The native peoples of Alaska are divided into 5 main groups: the Inupiaq (whale hunters of the north), the Yupik of the west, the Aleut (water people of the Aleutians), the Athabascans of the central region including Anchorage & Fairbanks, and the Tlingit of the southeast including Juneau.

The Athabascan group is the largest and is subsequently broken up into smaller groups. Amongst these people, 11 languages and 22 dialects are spoken. In general, none of the native languages was a written language until the Russians showed up and began developing a written form for many of the spoken languages.

During the workshop, we have heard from an Aleut man (the facilitator) who was raised to believe he was not native. He grew up on both Kodiak Island and in Seattle. In his village on Kodiak, they spoke Russian and sometimes English. He didn’t realize some of his native tongue was mixed in with the Russian. Natives had been made to feel that being native was being inferior. So they denied being native to some degree. It’s a long story, which I’ll try to get into further in a later posting.

We also heard from a Yupik man and a woman who is part Yupik and part Inupiaq. And we heard from a Tlingit man who currently lives in Anchorage. All these people basically dress like you and I, but also dress in traditional clothing when the occasion calls for that.

We took a tour of the indoor museum exhibits yesterday. Today we’ll be touring the outdoor village site exhibits. I’m really enjoying this class. It’s the most interesting thing I’ve done since arriving in Alaska. I would highly recommend visiting the Alaska Native Heritage Center to anyone who comes to the Anchorage area. It’s only been open since 1999, and the facility is very new, clean, and well done.


These items made by the Athabascans include a moose bladder basket and some birch baskets. In the second photo is a birch bowl with wild cranberries and an ulu knife.