Parkas are part of a living tradition in southwest Alaska. Some are ornamented with tassels, beads, and elaborate stitching; others are simpler fur or birdskin garments. Although fewer fancy parkas are sewn today, many people still wear those made for them by their mothers and other relatives. "Parka-making" conversations touch on every aspect of Yup'ik life—child rearing, marriage partnerships, ceremonies and masked dances, traditional oral instructions, and much more. In The Flying Parka, more than fifty Yup'ik men and women share sewing techniques and "parka stories," speaking about the significance of different styles, the details of family designs, and the variety of materials used in creating these functional and culturally important garments. Based on nearly two decades of conversations with Yup'ik sewing groups and visits to the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of Natural History, this volume documents the social importance of parkas, the intricacies of their construction, and their exceptional beauty. It features over 170 historical and contemporary images, full bilingual versions of six parka stories, and a glossary in Yup'ik and English.

This bilingual collection shares new translations of old stories recorded over the last four decades though interviews with Yup'ik elders from throughout southwest Alaska. Some are true qulirat (traditional tales), while others are recent. Some are well known, like the adventures of the wily Raven, while others are rarely told. All are part of a great narrative tradition, shared and treasured by Yup'ik people into the present day. This is the first region-wide collection of traditional Yup'ik tales and stories from Southwest Alaska. The elders and translators who contributed to this collection embrace the great irony of oral traditions: that the best way to keep these stories is to give them away. By retelling these stories, they hope to create a future in which the Yup'ik view of the world will be both recognized and valued.

The Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska were among the last Arctic peoples to come into contact with non-Natives, and as a result, Yup'ik language and many traditions remain vital into the twenty-first century. Wise Words of the Yup'ik People documents their qanruyutait (adages, words of wisdom, and oral instructions) regarding the proper living of life. Throughout history these distinctive adages have guided the relations between men and women, parents and children, siblings and cousins, fellow villagers, visitors, strangers, and non-Natives. Yup'ik elders have chosen to share these adages during Calista Elders Council gatherings and conventions since 1998 because of their continued relevance and power to change lives. The Calista Elders Council (now Calista Education and Culture) recently spearheaded efforts at cultural revitalization through gatherings with younger community members. By describing the content of traditional instruction as well as its central motivation-"We talk to you because we love you"-elders not only educate Yup'ik young people but also open a window into their view of the world for all of us. A new introduction explores this book's impact over the past decade. Wise Words of the Yup'ik People will continue to serve as a valuable resource for the Yup'ik people and those who wish to learn more about their lives and values.

For centuries, the Akulmiut people--a Yup'ik group--have been sustained by the annual movements of whitefish. It is a food that sustains and defines them. To this day, many Akulmiut view not only their actions in the world, but their interactions with each other, as having a direct and profound effect on these fish. Not only are fish viewed as responding to human action and intention in many contexts, but the lakes and rivers fish inhabit are likewise viewed as sentient beings, with the ability to respond both positively and negatively to those who travel there. This bilingual book details the lives of the Akulmiut living in the lake country west of Bethel, Alaska, in the villages of Kasigluk, Nunapitchuk, and Atmautluak. Akulmiut Neqait is based in conversations recorded with the people of these villages as they talk about their uniquely Yup'ik view of the world and how it has weathered periods of immense change in southwest Alaska. While many predicted that globalization would sound the death knoll for many distinctive traditions, these conversations show that Indigenous people all over the planet have sought to appropriate the world in their own terms. For all their new connectedness, the continued relevance of traditional admonitions cannot be denied.

The Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska were some of the last Arctic peoples to come into contact with non-Natives, and as a result, Yup'ik language and many traditions remain vital into the twenty-first century. "Wise Words of the Yup'ik People" documents their "qanruyutet" (adages, words of wisdom, and oral instructions) regarding the proper living of life. Throughout history, these distinctive wise words have guided the relations between men and women, parents and children, siblings and cousins, fellow villagers, visitors, strangers, and even with non-Natives. Yup'ik elders have chosen to share these wise words during Calista Elders Council gatherings and conventions since 1998 for instrumental reasons--because of their continued relevance and power to change lives. The Calista Elders Council, which represents some thirteen hundred Yup'ik elders, recently spearheaded efforts at cultural revitalization through gatherings with younger community members. In describing the content of traditional instruction as well as its central motivation--"We talk to you because we love you"--elders not only educate Yup'ik young people but also open a window into their view of the world for all of us. "Wise Words of the Yup'ik People" will serve as a valuable resource for the Yup'ik people and those who wish to learn more about their lives and values.

