denoting a Yup'ik from the Norton Sound area, especially the north shore villages of Elim and Golovin and the south shore villages of Unalakleet and St. Michael. Unalirmiut were speakers of the Norton Sound Unaliq subdialect of Yup'ik.[36]
• Pastulirmiut, inhabiting the mouth of Yukon River.[33] The name derives from Pastuliq, the name of an abandoned village of southern Norton Sound near the present-day village of Kotlik at one of the mouths of the Yukon River. The village name comes from the root paste- meaning to become set in a position (for instance, a tree bent by the wind).[36] Pastulirmiut were speakers of the Norton Sound Kotlik subdialect of Yup'ik, and are also called pisalriit (sing. pisalria) denoting their use of this subdialect in which s is used in many words where other speakers of Yup'ik use y.[36]
• Kuigpagmiut (Ikogmiut), inhabiting the Lower Yukon River.[33][35] The name derives from Kuigpak, meaning "big river", the Yup'ik name for the Yukon River.[36]
• Marayarmiut (Mararmiut, Maarmiut, Magemiut), inhabiting the Scammon Bay area.[33][34][35] The name derives from Marayaaq, the Yup'ik name for Scammon Bay, which in turn derives from maraq, meaning "marshy, muddy lowland". Mararmiut, deriving from the same word, denotes flatland dwellers in general living between the mouth of the Yukon and Nelson Island.[36]
• Askinarmiut, inhabiting the area of the present-day villages of Hooper Bay and Chevak.[33] Askinarmiut is an old name for the village of Hooper Bay. (DCED).
• Qaluyaarmiut (Kaialigamiut, Kayaligmiut), inhabiting Nelson Island.[33][34][35] The name derives from Qaluyaaq, the Yup'ik name for Nelson Island, which derives in turn from qalu, meaning "dipnet".[36] In the Qaluuyaaq, there are three villages. Those villages are Toksook bay, Nightmute, and Tununak.
• Akulmiut, inhabiting the tundra or "Big Lake" area north of the Kuskokwim River.[33][34] The name denotes people living on the tundra — as opposed to those living along the coastline or major rivers — such as in the present-day villages of Nunapitchuk, Kasigluk, or Atmautluak.[28] The name derives from akula meaning "midsection", "area between", or "tundra".[36]
• Caninermiut, inhabiting the lower Bering Sea coast on either side of Kuskokwim Bay, including the area north of the bay where the modern-day villages of Chefornak, Kipnuk, Kongiganak, Kwigillingok are located and south of the bay where the villages of and Eek and Quinhagak are located (Goodnews Bay?).[33][34][35] The name derives from canineq, meaning "lower coast", which derives in turn from the root cani, "area beside".[36]
• Nunivaarmiut (Nuniwarmiut, Nuniwagamiut), inhabiting Nunivak Island.[33][34] The name derives from Nunivaaq, the name for the island in the General Central dialect of Yup'ik.[36] In the Nunivak dialect of Yup'ik (that is, in Cup'ig), the island's name is Nuniwar and the people are called Nuniwarmiut.[37]
• Kusquqvagmiut (Kuskowagamiut), inhabiting the Lower and middle Kuskokwim River.[33][34][35][38] The name derives from Kusquqvak, the Yup'ik name for the Kuskokwim River, possibly meaning "a big thing (river) with a small flow".[36] The Kusquqvagmiut can be further divided into two groups:
  • Unegkumiut, inhabiting the Lower Kuskokwim below Bethel to its mouth in Kuskowkim Bay.[35][39] The word derives from unegkut, meaning "those downriver";[36] hence, "downriver people".
  • Kiatagmiut, inhabiting inland regions in the upper drainages of the Kuskowkim, Nushagak, Wood, and Kvichak river drainages.[33][34][35][38] The word derives probably from kiani, meaning "inside" or "upriver";[36] hence, "upriver people". The Kiatagmiut lived inland along the Kuskokwim River drainage from the present location of Bethel to present-day Crow Village and the vicinity of the 19th century Russian outpost Kolmakovskii Redoubt. By the mid-19th century, many Kiatagmiut had migrated to the drainage of the Nushagak River.[40]
• Tuyuryarmiut (Togiagamiut), inhabiting the Togiak River area.[34][35][38] The word derives from Tuyuryaq, the Yup'ik name for the village of Togiak.[36]
• Aglurmiut (Aglegmiut), inhabiting the Bristol Bay area along the Lower Nushagak River and northern Alaska Peninsula.[33][34][35][38] The word derives from agluq, meaning "ridgepole" or "center beam of a structure".[36]

While Yupiit were nomadic, the abundant fish and game of the Y-K Delta and Bering Sea coastal areas permitted for a more settled life than for many of the more northerly Iñupiaq people. Under normal conditions, there was little need for interregional travel, as each regional group had access to enough resources within its own territory to be completely self-sufficient. However, fluctuations in animal populations or weather conditions sometimes necessitated travel and trade between regions.[31]

Economy

Hunting-gathering

Aerial view of Bethel on the Kuskokwim River. Bethel (Mamterilleq) is regional hub of Yup'ik homeland.

The homeland of Yup'ik Eskimos is the Dfc climate type subarctic tundra ecosystem. The land is generally flat tundra and wetlands. The area that covers about 100,000 square miles which is roughly about 1/3 of Alaska.[41] Their lands are located in different five of 32 ecoregions of Alaska:[42]

Before European contact, the Yup'ik, like other Eskimo groups, were semi-nomadic hunter-fisher-gatherers who moved seasonally throughout the year within a reasonably well-defined territory to harvest sea and land mammal, fish, bird, berry and other renewable resources. The economy of Yup'ik Eskimos is a mixed cash-subsistence system, like other modern foraging economies in Alaska. The primary use of wild resources is domestic. Commercial fishing in Alaska and trapping patterns are controlled primarily by external factors.

On the coast, in the past as in the present, to discuss hunting was to begin to define man. In Yup'ik, the word anqun (man) comes from the root angu- (to catch after chasing; to catch something for food) and means, literally, a device for chasing.[16]

Northwest Alaska is one of the richest Pacific salmon areas in the world, with the world's largest commercial Alaska salmon fishery in Bristol Bay.

Coastal Togiak subregion (Manokotak, Twin Hills, Togiak, Goodnews Bay, Platinum) annual hunting-gathering cycle (1985)[43]

usual harvest

occasional harvest

Resource	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
King salmon catching
Red salmon catching
Silver salmon catching
Dolly Varden catching
Whitefish catching
Smelt catching
Pike catching
other freshwater fish catching
Moose hunting
Caribou hunting
Brown bear hunting
Harbor seal hunting
Bearded & Ringed seal hunting
Sea lion hunting
Porcupine hunting
Hare & Rabbit hunting
Beaver trapping
River otter trapping
Red fox trapping
Parky squirrel trapping
other furbearers trapping
Ducks & Geese hunting
Ptarmigan hunting
Bird eggs gathering
Clams & Mussels gathering
Berry picking
Basket grass gathering

Trade

In the Nome Census Area, Brevig Mission, an Iñupiaq community, tended to trade with other Iñupiaq communities to the north: Shishmaref, Kotzebue, and Point Hope. The Yup'ik communities (Elim, Stebbins and St. Michael), tended to trade with Yup'ik communities to the south: Kotlik, Emmonak, Mountain Village, Pilot Station, St. Mary's of the Kusilvak Census Area.[44]

Transportation

Nunivak kayaks, August 1936

Traditionally, transportation was primarily by dog sleds (land) and kayaks (water). Sea mammal hunting and fishing in the Bering Sea region took place from both small narrow closed skin-covered boats called kayaks and larger broad open skin-covered boats called umiaks. Kayaks were used more frequently than umiaks. Traditionally, kayaking and umiaking served as water transportation and sea hunting. Dog sleds are ideal land transportation. Pedestrian transportation is on foot in summer and snowshoes in winter. Only small local road systems exist in Southwest Alaska. Only a few closely adjacent villages are linked by roads. Today, snowmobile or snowmachine travel is a critical component of winter transport; an ice road for highway vehicles is used along portions of the Kuskokwim River.

This kayak appears to be built in the Nunivak Island style. Collection of the Arktikum Science Museum in Rovaniemi, Finland.

