Preserving Alaskan Culture and Language

Today, Alaska's migrated population is an amalgam of fine artisans, granola-eating and backpack-toting naturists, fishermen, blue-collar laborers, environmentalists, oil workers, military personnel, and white-collar professionals. Add the startling browns and olives of the Alaska Native population to this diverse mixture of mostly Caucasion lower 48 migrants, and what emerges is a portrait of Americanism that is unlikely to be discovered elsewhere.

The boundaries that define census demographics in other states melt away as rapidly as the Chena River during spring breakup the deeper one travels into Alaska. Perhaps nowhere else in America can miners dine alongside doctors or Tribe Chiefs. Our children share the same classrooms, swimming pools, and assembly halls. We shop at the local Fred Meyer, Safeway, or Sears, and the common socio-economic demarcation lines become more blurred than is sometimes evident in a less diverse area.

Preserving the Alaska Native culture is becoming an increasing concern for the residents of Alaska and beyond. Fears about the permanent loss of the unusual and beautiful languages, skin-sewing, artwork, and dance that so colorfully define the indigenous population has begun to ignite discussion, as well as action, at the state, federal, and tribal council level.

The following paragraphs are from the NIEA: National Indian Education Association.

On April 30, 2004, after months of hard work by NIEA, which included close coordination with the Deputy Under Secretary for Indian Education, Vickie Vasquez, as well as with The White House and other national Indian organizations, President Bush signed Executive Order 13336, which adopted most of NIEA's suggestions.

The Executive Order supports tribal sovereignty. In particular, it recognizes the unique legal relationship between the United States and American Indian tribes, as well as a special relationship with Alaska Native entities. The order commits the Federal government to work with tribes on a government-to-government basis. It specifically states that the Bush Administration supports tribal sovereignty and tribal self-determination.

The Executive Order states that its purpose is to assist American Indian and Alaska Native students to meet the challenging academic standards of the No Child Left Behind Act in a manner consistent with tribal traditions, languages and cultures.

In order to develop even a partial understanding of how important culture preservation is in Alaska, one must first be informed about the wide range of culture there is to preserve. The Alaska Native population is as diverse as elsewhere in the United States, only with many times more original heritage to preserve (in some cases), in particular the intensive array of native language. The following is a partial list of Alaska Native cultures; within each culture, there are many subcultures and tribes, hence many languages and dialects. A brief breakdown of each culture begins below the list.

Athabascan
nupiaq
Yup'ik and Siberian Yup'ik
Sugpiaq (also know as Alutiiq)
Aleut (in their own language they refer to themselves as Unangan) Eyak
Tlingit

Athabaskan: an anglicized version of the Cree name for Lake Athabasca in Canada.

Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan or Athapaskan) is the name of a group of related Native Americans, also known as the Athapaskes or Athabasca Indians, located in two main groups in western North America. The Athabaskan family is the largest in North America regarding the number of languages and the number of speakers. In terms of geography or territory, the only language family to cover a larger area is the Algic family.

There are twenty-four Northern Athabaskan languages, all of which are spoken throughout the interior of Alaska and the interior of northwestern Canada. There are seven Pacific Coastal Athabaskan languages, which are spoken in northern California and southern Oregon. The six Southern Athabaskan languages, including the different Apache peoples and the Navajo, are spoken in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico; they are isolated from the northern and coastal languages.

(Eyak and Athabaskan form a language group called Athabaskan-Eyak. Tlingit is thought to be related to this group and form the Na-Dené stock.)

Inupiaq:

The Inupiat or Iñupiaq (also Inuit) populate Alaska's Northwest Arctic and North Slope boroughs as well as the Bering Straits region. Barrow, which is the United States' northernmost city, is in the Inupiat region.

Inupiat people rely heavily on subsistence hunting and fishing, and whaling is still a large part of their lives and culture. Capturing a whale benefits the entire community, because when the animal is butchered, its meat and blubber are passed out according to a traditional formula. Relatives who live thousands of miles away are entitled to a share of the whales killed by the hunters of their ancestral village. Muktuk, the skin of whales, is rich in vitamins A and C and contributes to good health in a community without easy access to fruits and vegetables. Recently, the exploitation of oil and other resources has been an increasingly viable source of revenue for the Inupiat, but these communities still struggle to keep their traditional culture alive.

Additionally, there is a branch of the Inupiat called Nunamiut who are nearly extinct. These people were nomads who lived inland and subsisted by hunting caribou and trading with the coastal Inupiat for other items. Around the end of the 19th century, most of these tribes dispersed when the caribou population collapsed. Apparently, some of the surviving Nunamiut remained nomadic until the 1950s.

Yup'ik and Siberian Yup'ik:

The Yupik or, Yup'ik (Central Alaskan language), are aboriginal natives who live mostly along the western coast of Alaska. They are prevalent along the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta and the Kuskokwim River, in southern Alaska, on St. Lawrence Island (western Alaska), and in the Russian Far East. They are Eskimo and related to the Inuit.

