Angalkut/Shamans in Yup’ik Oral Tradition

Angalkut/Shamans in Yup’ik Oral Tradition collects over thirty years’ worth of shaman stories, told as part of gatherings organized by Calista Education and Culture to document Yup’ik traditional knowledge. These conversations highlight the critical role angalkut played in Yup’ik life--healing the sick, interpreting dreams and unusual experiences, requesting future abundance through masked dances and other ceremonies, protecting the lives of young children, and dealing with the dead.

The book begins with an English introduction that places Yup’ik oral traditions in the context of shamanism in Alaska and other parts of the Arctic. Then first-person accounts presented in the original Yup’ik with accompanying English translations discuss the importance of shamans and shamanism in general, good and bad shamans, and shamans as healers. Narratives from Nelson Island, Canineq, Kuskokwim River, Akulmiut, and Yukon River describe shamans as healers, shaman journeys and performances, shamans and masked dances requesting abundance, shamans and the dead, malicious shamans, shaman confrontations, becoming a shaman, and those who have shaman abilities today. A detailed glossary and references are also included.

Today, not only are these angalkut gone, but so are those who witnessed and participated in their activities. Angalkut/Shamans in Yup’ik Oral Tradition is the first book devoted exclusively to Yup’ik angalkut; never before has the variety of angalkut roles been profiled in publication, including the richness of elders’ recollections of these individuals and their roles. There is great value in the stories they left behind. This fine-grained presentation of unique, bilingual first-person narratives is an essential resource for scholars and students interested in Yup’ik heritage, Yugtun language, shaman ethnography, and Alaska Native oral traditions.

Ann Fienup-Riordan has lived and worked in Alaska since 1973. An anthropologist documenting Yup’ik history and oral traditions with the Calista Elders Council (now Calista Education and Culture) since 2000, she has written and edited more than twenty books, including Yungcautnguuq Nunam Qainga Tamarmi/All the Land’s Surface Is Medicine: Edible and Medicinal Plants of Southwest Alaska.

Alice Rearden is a fluent Yup’ik speaker and teaches Yup’ik at Bethel Regional High School. She was the primary translator and oral historian at the Calista Elders Council and has coedited and translated numerous books on Yup’ik history and oral traditions, including Yungcautnguuq Nunam Qainga Tamarmi/All the Land’s Surface Is Medicine: Edible and Medicinal Plants of Southwest Alaska.

Marie Meade has worked as a translator, teacher, and Yup’ik language specialist for more than thirty years. She is the translator and coeditor of several books, including Yungcautnguuq Nunam Qainga Tamarmi/All the Land’s Surface Is Medicine: Edible and Medicinal Plants of Southwest Alaska.