Each winter, for a period of between three and six weeks, the young boys and young girls would switch roles, with the men teaching the girls survival and hunting skills and toolmaking, and the women teaching the boys how to sew and cook. Women taught the young girls how to tan hides and sew, process and cook game and fish, and weave.īoys would live with their mothers until they were about five years old, then they would live in the qasgiq. In some areas they were connected by a tunnel. The women's house, the enawas traditionally right next door.
The young boys were also taught how to make tools and qayaqs kayaks during the winter months in the qasgiq. The qasgiq was used mainly in the winter months, because people would travel in family groups following food sources throughout the spring, summer, and fall months.Īside from ceremonies and festivals, the qasgiq was also where the men taught the young boys survival and hunting skills, as well as other life lessons. The men's communal house, the qasgiqwas the community center for ceremonies and festivals which included singing, dancing, and storytelling. Many families still harvest the traditional subsistence resources, especially Pacific salmon and seal. Traditionally, families spent the spring and summer at fish camp, then joined with others at village sites for the winter. By about 3, years ago, the progenitors of the Yupiit had settled along the coastal areas of what would become western Alaska, with migrations up the coastal rivers-notably the Yukon and Kuskokwim -around AD, eventually reaching as far upriver as Paimiut on the Yukon and Crow Village on the Kuskokwim. There appear to have been several waves of migration from Siberia to the Americas by way of the Bering land bridge which became exposed between 20, and 8, years ago during periods of glaciation. The common ancestors of the Eskimo and Aleut as well as various Paleo-Siberian groups are believed by archaeologists to have their origin in eastern Siberiaarriving in the Bering Sea area about 10, years ago.
Yup'ik plural Yupiit comes from the Yup'ik word yuk meaning "person" plus the post-base -pik meaning "real" or "genuine. Census, the Yupik population in the United States numbered over 24, of whom over 22, lived in Alaska, the vast majority in the seventy or so communities in the traditional Yup'ik territory of western and southwestern Alaska. Writing Adolescent Fiction/Character names/Alaska NativeĪs of the U. The Central Alaskan Yup'ik people are by far the most numerous of the various Alaska Native groups and speak the Central Alaskan Yup'ik languagea member of the Eskimo-Aleut family of languages. See also honest Injun, Indian giver.Yupik peoples include the following. Whether one or several will gain ascendancy over the others remains to be seen.
All these terms appear in edited writing. They sometimes refer to themselves collectively as Indian peoples. American Indians themselves tend to favor the terms Indian, American Indian, or a specific tribal name. The most recent designation, especially in North America, is Native American. ) The terms Amerindian and Amerind subsequently developed in the attempt to reduce ambiguity. (When necessary, further distinctions are made with such terms as North American Indian and South American Indian. In the 18th century the term American Indian came to be used for the aboriginal inhabitants of the United States and Canada it now includes the aboriginal peoples of South America as well. However, the term Indian is not applied to the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut of Arctic North America. In modern times Indian may refer to an inhabitant of the subcontinent of India or of the East Indies, to a citizen of the Republic of India, or to a member of an aboriginal American people. Eventually, that name was applied to almost all the Indigenous, non-European inhabitants of North and South America. Because Christopher Columbus mistakenly believed that the Caribbean island on which he had landed was the subcontinent of India, he called the inhabitants Indians.