Nunivak Cup'ig kayak cockpit stanchions (ayaperviik). The smiling face of a man and the frowning face of a woman grace these pieces from a kayak frame. Collection of the University of Alaska Museum of the North

The kayak (qayaq sg qayak dual qayat pl in Yup'ik and Cup'ik, qayar ~ qay'ar sg qay'ag dual qay'at ~ qass'it pl in Cup'ig; from qai- "surface; top")[7]) is small narrow closed skin-covered boat and was first used by the native speakers of the Eskimo–Aleut languages. The Yup'ik used kayaks for seal hunting, fishing, and general transportation. The Yup'ik people considered a kayak the owner's most prized possession. Traditionally, a kayak was a Yup'ik hunter's most prized possession and a symbol of manhood.[45] It is fast and maneuverable, seaworthy, light, and strong. Kayak is made of driftwood from the beach, covered with the skin of a sea mammal, and sewn with sinew from another animal. Yup'ik kayaks are known from the earliest ethnographic reports, but there are currently no surviving full-size Yup'ik kayaks from the pre-contact period.[46] The Yup'ik Norton Sound/Hooper Bay kayaks consisted of 5-6 young seal skins stretched for the covering. The Yup'ik style of seams contains a running stitch partially piercing the skin on top and an overlapping stitch on the inside with a grass insert.[47] Caninermiut style Yup'ik kayak used in the Kwigillingok and Kipnuk regions and there are teeth marks in the wood of the circular hatch opening, made by the builders as they bent and curved the driftwood into shape.[48]

Kayak stanchions or kayak cockpit stanchions (ayapervik sg ayaperviik dual ayaperviit pl or ayaperyaraq sg ayaperyarat pl in Yup'ik and Cup'ik, ayaperwig in Cup'ig) are top piece centered at side of coaming and used as a support as one climbs out of a kayak. They prevented the person from falling while getting in and out of the kayak. All kayaks had ayaperviik on them. This one has a woman's frowning face with a down-turned mouth carved on it. Perhaps the other side would have a man's smiling face carved on it.[49]

The umiak or open skin boat, large skin boat (angyaq sg angyak dual angyat pl in Yup'ik and Cup'ik, angyar in Cup'ig) is larger broad open skin-covered boat.

The dog sleds (ikamraq sg ikamrak dual ikamrat pl in Yup'ik and Cup'ik, qamauk in Yukon and Unaliq-Pastuliq Yup'ik, ikamrag, qamaug in Cup'ig; often used in the dual for one sled)[50] are an ancient and widespread means of transportation for Eskimo peoples, but when non-Native fur traders and explorers first traveled the Yukon River and other interior regions in the mid-19th century they observed that only Yupikized Athabaskan groups, including the Koyukon, Deg Hit'an and Holikachuk, used dogs in this way. Both of these peoples had probably learned the technique from their Iñupiat or Yup'ik Eskimo neighbors. Non-Yupikized Athabaskan groups, including the Gwich'in, Tanana, Ahtna and other Alaskan Athabaskans pulled their sleds and toboggans by hand, using dogs solely for hunting and as pack animals.[51]

Culture

Yup'ik (as Yup'ik and Cup'ik) culture is one of five cultural groups of the Alaska Natives.[52]

The Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center is a non-profit cultural center of the Yup'ik culture centrally located in Bethel near the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Kuskokwim Campus and city offices. The mission of the center is promote, preserve and develop the traditions of the Yup'ik through traditional and non-traditional art forms of the Alaska Native art, including arts and crafts, performance arts, education, and Yup'ik language. The center also supports local artists and entrepreneurs.[53]

Language and literature

Language

Main article: Central Alaskan Yup'ik language

The Yup'ik language is one of four or five Yupik languages branch of Eskimo–Aleut languages. Yup'ik is the largest ethnic group in Alaska and is the language now spoken by the largest number of native persons. The Yup'ik, like all Eskimo languages, is a suffixing language made up of noun and verb bases to which one or more postbases and a final ending or enclitics are added to denote such features as number, case, person, and position. The Yup'ik category of number distinguishes singular, plural, and dual. Yup'ik does not have a category of gender and articles. The Yup'ik orthography one sees nowadays was developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the 1960s by native speakers of Yup'ik elders working with linguists.[9] The Yup'ik are the most numerous of the various Alaska Natives. There are 10,400 speakers out of a population of 25,000, and the language is threatened in 2007, according to Alaska Native Language Center.[54]

It is a single well-defined language (now called as Yup'ik or Yup'ik and Cup'ik) a dialect continuum[55] with five major dialects: extinct Egegik (Aglegmuit-Tarupiaq), and living Norton Sound or Unaliq-Pastuliq dialect (two subdialects: Unaliq and Kotlik), General Central Yup'ik dialect (seven subdialects: Nelson Island and Stebbins, Nushagak River, Yukon or Lower Yukon, Upper or Middle Kuskokwim, Lake Iliamna, Lower Kuskokwim, and Bristol Bay), Hooper Bay-Chevak dialect (two subdialects: Hooper Bay Yup'ik and Chevak Cup'ik), and Nunivak Cup'ig dialect.[56] Nunivak Island dialect (Cup'ig) is distinct and highly divergent from mainland Yup'ik dialects.

Population of the dialect-based main Yup'ik groups in 1980.[56]

Yup'ik groups	Population	Speakers	Nonspeakers
General Central Yup'ik	13,702	9,622	9,080
Unaliq-Pastuliq	752	508	244
Hooper Bay-Chevak	1,037	959	78
Nunivak	153	92	61

Maintenance of the Eskimo-Aleut languages of Alaska (1980 and 1992) and their degree of viability (1992).[57]

People and language	1980 population / speakers & percent	1992 population / speakers & percent	1992 viability
Siberian Yupik	1,000 / 1,050 95%	1,000 / 1,050 95%	spoken by most or all of the adults as well as all or most of the children
Central Yup'ik	17,000 / 14,000 80%	18,000 / 12,000 67%	spoken by most or all of the adults as well as all or most of the children & spoken by most of the adults but not by most of the children
Inupiaq	12,000 / 5,000 40%	13,000 / 4,000 31%	spoken by most of the adults but not by most of the children & spoken only by older people (mainly those above 50 years of age)
Sugpiaq (Alutiiq)	3,000 / 1,000 33%	3,100 / 600 19%	spoken by most of the adults but not by most of the children & spoken only by older people (mainly those above 50 years of age)
Aleut (Unangan)	2,200 / 700 35%	2,100 / 400 19%	spoken by most of the adults but not by most of the children & spoken only by older people (mainly those above 50 years of age)

Education

Yup'ik was not a written language until the arrival of Europeans, the Russians, around the beginning of the 19th century.[9] Pre-contact knowledge transfer and learning among Yup'ik people traditionally was through oral culture, with no written history or transcribed language. Children were taught about subsistence practices, culture and social systems through stories, legends, toys, and examples of behaviour.[46]

School bus at Crooked Creek, Alaska (Tevyaraq), March 5, 2008

The early schools for Alaska Natives were mostly church-run schools of the Russian Orthodox missions in Russian-controlled Alaska (1799–1867), and, after 1890, the Jesuits and Moravians, allowed the use of the Alaska Native languages in instruction in schools. However, in the 1880s, Presbyterian missionary Sheldon Jackson (1834–1909) began a policy of prohibiting Native languages in the mission schools he managed. When he became United States Commissioner of Education, he proposed a policy of prohibition of indigenous language use in all Alaskan schools. This policy came into full force by about 1910. From that time period until the passage of the Bilingual Education Act in 1968, children in Alaskan schools suffered severe treatment for speaking their Native languages in schools.[58][59]

Chevak, Kashunamiut School District, the school (blue), lake, and condemned old school (red)

17 Yup'ik villages had adopted local elementary bilingual programs by 1973. In the 1980s and 1990s Yup'ik educators became increasingly networked across village spaces. Between the early 1990s and the run of the century, students in Yup'ik villages, like youth elsewhere became connected to the Internet and began to form a "Yup'ik Worldwide Web". Through Facebook and YouTube, youth are creating new participatory networks and multimodal competencies.[60]

Bilingualism is of course still quite common in Alaska today, especially among Native people who speak English in addition to their own language.[9] All village schools are publicly funded by the state of Alaska. The school districts of the Yup'ik area:

• Lower Yukon School District (LYSD). English and Yup'ik bilingual education is done at these schools: Alakanuk, Emmonak, Hooper Bay, Ignatius Beans Memorial, Kotlik, Marshall, Pilot Station, Pitkas Point, Russian Mission, Scammon Bay, Sheldon Point.[61]
• Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD). English and Yup'ik (with Cup'ig at the Nunivak Island) bilingual education is done at these schools: Atmautluak, Akiuk-Kasigluk, Akula-Kasigluk, Ayaprun, BABS School, Bethel High School, Chefornak, EEK, Goodnews Bay, Gladys Jung, Kipnuk, Kongiganak, Kwethluk, Kwigillingok, M.E. School, Mekoryuk, Napakiak, Napaskiak, Newtok, Nightmute, Nunapitchuk, Oscarville, Platinum, Quinhagak, Toksook Bay, Tuntutuliak, Tununak, Pre-School. [62]
• Yupiit School District (YSD) English and Yup'ik (with Cup'ig at the Nunivak Island) bilingual education is done at these schools: Akiachak, Akiak, Tuluksak [63]
• Kashunamiut School District (KSD) is within the village of Chevak. English and Cup'ik bilingual education is done at this school.[64]
• Kuspuk School District. English and Yup'ik bilingual education is done at these schools: Lower Kalskag, Kalskag, Aniak, Chuathbaluk, Crooked creek, Red Devil, Sleetmute, Stony River.[65]
• Southwest Region School District (SWRSD). English and Yup'ik bilingual education is done at these schools: Aleknagik, Clarks Point, Ekwok, Koliganek, Manokotak, New Stuyahok, Togiak, Twin Hills [66][67]

Literature

Yup'ik oral storytelling stories or tales are often divided into the two categories of Qulirat (traditional legends) and Qanemcit (historical narratives). In this classification then, what is identified as myth or fairytale in the Western (European) tradition is a quliraq, and a personal or historical narrative is a qanemciq.[68][69]

• Traditional Legends (quliraq sg qulirat pl in Yup'ik and Cup'ik, qulirer in Cup'ig) are traditional Yup'ik legends or mythical tales that have been transmitted from generation to generation and often have supernatural elements. These traditional stories that has been handed down by word of mouth and involving fictional, mythical, legendary, or historical characters, or animals taking on human characteristics, told for entertainment and edification. Yup'ik family legends (ilakellriit qulirait) are an oral story that has been handed down through the generations within a certain family.
• Historical Narratives (qanemciq sg qanemcit pl or qanemci, qalamciq, qalangssak in Yup'ik and Cup'ik, qanengssi, univkangssi in Cup'ig) are a personal and historical Yup'ik narratives that can be attributed to an individual author, even though he or she has been forgotten.