This book brings together as complete a record of traditional Yup'ik rules and rituals as is possible in the late twentieth century. Incorporating elders' recollections of the system of ruled boundaries and ritual passages that guided their parents and grandparents a century ago, Ann Fienup-Riordan brings into focus the complex, creative Yup'ik world view-expressed by ceremonial exchanges and the cycling of names, gifts, and persons-which continues to shape daily life in communities along the Bering Sea coast.

The Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska were among the last Arctic peoples to come into contact with non-Natives, and as a result, Yup'ik language and many traditions remain vital into the twenty-first century. Wise Words of the Yup'ik People documents their qanruyutait (adages, words of wisdom, and oral instructions) regarding the proper living of life. Throughout history these distinctive adages have guided the relations between men and women, parents and children, siblings and cousins, fellow villagers, visitors, strangers, and non-Natives. Yup'ik elders have chosen to share these adages during Calista Elders Council gatherings and conventions since 1998 because of their continued relevance and power to change lives. The Calista Elders Council (now Calista Education and Culture) recently spearheaded efforts at cultural revitalization through gatherings with younger community members. By describing the content of traditional instruction as well as its central motivation-"We talk to you because we love you"-elders not only educate Yup'ik young people but also open a window into their view of the world for all of us. A new introduction explores this book's impact over the past decade. Wise Words of the Yup'ik People will continue to serve as a valuable resource for the Yup'ik people and those who wish to learn more about their lives and values.

Before it was written, this book was spoken. For ten winter days in 1977, the orator Paul John-widely respected as a dean of Yup'ik elders, and recognized for his tireless advocacy of Yup'ik language and traditions-held an audience of Yup'ik students rapt at Nelson Island High School, in southwest Alaska. Hour after hour he spoke to the young people, sharing life experiences and Yup'ik narratives, never repeating a tale. Now, more than a quarter-century after Paul John's extraordinary performance, Sophie Shield's translations and Ann Fienup-Riordan's editing have brought his words back to life, and to a new audience. This book records one elder's attempt to create a moral universe for future generations through stories about the special knowledge of the Yup'ik people. Tales both authentically Yup'ik and marked by Paul John's own unique innovations are presented in a bilingual edition, with Yup'ik and English text presented in facing pages. As Paul John says, "In this whole world, whoever we are, if people speak using their own language, they will be presenting their identity and it will be their strength."

This bilingual volume focuses on the teachings, experiences, and practical wisdom of expert Native orators as they instruct a younger generation about their place in the world. In carefully crafted presentations, Yup'ik elders speak about their "rules for right living"-values, beliefs, and practices-which illuminate the enduring and still-relevant foundations of their culture today. While the companion volume, Wise Words of the Yup'ik Peopleweaves together hundreds of statements by Yup'ik elders on the values that guide human relationships, Yup'ik Words of Wisdom, highlights the words of expert orators and focuses on key conversations that took place among elders and younger community members as the elders presented their perspectives on the moral underpinnings of Yup'ik social relations. The orators in this volume-including Frank Andrew from Kwigillingok, David Martin from Kipnuk, and Nelson Island elders Paul John and Thersea Moses-were raised in isolated Yup'ik communities in Alaska and were educated much like their parents and grandparents. Translated, edited, and organized for a general audience, this bilingual edition is for those who want to know not only what the elders have to say but also how they say it. A new introduction explores this book's impact over the past decade.

Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather is a result of nearly ten years of gatherings among Yup'ik elders to document the qanruyutet (words of wisdom) that guide their interactions with the environment. In an effort to educate their own young people as well as people outside the community, the elders discussed the practical skills necessary to live in a harsh environment, stressing the ethical and philosophical aspects of the Yup'ik relationship with the land, ocean, snow, weather, and environmental change, among many other elements of the natural world. At every gathering, at least one elder repeated the Yup'ik adage, "The world is changing following its people." The Yup'ik see environmental change as directly related not just to human actions, such as overfishing or burning fossil fuels, but also to human interactions. The elders encourage young people to learn traditional rules and proper behavior--to act with compassion and restraint--in order to reverse negative impacts on their world. They speak not only to educate young people on the practical skills they need to survive but also on the knowing and responsive nature of the world in which they live.

This bilingual volume focuses on the teachings, experiences, and practical wisdom of expert Native orators as they instruct a younger generation about their place in the world. In carefully crafted presentations, Yup'ik elders speak about their "rules for right living"-values, beliefs, and practices-which illuminate the enduring and still-relevant foundations of their culture today. While the companion volume, Wise Words of the Yup'ik Peopleweaves together hundreds of statements by Yup'ik elders on the values that guide human relationships, Yup'ik Words of Wisdom, highlights the words of expert orators and focuses on key conversations that took place among elders and younger community members as the elders presented their perspectives on the moral underpinnings of Yup'ik social relations. The orators in this volume-including Frank Andrew from Kwigillingok, David Martin from Kipnuk, and Nelson Island elders Paul John and Thersea Moses-were raised in isolated Yup'ik communities in Alaska and were educated much like their parents and grandparents. Translated, edited, and organized for a general audience, this bilingual edition is for those who want to know not only what the elders have to say but also how they say it. A new introduction explores this book's impact over the past decade.

Drawing on the remembrances of elders who were born in the early 1900s and saw the last masked Yup'ik dances before missionary efforts forced their decline, Agayuliyararput is a collection of first-person accounts of the rich culture surrounding Yup'ik masks. Stories by thirty-three elders from all over southwestern Alaska, presented in parallel Yup'ik and English texts, include a wealth of information about the creation and function of masks and the environment in which they flourished. The full-length, unannotated stories are complete with features of oral storytelling such as repetition and digression; the language of the English translation follows the Yup'ik idiom as closely as possible. Reminiscences about the cultural setting of masked dancing are grouped into chapters on the traditional Yup'ik ceremonial cycle, the use of masks, life in the qasgiq (communal men's house), the supression and revival of masked dancing, maskmaking, and dance and song. Stories are grouped geographically, representing the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and coastal areas. The subjects of the stories and the masks made to accompany them are the Arctic animals, beings, and natural forces on which humans depended. This book will be treasured by the Yup'ik residents of southwestern Alaska and an international audience of linguists, folklorists, anthropologists, and art historians.

In this volume Nelson Island elders describe hundreds of traditionally important places in the landscape, from camp and village sites to tiny sloughs and deep ocean channels, contextualizing them through stories of how people interacted with them in the past and continue to know them today. The stories both provide a rich, descriptive historical record and detail the ways in which land use has changed over time. Nelson Islanders maintained a strongly Yup'ik worldview and subsistence lifestyle through the 1940s, living in small settlements and moving with the seasonal cycle of plant and animal abundances. The last sixty years have brought dramatic changes, including the concentration of people into five permanent, year-round villages. The elders have mapped significant places to help perpetuate an active relationship between the land and their people, who, despite the immobility of their villages, continue to rely on the fluctuating bounty of the Bering Sea coastal environment.

Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather is a result of nearly ten years of gatherings among Yup'ik elders to document the qanruyutet (words of wisdom) that guide their interactions with the environment. In an effort to educate their own young people as well as people outside the community, the elders discussed the practical skills necessary to live in a harsh environment, stressing the ethical and philosophical aspects of the Yup'ik relationship with the land, ocean, snow, weather, and environmental change, among many other elements of the natural world. At every gathering, at least one elder repeated the Yup'ik adage, "The world is changing following its people." The Yup'ik see environmental change as directly related not just to human actions, such as overfishing or burning fossil fuels, but also to human interactions. The elders encourage young people to learn traditional rules and proper behavior--to act with compassion and restraint--in order to reverse negative impacts on their world. They speak not only to educate young people on the practical skills they need to survive but also on the knowing and responsive nature of the world in which they live.

