Minuk: Ashes in the Pathway

Then and Now: Yup’ik, Alaska

Discusses a girl’s life in Alaska in the 1890s in a Yup’ik tribe. Topics include:

• Yup’ik are a part of a larger family of Eskimo cultures that stretch from Siberia to Greenland
• Where Minuk’s people lived in the forest country of western Alaska
• How the village would’ve used all the plants and animals available throughout the changing seasons
• Temperate summers and freezing winters (sometimes colder than -50° Fahrenheit) forced them to wear specialized clothing
• Women made all clothing, and they were so skilled their stitches were nearly invisible—it would take until girls were adults before they mastered the art of sewing
• In the late 1700s, European explorers came to Alaska bringing deadly diseases
  • The first smallpox epidemic hit in 1838, and killed more than half the Yup’ik along the Kuskokwim River
  • Continuing waves of influenza, measles, and smallpox spread and wiped out entire families and villages
• By 1910, the Kuskokwim Yup’ik had reduced from about 4,000 to 500
  • Villages were abandoned and traditions were lost
• Missionaries urged Yup’ik to become Christian and adopt American medicine, education, dress, food, and manners
• Now, the Yup’ik population has grown again