#yupiit

[willowbilly]

Math in a Cultural Context [link] is a really cool resource based on three decades of research and collaboration between Yup'ik Elders, teachers, and academics, educators, mathematicians, Alaskan school districts, and others. Along with free elementary school learning modules, there are free bilingual storybooks such as Akaguagaankaa: The Story of a Giant (Yugpak Quliraq) [link] by the late Al'aq Mary M. George, which is a traditional story illustrated with storyknife symbols!

[tlatollotl]

Returning large Alaskan archaeological haul found ‘frozen in time’ – HeritageDaily – Heritage & Archaeology News

A huge collection of artefacts 'frozen in time' which offer a unique insight into the indigenous people of Alaska will be returned to the region by the University of Aberdeen.

Archaeologists from the Scottish University have spent more than seven years painstakingly recovering and preserving everyday objects that indigenous Yup’ik people used to survive and to celebrate life – in a race against the clock before melting ice and raging winter storms reclaim the Nunalleq archaeological site.

Dating back more than four centuries, their finds include wooden ritual masks, ivory tattoo needles, and even a belt of caribou teeth, all preserved in ‘extraordinary condition’.

Dr Rick Knecht, from the University of Aberdeen, is leading the project. He said: “The unique conditions in this arctic region mean artefacts which are more than four centuries old have retained an unbelievable level of detail.

“We have uncovered grass baskets and mats made when Shakespeare walked the earth but when we take them out of the ground the grass weaving still retains a trace of its green colour and we have been amazed by the variety and intricacy of the woven patterns.”

This owl figurine has ivory eyes

Once removed from the earth, however, the artefacts begin to deteriorate quickly and it is for this reason that Dr Knecht and his team have now transported more than 50,000 items to the University of Aberdeen, where professional conservators oversee preservation treatments on the items.

“When we began the project, it was impossible to conduct conservation work on site and the items recovered were transported, some still covered in earth, to Aberdeen.

“The long-term goal, however, has always been to return them to where they belong and that will become possible later this year with the opening of the new Nunalleq Culture and Archaeology Research Center.

“We are now working in partnership with the local Qanirtuuq Corporation and the village of Quinhagak, located just two miles from the dig, to make arrangements for the safe return of the collection and as part of our work this season we will be training local people on the conservation techniques which have been honed in Aberdeen.

“This is one of the largest collections ever recovered from a single site Alaska, and perhaps even the whole Arctic region and is of huge significance as it now accounts for more than 90 per cent of everything we know about pre-contact Yup’ik, one of the major indigenous groups in North America.

“We hope that from this summer onwards the vast majority of conservation work can be done right in the village of Quinhagak.”

The findings of the archaeologists have also revealed for the first time evidence of a period referred to in oral tradition as the ‘Bow and Arrow Wars’, when Yupik communities fought each other in bloody battles sometime before Russian explorers arrived in Alaska in the 1700s.

A collection of wooden masks was discovered at Nunalleq

“Nunalleq offers the first archaeological evidence, and the first firm date, for these terrible wars, which affected several generations of Yupiit,” Dr Knecht added.

“It seems likely these attacks were associated with climate change—a 550-year chilling of the Earth now known as the Little Ice Age—that coincided with Nunalleq’s occupation. The coldest years in Alaska, in the mid-1600s, may have been a desperate time, with raids probably launched to steal food and take over hunting and fishing territory.

“Whenever you get rapid change, there’s a lot of disruption in the seasonal cycles of subsistence. If you get an extreme, like a Little Ice Age—changes can occur faster than people can adjust.

“Oral testimonies passed down from generation to generation speak of the horror of these wars and the archaeological evidence strongly supports this. We have unearthed the remains of women children and elders together which suggests that they were captured and killed. These were recorded and turned over to the village for reburial.

“It is important their stories are told and we are delighted to be working with the Nunalleq community to ensure that these vital artefacts related to their lives can be shared in the place they belong.”

Warren Jones, president of the local Yupik corporation known as Qanirtuuq, Inc. which manages 130,564 acres was influential in encouraging Dr Knecht and his team to excavate the area.

He envisages the center, with these collections at its heart, as a place where people can see, touch, and share stories about the beautifully worked possessions of their ancestors.

“I want our kids who are in college now to run it and be proud that it’s ours,” he said. “And when this dream takes shape and the center opens its doors, I want to be the first to go in and say, ‘I’m Yupik, and this is where I come from.’ ”

[willowbilly]

One can find Alaska Public Media reporting on the Typhoon Halong aftermath here.

In addition to the trauma, displacement, and uncertainty that people from Western Alaska have been going through after Typhoon Halong, there was immense damage to village infrastructure, and to the culturally and historically invaluable Nunalleq archeological site.

Over 90% of structures in Kipnuk are estimated to have been destroyed [Source]. A federal disaster which may or may not authorize survivors access to the Individual Assistance program has been declared [X] and village futures hang in the balance [X]. Climate disaster evacuees are still mass sheltering in Anchorage in the hundreds [X], and people's pets are still being evacuated [X]. People will need all the help they can get.

Update: Here's how you can help survivors of the Western Alaska storm

The remnants of Typhoon Halong have killed one person, left two missing, displaced hundreds and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes.

[willowbilly]

“Eskimo” both is and is not a slur. 

In Greenland and Canada it is more unequivocally offensive, whereas in Alaska some Iñupiat and Yupiit—though far from all—do indeed use this exonym for themselves in English, particularly more rural or elderly speakers. The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, for instance, uses it in their name. Edna Ahgeak MacLean, a foremost Iñupiaq language authority, uses it occasionally in her work. It is the established academic term for the collective Inuit-Yuit branch of the Inuit-Yuit-Unangan or “Eskimo-Aleut” language family. “Eskimo” does not refer to Inuit alone, but is an umbrella term for Iñuich and Yupiit together, one that colloquially excludes Sugpiat, who are otherwise known as “Alutiit,” along with Unangan, otherwise known as “Aleuts,” who both prefer those Russian-derived “Алеуты” exonyms over the “Esquimaux” one. The ethnonym “Inuit” more properly applies only to Iñupiat and other Iñuich, not to Yupiit as well. The words Inuit and Yuit are cognates, but exonyms in each other’s respective languages. The difference between Iñupiatun and Yugtun is said to be roughly comparable to that between English and German: obviously related languages, but not mutually intelligible, having diverged around 1000 CE; Unangam Tunuu diverged earlier, around 2000 BCE. “Inuit and Yupiit” is in generalized circumstances the most accurate substitution for “Eskimo” as it does not conflate two distinct Indigenous peoples under the name of one. 

The etymology of the exonym is furthermore disputed. Its origin may be from the Innu-aimun word ayas̆kimew “person who laces a snowshoe,” or from another Innu-aimun word that is not a reference to diet. 

That said, I would like to reinforce the message that non-Native people shouldn’t use “Eskimo kisses, ice cream,” etc. as casual terms disconnected from the relevant Native cultures, nor use diminutive forms of the ethnonym. Such usages are pejorative. While it is for the most part rude to correct people on their own terminology for themselves, I urge non-Native people to use Native endonyms over exonyms wherever possible, and not to evoke actual peoples as stereotypes.