The stories that previous generations of Yup'ik heard in the qasgi and assimilated as part of a life spent hunting, travelling, dancing, socializing, preparing food, repairing tools, and surviving from one season to the next.[70] Yup'ik oral stories (qulirat and qanemcit) of the storytellers (qulirarta) were embedded in many social functions of the society. Storyknifing (yaaruilta literally "let's go story knife!") stories a traditional and still common activity of young girls and are told by children of all ages in the Yup'ik lands. These stories are illustrated by figures sketched on mud or snow with a ceremonial knife, known as story knife or story telling knife (yaaruin, saaruin, ateknguin, quliranguarrsuun in Yup'ik, qucgutaq in Cup'ik, igaruarun in Cup'ig). Story knives made of wood (equaq is wooden story knife) ivory or bone (cirunqaaraq is antler story knife). In the Yup'ik storytelling tradition, an important aspect of traditional stories is that each listener can construct his or her own meaning from the same storytelling.[71]

Art

The Yup'ik Eskimos traditionally decorate most all of their tools, even ones that perform smaller functions.[72] Traditionally sculptures are not made for decoration. One of their most popular forms of the Alaska Native art are Yup'ik masks. They most often create masks for ceremonies but the masks are traditionally destroyed after being used. These masks are used to bring the person wearing it luck and good fortune in hunts. Other art forms, including Yup'ik clothing, Yup'ik doll are most popular.

Clothing

Main article: Yup'ik clothing

Nunivak Cup'ig child wearing bird skin clothing (parka?) and wood knot-like beaded circular cap (uivqurraq), photograph by Edward Curtis, 1930

The traditional clothing system developed and used by the Eskimo peoples is the most effective cold weather clothing developed to date. Yup'ik clothing tended to fit relatively loosely. Skin sewing is artistic arena in which Yup'ik women and a few younger men excel. Yup'ik women made clothes and footwear from animal skins (especially hide and fur of marine and land mammals for fur clothing, sometimes birds, also fish), sewn together using needles made from animal bones, walrus ivory, and bird bones such as front part of a crane's foot and threads made from other animal products, such as sinew. The semilunar woman's knife ulu is used to process and cut skins for clothing and footwear. Women made most clothing of caribou (wild caribou Rangifer tarandus granti and domestic reindeer Rangifer tarandus tarandus) and sealskin. The English words kuspuk (parka cover or overshirt) and mukluk (skin boot) which is derived from the Yup'ik word qaspeq and maklak. Before the arrival of the Russian fur traders (promyshlennikis), caribou and beaver skins were used for traditional clothing but subsequently, the Eskimos were persuaded to sell most furs and substitute manufactured materials. Everyday functional items like skin mittens, mukluks, and jackets are commonly made today, but the elegant fancy parkas (atkupiaq) of traditional times are now rare. Today, many Yup'ik have adopted western-style clothing.

Mask

Main article: Yup'ik masks

Yup'ik painted wood mask depicting the face of a tuunraq (keeper of the game), Yukon River area, late 19th century, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas.

Yup'ik masks (kegginaquq and nepcetaq in Yup'ik, agayu in Cup'ig) are expressive shamanic ritual masks. One of their most popular forms of the Alaska Native art are masks. The masks vary enormously but are characterised by great invention. They are typically made of wood, and painted with few colors. The Yup'ik masks were carved by men or women, but mainly were carved by the men. They most often create masks for ceremonies but the masks are traditionally destroyed after being used. After Christian contact in the late 19th century, masked dancing was suppressed, and today it is not practiced as it was before in the Yup'ik villages.[73][74]

The National Museum of the American Indian, as a part of the Smithsonian Institution, provided photographs of Yup'ik ceremonial masks colledted by Adams Hollis Twitchell, an explorer and trader who traveled Alaska during the Nome Gold Rush newly arrived in the Kuskokwim region, in Bethel in the early 1900s.[30]

Music and dance

See also: Inuit music

Nunivak Cup'ig man playing a very large drum (cauyaq) in 1927 photograph by Edward S Curtis

Yup'ik dancing (yuraq in Yup'ik) is a traditional Eskimo style dancing form usually performed to songs in Yup'ik. Round drums cover with seal stomach and played with wooden sticks of driftwood provide a rhythmic beat. Both men and women choreograph the dances and sing in accompaniment. Typically, the men are in the front, kneeling and the women stand in the back. The drummers are in the very back of the dance group. The Yup'ik use dance fans (finger masks or maskettes, tegumiak)to emphasize and exaggerate arm motions. Dancing plays an important role in both the social and spiritual life of the Yup'ik community. The Yup'ik have returned to practicing their songs and dances, which are a form of prayer. Traditional dancing in the qasgiq is a communal activity in Yup'ik tradition. Mothers and wives brought food to the qasgiq (men's house) where they would join in an evening of ceremonial singing and dancing. The mask was a central element in Yup'ik ceremonial dancing.[75] There are dances for fun, social gatherings, exchange of goods, and thanksgiving. Yup'ik ways of dancing (yuraryaraq) embrace six fundamental key entities identified as ciuliat (ancestors), angalkuut (shamans), cauyaq (drum), yuaruciyaraq (song structures), yurarcuutet (regalia) and yurarvik (dance location).[76] The Yuraq is use generic term for Yup'ik/Cup'ik regular dance. Also, yuraq is concerned with animal behaviour and hunting of animals, or with ridicule of individuals (ranging from affectionate teasing to punishing public embarrassment). But, use for inherited dance is Yurapik or Yurapiaq (lit. "real dance"). Eskimo dancing of their ancestors was banned by Christian missionaries in the late 19th century. After a century, Cama-i dance festival is a cultural celebration that started in the mid 1980s with a goal to gather outlying village Eskimo dancers to share their music and dances. There are now many dance groups who perform Eskimo dances in Alaska. Most popular activity in the Yup'ik-speaking Eskimo area is rediscovered Yup'ik dancing.

Yupik Dance Festivals

Every year, the Yupiit of the Qaluuyaaq (Nelson Island) and the surrounding villages of Nelson Island gather up every weekend in each village. Each village hosts aYupik dance festivals which they call the festival Yurarpak (you-rawr-puk).

The qelutviaq is a one-string fiddle or lute played by the Yup'ik of Nelson Island.

Drums of Winter or Uksuum Cauyai: Drums of Winter (1977) is an ethnographic documentary on the culture of the Yup'ik people, focusing primarily on dance, music, and potlatch traditions in the community of Emmonak, Alaska.

Toys and games

Main article: World Eskimo Indian Olympics

Nunivak Cup'ig children playing jump-rope (qawaliqtar in Cup'ig), 1940 or 1941.

Eskimo yo-yo

Doll

Main article: Yup'ik doll

Yup'ik dolls (yugaq, irniaruaq, sugaq, sugaruaq, suguaq in Yup'ik, cugaq, cugaruaq in Cup'ik, cuucunguar in Cup'ig) are dressed in traditional Eskimo style clothing, intended to protect the wearer from cold weather, and are often made from traditional materials obtained through food gathering. Play dolls from the Yup'ik area were made of driftwood, bone, or walrus ivory and measured from one to twelve inches in height or more.[77] Some human figurines were used by shamans. Dolls also mediated the transition between childhood and adulthood in the Yup'ik shamanism.

Cuisine

Main article: Yup'ik cuisine

See also: Inuit diet and Greenlandic cuisine

Tumnaq used to make Eskimo ice cream, circa 1910

Yup'ik cuisine is based on traditional subsistence food harvests (hunting, fishing and berry gathering) supplemented by seasonal subsistence activities. The Yup'ik region is rich with waterfowl, fish, and sea and land mammals. Yup'ik settled where the water remained ice-free in winter, where walruses, whales and seals came close to shore, and where there was a fishing stream or a bird colony nearby. Even if a place was not very convenient for human civilization, but had rich game, yup'ik would settle there. The coastal settlements rely more heavily on sea mammals (seals, walrusses, beluga whales), many species of fish (Pacific salmon, herring, halibut, flounder, trout, burbot, Alaska blackfish), shellfish, crabs, and seaweed. The inland settlements rely more heavily on Pacific salmon and freshwater whitefish, land mammals (moose, caribou), migratory waterfowl, bird eggs, berries, greens, and roots help sustain people throughout the region. Traditional subsistence foods are mixed with what is commercially available. Today about half the food is supplied by subsistence activities (subsistence foods), the other half is purchased from the commercial stores (market foods, store-bought foods).

