Eskimos the last "real" people

Hello all, I'm new here and just wanted to post something that has been on my mind for a very, very long time.

I am part of the Yup'ik Eskimo lineage, and for the most of my youth I was brought up the white man's way, going to school, reading, writing, working for money and all that. Recently I have been delving into my roots and trying to learn more about my heritage. I have checked many books out from our local library that had any content or referances to the Yup'ik culture. So far I have learned that we Yup'ik were one of the last indigenous cultures to be indoctrined into the "civilized" world at or around the late 1900's. Or in other words, up until a 100 years ago, we were living the way we have lived for thousands and thousands of years.

This brings me to my hypothesis that we are the last "real" people of this world.

The word Yup'ik translates to "Real People".
yuk-people/ pik-real = Yup'ik - Real People

We have co-existed harmoniously with nature since time immemorial,
all of our oral stories have lessons that teach us not to take more than we need from the land, to treat the animals that co-exist with us with respect, for since we take from the land, so we must also give back to the land.
We treat all of our elders and elderly folk with respect since they carry knowledge and history. Young men and women are taught to respect everyone and everything in our world from the very moment we are brought into our community.

I also beleive we are the last real people because out of all of the other indigenous cultures of north america we still retain 99% our native language, our oral histories, our native dances and native traditions. If you come to any western Alaska Yup'ik village you will find that almost every single person speaks our native language. can that be said of any other native culture in north america or anywhere for that matter?

Welcome.

Would it be possible to share some of the old myths and traditions, as I am very interested in ancient history and civilizations of real antiquity.

Up until a hundred years ago the Yup'ik Eskimo lived like the old days? What changed that? What exactly is "white man's way"?

Do they teach humility?

And I am sure there are plenty of tribes in remote regions of the world that live by the exact same conduct. But I guess in Alaska without "white man's tech" it would be hard to know that

Thanks for sharing.

[edit on 30-6-2008 by astronomine] missing words to form a complete sentence

[edit on 30-6-2008 by astronomine]

reply to post by a2r3f


The last 'real' people ? OK... so then... all the peoples in the rain forest are known ? all tribes of papua new guinea and borneo accounted for ? every last one ? no... and you know why ? they are still living as they have for aeons in the rain forests and jungles of their homes.

The eskimo peoples did change later than alot of folks, but the last 'real' people ?

Thats absurd claim to make.

We know for certain there are uncontacted tribes in PNG and Borneo, also in the SA rain forests..

One last thought..... dammit man have all eskimos got egos the size of yours ? a dose of humility wouldn't go amiss either..

'white mans ways' . . . . . what racist clap trap.



[edit on 30-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

At least you had some warning - Well, the Inupiat did at least. Maniixaq saw a lot of what was coming before it came.

However there's a wider range than you say. The circumpolar peoples, from the Saami to the Samoyed to your own to the Kalaallit Nunaat Inuit, are among the last, ans are many of the equatorial peoples. The Aka, Efe and Mbuti of Africa still live much as they always did, save for the danger posed by Bantu wars in their regions. The people of New Guinea and many in the Amazon are also still live as they have.

And then there are the Sentinelese people of the Andaman Islands, who are completely untouched by outsiders. They kill trespassers and have even driven away helicopters with arrow fire.

And then there are numerous reconstructionists, doing best as they can.

'White man' is often the term that indiginous peoples label those who assimilated their cultures into western civilization. It's not politically correct, but it is historically correct. I prefer to use the term industrialized citizen when refering to those who spread the dominant culture.

You know, there was a time when indiginous white people were conquered and assimilated into western civilization. Charlemagne sent his armies to conquer the indiginous peoples of Northern Europe (Jutes and Danes) in the 8th/9th century.

reply to post by wingman77


It's still going on - the Saami I mentioned above are in very real danger of having their cultural way of life smashed under the pressures of logging and zoning in Finland and Russia. The Basques are struggling to maintain their own heritage. There are plenty of European cultures in danger of fading out under pressure from their neighbors.

reply to post by a2r3f


Thanks for sharing!

