FREE ESSAY ON ESKIMOS

ESKIMOS

peoples of Alaska and their Eskimo Culture 
Alaska is still the last frontier in the minds of many Americans. Interest in the Great
Land has increased sharply since Alaska 
The Native became a full fledged state in January o f 1959. In spite of this great
interest, many Americans know very little of the Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts (Al-ee-oots)
who live in the remote regions. 
At the time Alaska was discovered in 1741 by Vitus Bering, Alaska Natives populated all
parts of Alaska including the Bering Strait Region. Although there is still some
disagreement among anthropologists concerning the origin of the American Indians and
Eskimos, the great majority believe that these people migrated across the Bering Strait
from Asia. Apparently this migration occurred in successive waves over thousands of
years. The northern Eskimo groups appear to be the most recent immigrants and have
settled along the coast of the Arctic Ocean from Little Diomede Island to Greenland. 
In Alaska, the Natives lived within well defined regions and there was little mixing of
ethnic groups. As in any culture, the way of life was dictated by the availability of
renewable resources. In Southeast Alaska, the salmon, deer and other plentiful foods
permitted the Tlingits, Tsimpshians and Haidas to settle in permanent villages and
develop a culture rich in art. The Athapaskan Indians of the Alaskan Interior, on the
other hand, became wanderers following the migrating caribou herds and taking advantage
of seasonal abundance of fish, water fowl and other game. The Eskimo people, like the
Tlingits, depended upon the sea for life. However, a more hostile climate and fewer
resources required a far different adaptation resulting in their unique cultural
traditions. The Eskimos call themselves Inuit or Real People. 
The impact of the 20th Century culture has brought many changes among all the Native
people, some good and some unfortunate. As a result, most Eskimos and Indians live in a
dual cash based and traditional lifestyle. 
Eskimo Culture
According to the Alaska Native Commission Final Report Volume II, pg. 91, in 1990 Alaska
Natives numbered 85,698 and constitute just over 15 percent of the state's total
population. Of this number, 62 percent of Alaska Natives (about 52,000) live in rural
Alaska. 
The Bering Straits Region is located in Northwest Alaska, just south of the Arctic
Circle. The regional boundaries extend 230 miles east to west and 230 miles north to
south and encompass an area of over 26,000 square miles, roughly the size of the state of
West Virginia. 
There are three culturally distinct groups of Inuit people who inhabit the region.
Inupiat reside on the Seward Peninsula and the King and Diomede Islands. The Central
Yupik primarily reside in the villages south of Unalakleet, and Siberian Yupik live on
St. Lawrence Island. The latter group is closely related culturally and linguistically to
Chukotka people of the Russian Far East. The Eskimo people have lived in this region as
an identifiable culture for at least 3,000 years; the earliest documented evidence of
human habitation dates back I 0,000 to I 1,000 years. Settlements concentrate along the
coast and river systems, for the sea was and is the principal focus of human activities.

The population of the Bering Straits Region is approximately 8,890. Eskimos comprise 78%
of the population (6,962). There are 17 year-round village settlements in the region that
range in population from 123 to 646. Nome is the largest community in the region and has
roughly 3,900 people. Nome is the transportation, government and service hub for the
region. The city of Nome has different ethnic, social and economic features than the
villages. Only a little over a half of Nome's residents are Natives, while in most
villages, 90% to 95% of residents are Native. 
Growing Up in an Inupiat Village
Infancy and Childhood
In the decades immediately following World War II, children continued to be a dominant
feature of North Alaskan village life. An Inupiat child was considered a vital part of
the family and enjoyed much love and affection from both parents. Families, most ranging
in size from seven to twelve, were also much larger than in previous generations, due in
large part to the more sedentary life style and the lowered infant mortality rate brought
on by improved health care services. Few parents had knowledge of ways to effectively
limit the number of offspring. No strong preference was expressed for one sex as opposed
to the other. Some families hoped the first-born would be a girl who could assist in
caring for those that followed. Others wanted a boy because he could eventually be of
assistance in hunting. No matter what the parent's preference, a baby of either sex was
welcomed on arrival with great affection. 
Occasionally a family had more children than it could adequately support. When this
occurred, the infant was offered to another family with fewer than it desired; or perhaps
to grandparents. This form of adoption has a long history and is still prevalent today. A
child was also adopted because the adoptive parents were childless, the parents had died,
they were close friends, or because the child was illegitimate and could be given a
better upbringing in a home with a father. Illegitimacy itself, however, carried none of
the stigma characteristic of middle class American society. Adoption was usually, though
not necessarily, arranged between kin. An adopted child always used the terms father and
mother for her or his foster parents even when closely related to them. The child's
origin was never concealed and in many instances it was considered as belonging to both
families. The child might even call the two sets of parents by the same terms and
maintain strong bonds with the real parents and siblings as with the foster ones.
Whatever the reasons for adoption, parents treated the new child with as much warmth and
affection as they did their own. 
In earlier times numerous taboos relating to pregnancy had to be followed - for if
broken, harm could easily befall the mother, child, or both. For instance, a pregnant
woman who walked backward out of a house could have a breech delivery; putting a pot over
her head could cause her extreme difficulty in delivering the placenta; and sleeping at
odd hours might give her a lazy child. Births also took place in a special parturition
lodge, known as the aanigutyak. In winter, it was a snow house built for the purpose by
the father, and the woman entered it as soon as she began labor. She gave birth in a
kneeling position with the help of an assistant, usually a female relative with some
experience in delivering babies. 
