Page 28 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

26  INTRODUCING ALASK A

Native Peoples of Alaska ARCTIC OCEAN

Some anthropologists believe that the first Native peoples
migrated to Alaska 30,000 to 12,000 years ago during the ALASKA CANADA
Ice Age that lowered sea levels and created a land bridge Bering
Sea
across the Bering Strait. These hunter-gatherers, ancestors of
modern-day Indian peoples, were followed by the Inuit and Gulf of Alaska
Aleut peoples, who arrived by boat starting around 8,000 Key
years ago, after the disappearance of the land bridge. There
are, however, other theories that dispute this. Today, about Athabaskan
15 percent of Alaska’s population claims Native descent. Tlingit
The Inuit or Eskimo include the Inupiat, Alutiiq, Aleut, Yup’ik, Haida
while the Indians include the Tsimshian, Athabaskan, Eyak, Tsimshian
Tlingit, and Haida. While the term “Eskimo” (“eaters of raw Inupiat
meat” in Athabaskan) is gener ally not considered offensive
in Alaska, Native Alaskans usually refer to themselves as Yup’ik
members of a particular group, or collectively as Natives. Aleut and Alutiiq

Athabaskan
Historically, the Athabaskans occupied the vast taiga forests of the
Interior, which are characterized by a harsh climate. Largely a hunting
and gathering society, the Athabaskans spent summers in riverside
tent camps, collecting and drying fish and game for the cold season.
In winter, they lived in houses made of sod and wood. Their clothing
was made primarily of caribou or moose hide, colorfully decorated
with porcupine quills and, after the arrival of the Europeans, with
traded goods such as beads. Modern Athabaskans live mainly in the
Athabaskan family with pelts from the Interior, many in Fairbanks, where they enjoy an urban lifestyle but
winter catch also make efforts to demonstrate their traditional ways to visitors.

Tlingit
Alaska’s Tlingit (pronounced KLINK-it), a Northwest Coast culture, have
long inhabited Southeast Alaska. Historically, the Tlingit were a seafaring
people, and their traders traveled as far as present-day Washington State in
huge ocean-going canoes hewn from single cedar logs. Traditional Tlingit
society had no central government, but each village had a stratified society
that included high-ranking families, commoners, and slaves captured
from neigh boring tribes. Like the Haida, Tsimshian, and other Northwest
Coast cultures, the Tlingit carved totem poles (see p129) to commemorate
the culture unique to their respective clans. Pole-raisings and memorial
ceremonies were accompanied by grand feasts called potlatches. Currently,
the art of totem carving is re-emerging across Southeast Alaska, and other Tlingit dancer dressed in
Tlingit arts are enjoying widespread popularity. traditional style

Haida
The Haida share many cultural traditions with the Tlingit,
including clan structures and totem pole carving. Expert sailors,
they were known for their decorative cere mo nial canoes. They
traditionally depended on salmon and sea mammals for their
subsistence. In the late 19th century, as many as 10,000 Haida
lived in far southern Alaska, but by the 1890s, their numbers
had been deci mated by diseases brought in by Western
explorers. Today, the Alaskan Haida population is about
2,000, but many more claim partial Haida descent. While
they are now centered on Hydaburg on Prince of Wales
Haida man in a bark hat and button cloak Island, people of Haida descent live across southern Alaska.

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