Do Not Live Without an Elder is part of a continuing series of bilingual works documenting Yup’ik life, language, and culture in western Alaska, sponsored by the Calista Elders Council.
While their previous efforts in documenting Yup’ik oral traditions included holding “topic-specific gatherings” involving many individuals, this book was a gathering of six men, who were community leaders and Calista Elders Council members, over several days in October 2010. All were well versed in Yup’ik life and culture, and fluent Yup’ik speakers. As in previous publications, the bulk of the book is presented in bilingual format, with the exception of the introduction. John Phillip, Paul John, Nick Andrew, Moses Paukan, Martin Moore, and Bob Aloysius are the speakers whose words provide the main body of this book (yet whose names are absent from the book’s title and description).
The focus of this book is on the knowledge of the local environment. Specific aspects were fused with narrative accounts, both first person and traditional, with much back and forth between the participants, resulting in the overall flavor of one listening in quietly to a conversation of elders. Many valuable techniques and ideas of engaging with the environment in terms of hunting, food preparation and storage, and survival are documented in the resulting conversation, reminding me in some ways of the popular Foxfire series.
The cultural exploration of the environment took several major forms in the book: one well-explored theme was of the dangers of traveling (on land, ice, and water), a topic of continuing relevance to many Yup’ik (and others) in the area. Another theme was of the ethnohistorical accounts of placenames related to the time of warfare. Warfare was endemic in this region prior to the arrival of the Russian colonists, and the gruesome stories of raids, wars, and slaughters continue to echo through many placenames today.
The topic of placenames also included the strong role played by supernatural beings, such as the ircenrraat, an omnipresent part of Yup’ik cultural life. (“I think white people are ircenrraat” said Nick. “Like you” quipped Bob, referring to Nick’s Russian heritage. “You, too, are part ircenrraq” laughed Nick [22]. ) Other supernatural aspects of the land included the pellanat (places where one tends to get lost), and these supernatural aspects were discussed as part and parcel of the landscape and the everyday world.
Towards the end of the discussion, the concern of the men returned to the shared belief in the importance of the passing of Yup’ik knowledge, including the Yup’ik language, subsistence skills, and the whole narrative and cultural range of Yup’ik traditions. Many of these traditions had been sorely tested due to the adversarial position adopted by many missionaries and church leaders. The drum, for example, so central to so many communities, had been silenced in those communities governed by Moravian missionaries, who burned shamans’ drums and forbade people to drum or dance.
As in that example, there were many revealed instances of an ambivalent and conflicted relationship to Western culture in terms of politics, religion, and school, with many of the elders agreeing that the Western school system was making successful transmission of Yup’ik knowledge more difficult.
This bilingual book series is clearly intended to address that issue. Compared to many Native American languages, Yup’ik is in a healthy position as the most widely spoken Native language in Alaska, the second most spoken Native language in all the US (after Navajo), and the second most spoken language in Alaska. Yet the men make clear that they see the language drifting away, as fewer and fewer of their children and grandchildren speak it fluently. This book, then, can be viewed in terms of the ongoing efforts of linguistic revitalization—not merely because of the bilingual format, but also because the central concepts discussed are often so enmeshed with the Yup’ik language.
To conclude, this work is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Yup’ik culture, ethnohistory, and, perhaps most especially, language. Further, the many practical aspects of wilderness survival covered here would be words of wisdom to many outdoorsmen. But lastly, and perhaps most important, this work stands as a testament to a narrative rarely acknowledged: that of ongoing, vibrant Native cultures and languages. None of the speakers thought the essential elements of Yup’ik life were likely to change: youngsters still wanted to engage in subsistence, and still needed guidance as to how to do that.
In the introduction, Ann Fienup-Riordan writes, “This book, then, is more than a collection of stories, more than oral history written down. It is a plea for action, a testament to the importance of speaking to one’s own children and grandchildren as well as to young people everywhere” (24).
John Phillips, the eldest member, was thoughtful about the responsibilities that being an elder implied. He remembered advice he had received as a boy, “They would tell me, ‘You dear boy, don’t live without an elder. If you try to live without an elder, you won’t lead a good life.’”
The eternal search for wisdom, and one’s own involvement in such a quest, is at the heart of what I believe this book attempts to convey, and I do hope people listen.
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[Review length: 864 words • Review posted on December 19, 2019]