In the 1950s, women without access to the public health hospital at Barrow had their
children at home helped by specially trained midwives of which there were six at Point
Hope. At Wainwright and Kaktovik, mothers were more likely to go to the Barrow hospital
for their delivery. Still, numerous stories were told of the hardiness of Inupiat women
giving birth under difficult circumstances. In 1962, for example, the anthropologist
James VanStone wrote of a woman traveling by small boat to Point Hope who at a particular
moment asked to be put ashore. As the craft slowly moved on without her, she gave birth
to her child. After cutting the cord and scraping sand over the afterbirth, she put the
newborn in her parka and ran along the beach, eventually catching up with the boat. 
By the time an Inupiat child was a month old, it was customarily baptized by a missionary
and given a name. Every child received an English and at least one Inupiat name. Chosen
by parents, they were almost always those of recently deceased relatives or highly
respected individuals. When English names were introduced early in the 20th century,
Inupiat ones often became family names. According to custom, the name given the child
carried with it the qualities of the individual from whom it was taken. When an elderly
living person's name was used, the person would give the child gifts. This action was
prompted by the belief that after the older person's death, the doner's spirit would
survive in the namesake. 
When the baby was two or three months old, the mother passed on some of the
responsibility for its care to grandmothers, older siblings and unmarried sisters and
cousins. In these circumstances, a child soon became accustomed to having a variety of
tenders, a pattern which continued until it could care for itself. 
Commonly, the baby was carried in the back of a parka by the mother or other female
relative. If the mother was busy and no one else was available to carry it, she might put
the child in a crib to play or sleep. If it cried, she would pick it up and play with it
for several minutes. A few women, especially those strongly inculcated with middle class
American values, might complain that the baby wanted to be held too much and was spoiled.
Seldom, however, would any Inupiat mother disregard her child's cries. 
When outside, the mother customarily carried her baby until it was two years old or until
another child was born. Strapped in place by a belt that went around the mother's waist
and under the child's buttocks, it had little freedom of movement. Still, by the age of
two, it had been given sufficient opportunity to move around that it was able to walk
quite well. Sometimes a child older than two asked to be carried, and although the mother
might fulfill the child's wish, siblings and friends were likely to discourage such
requests through good-natured teasing. 
The Inupiat infant rarely had a set feeding or sleeping time - which was hardly
surprising considering the similar lack of schedule of most adults. When the baby cried
it was fed, whether by breast or bottle. Following World War II, bottle feeding was
encouraged for those adults with sufficient cash income to obtain canned milk. By the age
of one, all children were eating solid foods including homemade broths and premasticated
meat. Weaning was a gradual process that might not be completed until the third or even
fourth year. An older child rarely was rejected in favor of a younger one, and the
transition occurred with little difficulty. 
Toilet training, by contrast, was begun early, usually by the first birthday. The mother
held the child on a pot or on her lap, blowing gently on its head. When the desired
result had been achieved, she indicated her pleasure with a few kind words and playful
movements. By the 1960s, the soft caribou skin and moss undergarments used by earlier
Inupiat mothers to clothe their children had been replaced by cloth diapers; and as a
baby grew older, it was given training pants - cast off clothing open at the crotch.
Accidents and near misses were treated very lightly although they might bring a gentle
rebuke. Even chronic bed-wetters were not punished, except among more acculturated
families where the offender was made to stay in bed longer than usual. In general, there
was no aura of shame or secrecy about excretory functions, and no reticence in discussing
them. During the course of her field work, young girls might say to Jean Briggs don't
look, but girls under four and all boys urinated unconcernedly anywhere out of doors. 
Given the combination of large families and small houses, Inupiat sleeping arrangements
varied markedly from middle class American patterns. Formerly, infants slept with their
parents; but by the early 1960s, the youngest slept in cribs, the next oldest child or
children with their parents, and still older ones with each other. As many as four
siblings of different sexes might sleep in the same bed, all covered by the same large
blanket. Youths were given separate beds on reaching adolescence, and if the size of the
room permitted, they might even have a cubbyhole or corner of a room to themselves.
However, if the house was small and crowded, quite grown-up children slept in the same
room with their parents. Only among the most affluent families would a child have a bed
of its own. 
Discipline was seldom imposed on the child before it was one year old. This was of little
significance, however, since a child carried on the mother's back most of the time
presented few problems. Only when it had sufficient freedom of movement to pakak - get
into things it shouldn't - was it carefully observed. 
Concepts of hygiene varied widely and appeared to be in direct proportion to the degree
of association and identification with the outside world. But few if any mothers
expressed serious concern about a baby putting a dirty object from the floor in its
mouth, or passing a bottle from a sick child to a well one. In short, infant care
consisted primarily of keeping the baby happy. For the baby this meant being cuddled,
fed, rested, warmed, and kept dry. 
Without question, the warmth and affection given infants by parents, siblings, and other
relatives provided them with a deep sense of well-being and security. Young children also
felt important because they learned early that they were expected to be useful, working
members of the family. While this included a number of tedious chores, involvement in the
daily round of activities nevertheless enhanced their feeling of family participation and
cohesion. Parents rarely denied children their company or excluded them from the adult
world. 
This pattern reflected the parents' views of child rearing. Adults felt that they had
more experience in living and it was their responsibility to share this experience with
their children, to tell them how to live. Children had to be told repeatedly because they
tended to forget. Misbehavior was due to a child's forgetfulness, or to improper teaching
in the first place. There was rarely any thought that the child was basically nasty,
willful, or sinful. Where many Americans applauded children for their good behavior, the
Inupiat praised them for remembering. This attitude was reflected in many situations. In
the early 1960s, for example, a father was observed lecturing in Inupiat to his children
before they set out on a short camping trip. Asked to expand on his remarks, he said: 
We stir them up a little to live right. Tell them to obey the parents; do what people
tell them to do. And like now, when they go on a camping trip, not to take a new pillow.
