The First People of Alaska

Tribes of Alaska:  The larger tribes include the Alaskan Athabasca (which is the oldest Alaskan tribe, many of whom splintered into smaller tribes and went south), Inuit (including the Inupiat. the Yupik and the Aleut (both of whom are also in Russia), Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimishian, and dozens of smaller tribes. Their ancestors came over the Bering Strait during the third wave of the latter part of the Pleistocene Era but did not travel further south. The Haida have been in their part of Alaska since 15,000 BC and the Inupiat have been in their part of Alaska since 8000 BC. The Inuit and their dogs are one of the newest tribes in Alaska, having been there for only 3000 years.

Meanings of Names: The Alaskan Athabasca call themselves the "Dene" which means "Men." The Tlingit call themselves the "Lingit,' which means "People of the Tides." Tsimshian means "Inside the Skeena River." "Inupiat" and "Yupik" mean "Real People" and "Real Person." The name "Aleut" comes from the word "allithuh" which means "Community."  The name "Inuit" means "the People." The term "Eskimo" which means "Eater of raw meat" is considered an insult.

Locations: Greenland, Coastal and inland Alaska, the Arctic Circle as well as islands and peninsulas.

Language: Haida, Tsimshian, Eskimo-Aleut, Chinook, Na-Dene (Athabascan.)

Tribal Affiliations: The Eyak were friendly with the Tlingit who were also friendly with the Athabascans.

Traditional Enemies: The Haida weren't fond of white people, and the Inuit and Athabascans were not fond of each other.

Traditional Styles of Housing: The Tsimshian lived in longhouses. The Inupiat men and the Inupiat women live in two different subterranean dwellings called "Qargi" where the men and women would teach the boys and girls their respective skills. Each winter they would switch so that the boys learned the women's skills and the girls learned the men's skills. The Aleut live in underground houses called "barabara" which are 50-foot oblong dwellings covered in driftwood, grass and dirt. The Inuit live in igloos during the winter months and in tents or sod houses during the summer months.

Traditional Attire: The Aleut wore long hooded parkas made of skins and feathers, and liked to have piercings and tattoos for spiritual reasons. Some of their hats were made of woven dune wild-rye grass. The Inuit also wear parkas, but with more fur. Unlike the moccasins worn by the Native Americans in the lower 48, the Native Americans of Alaska wear mukluks, which are thick furry boots.

Traditional Foods: Depending on where the tribe lives: salmon, seals, whales, sea otters, halibut, shellfish, seaweed, salmonberry, Canada Buffaloberry, currants, fish eggs, herring, deer, bear, mountain goats, sheep, squirrels, foxes, smelt, walrus, caribou, bears, crab, shellfish, cod, musk ox, moose, grasses, tubers, roots and stems.

Position of Women: The Athabasca and the Tlingit were matrilineal. The Inuit are said to be very sexual and  place a lower priority on faithfulness in marriage. Divorce and polygamy is fairly common. Overall, though, these are hunting-and-fishing cultures, and while girls may have learned how to become hunters and fisher-persons, and may have done them as adults, it was a male-dominant culture.

Courtship Patterns: Among some tribes, infant girls were betrothed to little boys, and the marriage took place when the girl had reached the age agreed-upon by the fathers.

Interesting Customs and Factoids: The Haida invented the Totem Pole.... The Yupik name their babies after the last person in the tribe who had died.... Nearsightedness has become a problem among the Inuit, possibly due to a modern-day nutritional imbalances.... The Inuit do not kill off their old people unless the old people really, really want to die, and they have to ask three times before someone kills them. It is more common, in times of famine, for mothers to abandon their babies in the hope that a more affluent tribe will find the child and adopt it into the tribe.... The Inuit children believe that if you whistle at the Northern Lights, the spirits of the dead, which are in the Northern Lights, will come get you.... And plump women were valued in the Inuit community.

Tradition Religions: Shamanism, Christianity, Russian Orthodox

For or Against Slavery:  Many of these tribes had slaves or were enslaved by the Russians or by other tribes.

Current Combined Population: There are more than 100,000 First People of Alaska, combined.

Current Sources of Tribal Revenue:  Tourism, fishing, crafts, art, sculpture, fur trade, and the making and selling of parkas and mukluks. Nonetheless, unemployment is high and poverty is pervasive. On the other hand, some tribal land has been sold to the oil companies and the settlement distributed among the Native Americans of Alaska, specifically, the Inuit.

Famous Alaskan Native Americans: None that I have heard of.