Yup'ik elders of southwest Alaska recall, "Our ancestors were never heavy with a tool kit." They carried in their minds what they needed to live rich lives in the harsh environment of the Bering Sea coast. Frank Andrew, Sr. (1917-2006), was one of the few elders to bring this knowledge into the twenty-first century. Not only did Frank Andrew possess knowledge and wisdom--he shared it. For five years before his death he worked tirelessly with Yup'ik translators Alice Rearden and Marie Meade and anthropologist Ann Fienup-Riordan to document his knowledge of life on the Bering Sea coast. What he shared is specific to the Canineq (lower coastal) area at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River. When he talked about kayak building, tomcod fishing, or bird hunting, it was based on his own experience in the area surrounding Kwigillingok, where he spent his life. His unprecedented depth of knowledge and eloquent storytelling inspired this book. Paitarkiutenka / My Legacy to You is the bilingual companion volume to Yuungnaqpiallerput / The Way We Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival, which gives readers a sense of the complexity and variety of Yup'ik tools and technology. Paitarkiutenka offers greater detail about working with wood, kayak construction, and coastal hunting. Stories and information on seasonal activities in the Canineq area appear here for the first time. This book acknowledges the enormous amount of information and remarkable skills that each individual needed to live life on the Bering Sea coast; it is Frank Andrew's legacy to us all.

Drawing on the remembrances of elders who were born in the early 1900s and saw the last masked Yup'ik dances before missionary efforts forced their decline, Agayuliyararput is a collection of first-person accounts of the rich culture surrounding Yup'ik masks. Stories by thirty-three elders from all over southwestern Alaska, presented in parallel Yup'ik and English texts, include a wealth of information about the creation and function of masks and the environment in which they flourished. The full-length, unannotated stories are complete with features of oral storytelling such as repetition and digression; the language of the English translation follows the Yup'ik idiom as closely as possible. Reminiscences about the cultural setting of masked dancing are grouped into chapters on the traditional Yup'ik ceremonial cycle, the use of masks, life in the qasgiq (communal men's house), the suppression and revival of masked dancing, maskmaking, and dance and song. Stories are grouped geographically, representing the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and coastal areas. The subjects of the stories and the masks made to accompany them are the Arctic animals, beings, and natural forces on which humans depended. This book will be treasured by the Yup'ik residents of southwestern Alaska and an international audience of linguists, folklorists, anthropologists, and art historians.

"A wonderful gift to all Alaskans and to thinking people everywhere." --Alaska History Eskimo Essays introduces the reader to important aspects of the ideology and practice of the Yup'ik Eskimos of western Alaska, past and present.The essays point the way toward a fuller recognition of how Yup'ik Eskimos differ from the popular Western image of the Eskimo that was born largely without reference to Yup'ik reality. By describing the reality of Yup'ik life, "Eskimo Essays" extends our understanding of Eskimos in general and Yup'ik Eskimos in particular. Ann Fienup-Riordan argues that Western observers have simultaneously naturalized Eskimos as paragons of simplicity and virtue and historicized them as victims of Western imperialism. This process has often ignored Eskimo concepts of society, history, and personhood. An original assumption of similarity to Western society has profoundly affected the current Euro-American view of Eskimo history and action. Non-natives have taken an idealized Western individual, dressed that person up in polar garb, and then assumed they understood the garment's maker. The result is a presentation of Eskimo society that often tells us more about the meaning we seek in our own. Moreover, modern Eskimos have risen to the challenge and to some extent become what we have made them. Bridging the gap between informed scholarship and popular concepts, Fienup-Riordan provides a compelling and fresh presentation of Yup'ik life--cosmology, the missionary experience, attitudes toward conservation, Eskimo art, the legal system, warfare, and ceremonies. Ann Fienup-Riordan is an anthropologist who has published widely on the Eskimos of Alaska. She was named Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society in 1991, and in 2000, in recognition of "Hunting Tradition in a Changing World."