It get's dirty on the trip. Take the old one. They young. They don't know what to do. We
tell them how to do things. Like our parents used to tell us. Same they used to talk to
us. We used to talk a lot like that but we haven't lately. We begin again. Stir them up.
They forget. 
Another man discussed his nephew's helpless panic during a hunting trip when a severe
storm threatened to wipe out the camp. Waking at night to find the tent blowing away and
their boat temporarily lost, the boy had become frozen with fear. Never suggesting that
he was cowardly or weak, the man was critical of the nephew's behavior, but explained it
in terms of his not having had sufficient experience to know what to do. 
Fathers actively participated in the daily life of the family; and in disciplinary
matters, appeared to fulfil a function similar to that existing in many other American
homes. Thus, a mother might say to a recalcitrant child, Wait till I tell your father! or
Wait till your father comes home. You gonna get a licking! Among families with limited
outside contact, the father retained a more dominant, rather than equal-participant,
role. Here, the child was expected to be restrained, quiet, and respectful in his or her
father's presence. 
By the time children reached the age of three or four, the parents' earlier
demonstrativeness had become tempered with an increased interest in their activities and
skill level. They watched them play with obvious pleasure, responded warmly to their
conversation, and made jokes with them. Though children were given considerable autonomy
and its whims and wishes were treated with respect, they were nevertheless taught to obey
all older people. To an outsider unfamiliar with parent-child relations, the tone of
Inupiat commands and admonitions sometimes sounded harsh and angry. Yet in few instances
did a child respond as if he or she had been addressed with hostility. This was due to
the fact admonitions that were given tended to be indirect and general rather than geared
to the specific individual. 
A youngster who wined, sulked, cried, or expressed some other unacceptable emotion, was
told flatly, Be nice! If it appeared to be getting into mischief, it was warned, Don't
pakak! There were other frequently offered admonitions as well: Don't ipagak! meaning do
not play in the water or on the beach; shut the door, to keep out the cold; Put your
parka on, guaranteeing adequate dress for outside; Don't go in someone else's house when
no one is at home, reflecting concern for others' property. Most common was Don't fight!
which was directed not only against personal assaults and rock throwing, but also verbal
quarrels. 
Certain acts like taking without asking and those involving potential dangers did lead to
punishment. If admonitions were unsuccessful, threats of such a fearsome creature as an
inuqugauzat [little spirit people], a nanuq [polar bear], or tanik [White man] were
brought in for support. Or the threat might be unspecified, as in somebody out there,
somebody gonna get you. If this did not have the desired effect, the misbehaving child
was dealt with more severely. The adult would shout, threaten, or actually strike the
child, although physical punishment was relatively rare. More likely, the child would be
isolated, a form of punishment reserved for serious breaches like fighting or playing
with water in below-freezing temperatures. In keeping with the attitude that children
were ignorant and forgetful, punishment was accompanied by explanation and reasoning.
Seldom was anything more than mild humiliation or teasing used as a negative sanction. 
A child's reaction to any of these treatments ranged from compliance, temporary fears, or
unhappy looks - all of which were usually ignored - to sulking, rebellious shrieks, or
silent resistance. This latter took the form of ignoring orders or repeating the behavior
to see if the adult would take notice. It was rare indeed to hear a child talk back,
verbally refuse to perform the action, or say petulantly, I don't want to. Sometimes a
child did threaten vengence - when it was angry at another child or an outsider such as a
tanik - but it was most unusual to hear threats directed at parents or adult relatives.
By adolescence, discipline seemed to consist entirely of lectures, though still delivered
in the harsh tone characterizing Inupiat cautions. 
After the age of five, a child was less restricted in its activities in and around the
village although walking on the beach or ice still required an adult. During the dark
winter season, the child remained indoors or stayed close to the house to prevent it from
getting lost and to protect it from polar bears which occasionally entered a village
looking for food. In summer, children played at all hours of the day and night, or at
least until their parents went to bed. 
By the eighth year, some of the responsibility for a child's socialization had been
passed from adults to peers. Children frequently lectured each other using the same
admonitions as told to them earlier: Don't fight, Don't pakak, You supposed to knock, and
Shut the door. Rule-breaking might also be reported to a nearby adult: Mom. Sammy ipagak.
Tattling was not depreciated to the extent that it had once been. Still, while older
children regularly played parent in which they imposed adult rulings on younger ones, all
children instructed each other irrespective of their age. Such instruction was generally
taken in good spirit. Thus, when an younger child reminded an older one, You supposed to
knock, the latter was likely to smile sheepishly, go out of the room, knock, and enter
again. 
Although not burdened with responsibility, boys and girls were both expected to take an
active role in family activities. In the early years, these were shared, depending on who
was available. Regardless of gender, it was important for a child to know how to perform
a wide variety of tasks and give assistance when needed. Both sexes collected and chopped
wood, got water, helped carry meat and other supplies, oversaw younger siblings, ran
errands for adults, fed the dogs, and burned trash. As children grew older, more specific
responsibilities were allocated according to gender. Boys as young as seven might be
given an opportunity to shoot a .22 rifle, and at least a few boys in every village had
taken their first caribou by the time they were ten or eleven. 
Young girls, and to a lesser extent young boys, learned techniques of butchering while on
hunting trips with older siblings and adults. In most instances, however, neither girls
nor boys became at all proficient in this skill until their late-teens or early twenties.
Prior to complusory school attendance and the hospitalization of large numbers of youths
for tuberculosis, such knowledge was attained at an earlier age. A girl, especially,
learned butchering as a young teenager since this skill was essential in attracting a
good husband. But by the 1960s, it was more likely to be picked up after marriage - and
not always then. 
