page_title: Yup'ik
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Yup'ik / Culture / Language and literature / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: School bus at Crooked Creek, Alaska
context_page_description: The Yup'ik or Yupiaq and Yupiit or Yupiat, also Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Central Yup'ik, Alaskan Yup'ik, are an Eskimo people of western and southwestern Alaska ranging from southern Norton Sound southwards along the coast of the Bering Sea on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and along the northern coast of Bristol Bay as far east as Nushagak Bay and the northern Alaska Peninsula at Naknek River and Egegik Bay. They are also known as Cup'ik by the Chevak Cup'ik dialect-speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect-speaking Eskimo of Nunivak Island.
  Both Chevak Cup'ik and Nunivak Cup'ig Eskimos are also known as Cup'ik. The Yup'ik, Cup'ik, and Cup'ig speakers can converse without difficulty, and the regional population is often described using the larger term of Yup'ik. They are one of the four Yupik peoples of Alaska and Siberia, closely related to the Sugpiaq ~ Alutiiq of south-central Alaska, the Siberian Yupik of St. Lawrence Island and Russian Far East, and the Naukan of Russian Far East. The Yupiit speak the Yup'ik language. Of a total population of about 21,000 people, about 10,000 speak the language.
context_section_description: Yup'ik was not a written language until the arrival of Europeans, the Russians, around the beginning of the 19th century. Pre-contact knowledge transfer and learning among Yup'ik people traditionally was through oral culture, with no written history or transcribed language. Children were taught about subsistence practices, culture and social systems through stories, legends, toys, and examples of behaviour.
  The early schools for Alaska Natives were mostly church-run schools of the Russian Orthodox missions in Russian-controlled Alaska (1799–1867), and, after 1890, the Jesuits and Moravians, allowed the use of the Alaska Native languages in instruction in schools. However, in the 1880s, Presbyterian missionary Sheldon Jackson (1834–1909) began a policy of prohibiting Native languages in the mission schools he managed. When he became United States Commissioner of Education, he proposed a policy of prohibition of indigenous language use in all Alaskan schools. This policy came into full force by about 1910. From that time period until the passage of the Bilingual Education Act in 1968, children in Alaskan schools suffered severe treatment for speaking their Native languages in schools.
  17 Yup'ik villages had adopted local elementary bilingual programs by 1973. In the 1980s and 1990s Yup'ik educators became increasingly networked across village spaces. Between the early 1990s and the run of the century, students in Yup'ik villages, like youth elsewhere became connected to the Internet and began to form a "Yup'ik Worldwide Web". Through Facebook and YouTube, youth are creating new participatory networks and multimodal competencies.
  Bilingualism is of course still quite common in Alaska today, especially among Native people who speak English in addition to their own language. All village schools are publicly funded by the state of Alaska. The school districts of the Yup'ik area:
  Lower Yukon School District (LYSD). English and Yup'ik bilingual education is done at these schools:  Alakanuk, Emmonak, Hooper Bay, Ignatius Beans Memorial, Kotlik, Marshall, Pilot Station, Pitkas Point, Russian Mission, Scammon Bay, Sheldon Point.
  Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD). English and Yup'ik (with Cup'ig at the Nunivak Island) bilingual education is done at these schools: Atmautluak, Akiuk-Kasigluk, Akula-Kasigluk, Ayaprun, BABS School, Bethel High School, Chefornak, EEK, Goodnews Bay, Gladys Jung, Kipnuk, Kongiganak, Kwethluk, Kwigillingok, M.E. School, Mekoryuk, Napakiak, Napaskiak, Newtok, Nightmute, Nunapitchuk, Oscarville, Platinum, Quinhagak, Toksook Bay, Tuntutuliak, Tununak, Pre-School. 
  Yupiit School District (YSD) English and Yup'ik (with Cup'ig at the Nunivak Island) bilingual education is done at these schools: Akiachak, Akiak, Tuluksak 
  Kashunamiut School District (KSD) is within the village of Chevak. English and Cup'ik bilingual education is done at this school.
  Kuspuk School District. English and Yup'ik bilingual education is done at these schools: Lower Kalskag, Kalskag, Aniak, Chuathbaluk, Crooked creek, Red Devil, Sleetmute, Stony River.
  Southwest Region School District (SWRSD). English and Yup'ik bilingual education is done at these schools: Aleknagik, Clarks Point, Ekwok, Koliganek, Manokotak, New Stuyahok, Togiak, Twin Hills
caption: School bus at Crooked Creek, Alaska (Tevyaraq), March 5, 2008
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