The Central Alaska Yup'ik are by far the most numerous group of Yupik. The Central Alaska Yup'ik who live on Nunivak Island are called Cup'ig while those from the village of Chevak are called Cup'ik. Traditionally, Yup'ik families spent their springs and summers at fish camp and their winters in established villages.

The men's communal house, the qasqig, was used mostly in winter due to the extensive travels following food sources that took place in the spring, summer, and fall months. Aside from ceremonies and festivals, the qasqig was where men taught young boys their necessary hunting and survival skills, including how to fashion tools from their surroundings.

Usually located next door to the qasqig was the ena, the women's communal house, which in some regions was connected to the qasqig by a tunnel. In the ena, young girls learned how to sew, cook, and weave from their mothers. Boys generally lived in the ena until they were about five years old, at which point they moved into the qasqig with the men. Every winter, the boys and girls would switch houses for a period of several weeks, so that the men could teach the girls survival, hunting, and tool making, and the women could teach the boys how to cook and sew. It was very important that each gender learn how to be self-sufficient.

The Yupik language (related to Inuktitut) is still widely spoken, with more than 75% of the Yupik/Yup'ik population fluent in the language. Many of these people still harvest traditional subsistence resources, like seal and salmon.

The Siberian Yupik are indigenous to the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and St. Lawrence Island of Alaska. Their languages are dialects of the Yupik language and they are also known as Asian or Siberian Eskimo.

Sugpiaq (also know as Alutiiq):

The Alutiiq, (also Pacific Yupik or Sugpiaq) are a southern, coastal branch of Alaskan Yupik. Due to their coastal lifestyle, the Alutiiq subsisted mainly on deep-sea resources such as whale, halibut, and salmon. They supplemented their seafood diet with land resources: land mammals, vegetation, and edible berries. The Alutiiq once lived in nearly subterranean homes called barabaras until they came into contact with Russian fur traders. Today, the Alutiiq people reside in modern coastal fishing communities, but they maintain the subsistence way of life, as well.

The language of the Alutiiq is similar to that spoken by the Yupik who live in the southeastern areas of Alaska, but it is a language in and of itself, with two major dialects: the Koniag Dialect is spoken on Kodiak Island and on the Alaska Peninsula while the Chugach Dialect is spoken on the Kenai Peninsula and in Prince William Sound. Because of the low number of residents who speak the language, Alutiiq communities are in the process of attempting to revive their language and their heritage.

Aleut:

The Aleuts (also Unangax) are indigenous of the Aleutian Islands of Russia and Alaska, the Pribilof Islands, the Shumagin Islands, and the western Alaska Peninsula.

Like the Sugpiaq/Alutiiq people, the Aleuts lived in barabaras: partially underground houses that served well to protect the inhabitants from exposure to the elements. 19th-century Aleut craftsmen were famous for their ornate and elaborate wooden hunting hats, and Aleut seamstresses were renowned for crafting flawlessly made waterproof parkas out of seal gut. Some women today still master the skill of weaving fine baskets from rye and beach grass.

The Aleut language and dialect is considered to be of the Eskimo-Aleut languages. It is related to the Inuit and Yupik languages spoken by the Eskimo, but has no known wider affiliation. Faithful supporters of the Nostratic hypothesis sometimes include the Aleut language, as well.

Eyak:

Eyak is a Na-Dené language that was historically spoken in southern Alaska, near the Copper River.

Currently, the language has only one surviving speaker, elderly Eyak Chief, Marie Smith Jones. Because of the imminent danger of the extinction of this language, Chief Marie Smith has become an icon for the fight against language extinction.

The closest relatives of the Eyak are the Athabaskans and their languages. The Eyak-Athabaskan cluster, together with Tlingit, forms a partition of the Na-Dené language group.

Tlingit:

The Tlingit (pronounced clink-it) are an Alaska Native tribe and Canadian First Nations people. They refer to themselves as Lingít, which translates as people. The Tlingit are a matriarchal society and their language is made up of a complex grammar and sound system. It is well known for containing sounds which are not heard in almost any other language.

The matriarchal kinship society is divided into two distinct moieties (moiety: one of two basic subdivisions of a tribe). Their crests are: Raven (Yéil) and Eagle/Wolf (Ch'aak'/Gooch). The first moiety identifies with the raven, but the latter is split between the eagle and the wolf, depending on location. Traditionally, marriage could only occur between members of opposite moieties, but during the last century this system broke down and intra-moiety marriages, as well as marriages with non-Tlingit people, were allowed. In Tlingit, there exists no word for moiety as the preferred form of reference is simply, raven, eagle, or wolf.

The Native Alaska cultures and subcultures are a rich and vast source of original heritage, each containing insight into past ways of life, as well as complex yet successful societal structures. In particular, the vast and diverse languages that are so rich in beauty and meaning are a key element in fusing culture within culture to teach valuable lessons about life and legend. Every effort should be made to preserve these cultures to insure that they will not die out and leave many people orphaned of background and familial connection.