Alaska's Native
People
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People of the Mainland Coasts |
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People of the Sea |
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People of the Heartland |
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The Great Alaskan Sport |
People of the Mainland Coasts: The Inuit
These are the people groups commonly called “Eskimos,” but they call themselves “Inuit,” meaning “the people.” Among the Inuit, the Yup’ik live in Alaska’s southwest and along the Bering Sea coast; the Siberian Yup’ik (more similar to the natives of Russia’s Chukotsk Peninsula than to Alaska’s other Yup’ik people) inhabit St. Lawrence Island; and the Inupiat live in the northwest and arctic regions of Alaska and Canada.
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"As a teenager, I’m slowly learning what it was like in the old days. But as I get older, I realize that not being able to speak my Native language, Inupiaq, is a problem.... I want to be able to communicate in Inupiaq with our Elders in Point Hope, to have them tell me what it was like living in the old days." Sheila Franklin, Inupiat of Point Hope -- quoted in Native Cultures in Alaska, p. 59 |
People of the Sea: Aleut and Alutiiq
The
people called “Aleuts” by Europeans historically called themselves
“Unangax.” The term may mean “seasiders”—appropriately
enough, because this people groups lives primarily on the Aleutian and
Pribilof Islands and along the southern Alaska Peninsula. A smaller,
related people group, the Alutiiq, inhabit the Kodiak Island archipelago,
portions of the Alaska Peninsula, Lower Cook Inlet, and Prince William
Sound.
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"You know, we say when the tide is out the table is set. We’re always getting gumboots and sea eggs for the Elders. You can eat the sea eggs raw, just cut them in half and scoop out the roe." Patricia Lekanoff Gregory, Aleut of Unalaska -- quoted in Native Cultures in Alaska, p. 16 |
People of the Heartland: Alaska’s Indians
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Athabaskans
Alaska’s Athabaskans occupy the largest geographic area with the most diverse environments of any of Alaska’s Native groups. Alaska’s broad Interior is usually identified as the Athabaskan heartland, but their homelands stretch from the Brooks Range south past the Alaska Range to Lake Iliamna, Cook Inlet, and the Kenai Peninsula....
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"Athabaskans represent one of the most widespread linguistic groups among Natives in North America. They extend from Alaska’s Arctic through Canada to the Mexican border, and include the Navajo and Apache of the American Southwest." Native Cultures in Alaska, p. 60 |
The headquarters for Central Alaskan Missions, later SEND of Alaska, is located in Glennallen, Alaska, the heart of Athabaskan territory. Vince Joy, founder of CAM, did much personal work among the Athabaskan Natives of the Copper River Valley, and the Lord greatly blessed his faithfulness.
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I don’t like he talk to me about drink beer so I tell him, “You get out. You got no business talk to me like that. You get outa here before I hit you!” Later I go down after beer again. Joy was there on the highway in his car and he say, “Come ride with me, Jim.” I get in and we ride and he talk with me. “Christ died for you, Jim!” Jim McKinley, early convert and later, Native pastor -- Athabaskan of Copper Center |
- Eyak
Living along the Alaska coast around Cordova and Yakutat, the Eyak are the smallest Native group in Alaska, with only about 120 members remaining. Only one of these still speaks the ancient Eyak language.
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I sit in front of the TV. I talk and talk to it in my language, but it don’t talk back. I pray in my language, but God don’t talk back in it. Marie Smith Jones, Eyak Chief -- quoted in Native Cultures in Alaska, p. 70 |
- Tlingit
The Tlingit people of Alaska’s Southeast were a prosperous people. Their trading savvy and the bounty of the sea freed them to devote much time to their art. These are the carvers of totem poles, masks, and canoes, the creators of Chilkat blankets, and the weavers of cedar baskets. Today the Tlingit are the most numerous of Alaska’s Southeast Natives and have historically been influential in Alaska Native politics.
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One of the misconceptions that some people have about the art is that totem poles were worshipped. That’s not true. In the olden days, the poles would reflect different stories relating to a particular clan. Since there was no written language, it was a way to remind the Elders to tell the young people about their heritage by what the totem poles meant. Nathan Jackson, Tlingit master carver -- quoted in Native Cultures in Alaska, p. 83 |
- Tsimshian
In 1887, Anglican missionary William Duncan led about 800 Tsimshian people from British Columbia to establish a “model community” on Annette Island in Southeast Alaska. Today the Tsimshian village of Metlakatla and its surroundings comprise the only Indian reservation in Alaska. There the traditional arts of carving and dancing are being revived and taught to a new generation.
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When I was growing up, I went to Indian boarding school in Lawrence, Kansas. The young people there would put on their traditional regalia and dance. For the few of us from Metlakatla, we wished we had something like that...well, now I have and it will be handed down to my children, my grandchildren. Theo McIntyre, Tsimshian of Metlakatla -- quoted in Native Cultures in Alaska, p. 86 |
- Haida
In the 18th century, a group of Haida left the Queen Charlotte Islands and traveled by canoe to Prince of Wales and other islands in southern Southeast Alaska. About 1100 Haida people live in Alaska today, while the largest concentration of Haida remain in British Columbia. Traditionally Alaska’s Haida call themselves Kiis Haade, or the “separate island people.” Linguists say the Haida language is not related to any other known language.
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Quite a few here can talk in Haida. It’s not a forgotten language. Yesterday I was out riding with my grandchildren and they were saying things in Haida. It’s really nice. Clara Natkong, Haida of Hydaburg -- quoted in Native Cultures in Alaska, p. 91 |
For much of this information we are indebted to Native Cultures in Alaska, Alaska Geographic, Vol. 23, #2, 1996. Penny Rennick, Ed.
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The
Great Alaskan Sport
You’d be wrong. The Alaska sport is basketball. Think about it. It’s played indoors.... I think the main reason I’m a writer today is that the editor of the Seldovia High School student newspaper got to travel with the basketball team to report on games in exotic places like Ninilchik and Kenai. You had to be able to write to be the editor. I was hot to go along, so I wrote. Go, Sea Otters!... So, one day many years later I was talking hometown basketball with my friend Irene Rowan from Haines. She was incredulous when she found out I’d never heard of the Gold Medal Tournament. “This must not be,” she proclaimed, and rounded up friends ... for a girls’ weekend in Juneau the last week of March.... Believe it or not, the Gold Medal basketball tournament is in its 56th year. That’s two years longer than the NBA championship. When I say Alaskans are serious about their b-ball, give some weight to the word “serious.” It isn’t just about the game. It’s about the culture, too. On Friday I’m at breakfast at the Goldbelt Hotel with Eric McDowell, a classmate of Irene’s from Haines and a perennial, if sporadic, Gold Medal player.... Eric struggles to explain what basketball and the Gold Medal Tournament mean to Southeast [Alaska]. “It gives us such a sense of community. We all belong.” Look at what has happened over the past 60 years, he says, the discrimination, the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. “The culture has had a tremendous influence on the playing.... Of course,” Eric says, “there are different requirements for the different-size towns.” To compete in the tournament on a Juneau team, players must live in Juneau and have to have played on the team for the full season. To compete on the Klawock team, anyone who has ever lived there is eligible, including the 6-foot, 6-inch guy who taught kindergarten there 20 years ago.... Used by permission of Dana Stabenow www.stabenow.com |
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