April 21, 2010 Yup’ik elder Paul John and his ancestors didn’t
have motorized cars or electric tools to survive their home in
the sub-arctic tundra of Southwest Alaska. For hundreds of
years, his people lived without technology, “using their arms
and legs” to build homes and villages, hunt for food, cook,
perform spiritual rituals, and “simply live.” There was no
dependence on corporations or stores—only the land, and each
other. “We had to do with what we had,” he said, in the Yup’ik
language. “It wasn’t always easy.” At 82, Paul John is part of a
dwindling group of Yup’ik elders who fear young Yup’iks will
grow up without understanding or even knowing the traditions
that have guided his community and allowed it to thrive. But
last week at the opening of a new exhibit at the National Museum
of Natural History that explores the past two centuries of
Yup’ik history, Paul John had hope. “I’m very thankful,” he
said, with the help of translator Mark John, president of the
region’s elders council. Paul John and m