Yupik Subsistence Patterns

Salmon is the mainstay of the Yupik diet. Great numbers of all five species of Alaskan salmon return annually to the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers to spawn. From June to September, the focus of Yupik communities was catching salmon. They caught them with gill nets from a kayak, pole weirs, or funnel-shaped fish traps. The people also fished for salmon from riverbanks or their kayaks using short rods and sinew lines. 

In addition to salmon, the Yupik people caught blackfish and whitefish (both excellent sources of oil), herring, and other kinds of fish. In winter, they set fish traps under the river ice.

While relying on fish, the Yupik also took marine mammals like the Inupiaq. Beluga whales and seals were important parts of the coastal Yupik diet. Inland Yupik men traveled to the Bering Sea coast to hunt these between the fishing and trapping seasons. 

The wetlands of the Y-K Delta are also rich in waterfowl. Yupik people hunted birds and ducks in spring and fall. Some men, particularly those who lived in villages near Athabaskan villages, traveled to the mountains to hunt large game animals such as moose, caribou, and sheep using bows and arrows.

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