The Iñupiat 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.
Iñupiat woman sharing a kunik with a small child at a Nalukataq in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, 2007
Semi-underground men's community house (Qargi) with bowhead whale bones, Point Hope, Alaska, 1885
Iñupiaq high-kickball, ca. 1910, Utqiaġvik, Alaska, collection of the NMAI
A family of Iñupiat from Noatak, Alaska, 1929 – by Edward S. Curtis
Alaska Natives are the Indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Alaskan Creoles, Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures. They are often defined by their language groups. Many Alaska Natives are enrolled in federally recognized Alaska Native tribal entities, who in turn belong to 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations, who administer land and financial claims.
Alaska Native dancer performing in Fairbanks
Alaska Native Languages
Yupik mother and child, Nunivak Island, c. 1929; photographed by Edward S. Curtis.
Metlakahtla brass band
