Culture Change and Identity Among Alaska Natives: Retaining Control

Abstract

To date, Alaska Natives have changed in some respects and remained the same in other as a result of exposure to and interaction with the non-Native world.Like other Native Americans, they have been much more motivated to preserve what they can of their traditional view of the world in their reactions to missionaries ad agents of change in general than has been appreciated. This paper gives a general outline of culture change and changes in personal and group identity among Alaska Natives. It draws from the recent history of the Yup'ik-speaking residents of western Alaska, an area of the state where this process has been relatively recent and where social problems associated with rapid culture change are at present particularly intense.