Still, while a gender division of labor among youths was clearly recognized by the
Inupiat, it was far from rigid. Boys occasionally swept up the house and helped with
cooking. Girls and their mothers went on fishing and duck hunting trips; and sometimes
caribou hunting as well. Thus, among the youths, each gender learned that it could assume
the reponsibilities of the other when the occasion arose, albeit in an auxilary role. 
Siblings played together more happily than is often the case in American society, but
sibling rivalry was not completely absent. Hostility was generally expressed by tattling
or engaging in some form of minor physical abuse. However, anyone indulging in hard
pushing, elbowing, pinching, or hitting was told immediately to stop. Rather than fight
back, the injured party was more likely to request help from an older sibling or near
adult. Verbal abuse was also rare. 
By contrast, competiveness, derived from pride of achievement or skill attainment,
characterized many children's activities. In games involving athletic prowess, a child
would say, Look how far I can throw the stone, rather than I can throw the stone farther
than you. When rivalry was more direct, it was expected that the game be undertaken in
good spirit and the skills of one participant not be flouted at the expense of the other.
Aggressive competitiveness was explicitly condemned, as when a father childed his son,
Why you always wanting to win? 
Only very young children limited their play to those of like age. After reaching five or
six, the age range of playmates widened considerably. Team games such as Eskimo football,
were particularly popular and had as participants children of both sexes ranging in age
from five to twelve. The game combined elements of soccer and `keepaway,'and when played
by older boys, elements of rugby as well. It was not until adolescence that a young
person actively set herself or himself apart from other children. Youths of this age
group briefly watched youngsters play volleyball or some other game, but seldom
participated. Adults encouraged this separation, and when they saw a teen-age boy or girl
playing with younger children, they would say, That person is a little slow in his [or
her] development. 
Many other popular games were played as well. Some, involving feats of skill and strength
such as hand wrestling, have had a long history among the Inupiat. Others such as
kick-the-can, volleyball, and board games like monopoly and scrabble, were introduced by
Whites. Still other games combined elements of both. Haku, an Inupiat team game in which
the object was to make the members of the opposite team laugh, included the offering of
amusing portraits of Hawaiian and Spanish dances, done, if possible, with a straight
face. A few traditional Inupiat games like putigarok, a form of tag where the person who
was it tried to touch another on the same spot on the body in which he or she was tagged,
closely resembled the western game of tag. Some children occasionally played a fantasy
game called polar bear in which one child took the role of an old woman who fell asleep.
The polar bear then came and took away her child. She then woke up and attempted to
discover where the bear had hidden it. At Barrow, Inupiat children played a slightly
different version of the same game called old woman. A youth played the role of an old
woman who pretended to be blind. When several of her posessions were stolen, she accused
other children of taking them. This game required a fair amount of verbal exchange. The
more able the talker, the more likely the winner. Story telling was one of the most
popular forms of Inupiat entertainment, especially during the winter months when outside
activity was sharply diminished. Typical stories involved autobiographical or
biographical accounts of unusual incidents, accidents, hunting trips, or other events
deemed interesting to the listener. Following the evening meal, a father might call all
the children around him and recount his last whale hunt, or how he shot his first polar
bear. A good storyteller acted out part of the tale, demonstrating how he threw the
harpoon at the whale's back, or how the bear scooped up the lead dog and sent him flying
across the ice. Other stories told by other people described life long ago before the
tanniks arrived. Myths and folk tales portrayed exploits of northern animals and birds
endowed with supernatural qualities. 
Children, too, liked to tell stories to each other. These short tales usually described
some recent activity, real or imagined. Young Inupiat were passionately fond of horror
stories, and a vivid description of raw heads and bloody bones quickly elicited delighted
screams of fear from the throats of the listeners. If the teller acted out part of the
story, so much the better. 
The Inupiat child's creative imagination was reflected in all the activities of story
telling, imitating others, playing store, and inventing new games. Young girls turned a
bolt of cloth into a regal gown which they wore to an imaginary ball. Boys of four or
five climbed under a worn blanket with make-believe airplanes to practice night flying.
Charging over the tundra with sharply pointed sticks, a pair of six year olds cornered
their supposed furry opponent. This kind of spontaneity, supported by flexible routines
and a minimum of rules, continued until the early teens when events of the real world
began to offer greater challenges. Only in the confines of the classroom did these
children find their psychic freedom curtailed. 
All Inupiat children from six to sixteen were required to attend local Bureau of Indian
Affairs [BIA] schools. Parents generally agreed that school was a necessary part of the
modern child's education, and children themselves enjoyed the contrast of school and
home. Still, the themes addressed in the classroom differed markedly from those of
everyday Inupiat life, and many a youth would have preferred lessons in hunting and skin
sewing to those in arithmetic, geography, social studies, and English. Nor did they see
much benefit in following newly arrived BIA teachers admonitions that they learn to Be
prompt, Work hard to achieve success, Learn the values of banking and budgeting, and
particularly Keep clean, for such middle class American values had little meaning for
life at home. 
The school term in North Slope Alaska villages began in late August and continued for 180
days, the number required by the government. Acknowledging the limitations placed on the
student's behavior, it was still possible to characterize Inupiat childhood at that time
as one of relative independence. Participation in simple household tasks permitted boys
and girls large amounts of free time. Only gradually did they have to assume the more
adult responsibilities of cleaning house, caring for younger siblings, hunting and
preparing food. Thus, apart from the school experience, there was no sharp break in the
continuity of learning between infancy, childhood, and the beginning of adolescence. 