Honorable mention for the Victor Turner Award for Ethnographic Writing from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology Honorable mention for the 2008 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books Survival in the harsh subarctic environment requires great resourcefulness and ingenuity. The Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska meet the challenge by using traditional technology and by following a philosophy that recognizes the personhood of all living things and the environment. Their use of nature's resources is a testament to the mutual respect and generosity that exists between humans and the animals, plants, land, and sea that sustain them. Wastefulness being disrespectful, Yup'ik elders made use of every last scrap from hunts and harvests: seal guts became warm, waterproof, and breathable parkas; the skins of fish were fashioned into waterproof mittens, while their heads and entrails were stored in naturally refrigerated pits as insurance against future famine. Dried grasses became anything from insulating socks to bedding to sled rope, or even goggles to protect against snow blindness; rancid seal oil mixed with tundra moss became "Yup'ik epoxy" for caulking and gluing; and driving snow was manipulated to provide a defense against its own dangers. Although tools have changed, Yup'ik people today continue to engage in many traditional harvesting activities, using these new means to accomplish distinctly Yup'ik ends. In Yuungnaqpiallerput / The Way We Genuinely Live, Yup'ik elders examine tools and daily-use items, explaining how they were made and for what purpose. Just as Western science relies on the testing of hypotheses, Yup'ik science developed its technologies through systematic trial and error, yielding ingenious and effective solutions to life's challenges. The elders also delve beyond the practical aspects of these artifacts to elucidate the ways in which their creation and use are part of Yup'ik cosmology and traditional spiritual values. Every item carries special significance, and the actions associated with each should be undertaken with awareness and deliberation, for nothing goes unnoticed by the consciousness of the surrounding universe. Ann Fienup-Riordan explores these manifestations of Yup'ik technology by following the seasonal cycle of harvests and ceremonial renewals, a journey revealing the beauty of these artifacts that extends beyond the aesthetic surface to connect with the living pulse of the universe.

Norwegian adventurer Johan Adrian Jacobsen collected more than two thousand Yup'ik objects during his travels in Alaska in 1882 and 1883. Now housed in the Berlin Ethnological Museum, the Jacobsen collection remains one of the earliest and largest from Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. When Ann Fienup-Riordan first saw the collection being unpacked in 1994, she was "stunned to find this extraordinary Yup'ik collection, with accession records still handwritten in old German script and almost completely unpublished." In 1997, Fienup-Riordan and Yup'ik translator Marie Meade returned to Berlin with a delegation of Yup'ik elders to study Jacobsen's collection. Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin recounts fourteen days during which the elders examined objects from the collection and described how they were made and used. Their descriptions, based on oral history and firsthand experience with similar objects, are imparted through songs, stories, and personal narratives. Woven together with Jacobsen's writings, technical descriptions, and accession information, the narrative presents a vast array of knowledge. For example, Jacobsen had observed that large grass mats were woven for use as sleeping mats in houses and were often taken on journeys; a Yup'ik elder demonstrates how the grass mat would be folded and fitted into a kayak. Another elder describes a dance in which fox masks similar to those in the collection were used. Yet another elder, inspired by a carving of a paalraayak, launches into a story about the creature, which was sometimes encountered in the mountains near her home. An introductory essay describes Jacobsen's life and trip to Alaska and the region as it was then and as it is today. Informal snapshots show the elders interacting with the objects and miming their use, while Barry McWayne's large color photographs make possible the "visual repatriation" of this extraordinary collection. Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin also includes extensive notes summarizing accession information, a glossary of Yup'ik object names, and a detailed index. This is the first time a major Arctic collection has been presented from the Natives' point of view, an example of "reverse fieldwork" that can enrich understanding of Native American collections the world over.

