Cultures of Alaska

1. Cultures of Alaska Alaska’s Native people are divided into eleven distinct cultures, speaking eleven different languages and twenty-two different dialects. In order to tell the stories of this diverse population, this information (provided primarily by ANHC) is organized based on five culture groupings, which draw upon cultural similarities or geographic proximity.

2. Aleut & Alutiiq People • Where are they located? • Maritime peoples located in South & Southwest Alaska • Territory stretches from Prince William Sound to the end of the Aleutian Islands. As well, there are over 300 Aleuts in Nikolskoye on Bering Island, Russia. • Linguists estimate that the Aleut language separated from the earlier Eskimo languages 4,000 years ago. • Anthropologists have classified the Alutiiq people into three basic groups • Chugachmiut – Chugach/Prince Williams Sound Area • Unegkurmiut – Lower Kenai Peninsula Area • Koniagmiut – Kodiak Island & Alaska Peninsula Area • The suffix ‘-miut’ means ‘the people of’ a certain place. The people of Kodiak Island were called Qikertarmiut meaning “people of the large island.”

3. Aleut & Alutiiq People • Who are they? • Water played an important role in their lives (creeks, rivers, the shoreline or the vast waters of the North Pacific & Bering Sea) • Knowledge of the resources & skills in harvesting them define the cycle of life in a village • The intensity of the weather that travels through this region governs the activities more than any other factor. • Heavily influenced by the Russians beginning in the 18th Century (1740’s) (Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Food, Russian Words) • Two languages – Unangax and Sugcestun are the indigenous languages

4. Aleut & Alutiiq People • Housing & Settlements • Lived primarily in coastal villages and a few inland villages located on rivers and lakes. • Each settlement had defined territories for harvesting resources (seals, sea lions, halibut, cod, birds, plants & driftwood) • Traditional Houses were semi-subterranean. Alutiiq house was called ciqlluag and provided efficient protection from harsh weather conditions. The ulax or barabara, the basic Unangax Aleut house is an oblong pit dwelling with driftwood or whale bone frames and rafters covered by grass and sod. These dwellings were difficult to distinguish from the surrounding terrain and were entered by means of a pole ladder through the ceiling.

5. Aleut & Alutiiq People This photo demonstrates the construction of the home. Entrances were not as seen here, but rather as seen at right – through a hole in the ceiling.

6. Aleut & Alutiiq People • Traditional Tools & Technology • Aleuts & Alutiiq People were known for their skill in building kayaks known as iqyax and qayaq (baidarka) respectively and were distinguished by the split bow, which increased the seaworthiness and speed of the craft. Baidarkas were constructed from oiled walrus or sealskins stretched over wood frames. It typically had two cockpits, the rear one for a paddler and the front one for a harpooner. They also used the igilax/angyaq (baidar), a large open skin boat for travel and trade. • Hunters wore distinctive bentwood visors with sea lion whiskers. Visors protected them from glare and were a visual symbol of the status of the hunter. The number of whiskers attached showed the hunting successes. • Portions of sea mammals were used for clothing and utensils. The skins of seals, sea lions, sea otters, bear, birds squirrels & marmots were used for clothing. • Hats & baskets were woven from spruce roots & grass. Baskets were woven with geometric patterns and are considered to be the finest in the world with up to 2500 stitches per square inch.

7. Aleut & Alutiiq People • Culture & Social Organization • Still very important in these cultures are kinship and family relationships. • These connections persist throughout the region and are important in the management of the village and the decision-making of everyday life. • Village members would punish those who violated the rules of conduct of the village. The most serious form of punishment was banishment.

