Iñupiat


The Inupiat, also known as Alaskan Inuit, are a group of Alaska Natives whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current communities include 34 villages across Iñupiat Nunaat, including seven Alaskan villages in the North Slope Borough, affiliated with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; eleven villages in Northwest Arctic Borough; and sixteen villages affiliated with the Bering Straits Regional Corporation. They often claim to be the first people of the Kauwerak.
Image:PointHopeHousesUSGSric00682.jpg|thumb|Semi-underground men's community house with bowhead whale bones, Point Hope, Alaska, 1885

Name

Inupiat is the plural form of the name for the people. The singular form is Iñupiaq , which can also refer to the language. In English, both Iñupiat and Iñupiaq are used as modifiers. The language is called Iñupiatun in Iñupiatun and frequently in English as well. Iñupiak is the dual form.
The roots are iñuk "person" and -piaq "real", i.e., an endonym meaning "real people".

Groups

Ethnic groups

The Inupiat are made up of the following communities
In 1971, the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act established thirteen Alaskan Native Regional Corporations. The purpose of the regional corporations were to create institutions in which Native Alaskans would generate venues to provide services for its members, who were incorporated as "shareholders". Three regional corporations are located in the lands of the Iñupiat:
Prior to colonization, the Iñupiat exercised sovereignty based on complex social structures and order. Despite the transfer of land from Russia to the U.S. and eventual annexation of Alaska, Iñupiat sovereignty continues to be articulated in various ways. A limited form of this sovereignty has been recognized by Federal Indian Law, which outlines the relationship between the federal government and American Indians. The Federal Indian Law recognized Tribal governments as having limited self-determination. In 1993, the federal government extended federal recognition to Alaskan Natives tribes. Tribal governments created avenues for tribes to contract with the federal government to manage programs that directly benefit Native peoples. Throughout Inupiat lands, there are various regional and village tribal governments. The tribal governments vary in structure and services provided, but often are related to the social well-being of the communities. Services included but are not limited to education, housing, tribal services, and supporting healthy families and cultural connection to place and community.
The following Alaska Native tribal entities for the Iñupiat are recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs:
CommunityNative tribal entitiesNative village corporationNative regional corporation
Alatna Alatna Village-Doyon, Limited
Ambler Native Village of Ambler-NANA Corporation
Anaktuvuk Pass Village of Anaktuvuk PassNunamiut CorporationArctic Slope Regional Corporation
Atqasuk Native Village of AtqasukAtqasuk CorporationArctic Slope Regional Corporation
Brevig Mission Native Village of Brevig Mission-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Buckland Native Village of Buckland-NANA Corporation
Council Native Village of Council-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Deering Native Village of Deering-NANA Corporation
Diomede Native Village of Diomede-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Elim Native Village of Elim-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Golovin Chinik Eskimo Community-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Kaktovik Kaktovik VillageKaktovik Inupiat CorporationArctic Slope Regional Corporation
Kiana Native Village of Kiana-NANA Corporation
King Island King Island Native CommunityKing Island Native CorporationBering Straits Regional Corporation
Kivalina Native Village of Kivalina-NANA Corporation
Kobuk Native Village of Kobuk-NANA Corporation
Kotzebue Native Village of KotzebueKikiktagruk CorporationNANA Corporation
Koyuk Native Village of Koyuk-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Mary's Igloo Native Village of Mary's Igloo-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Noatak Native Village of Noatak-NANA Corporation
Nome Nome Eskimo CommunitySitnasuak CorporationBering Straits Native Corporation
Noorvik Noorvik Native Community-NANA Corporation
Nuiqsut Native Village of NuiqsutKuukpikArctic Slope Native Corporation
Point Hope Native Village of Point HopeTikiġaq CorporationArctic Slope Regional Corporation
Point Lay Native Village of Point LayCully CorporationArctic Slope Regional Corporation
Selawik Native Village of Selawik-NANA Corporation
Shaktoolik Native Village of Shaktoolik-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Shishmaref Native Village of ShishmarefShismaref Native CorporationBering Straits Native Corporation
Shungnak Native Village of Shungnak-NANA Corporation
Solomon Village of Solomon-Bering Straits Native Corporation
Teller Native Village of TellerTeller Native CorporationBering Straits Native Corporation
Unalakleet Native Village of UnalakleetUnalakleet Native CorporationBering Straits Regional Corporation
UtqiaġvikNative Village of Barrow Inupiat Traditional GovernmentUkpeagvik CorporationArctic Slope Regional Corporation
Wainwright Village of WainwrightOlgoonik CorporationArctic Slope Regional Corporation
Wales Native Village of Wales-Bering Straits Regional Corporation
White Mountain Native Village of White Mountain-Bering Straits Native Corporation