Traditional Yup'ik delicacies are, akutaq (Eskimo ice cream), tepa (stinkheads), mangtak (muktuk).

Elevated cache (qulvarvik, qulrarvik, neqivik, enekvak, mayurpik, mayurrvik, ellivik, elliwig) was used to store food where it would be safe from animals. Hooper Bay, Alaska, 1929.

Elevated cache or raised log cache, also raised cache or log storehouse (qulvarvik sg qulvarviit pl [Yukon, Kuskokwim, Bristol Bay, NR, Lake Iliamna], qulrarvik [Egegik], neqivik [Hooper Bay-Chevak, Yukon, Nelson Island], enekvak [Hooper Bay-Chevak], mayurpik [Hooper Bay-Chevak], mayurrvik [Nelson Island], ellivik [Kuskokwim], elliwig [Nunivak]) is a bear cache-like safe food storage place designed to store food outdoors and prevent animals from accessing it. Elevated cache types include log or plank cache, open racks, platform caches, and tree caches. The high cabin-on-post cache was probably not an indigenous form among either Eskimos or Alaskan Athabaskans. Cabin-on-post caches are thought to have appeared in the 1870s. The cabinon-post form may thus have been introduced by early traders, miners, or missionaries, who would have brought with them memories of the domestic and storage structures constructed in their homelands.[78]

Fish

Alaskan economical salmonoid fish species (Oncorhynchus) are main food for the Yup'ik: Sockeye or Red salmon (sayak), Chum or Dog salmon (kangitneq), Chinook or King salmon (taryaqvak), Coho or Silver salmon (qakiiyaq), Pink or Humpback salmon (amaqaayak).

Fish as food, especially Pacific salmon (or in some places, non-salmon) species are primary main subsistence food for Yup'ik Eskimos. Both food and fish (and salmon) called neqa (sg) neqet (pl) in Yup'ik. Also for salmon called neqpik ~ neqpiaq (sg) neqpiit ~ neqpiat (pl) in Yup'ik, means literally "real food". But, main food for Iñupiaq Eskimos is meat of whale and caribou (both food and meat called niqi in Iñupiaq, also for meat called niqipiaq "real food").

Alaska subsistence communities are noted to obtain up to 97% of the omega-3 fatty acids through a subsistence diet.[79]

Tepas, also called stinkheads, stink heads, stinky heads, are fermented fish head such as king and silver salmon heads, are a traditional food of the Yup'ik. A customary way of preparing them is to place fish heads and guts in a wooden barrel, cover it with burlap, and bury it in the ground for about a week. For a short while in modern times, plastic bags and buckets replaced the barrel. However this increased the risk of botulism, and the Yup'ik Eskimos have reverted to fermenting fishheads directly in the ground.[80][81]

Mammals

Muktuk drying at Point Lay, Alaska. June 24, 2007.

Muktuk (mangtak in Yukon, Unaliq-Pastuliq, Chevak, mangengtak in Bristol Bay) is the traditional Eskimo meal of frozen raw beluga whale skin (dark epidermis) with attached subcutaneous fat (blubber).

Plants

The tundra provides berries for making jams, jellies, and a Yup'ik delicacy commonly called akutaq or Eskimo ice cream.

The mousefood (ugnarat neqait) consists of the roots of various tundra plants which are cached by voles in burrows

Ceremonies

The dominant ceremonies are: Nakaciuq (Bladder Festival), Elriq (Festival of the Dead), Kevgiq (Messenger Feast), Petugtaq (request certain items), and Keleq (invitation).

Religion

Shamanism

Yup'ik shaman (angalkuq) exorcising evil spirits (caarrluk) from a sick boy. The enormous wooden hands with shortened thumbs (inglukellriik unatnquak ayautaunatek) worn by the shaman. Nushagak Bay, ca. 1890s[30]

Historically and traditionally, Yup'ik and other all Eskimos traditional religious practices could be very briefly summarised as a form of shamanism based on animism. Aboriginally and in early historic times the shaman, called as medicine man or medicine woman (angalkuq sg angalkuk dual angalkut pl or angalkuk sg angalkuuk dual angalkuut pl in Yup'ik and Cup'ik, angalku in Cup'ig) was the central figure of Yup'ik religious life and was the middle man between spirits and the humans. The role of shaman as the primary leader, petitioner, and a trans-mediator between the human and non-human spiritual worlds in association with music, dance, and masks. The shaman's professional responsibility was to enact ancient forms of prayers to request for the survival needs of the people. The powerful shaman called as big shaman (angarvak).

Yup'ik shamans directed the making of masks and composed the dances and music for winter ceremonies. The specified masks depicted survival essentials requested in ceremonies.[76] Shamans often carved the symbolic masks that were vital to many Yup'ik ceremonial dances and this masks represented spirits that the shaman saw during visions.[82] Shaman masks or plaque masks (nepcetaq sg nepcetak dual nepcetat pl) were empowered by shamans and are powerful ceremonial masks represented a shaman's helping spirit (tuunraq). Shamans wearing masks of bearded seal, moose, wolf, eagle, beaver, fish, and the north wind were accompanied with drums and music.[76]

Big mouth, 1493 by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514), Nuremberg Chronicle (Schedel'sche Weltchronik). The Big mouth similar to Yup'ik Miluquyulit

Legendary animals, monsters, and half-humans: amikuk (sea monster said to resemble an octopus); amlliq (monster fish); arularaq (monster identified as "Bigfoot"); cirunelvialuk (sea creature); cissirpak (great worm; ingluilnguq creature that is only half a person); inglupgayuk (being with half a woman's face); irci, irciq (creature, half animal and half man); itqiirpak (big hand from the ocean); kun'uniq (sea creature with human features seen on pack ice); meriiq (creature that will suck the blood from one's big toe); miluquyuli (rock-throwing creature); muruayuli (creature that sinks into the ground as it walks); paalraayak (creature that moves underground); qamurralek (being with a dragging appendage); qununiq (person who lives in the sea); qupurruyuli (being with human female face who helps people at sea); quq'uyaq (polar bear); quugaarpak (mammoth-like creature that lives underground); tengempak (giant bird); tengmiarpak ("thunderbird"); tiissiq (caterpillar-like creature that leaves a scorched trail); tumarayuli (magical kayak); tunturyuaryuk (caribou-like creature); u͡gayaran (giant in Kuskokwim-area folklore); ulurrugnaq (sea monster said to devour whales); uligiayuli (ghost said to have a big blanket, which it wraps around children who are out too late at night playing hide-and-seek, it then takes them away); yuilriq (witch or ghost that walks in the air above the ground and has no liver; a large monster that lives in the mountains and eats people).[7]

Legendary humanoids: alirpak little person; cingssiik (little people having conical hats); ciuliaqatuk (ancestor identified with the raven); egacuayak (elf, dwarf); kelessiniayaaq (little people, said to be spirits of the dead); ircenrraq ("little person" or extraordinary person); tukriayuli (underground dweller that knocks on the earth's surface).[7]

Christianity

Yupi'k Eskimos in western and southwestern Alaska have had a long Christian history, in part from Russian Orthodox, Catholic and Moravian influence. The arrival of missionaries dramatically altered life along the Bering Sea coast.[30] Yup'ik beliefs and lifestyles have changed considerably since the arrival of Westerners during the 19th century.[83]

The first Native Americans to become Russian Orthodox Church (later Orthodox Church in America) were the Aleuts (Unangan) living in contact with Russian fur traders (promyshlennikis) in the mid 18th century. Saint Jacob (or Iakov) Netsvetov, a Russian-Alaskan creole (his father was Russian from Tobolsk, and his mother was an Aleut from Atka Island) who became a priest of the Orthodox Church (he is the first Alaska Native Orthodox priest in Alaska) and continued the missionary work of St. Innocent among his and other Alaskan Native people. He moved to the Russian Mission (Iqugmiut) on the Yukon River in 1844 and served there until 1863. Netsvetov invented an alphabet and translated church materials and several Bible texts into Yup'ik and kept daily journals.[84][85]

Orthodox hegemony in Yup'ik territory was challenged in the late 1880s by Moravian and Catholic missions.