8. Aleut & Alutiiq People • Clothing • Due to the wet maritime climate, it was important to have waterproof clothing. Garments were made of skin and gut sewn with incredible precision for making them very effective against wet weather. • Clothing was decorated with colorful natural dyes, feathers and puffin beaks and in some cases elaborately carved ivory, bone or wooden figurines. • Subsistence Patterns • Most of their time was spent obtaining their food and livelihood from the sea using iqyax/qayaq or bairdarka. Larger groups used the angyaq or baidar. • Villages were usually located at the mouths of streams to take advantage of fresh water & abundant salmon runs as they are today. Besides nets, traps and weirs for fishing, they used wooden hooks and kelp or sinew lines. Today, salmon, halibut, octopus, shellfish, seal, sea lion, caribou (AK Peninsula) and deer remain important components of the Aleut & Alutiiq diet. • The Aleut were skillful hunters of sea mammals and were exploited by fur traders for forced labor. Harsh treatment by the Russians as well as smallpox and influenza epidemics took their toll on the native population.

9. Aleut & Alutiiq People • Traditions & Ceremonies • Winter was a time for traditions involving elaborate celebrations and ceremonies. • Singing, dancing and feasting took place as part of these ritualistic traditions. • Festivals began in late fall after all the necessary food for the winter had been gathered and stored. • The festivals were held in large communal houses, called the qasgiq and generally fell into two types • Spiritual – which were necessary to guarantee continued good hunting and fishing • Social – marriages and other special events • Regalia • Performers often wore elaborate clothing some specific to certain ceremonies. Carved wooden masks, tattoos, body paints and other decorative items.

10. Athabascans • Who are they and where are they located? • People who traditionally lived in Interior Alaska, an expansive region that begins south of the Brooks Mountain Range and continues down to the Kenai Peninsula. • There are eleven linguistic groups of Athabascans in Alaska • Traditionally lived along five major river ways: The Yukon, The Tanana, The Susitna, The Kuskokwim and The Copper river drainages. • They migrated seasonally, traveling in small groups to fish, hunt and trap. • They call themselves ‘Dena’ or ‘the people’ • In traditional & contemporary practices they are taught respect for all living things and the most important part of their subsistence lifestyle is sharing. • All hunters are part of a kin-based network in which they are expected to follow traditional customs for sharing in the community.

11. Athabascans • House Types & Settlements • They were masters at designing a variety of shelters – simple and functional – that kept them both warm and mobile as they set out to hunt and trade. • Traditionally lived in small groups of 20 to 40 people that moved systematically through the resource territories. • Annual summer fish camps for the entire family and winter villages served as base camps. They followed the fish & game which provided food, clothing and shelter. Depending on the season and regional resources several traditional house types were used.

12. Athabascans • Tools, Technology & Clothing • Reflected the resources of the regions. • Tools were made of stone, antlers, wood & bone • Tools were used to build houses, boats, snowshoes, clothing and cooking utensils. • Clothing, including moccasins and boots, were made of caribou and moose hide. • Styles of moccasins vary depending on conditions. Both men and women are adept at sewing, although women traditionally did most of the skin sewing. • Regalia varies region to region and may include men’s beaded jackets, dentalium shell necklaces (worn by chiefs), men and women beaded tunics and women’s beaded dancing boots. • Canoes were made of birch bark, moose hide and cottonwood. All Athabascans used sleds – with and without dogs to pull them – snowshoes and dogs as pack animals

13. Athabascans • Culture & Social Organization • They used a matrilineal system in which children belong to the mother’s clan, rather than to the father’s clan (exception: Holikachuk and the Deg Hit’an Clans). • Clan elders made decisions concerning marriage, leadership and trading customs. • The core of the traditional culture was a woman and her brother and their two families. A brother and his sister’s husband often became hunting partners for life. • Athabascan husbands were expected to live with the wife’s family during the first year, when the husband would work for the family and go hunting with his brothers-in-law. • A central feature to their lifestyle was a system whereby the mother’s brother takes social responsibility for training and socializing his sister’s children so that the children grow up knowing their clan history & customs.

