Inupiaraaqta!

The following is a modified article submitted to the Arctic Sounder newspaper.

In 1980, linguist and UAF Alaska Native Language Center founder Michael Krauss published a paper titled "Alaska Native Languages Past, Present, and Future." Krauss describes the origin and captures a profile of each Alaska Native language, but he also speculates about each language's future vitality. His observations for Inupiatun, unfortunately, have as much resonance today as they did twenty-nine years ago: 

The average young person in Barrow probably still learns in school more about Greece than Greenland; he may not even know that Greenland exists. If his knowledge about the Inuit world is broadened, if natural communication and cultural exchange do not remain blocked from him, if he is able to experience the potential cultural strength of an international Inuit world, Alaskan Inuit [language] may find the support it needs to survive, to stop withering in its own isolation before the onslaught of acculturative forces such as the school, radio, television, cinema, and White population pressure (1980: 110). 

Today, many Inupiat still look south to Juneau and Washington, D.C. for curricular guidance rather than to Iqaluit and Nuuk. Alaska Natives often talk about the culturally assimilative climate in Alaska Native community classrooms in the past tense, without really acknowledging that acculturative forces are still at play in the curricula offered our children.  At the time of his writing, the Inuit of Canada's central and eastern Arctic were five years in to negotiations with the Canadian federal government that would result in the largest aboriginal land claim ever, and the creation of a new territory and government: Nunavut ("Our Land"). Carved out of the former Northwest Territories in 1999, Nunavut Territory is ground zero for some of the most exciting advances in the protection, promotion, and strengthening of the Inuit language today. It is a jurisdiction in which Inuit, as the majority, now have the power to guide policy and discourse. Although many challenges exist within the endeavor to create a bilingual education system and culturally responsive territorial curriculum, it is at least an endeavor, which is more than can be said of most cultural regions in Alaska. 

Inupiatun is a dialect within the Inuit language family, which stretches from Little Diomede Island in western Alaska to Ittoqqortoormiit in east Greenland. Geographically, the Inuit language and culture is the largest on earth. Nunavut Territory is nearly 100,000 square miles bigger than Alaska, taking up the central and eastern Arctic. The primary role of the Government of Nunavut, Inuit leaders envisioned, would be to insure the survival of the Inuit language and culture into the twenty-first century.  

 

Through history, Alaska Natives have maintained that we are unique peoples, resisting full assimilation into American society. Because languages shape cultural identities they have always been the centerpiece in that struggle. Languages reflect the cultural values and environment that shape them, and put simply, they breathe life into, and literally give voice to cultures. Unfortunately, northern Alaska remains isolated from some of the most exciting action being taken in other parts of the Arctic to strengthen Native languages. Nunavummiut are re-envisioning their society to include an education system that reflects who they are and where they come from through laws that honor and protect the Inupiaq dialects spoken in their homeland for thousands of years.  

 

In 2008 the Government of Nunavut, representing 30,000 people, 85% of whom are Inuit, passed legislation that aims to insure bi-lingual and culturally relevant education in all territorial schools. Working in the territorial capital of Iqaluit for the Inuit land claims organization, I have the unique opportunity over the next six months to participate in the Canadian Inuit approach to language revival and education. In my opinion, the progressive and inspiring Inuit perspective in Nunavut is important to understand as the Inupiaq language continues to suffer from neglect in Alaska. 

  

The Legislative Assembly in Iqaluit. 

Growing up in Anchorage, it was easy to take the Inupiaq language for granted. Of course, it wasn’t taught in schools, broadcast on the radio or included in TV programming. Many of my friends and I simply didn’t have exposure to Inupiatun. I heard snatches of the language – single words and phrases learned from my mother, who was born in Deering and a fluent speaker as a child. As I grew older, I became more aware that we have a language of our own and realized that we are all stake-holders in its future, no matter where we live. I met Native students in college from around the country and realized that Inupiat are fortunate to still have a land base, language, and cultural identity. I sought out elders and other resources in Anchorage and began learning as much Inupiaq as I could. 

On the other hand, it became clear through visits to the Arctic and speaking with friends and relatives, as well as through work experience, that not nearly enough is being done to preserve, promote, and pass on our most precious cultural asset to the next generation. In 2005, the McDowell Group prepared a report ("Aqqaluk Trust Language Survey") documenting levels of fluency and understanding of the Inupiaq language in the Northwest Arctic. Out of 4,112 respondents in the region, only 575 people indicated Inupiatun fluency, ninety-two percent of whom were over the age of 65. For the Arctic as a whole, linguist Michael Krauss estimated in 2007 that only 2,144 fluent speakers of Inupiaq remain of 15,700 total Inupiat. There are even fewer today, as Krauss used the 2000 Census to make his estimates. 

Inupiaq will slip into extinction as a living language within my lifetime unless time, energy, brainpower and finances are invested in its revival and use - that much is known for sure. The first step is acknowledging that our language is a crucial expression of our cultural identity and a relevant communication tool. Inupiaq is an international language and its dialects are spoken by tens of thousands of people east of Alaska, and through this article I hope to relate what Inuit in Nunavut are doing to keep it that way. When ANCSA was passed in 1971, Inuit leaders were amazed by what many saw as a groundbreaking achievement with critical Inupiat participation. Similarly, the survival of Inupiaq in Alaska may depend on following the example of urgent reform being set by the Inuit of Nunavut.