I agree we should treat all lifeforms equally no matter what they are with respect.

That goes for the earth itself which is alive.

Please share more, what are your religious beliefs?

I mean what do the Eskimos believe in?

Extraterrestrials, Genesis, Evolution, Big-bang?

Thanks


[edit on 30-6-2008 by Alien_Question]

This smacks of the "noble savage" myth.

I'll give you this much - our postmodern civilization is beginning to turn inward, to reacquaint ourselves with primordial truths and harmony with nature.

It might be nice to think that aboriginal peoples had it right all along, and gosh, weren't we foolish to go astray... but then we wouldn't have air conditioning or the Web to play on.

It's a spiral. We spiral out, and before you know it we arrive back at a place where we can view nature and our place in it with a new pair of eyes. So, we take what is good, but we keep spiraling outward. I think it's good that we are coming to that place where we can take what is good from the example of the aboriginals, but I'm glad we didn't stop there the first time we found it. I like air conditioning.

Originally posted by wingman77
You know, there was a time when indiginous white people were conquered and assimilated into western civilization. Charlemagne sent his armies to conquer the indiginous peoples of Northern Europe (Jutes and Danes) in the 8th/9th century.

UMMMM EXSQUEEZE ME,
The Jutes and the some of the people now know as danes were just two of the dozens of germanic tribes that migrated into europe during the roman era.

The Franks were an assemblage of western Germanic tribes that allied themselves with the romans early on
When you get right down to it the, Gaulic peoples of Europe were there long before the germanic speaking peoples arrived and before the latin speaking people from italy.
It was really in fact quite the opposite, the germanic migrations from the east, displaced all of the earlier peoples in northern europe.

In the mid first millenia, the Jutes along with thier Angle and Saxon neighbors invaded the British Isle and came to subjugate the british people for the next 400 years, til the normans showed up and conquered everyone.
In the 6th century the Jute king who ruled the anglo/saxon tribes and britain, married the daughter of the king of the franks.

Not to point out the obvious here..but isn't the word Eskimo politically incorrect?
Like calling a Native American an Indian.
Is the correct term not Inuit?

Waqaa Cangaciit (hello how are you doing), I am sorry if I ruffled anyones feathers here, it was not my intention. I was just stating my opinion that I believe were are the last real people because we Yup'ik are living with 2 hearts these days. 1 heart belongs to the old ways and 1 heart belongs to the modern days, we are living with our moral codes and understandings and also adopting some new ones. We were always taught to find a happy medium in our lives and not to seak out to be better than anyone, but I may have trodden on that a little bit in my previous post.

I'd like to tell you all a little story.

Here is one story that I like very much...

It is the story of sight, Many years ago, before the civilized culture arrived in their ships, young yup'ik warriors and hunters were always told to save their sight for hunt or war. It was said that like any resource, sight can be used too much and wear out. Young men were always to avert their eyes away from women unless neccessary, for if the young men looked to long at women they would lose their ability to see anything but women. In that sense, when hunting the hunter would not be able to see the seal or moose and vice versa, the moose or seal would not be able to see him. It was also said that the animals that he hunts could see the hunters world through his eyes, that they would be able to view how he lived his life, if he was viewed as a women chaser instead of a productive member of the community, the animals would not see him fit to give their lives to him.
This is just a general story told to us, no specific names are used just the circumstances are told.