14. Athabascans • Traditions • Activities were marked by the passing moons, each named according to the changing conditions: • “when the first king salmon comes” • “when the moose lose their antlers” • “little crust on snow” • The winter was “the time we gathered together” when scattered families returned to their winter villages, hunted smaller animals close by and gathered for potlatches and other community celebrations

15. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Who are they and where are they from? • This group of people share a common & similar Northwest Coast Culture with important differences in language & clan system. • They have a complex social system consisting of moieties, phratries & clans. • Eyak, Tlingit & Haida divide themselves into moieties • Tsimshian divide into phratries. • The region from the Copper River Delta to the Southeast Panhandle is a temperate rainforest with precipitation ranging from 112 – 200 inches per year. • The people depend upon the ocean & rivers for their food & travel

16. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Language & Location • Eyak is a single language with only one living speaker • Eyak occupied the lands in the southeastern corner of Southcentral Alaska. Their territory runs along the Gulf of Alaska from the Copper River Delta to Icy Bay. • The Tlingit language has four main dialects: Northern, Southern, Inland & Gulf Coast with variations in accent from each village. • Tlingit territory includes the Southeast panhandle between Icy Bay in the north to the Dixon Entrance in the South. • The Haida people speak an isolate language, Haida, with three dialects: Skidegate & Masset in British Columbia and the Kaigani dialect in Alaska. • The original home of the Haida people is the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. Prior to contact a group migrated north to the Prince of Wales Island area. • The Tsimshian people speak another isolate language, Sm’algyax, which has four main dialects: Coast Tsimshian, Southern Tsimshian, Nisga’a and Gitksan. • The homeland of the Tsimshian is between the Nass & Skeena Rivers in British Columbia though at contact in Southeast Alaska’s Portland Canal area there were villages at Hyder & Halibut Bay. Presently, the Tsimshian live mainly on Annette Island in (New) Metlakatla, AK in addition to settlements in Canada.

17. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • House Types & Settlements • Before contact, the people built their homes from red cedar, spruce & hemlock timber and planks. The houses roofed with heavy cedar bark or spruce shingles ranged in size from 35’-40’ x 50’-100’, with some Haida houses being 100’ x 75’. All houses had a central fire pit. Generally, each house could hold 20-50 individuals with a village size between 300-500 people. • Winter villages were along banks of streams or along saltwater beaches for easy access to fish. The location of winter villages gave protection from storms & enemies, drinking water and a place to land canoes. Houses were typically structured in a single row and always faced the water. • Each local group had at least one permanent winter village with various seasonal camps close to food resources. The houses held 20-50 people, usually of one main clan. • In Eyak villages there were two potlach houses, outside of which was a post topped with an eagle or a raven. The southern Tlingit had tall totem poles in front of their homes and northern Tlingit had fewer & shorter frontal totem poles

18. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People

19. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Tools & Technology • Southeast Alaska’s environment is a temperate rain forest producing tall and massive trees. Wood was the most important commodity and was used for houses, totem poles, daily utensils, storage, cooking boxes, transportation, ceremonial objects, labrets and clothes. • The tools used to make the wood into usable items were adzes, mauls, wedges, digging sticks and after contact, iron. • To cut the wood people used chipped rocks, bones, beaver teeth & shells. • For light the Eyak used a clamshell with seal oil or pitch and a lump of fat for a wick in the sleeping room. Dried hooligan were used as candles (sometime called candle fish) and hollowed sandstone with cotton grass fashioned into wicks.

20. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Tools & Technology Continued • Various means were used to harvest the seasonal salmon runs. • Fish Weirs and traps were placed in streams • Holding ponds were built in the intertidal region • Dip nets, hooks, harpoons & spears were used • A specialized hook, shaped in a ‘V’ or ‘U’ were used to catch specific sized halibut. • Various baskets were used for cooking, storage and holding clams, berries, seaweed & water. • The Tsimshian used baskets in the process of making ooligan oil • Basket weaving techniques were also used for mats, aprons & hats. • Mats of woven cedar bark were used as room dividers and floor mats, as well as to wrap the dead prior to burial or cremation. • The inner cedar bark was pounded to make baby cradle padding and clothing such as capes, skirts, shorts and blankets (shawls).

21. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Culture & Social Organization • In this culture, no central government exited. • Each village & each clan house resolved its differences through traditional customs and practices; no organized gatherings for discussions of national policy making took place. • Decisions were made at the clan, village or house level affecting clan members of an individual village or house. • The people had a highly stratified culture, consisting of high ranking individuals/families, commoners and slaves. • Unlike today, marriages, unions were arranged by family members. • All four groups had an exogamous (marriage outside of their own group) matrilineal clan system – meaning that children trace their lineage & names from their mother (not their father like in the European system). • This means the children inherit all rights through the mother, including the use of the clan fishing, hunting & gathering land, the right to use specific clan crests as designs on totem poles, houses, clothing & ceremonial regalia.

22. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Culture & Social Organization Continued • Moieties are two reciprocating halves of a clan system (“one of two equal parts”) • Eyak were organized into Raven & Eagle which equated to Tlingit Raven & Eagle/Wolf and also with Ahtna Crow & Sea Gull • In the Tlingit clan system, one moiety was known as Raven or Crow, the other moiety as Eagle or Wolf depending on the time period. Each moiety contained many clans • The Haida have two moieties, Eagle & Raven. • The clans that fall under Haida Eagle would fall under the Tlingit Raven • Phratries are four reciprocating parts of a clan system • The Tsimshian phratries are Killerwhale (Blackfish), Wolf, Raven & Eagle. The Tsimshian Killerwhale & Wolf are one side and their opposite side are the Eagle & Raven. • The Gitksan have Fireweed & Wolf as their opposites to Eagle & Raven

23. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Clothing • All four groups used animal fur, mountain goat wool, tanned skins & cedar bark for clothing. • Hats made of spruce roots and cedar bark kept the rain off the head. • Transportation • The main means of travel was by canoes • The people traveled regularly for seasonal activities such as subsistence & trading. • The Haida canoes were made from a single cedar log up to 60’ in length and were a most highly prized commodity.

24. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Subsistence Patterns • The water supplied their main food. • Salmon (King/Chinook, Silver/Coho, Red/Sockeye, Chum/Dog, Pink/Humpy) • Steelhead, herring, herring eggs & ooligans (eulachon). • Sea mammals & deep water fish • Sea plants including seaweed (black & red), beach asparagus & goose tongue • Other plants such as berries & shoots • Land mammals including moose, mountain goats & deer • Clans owned the salmon streams, halibut banks, berry patches, land for hunting, intertidal regions & egg harvesting areas. • The food was seasonal & had to be preserved for the winter months and early spring. Food was preserved by smoking in smokehouses or was dried by wind or sun.

25. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Traditions & Ceremonies • Known for their potlaches & feasts. • Potlaches are formal ceremonies • Feasts are less formal, but similar and are most common amongst the Haida. Feasts were used to pay a debt to the opposite clan • Events • High ranking clans or individuals were expected to give potlaches. • A potlach could also be given by a commoner in an effort raise his position by doing so. • Except in the Haida tradition, the host would not raise his personal status, but rather the status of his children • Potlaches were held for funerals/memorials, the witness & validation of the payment of a debt, naming an individual, the completion of a new house, the completion of clan regalia, a wedding, the naming of a child, the erection of a totem pole or to rid the host of a shame. • Potlatches might last days & would include feasting, speeches, singing & dancing. • Guests witness & validate the events & are paid with gifts during the ceremony. • There would be a feast, however a feast does not constitute a potlach

26. Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People • Regalia • Chilkat & Raven’s Tail woven robes, painted tanned leather clothing, tunics, leggings, moccasins, ground squirrel robes, red cedar ropes, masks, rattles & frontlets. • Chilkat robes were made of mountain goat wool & cedar warps. This weaving style is the only weaving that can create perfect circles. • Raven’s tail robes are also made of mountain goat wool • Some headpieces had frontlets that would have sea lion whiskers and ermine. • After contact, robes were made of blankets, usually obtained from Hudson Bay trading company, adorned with glass beads & mother-of-pearl shells, along with dentalium & abalone shells. • Other items used included drums, rattles, whistles, paddles & staffs. • Only clan regalia named & validated at a potlach could be used for formal gatherings.

27. Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik People • Who are they and where are they located? • The Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik people or “Real People” are still hunting & gathering societies. • They continue to subsist on the land & sea of north and northwest Alaska. Their lives evolve around the whale, walrus, seal, polar bear, caribou and fish. • The land & sea are host to unique groups of people. • To the people of the north, the extreme climate is not a barrier, but a natural realm for a variety of mammals, birds & fish, gathered by the people for survival • The “real people” tended to live in small groups of related families of 20-200 people • Population at time of contact included five main units: • 1,500 St. Lawrence Island Yupiit • 1,820 Bering Strait Inupiat • 3,675 Kotzebue Sound Inupiat • 1,850 North Alaska Coast Inupiat (Tareumiut – ‘people of the sea’) • 1,050 Interior North

28. Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik People • House Types & Settlements • The people used a variety of designs & materials, but three key features were common: • An underground tunnel entrance below the living level to trap cold air • A semi-subterranean structure, using the ground as insulation • A seal-oil lamp from soapstone or pottery for light, heat & cooking • Homes were usually made from sod blocks, sometimes laid over driftwood or whalebone & walrus bone frames, generally dome shaped. • The shape was usually rectangular (St. Lawrence Island homes were circular). The rectangular houses generally were 12-15ft x 8-10ft holding 8 to 12 people. • In the summer many of these houses flooded when the ground thawed, but most people had already moved to their summer camps. • Community houses, called qargis were used as a work area in Inupiaq settlements

29. Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik People This photo demonstrates the construction of the home. Entrances were not as seen here, but rather through an underground tunnel entrance below the living level to trap cold air.

30. Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik People • Culture & Social Organization • Family & bartering connections were respectful & meaningful. • Division of labor was by gender. • Competitive games tested strength & stamina of participants; also song duels, exchanging & other activities were part of the culture. • Traditional Subsistence Patterns • Depended upon location & season of the resources such as whales, marine mammals, fish, caribou & plants • Whales & sea mammals were hunted in the coastal & island villages • Pink & chum salmon, cod, inconnu & whitefish were fished whenever ice formed; herring, crab & halibut were also caught • Birds & eggs formed an important part of the diet

31. Inupiaq & St. Lawrence IslandYupik People • Traditional Tools & Technology • The traditional tool kit had a variety of stone, wood, bone & ivory tools made for butchering, tanning, carving, drilling, inscribing, sharpening & flaking. • The bow drill was an important tool used for starting fires, drilling holes in wood, bone & ivory. • Hunting equipment & tool kits are kept in different containers. • A package of toggle-headed harpoons, lances, lines & seal bladder floats was used for the bowhead whale hunt • Seal skin floats are used for whale hunts, as are water-filled seal bladders which attract & lead bowhead whales closer to shore. • Other tools included scratching boards for attracting seals to breathing holes, bows, arrows, spears, spear throwers, bolas for taking birds & snares. • Fishing gear includes nets, traps made from branches & roots & hooks. • The umiaq/angyaq is a large open skin boat, 15 – 25 feet long (50 ft long near Kotzebue) • It is used for hunting whale & walrus, travel & bartering. A large umiaq could carry up to 15 people and a ton of cargo • The kayak, a closed skin boat, is typically for one person • The basket sled is used for land travel. A flat sled is used for hauling large skin boats across the ice. • Snowshoes are used in interior regions. • Small sleds attached in the bottom of a skin boat transport the watercraft across the ice.

32. Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik People • Clothing • Consisted of outer & inner pullover tops (parkas or kuspuks / qiipaghaq – the outer garment); outer & inner pants, socks & boots (kamiks). • Tops & pants were made of caribou skin with the fur facing inward on inner garments and outwards on outer. • The woman’s pullover had a larger hood for carrying small children – except on St. Lawrence Island – where they do not carry the baby in the parka. • Gloves were made from various skins with the fur turned inside and usually connected with a leather strip around the neck. • Waterproof outer garments made from sea-mammal intestines completed the wardrobe.

33. Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik People • Ceremonial / Beliefs • Both groups believe in reincarnation and the recycling of spirit forms from one life to the next, both human & animal. Names of those who died recently are given to newborns. • Only if animal spirit are released can the animal be regenerated and return for future harvest. This explains the elaborate treatment of animals killed.