The Yup'ik at Moravian Mission Station, Bethel on the Kuskokwim River in the year 1900[86]

The Moravian Church is the oldest Protestant denomination and is organized into four provinces in North America: Northern, Southern, Alaska, and Labrador. The Moravian mission was first founded at Bethel, along the Kuskokwim River in 1885.[83] The mission and reindeer station Bethel (Mamterilleq literally "site of many caches") was first established by Moravian missionaries near or at the small Yupi'k village called Mumtrelega[87] (Mamterilleq literally "site of many caches") or Mumtreklogamute or Mumtrekhlagamute (Mamterillermiut literally "people of Mamterilleq"). In 1885, the Moravian Church established a mission in the Bethel, under the leadership of the Kilbucks and John's friend and classmate William H. Weinland (1861-1930) and his wife with carpenter Hans Torgersen. John Henry Kilbuck (1861–1922) and his wife, Edith Margaret Romig (1865–1933), were Moravian missionaries in southwestern Alaska in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[88] John H. Kilbuck was the first Lenape to be ordained as a Moravian minister. They served the Yup'ik, used their language in the Moravian Church in their area, and supported development of a writing system for Yup'ik. Joseph H. Romig (1872–1951) was a frontier physician and Moravian Church missionary and Edith Margaret's brother, who served as Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, from 1937 to 1938. Although the resemblances between Yup'ik and Moravian ideology and action may have aided the initial presentation of Christianity, they also masked profound differences in expectation.[89]

The Society of Jesus is a Christian male religious congregation of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits. In 1888, a Jesuit mission was established on Nelson Island and a year later moved to Akulurak (Akuluraq, the former site of St. Mary's Mission) at the mouth of the Yukon River.[30][83] Segundo Llorente (1906 – 1989) was a Spanish Jesuit, philosopher and author who spent 40 years as a missionary among the Yup'ik people in the most remote parts of Alaska. His first mission was at Akulurak.

During Christmas Yup'iks give gifts commemorating the departed.[7]

Health

Despite the apparent Westernization of Alaskan Eskimos (Yup'ik and Iñupiaq), they have retained many of their traditional perceptions and responses to life situations.[29] Since the 1960s there has been a dramatic rise in alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and associated violent behaviors, which have upset family and village life and resulted in physical and psychological injury, death, and imprisonment.[23]

Alcohol abuse and suicide are common among Alaska Natives. Suicide and alcohol abuse is very common among rural young Yup'ik men.[90][91][92] Unintentional injury (accidents) and intentional self-harm (suicide) have been among the leading causes of death in the Native Alaska for many years.[93] Alaska Natives have higher rates of suicide than other Native Americans of the continental United States.[94] Alcohol abuse and dependence are common among Alaska Natives and are associated with high rates of violence and health problems.[95]

Map showing dry (red), wet (blue), and mixed (yellow) counties in the United States.(See List of dry communities by U.S. state.)

Alcohol and Native Americans: 12% of the deaths among American Indians and Alaska Natives are alcohol-related. In some continental Amerindian tribes, the rate of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is as high as 1.5 to 2.5 per 1000 live births, more than seven times the national average,[96] while among Alaska natives, the rate of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is 5.6 per 1000 live births.[97] Deaths due to alcohol among American Indians are more common in men and among Northern Plains Indians, but Alaska Natives showed the least incidence of death.[98] Existing data do indicate, however, that Alaska Native alcohol-related death rates are almost nine times the national average, and approximately 7% of all Alaska Native deaths are alcohol related.[95]

When Alaska became a state in 1959, state laws took control of alcohol regulation from the federal government and Native communities. In 1981, however, the state legislature changed the alcohol laws to give residents broad powers, via a local option referendum, to regulate how alcohol comes into their communities. The 1986 statutes have remained in effect since that time, with only relatively minor amendments to formalize the prohibition on home brew in a dry community (teetotal) and clarify the ballot wording and scheduling of local option referenda.[99] Alaska specifically allows local jurisdictions to elect to go dry by public referendum. State law allows each village to decide on restrictions, and some boroughs may prohibit it altogether.[100]

Traditional subsistence foods, such as fish and marine mammals, and to a lesser extent shellfish, are the only significant direct dietary sources of two important types of the omega-3 fatty acids called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). EPA and DHA protect against heart disease and possibly diabetes. The replacement of a subsistence diet that is low in fat and high in omega-3s with a market-based Western diet has increased the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in Alaska Natives. Many market (store-bought) foods are high in fats, carbohydrates, and sodium; and these may lead to increased weight gain, high cholesterol (hypercholesterolaemia), high blood pressure (hypertension), and chronic diseases.[79]

Presently, the two biggest problems with the growing population are water and sewage. Water from the rivers and lakes is no longer potable as a result of pollution. Wells must be drilled and sewage lagoons built, but there are inherent problems as well. Chamber pots (qurrun in Yup'ik and Cup'ik, qerrun in Cup'ig) or honey buckets with waterless toilets are common in many rural villages in the state of Alaska, such as those in the Bethel area of the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta. About one-fourth of Alaska's 86,000 Native residents live without running water and use plastic buckets for toilets euphemistically called honey buckets[101]

Great Death

The Great Death[23] or the Big Sickness[102] (quserpak, literally "big cough") referred to the flu (influenza) pandemic (worldwide epidemic) of 1918. The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50 to 100 million of them—three to five percent of the world's population[103]—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.

In the U.S., about 28% of the population suffered, and 500,000 to 675,000 died.[104] Native American tribes were particularly hard hit. In the Four Corners area alone, 3,293 deaths were registered among Native Americans.[105] Entire villages perished in Alaska.[106] The influenza epidemic across the Seward Peninsula in 1918 and 1919 wiped out about 50 percent of the native population of Nome (later an epidemic diphteria during 1925 serum run to Nome), and 8 percent of the native population of Alaska. More than 1,000 people died in northwest Alaska,[107] and double that across the state,[107] and the majority were Alaska Natives. The Alaska Natives had no resistance to either of these diseases.[108] Native tribes had no immunity. As a result of epidemics, the Yup'ik world would go upside down; it would end.[23] From there it spread like a wildfire to all corners of Alaska, killing up to 60 percent of the Eskimo and Alaskan Athabaskan people with the least exposure to the white man. This epidemic killed whole families and wiped out whole villages.[23] Many Kuskuqvamiut also migrated to Bristol Bay region from the Kuskokwim River region to the north of Bristol Bay, especially after the influenza epidemic of 1918–19.[19]

Modern tribal unions

Alaska Native tribal entities for Yup'ik Eskimos are recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs:

The Alaska Native Regional Corporations of the Yup'ik Eskimos were established in 1971 when the United States Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

