Tikigaq Corporation

The Inupiat people inhabit the oldest continuously settled Native American site on the continent. Specifically, the Tikigagmuit (Tikigaq people) reside in the village of Point Hope which is located 330 miles southwest of Barrow, above the Arctic Circle. This highly favorable site has abundant resources and has enabled the Tikigagmuit to retain a strong traditional cultural presence after experiencing more than a century of outside influences.

Point Hope is a subsistence village dependent upon fishing, gathering and hunting of marine mammals for food. The subsistence activities throughout the year revolve around whales, other marine mammals and land mammals. The bowhead whale is at the center of the Inupiat culture; whaling crews hunt the bowhead in the spring and whaling captains hold positions of respect in the village. Subsistence activities vary from preparation for whale hunting, to sharing the whale when caught during Nalukataq (a summer festivity in which successful whaling crews share whale with the community). The residents of Point Hope proudly celebrate their traditional past and embrace their promising future; this is demonstrated through the Tikigaq Mission Statement and overall philosophy of the corporation’s subsidiaries.

Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) are found only in the Northern Hemisphere, in Arctic waters. The bowhead whale, also known as Greenland right whale, is an Arctic baleen whale that lives around the pack ice often in shallow waters.

Protected from the icy waters by a two-foot layer of blubber, bowhead whales migrate seasonally between summer feeding areas in Canadian and wintering areas in the Arctic. They travel north through open ice leads in the spring, reaching Point Barrow by early June. In August, they move west toward Wrangell Island and in late fall return south through the Bering Strait. Bowhead whales usually travel alone or in small groups of three to six in the spring, and in pods of about 50 whales in the fall. Beluga whales frequently follow northbound bowheads through the ice leads. Besides man, their only known predator is the killer whale.

Inupiat is the plural word for Northern Eskimos. Inupiaq is the singular word for an Eskimo person of this region and the name of the language spoken by these people.

For Inupiat , language is intrinsic to their culture and traditions. The Inupiaq language consists of Inuit-Inupiat families of languages spoken from Siberia (Yupik) to Greenland (Inupiaq). Many dialects are understandable to speakers of neighboring dialects. The Inuit language family is a sub-family of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. In Alaska, a linguistic division depends on whether the speakers consider themselves Inuit or Yuit (Inupiat or Yupik). The geographic linguistic and cultural boundary seems to occur close to the Yukon River.

The language, in several dialects, is spoken by 3,500 people out of an ethnic population of 8,000, according to the Stanford University Rosetta Project. Because the Inupiat were literally forced to learn English in Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, most speakers are over 30 years of age. Present day efforts to include linguistic curriculum in schools, however, is gradually increasing the numbers of speakers and refreshing links to cultural traditions.