Page 29 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

A POR TR AIT OF ALASK A  27

Tsimshian
Alaska’s Tsimshian are descendants of 823 people who
left Canada with Anglican mis sionary, Father Duncan,
after local authorities denied their land claims. Settling
in an aban doned Tlingit settlement on Annette Island,
which they named Metlakatla after their vil lage in
British Columbia, they set up a model Protestant
Christian community of white houses and well-
appointed churches. The Tsimshian were the only
Alaskan Native group that rejected the Alaska Native
Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (see p60). As a result,
they are the only Native group to retain sover eignty
over their land, with Annette Island being Alaska’s
only official Indian Reservation. Tsimshian drummers at a ceremony

Inupiat
The Inupiat (plural Inupiaq) mainly occupy areas along the Arctic
Ocean coast and on the North Slope. Prior to European contact
and influence, distinct Inupiat groups of extended families
occupied home territories between Norton Sound on the Bering
Strait and the Canadian bor der. Some groups were settled, but
others traveled great distances to cooperatively hunt seals, whales,
caribou, and other game animals. The Inupiat had no chiefs, but
Inupiat men returning with a caribou caught each family was headed by an umialik, who managed food and
in Kobuk Valley National Park other family needs. Women were responsible for gathering plants
and berries, skinning animals, drying muktuk (whale blubber),
meat, and fish, and preparing food. While conflicts existed between groups, peace ful interaction did
occur, especially during trade fairs at the end of each hunting season, which drew participants from as
far away as Siberia. While some Inupiat today work for Native corporations or government agencies,
many rural residents still make a livelihood from subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering.
Yup’ik
The Yup’ik traditionally lived on the broad, marshy plains of the
Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, as well as on the Bering Sea coast and
parts of the Seward Peninsula. Due to the milder and more vege-
tated environment, the Yup’ik made more use of wood, vegeta-
bles, and land animals than the Inupiat. With summer hunting
camps, they also had permanent villages, where men lived in
qasgiqs, or communal houses, and women and children in sod
dwellings called enet. Lacking the resources Europeans wanted,
the Yup’ik first encountered Westerners much later than the Aleut,
Alutiiq, and Inupiat. In recent years, many Yup’ik have moved
to towns, especially Bethel, but some still practice subsistence Yup’ik family beneath an umiak, a traditional
hunting or spend the summers working in family fish camps. skin boat

Aleut (Unangaxˆ ) and Alutiiq (Sugpiaq)
Both the Aleut and Alutiiq live in Southwest Alaska, the former in the Aleutian
Islands and the latter from Prince William Sound to Kodiak Island and the
Alaska Peninsula. The difference in their languages, how ever, suggests that
they have entirely separate origins. Despite Southwest Alaska’s stormy climate,
both groups had a maritime hunting culture, using baidarkas (skin boats)
to chase seals, otters, and whales. Early Russian otter hunters often killed or
enslaved them and also introduced foreign diseases. The Russian Orthodox
clergy that followed converted large num bers to the church, which remains
a strong spiritual force for both groups. During World War II, entire villages
were transferred to evacuation centers in Southeast Alaska to keep them from
Alutiiq woman in a being taken prisoner by the Japanese. Aleut people often prefer the name
beaded headdress Unangaxˆ and Alutiiq call themselves Sugpiaq.

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