Community	Native tribal entities	Native Village Corporation	Native Regional Corporation
Akiachak (Akiacuaq)	Akiachak Native Community	Akiachak Limited	Calista Corporation
Akiak (Akiaq)	Akiak Native Community	Kokarmiut Corporation	Calista Corporation
Alakanuk (Alarneq)	Village of Alakanuk	Alakanuk Corporation	Calista Corporation
Aleknagik (Alaqnaqiq)	Native Village of Aleknagik	Aleknagik Natives Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Andreafsky (today: St. Mary's)	Yupiit of Andreafski	Nerklikmute Native Corporation	Calista Corporation
Aniak (Anyaraq)	Village of Aniak	Kuskokwim Corporation	Calista Corporation
Atmautluak (Atmaulluaq)	Village of Atmautluak	Atmauthluak Limited	Calista Corporation
Bethel (Mamterilleq)	Orutsararmuit Native Village (aka Bethel)	Bethel Native Corporation	Calista Corporation
Bill Moores Slough (Konogkelyokamiut)	?	Kongnigkilnomuit Yuita Corporation	Calista Corporation
Chefornak (Cevv'arneq)	Village of Chefornak	Chefarnrmute Inc.	Calista Corporation
Chevak (Cev'aq)	Chevak Native Village	Chevak Corporation	Calista Corporation
Chuathbaluk (Curarpalek)	Native Village of Chuathbaluk (Russian Mission, Kuskokwim)	Kuskokwim Corporation	Calista Corporation
Chuloonawick (? culunivik)	Chuloonawick Native Village	Chuloonawick Corporation	Calista Corporation
Clarks Point (Saguyaq)	Village of Clarks Point	Saguyak Inc.	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Crooked Creek (Qipcarpak)	Village of Crooked Creek	Kuskokwim Corporation	Calista Corporation
Dillingham (Curyung)	Curyung Tribal Council (formerly the Native Village of Dillingham)	Choggiung Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Eek (Ekvicuaq)	EekNative Village of Eek	Iqfijouq Co	Calista Corporation
Egegik (Igyagiiq)	Egegik Village	Becharof Corporation	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Ekuk	Native Village of Ekuk	Ekuk Native Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Ekwok (Iquaq)	Ekwok Village	Ekwok Natives Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Elim (Neviarcaurluq)	Native Village of Elim	Elim Native Corporation	Bering Straits Native Corp.
Emmonak (Imangaq)	Emmonak Village	Emmonak Corporation	Calista Corporation
Golovin (Cingik)	Chinik Eskimo Community (Golovin)	Golovin Native Corporation	Cook Inlet Region, Incorporated
Goodnews Bay (Mamterat)	Native Village of Goodnews Bay	Kiutsarak Inc.	Calista Corporation
Hamilton (Nunapigglugaq)	Native Village of Hamilton	Nunapiglluraq Corporation	Calista Corporation
Holy Cross (Ingirraller)	Holy Cross Village	Deloycheet Inc.	Doyon, Limited
Hooper Bay (Naparyaarmiut)	Native Village of Hooper Bay	Sea Lion Corporation	Calista Corporation
Igiugig (Igyaraq)	Igiugig Village	Igiugig Native Corporation	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Iliamna (Illiamna)	Village of Iliamna	Iliamna Native Corporation	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Kasigluk (Kassigluq)	Kaskigluk Traditional Elders Council (formerly the Native Village of Kasigluk)	Kasigluk Inc.	Calista Corporation
Kipnuk (Qipnek)	Native Village of Kipnuk	Kugkaktilk Limited	Calista Corporation
Kokhanok (Qarr'unaq)	Kokhanok Village	Kokhanok Native Corporation	Alaska Peninsula Corporation
Koliganek (Qalirneq)	New Koliganek Village Council (formerly the Koliganek Village)	Koliganek Natives Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Kongiganak (Kangirnaq)	Native Village of Kongiganak	Qemirtalek Coast Corporation	Calista Corporation
Kotlik (Qerrulliik)	Village of Kotlik	Kotlik Yupik Corporation	Calista Corporation
Kwethluk (Kuiggluk)	Organized Village of Kwethluk	Kwethluk Inc.	Calista Corporation
Kwigillingok (Kuigilnguq)	Native Village of Kwigillingok	Kwik Inc.	Calista Corporation
Levelock (Liivlek)	Levelock Village	Levelock Natives Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Lower Kalskag (Qalqaq)	Village of Lower Kalskag	Kuskokwim Corporation	Calista Corporation
McGrath	McGrath Native Village	MTNT Limited	Doyon, Limited
Manokotak (Manuquutaq)	Manokotak Village	Manokotak Natives Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Marshall (Masserculleq)	Native Village of Marshall (aka Fortuna Ledge)	Maserculig Inc.	Calista Corporation
Mekoryuk (Mikuryar)	Native Village of Mekoryuk	Nima Corporation	Calista Corporation
Mountain Village (Asaacaryaraq)	Asa'carsarmiut Tribe (formerly the Native Village of Mountain Village)	Azachorok Inc.	Calista Corporation
Nagamut	?	Nagamut Limited	Calista Corporation
Naknek (Nakniq)	Naknek Native Village	Paug-Vik Inc. Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Napaimute (Napamiut)	Native Village of Napaimute	Kuskokwim Corporation	Calista Corporation
Napakiak (Naparyarraq)	Native Village of Napakiak	Napakiak Corporation	Calista Corporation
Napaskiak (Napaskiaq)	Native Village of Napaskiak	Napaskiak Inc.	Calista Corporation
Newhalen (Nuuriileng)	Newhalen Village	Newhalen Native Corporation	Alaska Peninsula Corporation
New Stuyahok (Cetuyaraq)	New Stuyahok Village	Stuyahok Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Newtok (Niugtaq)	Newtok Village	Newtok Inc.	Calista Corporation
Nightmute (Negtemiut)	Native Village of Nightmute	NGTA Inc.	Calista Corporation
Nunam Iqua (Nunam Iqua)	Native Village of Nunam Iqua (formerly the Native Village of Sheldon's Point)	Swan Lake Corporation	Calista Corporation
Nunapitchuk (Nunapicuar)	Native Village of Nunapitchuk	Nunapitchuk Limited	Calista Corporation
Ohagamiut (Urr'agmiut)	Village of Ohogamiut	Ohog Inc.	Calista Corporation
Oscarville (Kuiggayagaq)	Oscarville Traditional Village	Oscarville Native Corporation	Calista Corporation
Paimiut	Native Village of Paimiut	Paimiut Corporation	Calista Corporation
Pilot Station (Tuutalgaq)	Pilot Station Traditional Village	Pilot Station Native Corporation	Calista Corporation
Pitkas Point (Negeqliim Painga)	Native Village of Pitka's Point	Pitkas Point Native Corporation	Calista Corporation
Platinum (Arviiq)	Platinum Traditional Village	Arvig Inc.	Calista Corporation
Portage Creek	Portage Creek Village (aka Ohgsenakale)	Ohgsenskale Corporation	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Quinhagak (Kuinerraq)	Native Village of Kwinhagak (aka Quinhagak)	Qanirtuuq Inc.	Calista Corporation
Russian Mission (Iqugmiut)	Iqurmiut Traditional Council (formerly the Native Village of Russian Mission)	Russian Mission Native Corporation	Calista Corporation
St. Marys (Negeqliq)	Algaaciq Native Village (St. Mary's)	St. Marys Native Corporation	Calista Corporation
St. Michael (Taciq)	Native Village of Saint Michael	St. Michael Native Corporation	Bering Straits Native Corp.
Scammon Bay (Marayaarmiut)	Native Village of Scammon Bay	Askinuk Corporation	Calista Corporation
Sleetmute (Cellitemiut)	Village of Sleetmute	Kuskokwim Corporation	Calista Corporation
South Naknek (Qinuyang)	South Naknek Village	Quinuyang Limited	Alaska Peninsula Corporation
Stebbins (Tapraq)	Stebbins Community Association	Stebbins Native Corporation	Bering Straits Native Corp.
Stony River	Village of Stony River	Kuskokwim Corporation	Calista Corporation
Togiak (Tuyuryaq)	Traditional Village of Togiak	Togiak Natives Limited	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Toksook Bay (Nunakauyaq)	Nunakauyarmiut Tribe (formerly the Native Village of Toksook Bay)	Nunakauiak Yupik Corporation	Calista Corporation
Tuluksak (Tuulkessaaq)	Tuluksak Native Community	Tulkisarmute Inc.	Calista Corporation
Tuntutuliak (Tuntutuliaq)	Native Village of Tuntutuliak	Tuntutuliak Land Limited	Calista Corporation
Tununak (Tununeq)	Native Village of Tununak	Tununrmiut Rinit Corporation	Calista Corporation
Twin Hills (Ingricuar)	Twin Hills Village	Twin Hills Native Corporation	Bristol Bay Native Corporation
Umkumiute	Umkumiute Native Village	Umkumiute Limited	Calista Corporation
Upper Kalskag (Qalqaq)	Village of Kalskag	Kuskokwim Corporation	Calista Corporation

Notable Central Alaskan Yup'ik people

• Uyaquq (Helper Neck), (c. 1860–1924), Moravian helper, author, translator, and inventor of a Yup'ik writing system[109]
• Crow Village Sam (1893–1974)
• Oscar Kawagley (Angayuqaq) (born 1934), a Yup'ik anthropologist, teacher and actor
• Marie Meade, a Yugtun language expert[110]
• Rita Pitka Blumenstein (born 1936), the first certified traditional doctor in Alaska
• Olga Michael (1916–1979), a priest's wife from Kwethluk village; Native Alaskan of Yup'ik origin.
• Larry Beck (1938–1994), a one-quarter Native Alaskan American sculptor. His father was American, his mother was Norwegian/Yup'ik from Alaska.
• Todd Palin (born 1964), an American (has mainly English and Yup'ik ancestry) oil field production operator, commercial fisherman and champion snowmobile racer. First Gentleman of Alaska (2006–2009).
• Ramy Brooks (born 1968), a kennel owner and operator, motivational speaker, and dog musher, descended from the Yup'ik Eskimos and Athabaskan Indians
• Callan Chythlook-Sifsof (born 1989), a Yup'ik-Inupiaq snowboarder olympian. Callan is the first Yup'ik Eskimo (Inuit) on the United States National Snowboard Team and Winter Olympic Team
• Emily Johnson (born 1976), an American dancer, writer, and choreographer of Yup'ik descent
• Lyman Hoffman, a Democratic member of the Alaska Senate
• Mary Sattler (Mary Kapsner, born 1973), a Democratic politician in the U.S. state of Alaska
• Walt Monegan (born 1951), the former Police Chief of Anchorage
• Valerie Nurr'araaluk Davidson, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska

See also

• Dear Lemon Lima, a family comedy feature film is about a 13-year-old half-Yup'ik girl navigating her way through first heartbreak and the perils of prep school in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Notes

