Native Cultures of Coastal Alaska: The Inuit
This is part 2 of a 2 part series entitled “Native Cultures of Coastal Alaska: The Tlingit and the Inuit.”
Read Part 1
Along with spectacular waterfront and mountain views, pristine lakes and rivers, abundant wildlife and natural attractions, Juneau, Alaska is also known for its rich native culture. Influencing everything from clothing and jewelry for sale in the local shops, to local culinary delights, to the reverence many Alaskan’s hold for their property, land and wildlife, the native people of coastal Alaska played a prominent role in the development of the diverse culture many visitors now enjoy in Alaska’s capital city.
Far before Europeans, Americans and Russians discovered and influenced the then remote land now known as Alaska, the area was home to a diverse population of native peoples. The two most influential cultures in the Juneau area were the Tlingit and the Inuit.
The Inuit
Inupiat family, Noatak, Alaska, 1930 (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Inupiat family, Noatak, Alaska, 1930 (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia)
The Inuit are actually a collective of different indigenous peoples who inhabit land in a number of countries in the northern Polar Regions. They include the Inuit and Inuvialuit of northern Canada, the Kalaallit Inuit of Greenland, the Siberian Yupik of northern Russia, and the Inupiat and Yup’ik people of Alaska. The Yupik of Siberia and Alaska consider themselves a distinct people and prefer to be called Yup’ik, Yupiit or Eskimo, as the Yup’ik languages are distinct from Inuit languages. The remainder of Inuit people prefer to be called Inuit, as they consider the term “Eskimo” derogatory.
The majority of Inuit live in the Canadian Arctic and subarctic. In the US, the Alaskan Inupiat live on the northern and western slopes of Alaska.
Traditional Inuit Culture
The Inuit culture is classified as a “hunter/gatherer” society. Considered nomads, men traditionally hunted and gathered food from the land, while women prepared home sites, tended children, cooked and sewed. However, gender was not the driving force for participation in these roles; performance was a far more important criteria. Women who proved to be excellent hunters and chose to hunt would do so, and conversely all men were expected to know how to cook, sew and tend children. The philosophy for survival was community based: all members of a community contributed as needed to ensure the survival of as many members as possible.
Traditionally, Inuit communities were either made up of single families or by groups of families. The size of the community was often linked to the abundance of food found on a community’s land, and to a lesser extent the hunting skill of its members. Personal property was not abundant nor was it considered a show of wealth, as Inuit needed to move quickly to follow food sources and unnecessary items in a scarce existence were considered wasteful.
As the Canadian and Alaskan territories were settled by Europeans and Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries, many Inuit people gave up their nomadic lifestyles to settle in waterfront villages and communities.
Historically, the Inuit family was not strictly monogamous. Men and women were often married when a woman reached puberty and a man showed his skill as a good hunter, but most marriages were arranged during childhood by parents or the community. As a result, many of these marriages were open and each partner participated in extramarital relationships. Polygamy and divorce were not uncommon in Inuit communities, though if the couple had children, divorce required consent of the community and in particular, consent of the elders.
Inuit Elders were considered important repositories of knowledge, history and oral tradition and were highly
An Inuit family and their Alaskan Malamute stand outside a typical summer dwelling. Alaska: 1915. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
respected members of Inuit society. As such, the Inuit cared for their elderly to the best of their abilities. However, in times of need, particularly during hard winters with less than adequate food supplies, elders who felt like burdens were known to commit suicide in order to lessen the demand on the rest of the community and help to ensure the survival of their descendants. Hunters were always the first to be fed and clothed in hard times, followed by the elders, and then the women and children. Very young or deformed children would sometimes be left behind and given to the land, in hopes that a group of better faring people would find them and give them a better life before they succumbed to the weather or animals.
Storytelling, mythology and dance are important parts of the Inuit culture. Since written language was a modern development, the Inuit people historically depended on stories, myths and dances to teach history and cultural customs. During settlement by American and Europeans outsiders in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Inuit faced a cultural crisis. Many fell victim to European diseases, and most of those that survived gave up their nomadic ways and abandoned their cultural traditions and started to live in small European waterfront settlements, usually in desperate poverty.
