Iñupiat Ilitqusiat

A Special Publication of Alaska Newspapers Inc.

Respecting the Elders in your village means many things. People show respect to their Elders by helping them when they need it. For example, we chop wood for them, clean their houses, visit them and go to the store if they need groceries.

They teach us how to sew, make sleds, how to hunt and trap and the best places to get wood.

Respecting your Elders means helping and learning.

Photo courtesy of Hannah Loon/NANA

Why Elders are Respected
Dawn Schaeffer
Noatak

The Elders are respected because they deserve it. They worked hard for their Elders so we should work hard for them.

This tradition of helping has to be passed along through the generations. If younger kids see me helping the Elders, they will want to help them, too.

The Elders should teach us what they have learned so we will always remember them for what they did.

Elders pass on the traditions of the old days. They provide leadership through their love and the honor they give to our traditions. Elders show their love and caring to us and we show our love and respect to them.

The women Elders teach young women how to sew parkas. The men Elders teach young men how to make sleds.

Now the Elders are saying that these days are different. We use chainsaws instead of axes; we have running water instead of having to haul water. Some traditions are getting lost and no one can help that. Even the traditional skills the Elders show us today are different from the ones they learned as children.

Photo by Crystal Tickett, Ambler

What if there were no more Elders?
Justin Schaeffer
Noatak

If there were no Elders left in the village, what would we do and what would it be like?

We would probably act differently—like never listening to our parents or never showing respect to others. With no one to pass on traditions, we wouldn’t know how to live.

Our lives would be different if there were no Elders. Our language would disappear because the Elders speak it most. They teach the younger generations and that generation will teach the next.

Without the Elders, nothing would be the same.

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