Iñupiat
The Iñupiat (or Iñupiaq[2]) are a group of Indigenous Alaskans whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border.[3][4][5][6] Their current communities include 34 villages across Iñupiat Nunaat (Iñupiaq lands), including seven Alaskan villages in the North Slope Borough, affiliated with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; eleven villages in Northwest Arctic Borough; and sixteen villages affiliated with the Bering Straits Regional Corporation.[7] They often claim to be the first people of the Kauwerak.[8]
This article is about the ethnic group. For their language, see Inupiaq language.In 1971, the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act established thirteen Alaskan Native Regional Corporations. The purpose of the regional corporations were to create institutions in which Native Alaskans would generate venues to provide services for its members, who were incorporated as "shareholders".[12] Alaskan Native Regional Corporations pose many challenges as participation in extractive capitalism is often in conflict with Native Alaskans subsistence lifestyles that require the health of the ecosystems.[12] Three regional corporations are located in the lands of the Iñupiat. These are the following.
Languages[edit]
Inuit, the language and the people, extend borders and dialects across the Circumpolar North. Inuit are the Native inhabitants of Northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Inuit languages have differing names depending on the region it is spoken in. In Northern Alaskan, the Inuit language is called Iñupiatun.[14] Within Iñupiatun, there are four major dialects: North Slope, Malimiut, Bering Straits, and Qawiaraq.[14] Prior to western contact, the Iñupiaq dialects flourished. Due to harsh assimilation efforts in Native American boarding schools, Natives were punished for speaking their language.[7][13] Now only 2,000 of the approximately 24,500 Iñupiat people can speak their Native tongue.[14]
Revitalization efforts have focused on Alaskan Native languages and ways of life. Located in Kotzebue, Alaska, an Iñupiaq language immersion school called Nikaitchuat Iḷisaġviat was established in 1998. The immersion school's mission is to "instill the knowledge of Iñupiaq identity, dignity, respect and to cultivate a love of lifelong learning".[15] June Nelson Elementary school is another school in Kotzebue that is working to include more content into their curriculum about Iñupiaq language and culture.[16] Nome Elementary School in Nome, Alaska has also put in place plans to incororate an Iñupiaq language immersion program.[17] There are many courses being offered at the various campuses a part of the University of Alaska system. University of Alaska Fairbanks offers several course in the Iñupiaq language. University of Alaska Anchorage offers multiple levels of Elementary Iñupiaq Language and Alaskan Native language apprenticeship and fluency intensive courses.[18]
Since 2017, a grassroots group of Iñupiaq language learners have organized Iḷisaqativut, a two-week Iñupiaq language intensive that is held throughout communities in the Iñupiat region.[19] The first gathering was held in Utqiaġvik in 2017, Siqnasuaq (Nome) in 2018, and Qikiqtaġruk (Kotzebue) in 2019.[20]
Kawerak, a nonprofit organization from the Bering Strait region, has created a language glossary that features terms from Iñupiaq, as well as terms from English, Yup'ik, and St. Lawrence Island Yupik.[21]
Several Iñupiat developed pictographic writing systems in the early twentieth century. It is known as Alaskan Picture Writing.[7]
History[edit]
Along with other Inuit groups, the Iñupiaq originate from the Thule culture. Circa 300 B.C., the Thule migrated from islands in the Bering Sea to what now is Alaska.
Iñupiaq groups, in common with Inuit-speaking groups, often have a name ending in "miut," which means 'a people of'. One example is the Nunamiut, a generic term for inland Iñupiaq caribou hunters. During a period of starvation and an influenza epidemic introduced by American and European whaling crews,[22] most of these people moved to the coast or other parts of Alaska between 1890 and 1910. A number of Nunamiut returned to the mountains in the 1930s.
By 1950, most Nunamiut groups, such as the Killikmiut, had coalesced in Anaktuvuk Pass, a village in north-central Alaska. Some of the Nunamiut remained nomadic until the 1950s.
The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Dena'ina and Deg Hit'an Athabaskan Indians and the Iñupiaq people.[23]
Current issues[edit]
Iñupiat have grown more concerned in recent years that climate change is threatening their traditional lifestyle. The warming trend in the Arctic affects their lifestyle in numerous ways, for example: thinning sea ice[32] makes it more difficult to harvest bowhead whales, seals, walrus, and other traditional foods as it changes the migration patterns of marine mammals that rely on iceflows and the thinning sea ice can result in people falling through the ice; warmer winters make travel more dangerous and less predictable as more storms form; later-forming sea ice contributes to increased flooding and erosion along the coast as there is an increase in fall storms, directly imperiling many coastal villages.[33] The Inuit Circumpolar Council, a group representing indigenous peoples of the Arctic, has made the case that climate change represents a threat to their human rights.[34]
As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the Iñupiat population in the United States numbered more than 19,000. Most of them live in Alaska.