During the second half of the 19th century, cultural sensitivity and activism took root, and the Inuit people formed international cultural groups and governing bodies dedicated to preserving and spreading cultural tradition and language. Today, the Inuit still face poverty, but their native countries have embraced their culture and heritage and support it as an important part of their country’s natural history. Storytelling, mythology and dance have experienced a large resurgence. Many Inuit artists are famous for their skills and talents, and some still prefer to “live off the land” like their ancestors. Some of these Inuit offer “adventure vacations”, where people pay to live with them for a few days or weeks in order to experience traditional Inuit life.
Inuit Languages
There are a number of Inuit languages and dialects, and together they are grouped under the term “Inuktitut”. Some of the native Inuit peoples speak Inuktitut, but others speak the language of the country in which they reside.
Variations of Inuktitut did not exist as written languages until the 1700’s, when missionaries helped the indigenous peoples develop an alphabet. Versions based on the Latin alphabet were developed in Labrador, which eventually spread to Alaska. Other versions were based on the Roman alphabet and spread east through Greenland. As a result, Inuit languages are written in many different ways. In Alaska, the indigenous people also developed their own system of hieroglyphics, and that influence is visible in their art and handiwork.
Traditional Beliefs
The arctic land on which they depend is the inspiration for many Inuit beliefs. A spiritual people, the Inuit developed many stories about great walrus, whale and caribou hunts, stories that celebrate strength, wisdom and honor. The Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights) were considered spiritual in nature. Some Inuit’s believed the lights were the spirits of departed family and friends dancing in the next life. Others believed they were the spirits of animals, guiding them during the hunt for food, or healing spirits used by the Angakkuq (shaman) to heal their people.
The Inuit shamans were animists, believing that all things possessed spirits. Inuit habits and rituals focused on maintaining balance and harmony in the world by keeping these spirits pacified and happy. By paying the proper respect to animals they killed, or stones they carved, the Inuit would keep the delicate balance of their surroundings intact and thus avoided bringing vengeance and hardship down upon themselves.
The role of the Angakkuq in an Inuit community was to dispense first aid, offer psychological counseling and ask the spirits for aid when needed. They were not trained by elders or taught by other members of the community. Instead, the abilities of an Angakkuq are believed to be inherent, so a new Angakkuq was appointed after a person reached maturity and the community believed they harbored the appropriate wisdom, clarity and natural affinity to become an Angakkuq.
Housing
An Inuit iglu (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia)
An Inuit iglu (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Being nomadic peoples who followed their food supplies, the Inuit historically created camps that were easy to set up and take down. In the summer, when snow wasn’t always present, they’d erect tents of skins over bone or wood supports, much like the traditional housing of other indigenous American peoples. During the longer and more frigid winter months, the Inuit would use bone knives and tools to carve large blocks from well-packed snow and build iglus, houses of snow blocks during the winter months.
Hunting and Transportation
An Inuit hunter in a Qajaq in Alaska, 1929 (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Given their dependence on the waterfront and hunting just off shore in cold and sometimes rough waters, the peoples of the Inuit put heavy emphasis on the design and building of water craft, particularly seal-skin boats called Qajaq. Extremely buoyant, waterproof and easy to right if tipped, the highly specialized and efficient design of these small boats was copied by Europeans and Americans. Brilliantly designed, they are still produced today and are often found for sale as the phonetic version of the Inuit name; “Kayak”.
Qajaq were used by the Inuit to hunt various sea animals, especially in the summer when the waterfront was accessible and the seas were not frozen. In the winter, when much of the sea surface froze, Inuit hunters waited patiently by aglu, or holes in the ice, for air breathing mammals to surface. Polar bears hunt in the exact same manner and some anthropologist’s wonder who might have taught whom this specialized hunting technique.
Dogsleds (or qamutik) were (and still are) used to transport food, personal property and people over land in the
A traditional Inuit Qamutik or dogsled. (Photo Courtesy Wikipedia)
winter. Pulled by dogs hooked up side by side or in a fan, qamutik were vital vehicles to the Inuit. They depended on them to transport hunters and their weapons and tools to areas where prey was found, and to transport food back to their communities after a successful hunt. They were used to transport people and camp supplies while following migrating prey, and to travel over land faster and quicker in the winter than a person was able to do on foot.
In the summer, instead of pulling sleds, dogs pulled packs and bags tied to them with leather straps to aid in the movement of the community as they followed food and prey.