1. Lesson II: History of the Cup’ik People. Alaskool.org (Today there are two Cup'ik tribes in Alaska—the people of Chevak, who refer to themselves as the Qissunamiut tribe, and the people of Mekoryuk on Nunivak Island, who refer to themselves as the Cup'ik people.)
2. Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07). "Central Alaskan Yup'ik." University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved on 2014-04-04.
3. U.S. Census Bureau. (2004-06-30). "Table 1. American Indian and Alaska Native Alone and Alone or in Combination Population by Tribe for the United States: 2000." American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes for the United States, Regions, Divisions, and States (PHC-T-18). U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000, special tabulation. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
4. U.S. Census Bureau. (2004-06-30). "Table 16. American Indian and Alaska Native Alone and Alone or in Combination Population by Tribe for Alaska: 2000". American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes for the United States, Regions, Divisions, and States (PHC-T-18). U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000, special tabulation. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
5. 2010 Census Shows Nearly Half of American Indians and Alaska Natives Report Multiple Races
6. The Map of Indigenous Peoples and Languages of Alaska
7. Jacobson, Steven A. (2012). Yup'ik Eskimo Dictionary, 2nd edition. Alaska Native Language Center.
8. Fienup-Riordan, 1993, p. 10.
9. Steven A. Jacobson (1984). Central Yup'ik and the Schools: A Handbook for Teachers. Alaska Native Language Center. Developed by Alaska Department of Education Bilingual/Bicultural Education Programs. Juneau, Alaska, 1984.
10. Vajda, Edward J. "Siberian Yupik (Eskimo)". East Asian Studies.
11. Naske and Slotnick, 1987, p. 18.
12. Naske and Slotnick, 1987, pp. 9–10.
13. "K. T. Khlebnikov. <italic>Baranov: Chief Manager of the Russian Colonies in America</italic>. . Translated by Colin Bearne. Edited by Richard A. Pierce. (Materials for the Study of Alaska History, number 3.) Kingston, Ont.: Limestone Press. 1973. Pp. xvi, 140, S. G. Fedorova. <italic>Russkoe naselenie Aliaski i Kalifornii, konets XVIII veka-1867 g</italic>. [The Russian Population in Alaska and California, Late 18th Century-1867]. (Akademiia Nauk SSSR, Institut Etnografii im. N. N. Miklukho-Maklaia.) Moscow: Izdatel'stvo "Nauka." 1971. Pp. 269 and Svetlana G. Fedorova. <italic>The Russian Population in Alaska and California, Late 18th Century-1867</italic>. (Akademiia Nauk SSSR, Institut Etnografii im. N. N. Miklukho-Maklaia.) Moscow: Izdatel'stvo "Nauka." 1971. Pp. 269 and Alton S. Donnelly. (Materials for the Study of Alaska History, number 4.) Kingston, Ont.: Limestone Press. 1973. Pp. x, 376". The American Historical Review. June 1975. doi:10.1086/ahr/80.3.613. ISSN 1937-5239.
14. Chamberlin, Jamie (2005). "State Leadership Conference: Document, Document, Document". doi:10.1037/e401522005-069. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
15. Robert D. rnold (1978), Alaska Native Land Claims. The Alaska Native Foundation, Anchorage, Alaska. 2nd edition.
16. Ann Fienup-Riordan (1982), Navarin Basin sociocultural systems analysis. Alaska OCS Socioeconomic Studies Program. Prepared for Bureau of Land Management, Outer Continental Shelf Office, January 1982.
17. "Purchase of Alaska, 1867". Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
18. Sybil M. Lassiter (1998), Cultures of Color in America: A Guide to Family, Religion, and Health. Greenwood Press.
19. Marie Lowe (2007), Socioeconomic Review of Alaska's Bristol Bay Region. Prepared for North Star Group. Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage.
20. Ahnie Marie Al'aq David Litecky (2011), The Dwellers between: Yup'ik Shamans and Cultural Change in Western Alaska. Thesis. The University of Montana
21. Zagoskin, Lavrenty A., and Henry N. Michael (ed.) (1967). Lieutenant Zagoskin's Travels in Russian America, 1842–1844: The First Ethnographic and Geographic Investigations in the Yukon and Kuskokwim Valleys of Alaska. University of Toronto Press.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
22. Lesson One words. Alaskool.org
23. Harold Napoleon (1996). With commentary edited by Eric Madsen. Yuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being. Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Knowledge Network.
24. Graves, Kathy (2004). Conferences of Alaska Native Elders: Our View of Dignified Aging. Anchorage, Alaska: National Resource Center for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Elders. December 2004.
25. Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, Delena Norris-Tull, and Roger A. Norris-Tull (1998), "The indigenous worldview of Yupiaq culture: its scientific nature and relevance to the practice and teaching of science". Journal of Research in Science Teaching Vol. 35, #2
26. "Guidelines for Respecting Cultural Knowledge". Adopted by the Assembly of Alaska Native Educators. Published by the Alaska Native Knowledge Network. Anchorage, Alaska. February 1, 2000
27. Alaska Native Collections : Hat (E037904)
28. Elisabeth F. Andrews (1989), The Akulmiut: territorial dimensions of a Yup'ik Eskimo society. Technical Paper No. 177. Juneau, AK: Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Subsistence.
29. Tina D. Delapp (1991), "American Eskimos: the Yup'ik and Inupiat." In Joyce Newman Giger (eds.), Transcultural nursing: assessment and intervention.
30. Fienup-Riordan, Ann (1994). Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-585-12190-7.
31. Fienup-Riordan, 1993, p. 29.
32. Pete, 1993, p. 8.
33. Fienup-Riordan, 1990, p. 154, "Figure 7.1. Regional groupings for the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, circa 1833."
34. Oswalt, 1967, pp. 5-9. See also Map 2, "Aboriginal Alaskan Eskimo tribes", insert between pp. 6 and 7.
35. Oswalt, 1990, p. ii, "The Kusquqvagmiut area and the surrounding Eskimo and Indian populations" (map).
36. Jacobson, 1984.
37. NPT, Inc. (2004-08-24). "We are Cup'it." Mekoryuk, AK: Nuniwarmiut Piciryarata Tamaryalkuti (Nunivak Cultural Programs). Retrieved on 2004-04-14.
38. Branson and Troll, 2006, p. xii. Map 3, "Tribal areas, villages and linguistics around 1818, the time of contact."
39. Oswalt, 1990, p. 12.
40. Oswalt, 1990, pp. 13–14.
41. Terryl Miller (2006), Yup'ik (Central Eskimo) Language Guide (and more!), a useful introduction to the Central Eskimo (Yup'ik) Language, World Friendship Publishing, Bethel, Alaska, 2006
42. Wildlife Action Plan Section IIIB: Alaska's 32 Ecoregions by Alaska Department of Fish and Game
43. John M. Wright, Judith M. Morris and Robert Schroeder (1985), Bristol Bay Regional Subsistence Profile. Technical Paper No. 114, Alaska Departement of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence, Juneau, Alaska, March 1985
44. James S. Magdanz, Sandra Tahbone, Austin Ahmasuk, David S. Koster, and Brian L. Davis (2007), Customary trade and barter in fish in the Seward Peninsula Area, Alaska. Technical Paper No. 328, Alaska Departement of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence, Juneau, Alaska, August 2007.
45. "Model Kayak". Wake Forest University, Museum of Anthropology. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
46. Celeste Jordan (2014), Yup'ik Eskimo kayak miniatures: Preliminary notes on kayaks from the Nunalleq site. DigIt (Journal of the Flinders Archaeological Society) 2(1): 28-33, June 2014
47. "Characteristics of the NMNH Kayak E419041A" (PDF). The Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
48. "Qayaqs and Canoes". Echospace.org. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
49. Alaska Native Collections : ayaperviik “central deck stiffener of a kayak”
50. National Museum of the American Indian : Sled model. Kuskwogmiut Yup'ik (Kuskokwim Eskimo)
51. Alaska Native Collections : łeendenaalyoye “old-style dog harness”
52. Yup’ik and Cup’ik Cultures of Alaska. Alaskanative.net.
53. "YPCC". Bethelculturecenter.com. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
54. Alaska Native Languages: Population and Speaker Statistics. Alaska Native Language Center.
55. Oscar Alexie, Sophie Alexie, and Patrick Marlow (2009), "Creating space and defining roles: elders and adult Yup’ik immersion". Journal of American Indian Education 48(3): 1-18.
56. E. Irene Reed, Steven Jacobson, Lawrence Kaplan, and Jeff Leer (1985). Alaskan Eskimo Languages population, dialects, and distribution based on 1980 Census. Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks 1985.
57. Panu Hallamaa (1997), Unangam Tunuu and Sugtestun: a struggle for continued life, Northern Minority Languages: Problems of Survival, Senri Ethnological Studies 44 1997, pp 187-223 (tablo sayfası: 194)
58. Michael Krauss (1980), Alaska Native Languages: Past, Present, and Future. Alaska Native Language Center Research Papers Number 4.
59. Our Language Our Souls:The Yup'ik bilingual curriculum of the Lower Kuskokwim School District: A continuing success story. Edited by Delena Norris-Tull. 1999
60. Perry Gilmore and Leisy Wyman (2013), "An ethnographic long hook: language and literacy over time and space in Alaska Native communities". In Kathy Hall, Teresa Cremin, Barbara Comber, and Luis Moll (eds.), International Handbook of Research on Children's Literacy, Learning and Culture
61. Lower Yukon School District
62. Lower Kuskokwim School District
63. Yupiit School District
64. Kashunamiut School District
65. Kuspuk School District
66. Southwest Region School District
67. Elizabeth A. Hartley and Pam Johnson (1995), Toward a community-based transition to a Yup'ik first language (immersion) program with ESL component, The Bilingual Research journal, Summer/Fall 1995, Vol. 19., Nos. 3 & 4, pp. 571-585
68. Orr, E. C., Orr, B., Kanrilak, V., & Charlie, A. (1997). Ellangellemni: When I became aware. Fairbanks, AK: Lower Kuskokwim School District and Alaska Native Language Center.
69. Anna W. Jacobson (1998), Yup'ik stories read aloud = Yugcetun Qulirat Naaqumalriit Erinairissuutmun. With transcriptions and word-by-word translations. Translations by Anna W. Jacobson in consultation with Steven A. Jacobson. University of Alaska Fairbanks. Alaska Native Language Center.
70. Paul John (2003), Stories for Future Generations / Qulirat Qanemcit-llu Kinguvarcimalriit. The Oratory of Yup'ik Elder Paul John. Translated by Sophie Shield, edited by Ann Fienup-Riordan. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, in cooperation with the Calista Elders Council, Bethel, Alaska, 2003.
71. Joan Parker Webster and Evelyn Yanez (2007), Qanemcikarluni Tekitnarqelartuq = One must arrive with a story to tell: Traditional Alaska Native Yup'ik Eskimo Stories in a Culturally Based Math Curriculum. Journal of American Indian Education 46(3): 116-136.
72. Ray, Dorothy (1961). Artists of the Tundra and the Sea. University of Washington Press.
73. Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1996). The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks: Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press
74. Lynn Ager Wallen (1999), The Milotte Mask Collection, Alaska State Museums Conceps, Second Reprint of Technical Paper Number 2, July 1999
75. Emily Johnson (1998), "Yup'ik Dance: Old and New", The Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement, Vol. 9, No. 3. pp. 131–149
76. Theresa Arevgaq John (2010). Yuraryararput Kangiit-llu: Our Ways of Dance and Their Meanings. University of Alaska Fairbanks. Fairbanks, Alaska.
77. Fienup-Riordan, Ann (2002). "Inuguat, Iinrut, Uyat-llu: Yup'ik dolls, amulets and human figures". American Indian Art Magazine, 27(2): 40–7.
78. Susan W. Fair (1997), "Story, storage, and symbol: functional cache architecture, cache narratives, and roadside attractions". In Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture VII, edited by AnneMarie Adams and Sally McMurray, pp. 167-182. Nashville University of Tennessee Press. JSTOR
79. Contaminants in subsistence foods from the western Alaska coastal region. Samples collected in 2004 for the Alaska Traditional Diet Project. Prepared by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. July 19, 2011.
80. p. 69, Subsistence salmon fishing in Nushagak Bay, Southwest Alaska, Jody Seitz, technical paper no. 195, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence, Juneau, Alaska, December 1990. Page 68.
81. p. 5, Botulism in Alaska, a guide for physicians and healthcare providers, 2005 update, State of Alaska, Department of Health & Social Services, Division of Public Health, Section of Epidemiology.
82. Ahnie Marie Al'aq David Litecky (2011). The Dwellers Between: Yup'ik Shamans and Cultural Change in Western Alaska. The University of Montana
83. Fienup-Riordan, Ann et al. (2000). Hunting Tradition in a Changing World: Yup'ik Lives in Alaska Today. New Brunswick, New jersey and London: Rutgers University Press.
84. The journals of Iakov Netsvetov: the Yukon years, 1845-1863. Translated by Lydia T. Black. The Limestone Press. 1984. ISBN 978-0-919642-01-0.CS1 maint: others (link)
85. Tanya Storch (2006), Religions and Missionaries around the Pacific, 1500-1900
86. Moravian Mission Station, Bethel on the Kuskokwim. Alaska's Digital Archive.
87. Marcus Baker (1906), Geographic Dictionary of Alaska. Second edition by James McCormick. USGS Bulletin: 299. Washington: Government Printing Office
88. Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1991). The Real People and the Children of Thunder: The Yup'ik Eskimo Encounter With Moravian Missionaries John and Edith Kilbuck. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
89. Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1990). Eskimo Essays: Yup'ik Lives and Howe We See Them. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
90. Hazel, K.L. & Mohatt, G.V. (2001). "Cultural and Spiritual Coping in Sobriety: Informing Substance Abuse prevention for Alaska Native Communities". American Journal of Community Psychology, 29(5):1-46.
91. David Henry, James Allen, Carlotta Ching Ting Fok, Stacy Rasmus, and Bill Charles (2012). "Patterns of protective factors in an intervention for the prevention of suicide and alcohol abuse with Yup'ik Alaska Native youth". The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse 38(5):476-82.
92. Gerald V. Mohatt, Carlotta Ching Ting Fok, David Henry, James Allen (2014). "Feasibility of a community intervention for the prevention of suicide and alcohol abuse with Yup'ik Alaska Native youth: the Elluam Tungiinun and Yupiucimta Asvairtuumallerkaa studies". American Journal of Community Psychology 54(1-2):153-69.
93. Chapter 3: Injury. Northslope.org.
94. Matthew Berman, Teresa Hull, and P. May (2000). "Alcohol control and injury death in Alaska native communities: wet, damp and dry under Alaska's local option law". Journal of Studies on Alcohol 61(2):311-319
95. J. Paul Seale, Sylvia Shellenberger, and John Spence (2006). "Alcohol problems in Alaska Natives: lessons from the Inuit". American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research 13(1):1-31.
96. Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) (2003). "Fetal alcohol syndrome–Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, and New York, 1995-1997". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 51 (20): 433–5. PMID 12056499.
97. "Health problems in American Indian/Alaska Native women". National Women's Health & Information. Archived from the original on 2006-02-11.
98. "Study: 12 percent of Indian deaths due to alcohol" Associated Press article by Mary Clare Jalonick Washington, D.C. (AP) 9-08 News From Indian Country accessed October 7, 2009
99. Matthew Berman and Teresa Hull (2001). "Alcohol Control by Referendum in Northern Native communities: The Alaska Local Option Law". Arctic 65(1):77-83.
100. "Dry / Damp Communities". Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
101. Overview and Findings. Princeton.edu.
102. Henry W. Griest, The Big Sickness. Arcticcircle.uconn.edu.
103. "Historical Estimates of World Population". Retrieved 29 March 2013.
104. The Great Pandemic: The United States in 1918–1919, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
105. "Flu Epidemic Hit Utah Hard in 1918, 1919". 28 March 1995. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
106. "The Great Pandemic of 1918: State by State". Archived from the original on 6 May 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2009.
107. Donahue, Deirdre (07/29/2003). "'Miles' takes measure of canine, human heroism". USA Today.
108. (Salisbury & Salisbury 2003, pp. 42, 50) harv error: no target: CITEREFSalisburySalisbury2003 (help)
109. "List of resources with contributor: Uyaquq (Helper Neck)". UAF: Alaska Native Language Archive. Accessed 6 Feb 2014.
110. http://www.aianea.com/elder/Marie%20Meade.pdf

