Alaska Native religion
Traditional Alaskan Native religion involves mediation between people and spirits, souls, and other immortal beings.
Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Inuit (including Iñupiat), Yupik, Aleut, and Northwest Coastal Indian cultures, but today are less common.
[3] For example, at the end of the 19th century, Sagdloq, the last medicine man among what were then called in English, "Polar Eskimos", died; he was believed to be able to travel to the sky and under the sea, and was also known for using ventriloquism and sleight-of-hand.
[9]) Most Alaskan Native cultures traditionally have some form of spiritual healer or ceremonial person who mediate between the spirits and humans of the community.
[10] The person fulfilling this role is believed to be able to command helping spirits, ask mythological beings (e.g., Nuliayuk among the Netsilik Inuit and Takanaluk-arnaluk in Aua's narration) to "release" the souls of animals, enable the success of the hunt, or heal sick people by bringing back their "stolen" souls.
[17][18] The death of either a person or a game animal requires that certain activities, such as cutting and sewing, be avoided to prevent harming their souls.
In Greenland, the transgression of this "death taboo" could turn the soul of the dead into a tupilaq, a restless ghost who scared game away.
[19] Chugach spiritual healers may begin their work after an out-of-body experience, such as seeing oneself as a skeleton, exemplified in Aua's (Iglulik) narration and a Baker Lake artwork[20][21] In some Alaskan Native communities, the spiritual people have used a distinctly archaic version of the community's normal language interlaced with special metaphors and speech styles.
[23] The shamans among the Siberian Yupik peoples had a special language that used periphrastic substitutions for names of objects and phenomena; they used it for conversation with the [tuʁnɨʁaq] ('spirits').
[10] These spirits were believed to have a special language with certain substitutes for ordinary words ("the one with a drum": "shaman"; "that with tusks": "walrus").
[29] In some groups such variants were used when speaking with spirits invoked by the angakkuq and with unsocialised babies who grew into the human society through a special ceremony performed by the mother.
Knud Rasmussen mentioned Arnaqaoq, a young Netsilik Inuit living in King William Island.
Later he accepted the task, and he spent hours to re-experience his visions, sometimes so lucidly that he had to stop drawing when his whole body began to quiver.
Non-angakkuq could experience hallucinations,[37][38] and almost every Alaskan Native can report memories of ghosts, animals in human form, or little people living in remote places.
[43][44] Some laypeople had a greater capacity than others for close relationships with special beings of the belief system; these people were often apprentice angakkuit who failed to complete their learning process.
[45] In some of the cultures, angakkuit may fulfill multiple functions, including healing, curing infertile women, and securing the success of hunts.
In several Alaskan Native cultures, it is the "free soul" of the angakkuq that undertakes these spirit journeys (to places such as the land of dead, the home of the Sea Woman, or the moon) whilst his body remains alive.
[58] Similarly to several other Eskimo cultures, the name-giving of a newborn baby among Siberian Yupik meant that a deceased person was affected, a certain rebirth was believed.
Similar public rituals were used in the cases of taboo breaches that endangered the whole community (bringing the wrath of mythical beings causing calamities).
[64] According to a record, a man was forced to use all his magic formulae in an extremely dangerous situation, and this resulted in losing all his conjurer capabilities.
[10][72] Compared to the variants found among Eskimo groups of America, shamanism among Siberian Yupiks stressed more the importance of maintaining good relationship with sea animals.