Languages

Inuit, the language and the people, extend borders and dialects across the Circumpolar North. Inuit are the Native inhabitants of Northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. The Inuit languages form a dialect continuum and have differing names depending on the region it is spoken in. In Northern Alaskan, the Inuit language is called Iñupiatun. Within Iñupiatun, there are four major dialects: North Slope, Malimiut, Bering Straits, and Qawiaraq. Before European contact, the Iñupiaq dialects flourished. Due to harsh assimilation efforts in Native American boarding schools, Natives were punished for speaking their language. Now only 2,000 of the approximately 24,500 Inupiat can speak their Native tongue.
Revitalization efforts have focused on Alaskan Native languages and ways of life. Located in Kotzebue, Alaska, an Iñupiaq language immersion school called Nikaitchuat Iḷisaġviat was established in 1998. The immersion school's mission is to "instill the knowledge of Iñupiaq identity, dignity, respect and to cultivate a love of lifelong learning". June Nelson Elementary school is another school in Kotzebue that is working to include more content into their curriculum about Iñupiaq language and culture. Nome Elementary School in Nome, Alaska has also put in place plans to incorporate an Iñupiaq language immersion program. There are many courses being offered at the various campuses a part of the University of Alaska system. University of Alaska Fairbanks offers several course in the Iñupiaq language. University of Alaska Anchorage offers multiple levels of Elementary Iñupiaq Language and Alaskan Native language apprenticeship and fluency intensive courses.
Since 2017, a grassroots group of Iñupiaq language learners have organized Iḷisaqativut, a two-week Iñupiaq language intensive that is held throughout communities in the Inupiaq region. The first gathering was held in Utqiaġvik in 2017, Siqnasuaq in 2018, and Qikiqtaġruk in 2019.
In 2014, linguist and educator Edna Ahgeak MacLean released an Iñupiaq-English dictionary after three decades of research, compiling over 19,000 entries. Kawerak, a nonprofit organization from the Bering Strait region, has created a language glossary that features terms from Iñupiaq, as well as terms from English, Yup'ik, and St. Lawrence Island Yupik.
Several Iñupiat developed pictographic writing systems in the early twentieth century. It is known as Alaskan Picture Writing.

History

Along with other Inuit groups, the Iñupiaq originate from the Thule culture. Circa 300 B.C., the Thule migrated from islands in the Bering Sea to what now is Alaska.
Iñupiaq groups, in common with Inuit-speaking groups, often have a name ending in "miut," which means 'a people of'. One example is the Nunamiut, a generic term for inland Iñupiaq caribou hunters. During a period of starvation and an influenza epidemic, most of these people moved to the coast or other parts of Alaska between 1890 and 1910. A number of Nunamiut returned to the mountains in the 1930s.
By 1950, most Nunamiut groups, such as the Killikmiut, had coalesced in Anaktuvuk Pass, a village in north-central Alaska. Some of the Nunamiut remained nomadic until the 1950s.
The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Dena'ina and Deg Hit'an Athabaskan American Indians and the Inupiat.