References

• Barker, James H. (1993). Always Getting Ready – Upterrlainarluta: Yup'ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
• Branson, John and Tim Troll, eds. (2006). Our Story: Readings from Southwest Alaska – An Anthology. Anchorage, AK: Alaska Natural History Association.
• Federal Field Committee for Development Planning in Alaska. (1968). Alaska Natives & The Land. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
• Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1983). The Nelson Island Eskimo: Social Structure and Ritual Distribution. Anchorage, AK: Alaska Pacific University Press.
• Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1990). Eskimo Essays: Yup'ik Lives and Howe We See Them. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1991). The Real People and the Children of Thunder: The Yup'Ik Eskimo Encounter With Moravian Missionaries John and Edith Kilbuck. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1994). Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1996). The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks: Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
• Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (2000). Hunting Tradition in a Changing World: Yup'ik Lives in Alaska Today. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (2001). What's in a Name? Becoming a Real Person in a Yup'ik Community. University of Nebraska Press.
• Jacobson, Steven A., compiler. (1984). Yup'ik Eskimo Dictionary. Fairbanks, AK: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
• Jacobson, Steven A. "Central Yup'ik and the Schools: A Handbook for Teachers". Juneau: Alaska Native Language Center, 1984.
• Kizzia, Tom. (1991). The Wake of the Unseen Object: Among the Native Cultures of Bush Alaska. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• MacLean, Edna Ahgeak. "Culture and Change for Iñupiat and Yupiks of Alaska". 2004. Alaska. 12 Nov 2008 .
• Morgan, Lael, ed. (1979). Alaska's Native People. Alaska Geographic 6(3). Alaska Geographic Society.
• Naske, Claus-M. and Herman E. Slotnick. (1987). Alaska: A History of the 49th State, 2nd edition. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Oswalt, Wendell H. (1967). Alaskan Eskimos. Scranton, PA: Chandler Publishing Company.
• Oswalt, Wendell H. (1990). Bashful No Longer: An Alaskan Eskimo Ethnohistory, 1778–1988. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Pete, Mary. (1993). "Coming to Terms". In Barker, 1993, pp. 8–10.
• Reed, Irene, et al. Yup'ik Eskimo Grammar. Alaska: U of Alaska, 1977.