ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses Indigenous Religions in Alaska by concentrating on one group of indigenous people, the Yupiit. Indigenous Religions everywhere engage dynamically with forces of modernity and globalization. The Yupiit and Inupiat of Alaska thus claim a common ancestry with the other Inuit peoples in Eastern Siberia and Asia, who probably appeared on the west coast of Alaska in relatively recent times, perhaps just over 2400 years ago. The qasgiq was strictly a men's house, into which women were allowed only on specific occasions, during prescribed ceremonies or during winter festivals. The Messenger Feast is important partly because it indicates how social relationships were constructed in typical Yupiit communities and how neighbouring villages related to one another. The Great Feast for the Dead was held in a particular village every five to ten years, although, because as an intra-regional event people were invited to the ceremony from other villages, some families might attend a different one every year.