In one special sense, there was an even greater blending of these age-grades than in the
past. In aborginal times, changes in clothing delineated a distinct transition from
childhood to adolescence. When a boy's voice changed, he was given a different style of
short trousers. Later, when a father or male guardian decided he was ready for marriage,
a minor operation was performed by cutting two slits at the corners of his mouth. Once
the wounds were cleansed, decorative labrets were placed in the openings, thereby
signifying that the boy had become a man and was ready for marriage. A girl's transition
to adolescence came with her first menstruation, at which time she was placed in
temporary isolation for up to a month or even longer. With further maturation, marked by
the growth of her breasts, she exchanged the clothes of childhood for those of the adult
woman. At this time, women were tattooed by making a series of closely drawn parallel
lines extending from the center of the lower lip to the chin. In the early 1960s, a few
women of sixty-five or more still carried these symbols of early womanhood; but by then
the custom marking differences in age and gender had become obsolete. 
Much of the Inupiat child's upbringing was designed to prepare the young person to assume
the skills and values of an adult. Children were made to feel that their contributions
and participation were important to the overall life of the family. They were taught how
to draw their subsistence from land and sea, what responsibilities needed to be
undertaken in the home, and what cultural traditions they should follow. In spite of this
background, and in part because of it, many adolescents felt quite unprepared to assume
the responsibilities of life in a rapidly changing world only partially understood by
their parents. Due to diverse models of adulthood offered by school teachers,
missionaries, and their own family and kin, it was very difficult for a young man or
woman to choose how best to structure their adult lives. As a result, the process of
becoming an Inupiat adult at this time was frought with inner turmoil and insecurity. 
Taught from childhood that an Inupiat male should be self-reliant and a good hunter, boys
observed their fathers seeking wage labor at a government or military installation. After
obtaining such a position, these men could hunt only on occasional days off or during
short two or three week vacations. They were also more likely to take chances by having
to hunt in bad weather since that was the only time they could obtain subsistence foods
for their families. The frustration and abivalence felt by a father who was limited in
his ability to provide this Native food quickly carried down to the son. So too, girls
regularly observed their mothers' confusion as they tried to comprehend the economic,
educational, religious, and other changes occurring within their spheres of activity. In
many respects, the difficulties faced by Inupiat women were at least as great if not
greater than those of the men. In terms of the amount of energy that had to be expended,
the larger families, a product of steadily improving health care, added significantly to
the work required around the home. Furthermore, to this practical problem was added
another having to do with ideological redefinitions of gender. 
Prior to Alaska's colonial period, Inupiat women and men made decisions about the
activities for which they were largely responsible. Thus, Inupiat women maintained direct
autonomy in many areas having to do with the production and distribution of food, skin
sewing, and similar endeavors essential to the survival of the group. Men too, were
dominant decision-makers in their important spheres of activity most of which centered
around subsistence hunting. But men were not dominators in the sense that, as a group,
they tried to subjugate, command, or control the actions of women. Thus, the social
relations between Inupiat women and men prior to their colonial encounter with Europe and
America was relatively egalitarian in nature. This, of course, was hardly in keeping with
the definition of womanhood held by incoming colonizers. From their perspective, the
position of women was clearly subordinate to that of men. Eventually, the undermining of
women's autonomy took hold, thereby seriously reducing their ability to cope with many
new and complex problems which they had to face. Needless to say, the continuning
stresses brought on by these changed social relations were closely watched by adolescent
daughters seeking models in which to emulate. 
In schools, too, adolescents of both sexes came to understand that the Inupiat were a
small and relatively unimportant segment of the world's population, and that much of what
transpired in national and international affairs passed them by without a glance. This
knowledge, contrasting sharply with the earlier Inupiat perception of themselves as a
capable and self-reliant people, did little to enhance the students' sense of pride and
self-worth. 
Though the village school was highly informative about the outside world, it did not
prepare Inupiat youth to live with or in it. Primary school children learned to speak
English and if they completed the elementary curriculum, they could read and write. But
to enter a high school or technical school, youths had to leave their villages for up to
four years and travel to Sitka, Anchorage, Fairbanks, or some other city in Kansas or
Oregon about which they knew little. Young men who chose not to continue schooling - and
the choice was almost always left up to the them - soon found that their lack of skills
placed them at a distinct disadvantage when competing with Whites for northern jobs. For
young Inupiat women, however, there were not any jobs in which they could compete even if
they did obtain the necessary skills. At that time in the early 1960s, any secretarial or
other service-oriented training offered women in high schools, could be utilized only in
areas far removed from the villages in which they grew up. Thus, young Inupiat teenagers
of both sexes were trapped by the economic, social and cultural environment in which they
found themselves. There were few incentives to follow the ways of the past and little
opportunity for skill training that could help in preparing for the future. It was hardly
surprising, therefore, that most adolescents devoted their time and energy to matters of
the present. 
This problem was compounded by the freedom given the youths by their parents and other
relatives. As noted earlier, Inupiat childhood became more peer centered with increasing
age. With the sharp increase in number of living children [due to improvements in health
care], older siblings were regularly called upon to assist their busy parents. They also
took on greater responsibility for socialization of the young. Thus, by the time a child
reached adolescence, most of her or his time was spent with those of similar age. This
long standing cultural pattern, continuing right into the 1960s, meant that the parents'
knowledge of their adolescent children's thoughts and behavior was often quite limited.
Not surprisingly, when pressed to comment on a son and daughter's plans for continuing
school outside the village, a father would say, I don't know. They haven't told us yet.
This lack of communication between parents and adolescent youth, coming at a time when
the latter were searching for new models of behavior enabling them to live in both
worlds, did little to resolve their feelings of insecurity and isolation. 
