Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.

Responsive image


Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupik
Юпик, йупигыт
A Siberian Yupik woman holding walrus tusks, photo by Nabogatova
Total population
c. 2,828
Regions with significant populations
Chukotka in the Russian Far East, St. Lawrence Island in Alaska
Russia: 1,728[1]
United States:
  • Alaska
  • 1,100
    Languages
    Siberian Yupik, Russian, English
    Religion
    Shamanism
    Christianity (Moravian church and Russian Orthodox Church)
    Related ethnic groups
    Alutiiq, Central Alaskan Yup'ik
    Frame of traditional Yupik skin boat above the west beach of Gambell, Alaska.
    Mask in Musée du Quai Branly

    Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits (Russian: Юиты), are a Yupik people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik (also known as Yuit), a Yupik language of the Eskimo–Aleut family of languages.

    They are also known as Siberian or Eskimo (Russian: эскимосы). The name Yuit (юит, plural: юиты) was officially assigned to them in 1931, at the brief time of the campaign of support of Indigenous cultures in the Soviet Union. Their self-designation is Yupighyt (йупигыт) meaning "true people".

    Sirenik Eskimos also live in that area, but their extinct language, Sireniki Eskimo, shows many peculiarities among Eskimo languages and is mutually unintelligible with the neighboring Siberian Yupik languages.[2]


    Previous Page Next Page