The Yupik
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Photo by John Wensley
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There are more Yupik people than any
other Alaskan Native people. About 20,000 live in Alaska
today. Most Yupik people live in small villages along the
Bering Sea and the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. Many
Yupik people still speak the Yupik language. There are many
dialects in the language. The same word can have different
meanings between villages, but the most common language is
called Central Yupik. About 1/3 of the Yupik children learn
Central Yupik as their first language. Local radio stations
even broadcast in the language.
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The largest Yupik village is Hopper Bay with
about 900 people. In a lot of the Yupik villages the women and a few
men cut grass and weave it into baskets. Many villages are hundreds
of miles away from paved highways. They are connected to the outside
world through computers, telephones, and daily airplane flights.
Many things about the Yupik lifestyle have changed in the last
several hundred years. These days a lot of people work for schools,
stores, government, and commercial fishing.
The Yupik people also live like their ancestors
did. For example, they hunt walrus,
whales, moose and caribou. The Yupik do not go whaling
as much as the Inupiat and Siberian Yupik Eskimos do, but they do a
little. They fish salmon and trout and they gather wild vegetables,
berries and eggs. Community pot latches and dance festivals bring
people together throughout the villages, providing their children
knowledge and pride in their culture.
Photos taken at Anchorage Museum of History and Art
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