The Athabascans, in the interior of Alaska
These native Alaskans traditionally live in the interior of Alaska in an area between the Brooks Mountain Range and the Kenai Peninsula. They generally live along major rivers such as the Yukon, Tanana, Susitna, Kuskokwim, Copper and their tributaries. They currently represent eleven language groups. They are a nomadic people who travelled in small groups of twenty to forty people to fish and hunt. Their way of life is organized around the sharing of resources. Thus the men always share their hunting or fishing in order to perpetuate the tradition. Originally, the groups were composed of a brother and a sister with their respective offspring. When the sister got married, her husband during the first year of marriage had to prove to his family-in-law his abilities at work and hunt with his "brother-in-law". They traveled by canoe and sled, with or without dogs.
The Yup'ik and Cup'ik, originally from the Southwest
These people use the two main dialects known in this region. They still depend on fishing, hunting and gathering. The various communities that exist today are located in former seasonal camps or villages. These people were extremely mobile and followed the migrations of animals and fish. The young men lived among themselves in a qasgip which served them to sleep, work, eat and especially to learn how to become a man. The women prepared and brought them food. They lived in ena. These two dwellings had an underground entrance for the winter which also served as a kitchen for the women. The shaman had a very important role in these communities. There were two types of shaman. The first one helped the hunters in the location of the preys, called the good weather, looked after the sick while the second one, bad, wished only one thing, to take the place of the good one at all costs. Even today, some people possess the ancestral powers of the shaman.
The Inupiak, tribes of the Great North
Those who live on St. Lawrence Island perpetuate a hunting and gathering society. The Inupiak live on the shores of the Bering and Beaufort Seas thanks to the whale, walrus, seal, polar bear, caribou and salmon, which constitute their primary food resource. For them, the extreme climates they face are in no way a barrier; on the contrary, it is the perfect place for the animal life they depend on to thrive. In the past, they lived in semi-buried houses with access tunnels to use the ground as insulation. Seal oil lamps were used for cooking, heating and lighting. The houses were rectangular and could accommodate up to twelve people. There was also the qargi, a place of work for the whole community. They travelled byumiaq or angyaq, a boat that could carry fifteen people and a ton of equipment.
Aleuts and Alutiiq in South and Southwest Alaska
The water is their living environment since they live along the rivers or on the shores of the North Pacific or the Bering Sea. Their life is controlled by the climatic conditions because they sail a lot between the islands, especially in the Aleutian Peninsula. Their culture was greatly influenced in the 18th century by the Russians. Orthodox churches are present in most of the villages and Russian words have entered the common language. They lived (and still live) in small coastal villages, where they could find food (seals, sea lions, halibut). To protect themselves from the harsh climate, especially the strong winds, the houses were always buried. The Aleuts called them ulax and the Alutiiq, ciqlluaq. They consisted of a single room with a roof at ground level and covered with earth and grass to provide the best possible insulation. They traveled by sea kayak (they are the inventors) to hunt sea lions.
The Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, established in Southeast Alaska
Even if their language and customs differ, anthropologists speak of Northwest Coast culture to define them, including the Oregon Indians. However, the differences are great, especially in terms of the social system. The first three groups are separated into parties, while the last ones form fraternities. Moreover, these different groups do not understand each other
The Eyak live along the Gulf of Alaska from the Copper River Delta to Icy Bay. According to ancestral tales, these people migrated from the interior of Alaska where they were close to the Athabascans.
The Tlingit appear to be the oldest people in the Panhandle. According to scientists, they settled more than 10,000 years ago and occupied a territory from Icy Bay to the Canadian border
The Haida lived on the Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada, renamed Haida Gwaii in 2010. When the first Europeans arrived, some of them migrated to Prince of Wales Island where this group is known as the Kaigani or Alaskan Haida. Today they live mainly in two villages, Kassan and Hydaburg.
The Eyak were divided into two distinct groups, represented by the raven and the eagle. Among the Tlingit, the two halves were the raven or the crow and the eagle or the wolf depending on the period. Within each of these halves were several clans recognizable by their totem. The Haida were represented by the eagle and the raven as among the Tlingit, while among the Tsimshian, who were separated into four groups, the emblems are the orca, the wolf, the raven and the eagle.
The Tsimshian, native to British Columbia
These natives live between the Nass and Skeena rivers. They are found in the extreme southeast of Alaska on Annette Island, in Metlakatla. They all lived in large wooden houses that could accommodate up to fifty people with a central fireplace. Each people had a fixed village to spend the winter. This one was located along the river or on the beach, which allowed easy access to the boats. They were also sheltered from storms and close to sources of drinking water. Dwellings always faced the sea, usually with a single row of houses, and the Tlingit had totem poles at the entrance to each house. During the summer, seasonal camps near food sources allowed them to stock up on provisions. They lived in a forest environment, so wood was the main source of creation. Totem poles are the best example, but wood was also used to make cooking utensils, canoes, storage boxes, etc. There was no government in the sense that we understand it. Each village or clan solved its own problems. Marriages could not take place between two people of the same clan in order to avoid any problem of consanguinity. The children, contrary to the European system, inherited the rights and name of the mother. This translated into hunting, fishing and gathering grounds as well as clan marks in terms of totem carving, clothing design or house architecture.
Native populations today
Today, one in five indigenous people live in a large city. The rest live in small villages. Certainly, the development of means of transport and communication has opened up these hamlets and allowed their inhabitants to enjoy certain "benefits" of civilization. In the Arctic regions, barges bring supplies to coastal villages once or twice during the summer season, depending on the weather, bringing canned goods, fuel, building materials, furniture, snowmobiles and sometimes a vehicle. Hunting, fishing and gathering still account for over 50% of their food resources. But modernization comes at a price. Money is now needed to buy gasoline and bullets for automatic rifles, so Aboriginal communities remain dependent on federal assistance programs. The cost of living is twice as high in rural areas as in cities, while native incomes are twice as low. The introduction of capitalist values has profoundly altered social structures, calling into question the traditional division of labour between men and women, the notions of mutual aid, community work and collective property. The result of the material revolution: domestic violence, alcoholism, crime and suicide rates four times higher than the Alaskan average, which is already the highest in the United States... all symptoms of an identity crisis. In spite of this, the relations between the Indians and the settlers did not take the same disastrous proportions as they did in the rest of the United States, perhaps due to the later arrival of the whites on the distant and hostile lands of Alaska. Today, the many corporations continue to struggle to make the voice of the native Alaskan people heard.
A return to ancestral values
Fearing that the notion of profit will eventually overwhelm their culture, the First Peoples of Alaska are working to promote spiritual renewal and a return to their ancestral values. The Inuit have joined with the Sami of Lapland and the Inuit of Greenland and Canada in the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), a non-governmental organization founded in 1977 in Barrow, to better defend their interests and their lands. Thanks to the efforts of the 13 indigenous corporations, the teaching of dialects and traditional techniques such as sled building, hunting methods or sewing, is part of the school curriculum, giving back to the populations the spirit of transmission. And with the development of tourism, arts and crafts have become an increasingly important part of the local economy. Corporations are trying to open the villages to visitors by capitalizing on the fascination that the cultures of the First Americans hold for Westerners. Some villages, such as Saxman in southeast Alaska, are opening up to cultural tourism and now welcome small groups. But the villagers fear above all to lose their peace and quiet by seeing foreigners entering their homes like in an amusement park. Ethnotourism yes, but when it is well done.
