Common Customs

Despite their different origins, Alaska Native groups shared several common traits. They were all hunters and gatherers. They had no agriculture and only one domesticated animal, the dog. Each group had its own well-established annual subsistence cycle based on the seasons and availability of animals and fish. Oceans, rivers, and lakes were their principal travelways, and all of the groups had some kind of boat.

Shamans were important in each culture. This person, man or woman, looked after both the physical health and spiritual needs of the villagers. Shamans were the intermediaries between people and the spirit world.

A person's importance was often measured by his or her wealth. It might be represented by blankets, slaves, or other kinds of property. But people acquired wealth not to keep but to distribute to others. The rich gave away their wealth during Tlingit potlatches, Athabaskan festivals, Inupiaq messenger feasts, and Aleut theatrical gatherings. These different ceremonies had the same purposes: to share wealth with the less fortunate, gain prestige in the community, and to obligate others to give gifts in return.

All Alaska Native groups expressed themselves artistically through earrings, face painting, labrets, tattoos, and decorated clothing. The people used whatever materials were at hand including wood, bone, stone, ivory, antler, feathers, porcupine quills, animal teeth, shells, and grasses. Dyes were made from berries, roots, and minerals.

Each group of Native Alaskans looked on itself as the center of the universe. Their names for themselves meant "the real people." Their explanations of the world included traditions of a supernatural being, usually Raven, as the creator of the world.

Native Alaskans also traded among themselves for things they needed. Trade fairs and trade trails connected interior people with coastal groups. In addition, some Euro-American trade items, such as iron knives, passed from Native groups living outside Alaska to Native Alaskans before the Euro-Americans themselves arrived.