Youth and Courtship
Given this insecurity about themselves and their place in the world, Inupiat teenagers
derived their strongest emotional ties from one another, and in many respects formed a
closed social group. Spending almost all of their time together, they wore western
clothes, used western slang expressions and emulated mannerisms largely western in
origin. The only Inupiat clothing regularly worn were fur parkas, and less often, kamiks
[boots]. Boys wore slacks of denim or wool, sport shirts and sweaters, shoepacks and
rubber boots, and even black leather jackets with names emblazoned on the back. Girls
liked slacks or wool skirts, slips, brassieres, sweaters, and wool jackets or coats. For
parties they enjoyed wearing nylon stockings, dresses, and high-heeled shoes. Jewelry and
cosmetics, and sometimes even a home permanent, completed the picture. 
Another major influence was the anti-tuberculosis campaign of the 1950s which sent many
young North Slope Inupiat to sanitariums in Alaska and as far away as the state of
Washington. This experience added greatly to their knowledge of popular American culture.
By 1960, twelve of the fifty-odd adolescents in the northeastern North Slope village of
Kaktovik had spent between nine months and two years in these sanitariums. Other North
Slope villages had similar temporary emigrations. Although the effect of hospital life
depended largely on the age of the patient, the severity of the illness, and the length
of stay, all I-upiat returned with a greater awareness of the outside world, which was
then passed on to others. Some Inuipat children who had spent several years in hospital
returned no longer able to speak 1nupiaq. Others no longer cared. 
In addition to school and hospital experiences, travel encouraged the spread of the new
culture. Each year, youths took trips from their villages to Fairbanks, Anchorage, and
farther south to visit friends and relatives who had migrated to these urban centers.
When they came home, their less experienced peers served as avid audiences for stories of
their travels. Barrow itself was an important center of American culture and influence,
due particularly to the extensive medical, educational, church, military, and other
governmental facilities present in the area. Barrow also had become large enough to have
its own movie theatre which showed commercial films several times a week. Wainwright and
other smaller villages were similarly affected. Newspapers, mail-order catalogs, teenage
magazines, religous tracts, comics, radios, records, tape recordings, and even an
occasional True Confessions or T.V. Guide found their way into Inupiat homes in North
Slope villages and were thoroughly absorbed by the young 
By the mid-1960s, strong emotional bonds between teenagers, enhanced by their common
school experiences, stays in hospitals, and sharing of popular culture generated by the
mass media, had seriously affected their ability and that of their parents to maintain
effective channels of communication with one another. Seldom did Inupiat youths
voluntarily engage in activities other than those associated with household chores or
hunting, with their parents and older relatives. Adolescent participation in Sunday
school and similar church activities dropped off significantly. By fourteen, they had
considerable freedom in making their own decisions even though the rest of the household
might suffer some hardship resulting from it. Those wishing to attend private schools
such as Sheldon Jackson Junior College in Sitka, Alaska, were indulged, even when the
family's income could hardly cover the five hundred dollar tuition. 
Because most Inupiat adolescents identified more with American ideas and concepts
generated in the south than with local ones, they frequently found themselves with little
to do, and as a result became bored. This restlessness was expressed in phrases such as
There is nothing to do, or The day goes so slowly at home. Of course, definitions of
boredom differed among individuals and locales. Adolescents living in more isolated
villages like Anaktuvuk Pass wished for the more active life of Barrow. Barrow youths
were restless because they didn't have sufficient access to new movies, dancing, parties,
and similar activities found in Fairbanks and Anchorage. Dissatisfied youths from
isolated villages like Kaktovik were heard to comment: I think I will go to Barrow.
There, they have movies all the time and the streets are full of people. 
Still others were discontented with the seeming isolation of village life for quite a
different reason. They felt left behind in the sweep of new trends. These youths were
older, had limited schooling, and never lived or visited outside the village. Sitting on
the sidelines at parties, they would say wistfully, Gee. I feel lonely, or I wish they
would play games I know how to play. Though less identified with the outside world,
neither were they committed to earlier Inupiat ways. Trying to bridge the gap, they too
found few friends outside their own group. 
When not occupied with home or school responsibilities, most teenagers at mid-century
spent their time together playing cards, singing, or going for walks. Group singing,
often with guitar accompanyment, was especially popular. Following an evening church
service, eight or ten young people would get together to sing hymns and popular songs.
Then they would go for a walk or join others at a local coffee shop. 
Still, these new activities did not diminish interest in some of the more traditional
pastimes such as hunting, fishing, camping, and boating. Groups of boys and girls often
went on all-day outings. If they learned that a young married couple was camping along
the coast, arrangements were made to visit them over night or for a weekend. Other young
people staying at summer fish camps could also count in regular visits from these
teenagers. Finally, there was the simple activity of staying up all night. Adolescent
youths considered such an event as an entertainment in itself. When deciding how to spend
an evening, the suggestion might be made, Let's stay up, in the same manner as the
proposal, Let's make a tape, or Let's go for a walk. 
Boys and girls in their early teens rarely paired off, most social contacts being sought
with the group rather than a given individual. Youths might tease each other with the
comment, You interested in him, right? but it was not until the age of fifteen or sixteen
that Inupiat young people developed a strong interest in members of the opposite sex. At
this time, boys began to seek out a particular girl, pay special attention to her, talk
with her more than with others, sit beside her in church, and in other ways let her know
of his interest. However, except in the most sophisticated segment of the Barrow teenage
world, physical demonstrativeness in front of others was deemed improper. And even in
Barrow, putting an arm around a girl's shoulder or giving her a squeeze was done in a
joking manner - for any open evidence of affection would embarass both the girl and her
friends. 