Story of greed and revenge

On the Black River there was a village called Cingigmiut. At one time this was the most powerful village on the Black River, until a child was born to one of the most respectable hunter in the village. From the first day this child was born his mother horded and fed him every chance she got. Soon this child was to be know as "Big Mouth" because no matter how much food the village gave to the mother, the child would never get full. One night during Itertaaq (A Festival that took place in September, this festival lasted five days. It means, to go into the houses of the people) the villagers stole "Big Mouth" from his home and hid him away in the mountains, bound and tied to a stake. Even though the mother cried and cried and wondered where her "Big Mouth" was, no one would tell her for fear of her child eating the village out of house and home. One day a Ircinrraq (a supernatural being that resemble the irish leprechan that is full of mischeif and lies) came to the mother and told her of what the villagers had done. Having heard this the mother had asked the Ircinrraq to place a spell on "Big Mouth" that would enable him to stretch his mouth enough to fit people in so that he could eat the people who had done this to him, and that she wanted him freed from his exile, in turn she would leave her husband and be his slave for the rest of her life. The Ircinrraq saw this as a great blessing for himself, and also saw a chance to get rid of the people that had moved in on his land. So he went to "Big Mouth" and placed the spell that his mother had asked, but also placed one that increased his already insatiable hunger, and set him free upon the village. In a matter of days "Big Mouth" had eaten the entire village, except his mother. After seeing this, Ircinrraq returned to the village to collect his new slave/wife and her child, keeping "Big Mouth" around just in case he came upon any other greedy people, so that he may show them what might become of them, if they did not heed his warning he would let loose "Big Mouth" upon that village also.

On our beliefs, we believe that everything has a soul, from rocks to the birds that fly in our sky. Before christianity came we beleived in one creator "Cillam Cua". Many of our stories also deal with supernatural beings. If you ever get the chance come to our villages and you will hear about many strange creatures and happenings. Some of the more strange creatures are Giants "Civuliaqatuk", Little People, men that are covered from head to toe in fur, witches, and shaman. Even the northern lights have a soul, it is said that they are beings that dance in the sky in celebration of returning home from successful slave raids, sometimes they don't even take slaves, it is said that they are able to decend from the sky and behead people who live lives of treachery and lies.

Though there are no stories of UFO's or anything of that sort, we have seen many strange things in our skies. for example when I was younger, my family was traveling by skiff to the next village up river to attend a gathering, and about half way on the trip we saw a lot of silver "crafts" in the sky in broad daylight. At first we were all scared out of our wits because it seemed that they were checking us out, flying close to us and seemed to be following us on our little journey. Just about 2 miles before we hit the next village they seemed to loose interest and flew off. A couple of hours later when other people arrived to the same village they said they also saw the strange crafts in the sky. This was quite a while ago and I can't remember what gathering we were attending but the story circulated for a long time.

One of the most well know stories is of a witch-women "Sturrpaq", who can change her appearance to look like a beautiful woman. She would be a type of vampire I guess, she would change her appearance and lure young men "Ayaakutat" away from their village to her home, and procede to sap their strength away by intercourse. She had long, sharp nails "stuuks", she would run like an animal on all fours, using her long nails to help her travel at inhuman speeds. The only way to get away from her is to make her think you are going to have intercourse with her, and then blind her with charcoal so that see cannot see you when you are running away.

There is also a story of the greatest warrior in the land, "Apunuugpak". He was trained in many ways like a spartan. Tought to never surrender, to never give up. From the moment he was born he was being trained in the art of the bow and arrow, club and bone knife. His grandfater would give him daily tasks that seemed to be impossible at first, but through strength, ingenuity, and cunning he would surmount these impossible tasks.
To make him fast he had to be able to out run a fox, to make him strong he would have to fight a bear with only his hands, to quicken his thinking he had to outwit a wolf, to be hardy he was dumped into the wilderness to forge on whatever he was able to find to eat. In many stories he is either the villain or the victor. But he always came out on top. One of his most well know feats of war was that no one could ever penetrate his parka with an arrow because he had armor that was built out of shells underneath his parka, and whenever someone dared shoot an arrow at him it would bounce off and he was know to say, "Shoot your arrows at me, but they will always land on the beach."

These are just a few stories that I can remember off hand, I must ask some of my elders for more and to see if it is ok if I share them.

To Access Denied - Sorry no we do not call ourselves Inuit, those are the people who live in the far north of Canada. We are the Yup'ik people. Further north of us are the Inupiaq, the people to the south of us are the Alutiiq (a removed cousin to the yup'ik). There are also the Athabaskan, Tglingit, and Tsimsian.

