Traditional indigenous cultural practices and beliefs
Yup'ik medicine man exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy. Nushagak, Alaska, 1890s.[1]
Traditional Alaskan Native religion involves mediation between people and spirits, souls, and other immortal beings. Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Inuit (including Iñupiat), Yupik, Aleut, and Northwest Coastal Indian cultures, but today are less common.[2] They were already in decline among many groups when the first major ethnological research was done.[3] For example, at the end of the 19th century, Sagdloq, the last medicine man among what were then called in English, "Polar Eskimos", died; he was believed to be able to travel to the sky and under the sea, and was also known for using ventriloquism and sleight-of-hand.[4]
The term "Eskimo" has fallen out of favour in Canada and Greenland, where it is considered pejorative and "Inuit" is used instead. However, "Eskimo" is still considered acceptable among some Alaska Natives of Yupik and Inupiaq (Inuit) heritage and is at times preferred over "Inuit" as a collective reference.
The Inuit and Yupik languages constitute one branch within the Eskimo–Aleut language family and the Aleut language is another. (The Sirenik Eskimo language is sometimes seen as a third branch[5][6][7][8] but sometimes as one of the Yupik languages.[9])
^Fienup-Riordan 1994: 206
^Merkur 1985: 4
^Merkur 1985:132
^Merkur 1985:134
^Linguist List's description about Nikolai Vakhtin Archived 2007-10-26 at the Wayback Machine's book: The Old Sirinek Language: Texts, Lexicon, Grammatical Notes Archived 2007-10-23 at the Wayback Machine. The author's untransliterated (original) name is Н.Б. Вахтин Archived 2007-09-10 at the Wayback Machine.
^Representing genealogical relations of (among others) Eskimo–Aleut languages by tree: Alaska Native Languages Archived 2006-09-10 at the Wayback Machine (found on the site of Alaska Native Language Center Archived 2009-01-23 at the Wayback Machine)
^Lawrence Kaplan: Comparative Yupik and Inuit Archived 2008-03-06 at the Wayback Machine (found on the site of Alaska Native Language Center Archived 2009-01-23 at the Wayback Machine)
^Endangered Languages in Northeast Siberia: Siberian Yupik and other Languages of Chukotka by Nikolai Vakhtin
^Ethnologue Report for Eskimo–Aleut
and 29 Related for: Alaska Native religion information
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