Boys rarely visited girls in their homes unless older family members were there; and it
was even less common for a girl to visit a boy's home. But as male youths became older,
they attempted to arrange clandestine meetings by passing notes at school suggesting a
time and place. By the middle teens, girls were very much aware of boys' attentions.
Their conversations centered around boys and their activities; they dressed for them,
giggled about them, and showed each other secret pictures of their favorite boy friends.
The late teens brought more sexual experimentation. Girls did not regularly solicit such
involvement, but once initiated, frequently continued. Finding a secluded meeting place
presented problems, particularly in winter. Homes of young married couples were often
available, although privacy was limited. Parents sometimes expressed concern over this
kind of activity, but seldom voiced such opinions openly or directly. Religious precepts
did not condone premarital sex, but this seemed to have little effect on the youth's
behavior. In earlier times, no clearly defined restrictions were imposed. At infancy,
children soon became aware of others sexual activity. By puberty, young men and women
occasionally traveled together away from the village, at which time they might contract a
quasi-married relationship. Trial marriages were also common - although unbridled
promiscuity was viewed with disapproval. 
In summary, the youth of the early 1960s faced a difficult future for which they had few
skills. On the surface they exhibited a markedly middle class American veneer.
Underneath, they were unsure of themselves and what they wanted to become. Few planned
realistically for the future. Some spoke of going away to school to become trained in
professional or semi-professional work related to education, bookkeeping, cooking, and
science. The desire to make money was a common goal of many regardless of the kind of
position it entailed And there was a rather unrealistic assumption that jobs would be
available when needed. Significantly, most young people wanted to remain permanently in
Arctic Alaska. Even those who planned on going away to school, planned to return. 
Marriage and Family
The bilateral extended family has always been the basic unit of Inupiat social structure.
Recognition of kin through at least three generations on both the mother and father's
side of the family provided an interwoven pattern of kinship linking together family
units. By means of economic partnerships, quasi-kin groups effectively extended
cooperative ties to non-kin as well. Under this arrangement, all Inupiat who called each
other by real or fictive kinship terms assumed a relation of sharing and cooperation; and
were seen by outsiders as being responsible for the actions of the entire kin group. 
By the 1960s, these extended family and economic partnerships had begun to decline in
importance. Economic interdependence also lessened as opportunities for individual wage
labor increased. As the desire for economic gain drew Inupiat away from their earlier
settlements to more urbanized towns and cities, migrants felt less obligation to pass on
the benefits of their newly obtained income to more distant relatives beyond the
immediate kin network. However, cooperative kin ties were maintained in local secondary
economic activities such as baby-tending, butchering meat, setting and checking of fish
nets, loading and unloading boats, constructing ice cellars, painting houses, and sharing
common household items. In each of these instances cooperation was not only expected, but
if a request went unheeded, the individual quickly became an object of gossip. 
Choice of marriage partner also changed. In smaller villages like Kaktovik, prior to
World War II, marriage between cousins was fairly common. At Barrow, it was far less so.
After the War, young people paid little attention to these earlier preference patterns.
While possible deleterious effects of cousin marriage on future children were
occasionally raised, such marriages were not considered immoral and in small villages
with a limited number of eligible spouses, they were almost necessary. 
Spouse exchange, on the other hand, which had earlier established long distance
reciprocity and gave spouse-like recognition between two couples, had not been practiced
for years. Female partners in spouse exchange called each other aipariik, the second. The
four partners were collectively referred to as nuliaqatigiik, and their children used the
reciprocal term qatangutigiik, for eachother. Significantly, those individuals who were
qatang, had definite obligations toward one another similar to those between brothers and
sisters. But by the early 1960s, those Inupiat using these terms were well into their
forties or older. 
Although formalized spouse-exchange disappeared, sexual mores of the time remained
relatively free. As viewed by local missionaries, Inupiat attitudes were halfway between
the old and the new. Although more conservative elders and other leaders of local
churches in North Slope villages encouraged their young people to marry before they
became sexually involved, the advice was largely disregarded and many young couples did
not marry until they had a child. This pattern was closely linked to two factors: first,
economic responsibilities of marriage as defined within the revised gender division of
labor made demands which young Inupiat men found difficult to meet. And second, young men
and women did not feel they needed a marriage bond to fulfil their sexual interests. 
When a couple decided to marry, they made arrangements with the local missionary to hold
the ceremony in the village church. Even in remote inland villages most couples were
joined in marriage by a minister or priest. In North Alaska, the older custom where a
young man and woman regularly moved into the household of one of their parents for some
time before becoming legally married had largely disappeared by the late 1950s. Even
older couples whose common-law arrangement was accepted by the missionaries and other
Whites in the community, were encouraged to go through the legal process to ensure the
inheritance rights of their children. 
Changes in courtship and marriage patterns were closely related to opportunities for wage
employment and the greater mobility of young people. In this rapidly changing economic
environment, prestige and eligibility as a suitor were measured more by the young man's
wage-earning abilties than by his skill as a hunter. Thus, some young men left their
communities for jobs in Barrow, Fairbanks, or Anchorage in order to enhance their
suitability as potential spouses. Needless to say, this mobility seriously disturbed the
sex ratio of smaller villages. 
Following marriage, young couples often moved in with the family of the bride or groom.
This arrangement eased the economic responsibilities of the new married pair and also
helped them learn the techniques and skills necessary in supporting and maintaining a
family. It was at this time that young couples came to appreciate the need to become
competent in subsistence skills associated with hunting, fishing, and the butchering of
meat. 