In this book, the Native people of southwest Alaska generously share the traditional stories that form the expressive core of their unique culture. The lifeways observed and anecdotes recounted to a then-young university graduate, who recorded and compiled them in communities on Nunivak Island and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, offer a glimpse today of a longstanding way of life.
In the mid-1930s, Hans Himmelheber closely observed the Yup'ik and Cup'ig people who offered him hospitality, paying heed to their stories and anecdotes; he photographed them just as carefully, capturing their activities with technical elegance while simultaneously preserving unstudied moments in the people's lives. Himmelheber's photographs also honor his informants, for as one of them told him regarding his people's artwork, "you know every picture has a meaning." The majority of these photographs have not been published before.
This book includes the translated contents of Himmelheber's "The Frozen Path: Myths, Tales, and Legends of the Eskimos"; ""Ethnographic Notes on the Nunivak Eskimos""; ""Noseblood as Adhesive Material for Color Paint among the Eskimos""; and ""Unimaginable Miracles in the Poetry of Western Africa and the Eskimos,"" originally released in German. Kurt and Ester Vitt's translation is readable and clear. Editor Ann Fienup-Riordan, herself a distinguished ethnographer known for her work in southwest Alaska, provides annotation and a detailed discussion of Himmelheber's role as observer and recorder in a thoughtful, scholarly introduction.
Though much has changed in the last half century, Yup'ik and Cup'ig orators continue to tell stories to educate and amuse their listeners. With this English translation, Himmelheber has passed on what he learned to Native and non-Native readers alike.

"Words of the Real People "collects the life stories, poetry, and oral literature of the Yupik, Inupiaq, and Alutiiq peoples of Alaska, making them widely available to readers in English for the first time. Accompanied by background essays on each Native group, the literature in this collection embraces Native Alaskan life in all its rich variety. From tales of malevolent shamans to the unexpected poetry of the urban experience, and from ancient tales passed down for generations to contemporary stories being woven into a new tradition, "Words of the Real People" stakes out an important place for Native Alaskan literature as a vibrant, living tradition and will be essential to folklorists, anthropologists, and anyone interested in the storied past of our continent's most forbidding reaches.

"Words of the Real People "collects the life stories, poetry, and oral literature of the Yupik, Inupiaq, and Alutiiq peoples of Alaska, making them widely available to readers in English for the first time. Accompanied by background essays on each Native group, the literature in this collection embraces Native Alaskan life in all its rich variety. From tales of malevolent shamans to the unexpected poetry of the urban experience, and from ancient tales passed down for generations to contemporary stories being woven into a new tradition, "Words of the Real People" stakes out an important place for Native Alaskan literature as a vibrant, living tradition and will be essential to folklorists, anthropologists, and anyone interested in the storied past of our continent's most forbidding reaches.

"Mission of Change in Southwest Alaska" is an oral history describing various types of change - political, social, cultural, and religious - as seen through the eyes of Father Rene Astruc and Paul Dixon, non-Natives who dedicated their lives to working with the Yup'ik people. Their stories are framed by an analytic history of regional changes, together with current anthropological theory on the nature of cultural change and the formation of cultural identity. The book presents a subtle and emotionally moving account of the region and the roles of two men, both of whom view issues from a Catholic perspective yet are closely attuned to and involved with changes in the Yup'ik community.

Far more than just a dance, the dynamic choreography of the Yup'ik provides an illuminating window into the morality, social organization, and colonial history of this indigenous people. In "Yupiit Yurayarait," anthropologist Ann Fienup-Riordan begins with a brief historical overview of the colonization and development of Alaska from the Yup'ik point of view. Then, armed with oral history testimony spanning thirty years, she shows how singing and dancing are interconnected and imbued with meaning in this complex ritual. Accompanied by one hundred and fifty original photographs, this volume marks the first in-depth look at the Yup'ik people through the lens of interpretive dance.

Far more than just a dance, the dynamic choreography of the Yup'ik provides an illuminating window into the morality, social organization, and colonial history of this indigenous people. In "Yupiit Yurayarait," anthropologist Ann Fienup-Riordan begins with a brief historical overview of the colonization and development of Alaska from the Yup'ik point of view. Then, armed with oral history testimony spanning thirty years, she shows how singing and dancing are interconnected and imbued with meaning in this complex ritual. Accompanied by one hundred and fifty original photographs, this volume marks the first in-depth look at the Yup'ik people through the lens of interpretive dance.