34. Yup’ik and Cup’ik People • Who are they and where are they located? • The southwest Alaska Natives are named after the two main dialects of the Yup’ik language, known as Yup’ik and Cup’ik. • The estimated population at the time of contact was Nunivak 500, Yukon-Kuskokwim 13,000 and Bristol Bay 3,000. • The Yup’ik and Cup’ik still depend upon subsistence fishing, hunting and gathering food. • Elders tell stories of traditional ways of life, as a way to teach the younger generations survival skills and their heritage.

35. Yup’ik and Cup’ik People • Traditional House Types & Settlements • Yup’ik & Cup’ik people were historically mobile, traveling with the migration of game, fish and plants. • Ancient settlements & seasonal camps contained small populations, with numerous settlements throughout the region consisting of extended families or small groups of families. • All males in some Yup’ik/Cup’ik communities live in a qasgia or men’s house / community center. • Boys old enough to leave their mothers joined male relatives in the qasgiq, where they lived, worked, ate, bathed, slept & learned how to be men. • Women prepared and brought food to the qasgiq. • Ceremonies, singing, dancing & events usually occurred in the qasgiq, thus making it a community center. • Women and children lived in an ena which had architectural features similar to the qasgiq, but it was ½ the size. Bearded seal or walrus intestine provided a removable ‘skylight’ window. Like most other winter dwellings, the qasgiq and the ena shared the distinctive, partially semi-subterranean winter entrance passageway – which in an ena also provided space for cooking

36. Yup’ik and Cup’ik People

37. Yup’ik and Cup’ik People • Tools & Technology • Technology was highly adapted to survival in the sub-arctic environment and was fine-tuned through the centuries by trial and error. Technology was mostly geared toward the marine environment along the coast and more riverine habitats in the delta regions. • Women’s important household items included the versatile, fan-shaped, slate knife (uluaq), stone seal-oil lamp & skin sewing implements made from stone, bone & walrus ivory. http://www.isuma.tv/lo/en/arnait/qulliq-oil-lamp • Men’s tools were associated with hunting and were elaborately decorated with appropriate spiritual symbols to aid in hunting success. These items included a variety of spears, harpoons, snow goggles, ice cane & bow and arrows for hunting and warfare. • Clothing • Traditionally, skins of birds, fish & marine and land animals were used to make clothing. • Hunting clothes were designed to be insulated and waterproof. • Fish skin & marine mammal intestines were used for waterproof shells and boots. Grass was used to make insulating socks & as waterproof thread.

38. Yup’ik and Cup’ik People • Culture & Social Organization • Social culture and behavior were all geared toward survival & compatibility among family-village groups. • Cultural roles and social rank were largely determined by gender & individual skills. • Successful hunters, nukalpiit, usually become group leaders. • Women roles included child rearing, food preparation and sewing • Role of shaman • There were good & evil shamans that had separate roles within the village • Good shamans would heal, search out animal spirits for the hunters, ask for survival necessities such as driftwood & good weather. • Bad shamans battled good shamans for power, placed curses on people, generally made life miserable for others and could even kill.

39. Yup’ik and Cup’ik People • Trade • Coastal villages traded with the inland villages for items not locally available • Seal oil was highly desirable by inland villages who usually bartered moose/caribou meat & furs such as mink, marten, beaver & muskrat for seal oil & other coastal delicacies such as herring and herring eggs • Traditions & Ceremonies • Yup’ik and Cup’ik people organized their lives according to the animals & plants that they hunt and gather. • Families came together & dispersed according to the seasons. • Most settlements & camps were occupied by extended families or small groups of families. • Elaborate winter ceremonies emphasized the relationship among humans, animals & the spirit world.

40. Resources • Alaska’s Digital Archives http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/pathway.php • Alaska Native Heritage Center http://www.alaskanative.net/ • Chandonnet, Anne Alaska’s Native Peoples • Langdon, Steve J. The Native People of Alaska: Traditional Living in a Northern Land • Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009 http://encarta.msn.com • Oil Lamp Video: http://www.isuma.tv/lo/en/arnait/qulliq-oil-lamp