In keeping with the new responsibilities of maintaining larger households, women spent
much of their day-to-day lives tending babies, washing dishes and clothes, cleaning,
cooking, getting water, chopping wood, and burning trash. In some of these tasks like
obtaining wood and water, male household members also helped. In addition, men assisted
in the heavy work of setting up tents and building drying racks, making windbreaks for
butchering meat, filling fuel tanks, and starting recalcitrant washing machines. Women,
however, spent far less time in skin sewing efforts; and given the reduced hunting
activity of their employed spouses, in butchering and distributing meat as well. Still,
the cultural expectations associated with the older Inupiat gender division of labor
could be recognized in the comments of an elderly male from Barrow: 
Women are supposed to take care of the house. A man does the hunting; a woman takes care
of the kids and the food. She should know how much they got left, how much food there is
for the kids. They always check the food. The man is always asking his wife how much have
you got left? And the woman says, we have so much to last us for so many days or weeks.
The woman always takes care of the food, and sews or patches clothes for the husband and
the kids. She also scrapes all the caribou skin, seal, or what ever the skin is. But the
man must help too once in a while. When we are a little short of food, the man spends
most of his time hunting. The man never cooks or feeds the children because he hunts
every day. Although the women are supposed to take care of the house and kids, they
sometimes help the men too. Women go upriver to hunt the ptarmigan while the men are
hunting the caribou. My wife was always known as a good shooter. She killed lots of
patarmigan and even went seal hunting with me sometimes. Once in a while when women do
not have a lot of children to take care of, they may even go out by themselves and hunt
the caribou in summertime. In winter, when the children are inside, women don't do much
hunting. 
Although economic considerations played a major role in consolidating the marriage
relationship, the bond between spouses was not entirely limited to this sphere. In many
instances, couples enjoyed one another's companionship and held each other in mutual
affection and respect. They also instructed one another in various activities. Young men
taught their wives to how to shoot or flense a caribou while a wife might offer pointers
on how to improve the butchering of a seal or ugruk. This cooperative teaching was found
in all North Slope Inupiat villages irrespective of the degree of family acculturation. 
Outside the economic sphere, separation of the sexes in village social life was more
pronounced. Couples seldom went visiting together, although in the course of an evening
social round, both husband and wife might find themselves in the same house. Nor did they
entertain friends jointly. In gatherings which were predominately female, men were
usually ignored except for an occasional comment or joke. If several women entered a
home, the men often got up and left. In situations which were predominantly male, the
women assumed a passive role and remained in the background. A woman whose husband was
entertaining friends would serve tea or coffee, listen to the conversation, laugh at
appropriate occasions, and perhaps ask a question; but she rarely became actively engaged
in the discussion. If the group was more or less evenly mixed, as when people were
invited to hear a recorded tape-letter from a friend or relative, companionable exchanges
most commonly took place among members of the same sex. 
Still, informal visiting was an important feature of day-to-day family life. A friend
would drop in on a neighbor, perhaps stand around for a few minutes, and then leave with
little or no announcement of her or his departure. Visitors might enter a house, and,
after giving an initial greeting, ignore its occupants. Or they might sit and read a
mail-order magazine or religious tract, or simply watch the activities of the household.
Though efforts to entertain the guest were minimal, one could always expect the offer of
a cup of tea, coffee, or crackers. 
In conclusion, given the immense changes that had occurred in Arctic Alaska in the
century leading up to the 1950s, Inupiat kin ties had remained surprisingly strong.
Indeed, as the anthropologist Robert Spencer wrote following his study of North Slope
villages in 1951-52, It would appear that only if the family system is disrupted will
community disorganization on a large scale occur. For despite the cash income, the social
organization of the aboriginal Eskimo is still a significant force. 
Unfortunately, a little over a decade after his research was completed, that evaluation
could no longer be made for Barrow. By the early 1960s, the ability of kin networks to
cope with emerging social problems was strained to the limit. There were several
contributing factors: One concerned the swelling of Barrow's population brought on by the
sharp increase in the birthrate and the desire of more distant Inupiat to take advantage
of seasonal wage employment in construction and at the nearby military DEWLine radar
site. Newcomers also wanted better access to the local Public Health Service hospital for
themselves, and better education for their children. The influx of these new residents
from as far away as western Canada, some of whom had few if any close relatives in the
village, was an important factor limiting the ability of the once tight-knit kinship
system to deal with its new-found stresses. 
At this same time, Barrow was also faced with a steady increase of White male military
personnel, construction workers, scientists, and other outsiders who were assigned to Air
Force installations, weather stations, and the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory - all of
which had been built only a short distance from the town. These outsiders, more than a
few of whom had little interest in or respect for the Inupiat and their culture, simply
saw the community as a place to unwind, seek bootleg liquor, look at the Natives, and
perhaps establish a relationship with one of the local women. As these disparaging tanik
stereotypes of the Inupiat became more widespread, earlier linkages based on mutual
respect and common understanding diminished sharply. Eventually, interracial tensions
reached the point where members of the two groups lived in their own separate worlds,
each largely ignoring the other. While it is important not to overemphasize the negative
quality of these relationships, nor to disregard those examples of positive ties that
were maintained between Inupiat and Whites, the generally hostile atmosphere was
nevertheless present in almost all spheres of local social life. 
As Barrow's internal problems multiplied, its community leaders sought new ways of
dealing with them. By the late-1960s, it became clear to all that traditional kin
relations were seriously weakened - along with the growth of inapplicable socialization
practices. Nor was sufficient attention being given to larger questions having to do with
cultural enrichment and political self-determination, both of which were essential to
promoting a renewed feeling of pride, purpose, and worth. In fact, only by thoroughly
addressing these latter problems could the basis be laid for a new Inupiat sense of
well-being. The task was substantial; and so was the need.