The Inuit and Their Dogs
An Alaskan Malamute. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
As a result of their heavy dependence on the qimmiq, or dog, for transport and survival, the Inuit possessed a deep respect for and attachment to the dogs they bred. In addition to being pack animals and the Inuit’s primary mode of transportation, dogs assisted the Inuit in hunting by sniffing out seal holes and holding the attention of polar bears or walruses while hunters attempted to kill them. Dogs were also valuable as protection, alerting community members to the approach of strangers or animals far before humans were able to perceive them.
There are a number of dog breeds that originated with the Inuit people, including the Canadian Eskimo Dog, the Greenland Dog, the Siberian Husky and the Alaskan Malamute. As a result of their common wolf ancestry, these breeds are often collectively referred to as “Huskies”. In general, the Inuit prized striking, beautiful dogs with full, healthy coats and clear, bright eyes. The stronger, more striking, energetic and intelligent the dog, the more valuable it was to the Inuit. When new pups were born, the Inuit would perform rituals to ensure the dogs would grow up with favorable qualities. Noses were gently pricked with bone pins or needles to give the dog a good sense of smell, and legs were pulled to help the pups grow into tall and strong adults.
Inuit Art and Clothing
Inuit Women’s Parka (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
The Inuit used materials they were able to collect from the land and from hunting to make clothing and pieces of art. Small totems, usually small carvings of animals and people, were historically used as ornamentation on everyday items or in rituals to bless infants, people or animals. Most Inuit art did not have spiritual significance; they were used to embellish everyday items and personal property in order to make them more visually attractive.
Driftwood, bone, sinew and soapstone were the most popular traditional materials. Walrus bone was an important material as it was used to create most of the Inuit’s hunting and building tools. Sharp knives and spears were carved from walrus bone and used in hunting and skinning animals. Needles carved from bone and threads made from animal sinews (tendons, ligaments and connective tissue of the gut) were used to sew skins for clothing and shelter.
The Inuit were able to stay warm in the harsh Alaska and polar climates by creating clothing and footwear that were sewn with the fur side of skins turned inward, providing an insulating layer of air that was kept warm by the body. Another layer might be sewn back to back, but the skin side was most always exposed to the elements. This “smooth” leather side was periodically treated with fish oil, creating a waterproof, effective windbreak and keeping the warm air generated by the body on the inside of the garment. Many Europeans and Americans who outfitted themselves with Inuit clothing were pleasantly surprised by its incredible warmth and comfort.
The anorak’s design was similar throughout all Inuit peoples. It contained covering for the chest, arms, shoulders, upper legs and head. The hood, arms and bottoms contained drawstrings made of leather chords to allow a person to keep the wind from getting inside. The amauti, or women’s anorak, was sewn with a larger hood and looser upper back area, allowing for women to carry their children on their backs inside their clothing in order to keep them warm and protect them from frostbite.
Today, Inuit art has expanded to include modern materials and textiles, like metals, other soft stones, cotton, wool and numerous woods. Many Inuit artists create art and clothing based on traditional designs, and embellish them with traditional carvings and newly translated forms of traditional designs. Metal and stone animals and people depicted in different activities, particularly hunting, are popular, as are woven items like baskets, and carved bones items like knives or sculpture. Song and dance is also extremely popular, and many Inuit celebrations draw large crowds who come to watch traditional Inuit entertainers.
Food
Being peoples that lived primarily in waterfront and beach areas, the Inuit were traditional hunters and fishermen. The majority of their diet consisted of protein and fat and very little carbohydrate. They hunted a number of animals native to Alaska and the arctic: whales, walrus, caribou, seal, polar bear, muskoxen, birds and occasionally Arctic Foxes. When available, they gathered plants, the most popular being edible grasses, tubers, roots, berry and seaweed.
In the 1920’s, the Inuit were the subject of a now famous dietary experiment, when a Caucasian anthropologist by the name of Vilhjalmur Stefansson lived with a family and studied their eating habits. Participating in their customary meals for an extended period of time, Vilhjalmur noted that although most of their calories came from fat, he did not observe any adverse effects on their health or his own. Vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, were obtained through the consumption of all edible parts of the animals they killed, including Ringed Seal liver and whale skins. His studies were met with skepticism at the time, but in the years since, have been re-examined and confirmed, and his initial study laid the ground for modern diets like the Atkins Diet, which promote low carbohydrate intake and increased protein and fat consumption.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Cultural_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eskimo_family_with_Malamute_from_1915.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Early_20th_Century_Inuit_parka_%28UBC%29.jpg