Didn't you see the photos of an uncontacted south american tribe trying to shoot a helicopter with bows and arrows , hahaha that was some funny #. Would be amazing to experience what these uncontacted tribes experience, do they choose not to adapt to modern ways , or do they not know anything about us. I guess trying to integrate these people into modern society would be near impossible, would take years of adaptation if not generations. I'm sure that we could learn a fair bit from these people as well.

reply to post by aLinkToThePast


Heh, I've seen that. I can't imagine what they thought the helicopter must be, having no experience with such things. Giant flying thing with people inside, and making a ton of noise? Given what kind of things were going on in their heads at the time, they were very brave for standing up to it, though.

a2r3f: I'll readily admit I know very little about your people or other peoples of the north, and probably in my mind am lumping them all together as one, but I seem to remember reading that at least for Inuit people, they have lost a great deal of their original culture, due to the usual factors brought about by contact with other peoples. For instance, the building of igloos is almost a lost art.

I am glad your people have managed to retain most of their traditions, though. It's sad when some cultures, usually through no fault of their own, have lost them. I sometimes question the value of learning a language that probably only a few thousand people worldwide speak, but I love the idea of keeping stories and knowledge and history and all that stuff.

Just out of curiosity, why are you called 'the real people?' That seems to imply that there were outsiders your ancestors felt were not 'real people', maybe other eskimo groups or something?

Welcome, a2r3f. As it happens, I have visited the Yupiak and Inuit and Inupiaq and Salish and Tlingit peoples on a trip to Alaska and spoke (briefly) with some of the public speakers. I had the privelege of speaking with an artist from King's Island, and she told me a number of tales about her childhood and with a hunter who showed us the skull of a walrus he killed last year and told about the whale hunts.

It was a privelege to speak to them.

While it's true that the Alaskan Natives who live north of the Arctic Circle are the ones who have retained most of their culture here in North America, there are other places where the original culture has remained relatively intact. In some areas of Mexico the indigenous people have kicked Christian missionaries out of the villages, wanting to make their own decisions about culture and religion.

You might look up some of the work of anthropologist Franz Boaz, who lived among the Alaska natives in the 1900's. He recorded a lot of tales from the tribes and wrote about a lot of the ceremonies... his work was mostly Tlingit (as I recall) but there were other tribes mentioned as well.

And some of the anthropological databases have stories and records of life among the people of the north. There's always a need for histories -- remember to record what you hear and what you learn, because your children will need to know it someday.

Your people's view of themselves as "True People" and of unchanged culture is actually the same belief of every aboriginal group (to use an anthropologist's term.) In every single culture, the name for the people of that culture is "true humans" ... and they have nicknames for other tribes and people.

To the OP, I'm just curious. You say your people are the last "real" people? That's kind of insulting, don't you think? So I'm a "fake" person? In what way do you mean real? What are the rest of us?

Originally posted by punkinworks
UMMMM EXSQUEEZE ME,
The Jutes and the some of the people now know as danes were just two of the dozens of germanic tribes that migrated into europe during the roman era.

The Franks were an assemblage of western Germanic tribes that allied themselves with the romans early on
When you get right down to it the, Gaulic peoples of Europe were there long before the germanic speaking peoples arrived and before the latin speaking people from italy.
It was really in fact quite the opposite, the germanic migrations from the east, displaced all of the earlier peoples in northern europe.
...

Thanks, my mistake. My point was that 'white' indigenous peoples have been swallowed up by the beast we know as civilization, just as others have been.

The damned Romans/Egyptians are still in power today.

Originally posted by karata
To the OP, I'm just curious. You say your people are the last "real" people? That's kind of insulting, don't you think? So I'm a "fake" person? In what way do you mean real? What are the rest of us?

It is very common in both tribal and larger groups to think of yourself as the "only real people".

I remember Ishi the last California "Free" Native American surprizing everyone by calling a member of a visiting Japanese delegation, "man" or "person", while he used the word "stranger" for white and black people. Obviously to him the Japanese looked closer to his identity than the others.

Very few people live in the same area their ancestors once did. Everyone is an emigrant - from Africa and within Africa from a different region.

DNA testing is starting to give us some idea how all this worked out.