The Arctic and Subarctic Regions

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521402156.022

V.D.7 - The Arctic and Subarctic Regions

from V.D - The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Linda Reed

Edited by

Kenneth F. Kiple and

Kriemhild Coneè Ornelas

Show author details

Kenneth F. Kiple: Affiliation:
Bowling Green State University, Ohio

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Traditional foodways have played an intrinsic part in the daily lives of the Native American peoples in the Arctic and Subarctic. Unlike other Americans, whose visits to their local grocery stores for food are seldom memorable, the people of Minto could look at a piece of dried fish and remember where they caught it, the activity on the river, and congratulations received from family members. The point is that food is more intimate for those who catch, grow, or gather it than for those who simply drop it into a shopping cart. The procurement, processing, preparation, and serving of food unites such people with their history, their future, and each other. The use of local resources serves as a direct emotional and spiritual link to the environment on which they depend.

This chapter explores the prehistoric, historic, and current dietary patterns of Native Americans in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Because of the wide variety of cultures in the Subarctic and Arctic, this is necessarily a general discussion.

The People

The Native American groups of the Arctic and Subarctic consist of two major genetic and linguistic populations – the Northern Athapaskan Indians and the Eskimo. In Alaska and Canada, the Eskimo are generally coastal people who are believed to have entered North America some 9,000 years ago. The older denizens are the Northern Athapaskans, located for the most part in the interior of Alaska and Canada, who are thought to have crossed the Bering Strait about 15,000 years ago.

Environment

Subarctic

The Tanana people are Athapaskans who reside in the area of Minto Flats on the Alaska Plateau, which is dissected by the Yukon, Tanana, and Kuskokwim rivers. The landscape includes mountain ranges of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, rivers, streams, marshes, grassy fields, and islands.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge World History of Food , pp. 1323 - 1329

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521402156.022 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ammitzboll, T., Bencard, M., Bodenhoff, J., et al. 1991. Clothing. In The Greenland mummies, ed. Jens, P., Hansen, H., Meldgaard, Jorgen, and Nordqvist, Jorgen. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Berger, Thomas R. 1985. Village journey: The report of the Alaska Native Review Commission. New York.Google Scholar

Borre, Kristin. 1991. Seal blood, Inuit blood, and diet: A biocultural model of physiology and cultural identity. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 5.CrossRef Google Scholar

Bresciani, J., Dansgaard, W., Fredskild, B., et al. 1991. Living conditions. In The Greenland mummies, ed. Jens, P., Hansen, H., Meldgaard, Jorgen, and Nordqvist, Jorgen. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Clark, A. McFadyen. 1981. Koyukon. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Cohen, Yehudi A. 1974. Culture as adaptation. In Man in adaptation: The cultural present, ed. Cohen, Y. A.. Chicago.Google Scholar

Counter, S. Allen. 1991. North pole legacy: Black, white and Eskimo. Amherst, Mass.Google Scholar

De Laguna, Frederica. 1977. Voyage to Greenland. New York.Google Scholar

De Laguna, Frederica, and McClellan, Catharine. 1981. Ahtna. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Draper, H. H. 1977. The aboriginal Eskimo diet in modern perspective. American Anthropologist 79.CrossRef Google Scholar

Dumond, Don E. 1977. The Eskimos and Aleuts. London.Google Scholar

Ellestad-Sayed, J. J., Haworth, J. C., and Hildes, J. A.. 1978. Disaccharide malabsorption and dietary patterns in two Canadian Eskimo communities. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 31.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Frank, Ellen. 1983. Moving around in the old days. Fairbanks, Alaska.Google Scholar

Freeman, Milton M. R. 1984. Arctic ecosystems. In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Freuchen, Peter. 1935. Arctic adventure: My life in the frozen North. New York.Google Scholar

Gullov, H. C., and Meldgaard, Jorgen. 1991. Inuit and Norsemen. In The Greenland mummies, ed. Jens, P., Hansen, H., Meldgaard, Jorgen, and Nordqvist, Jorgen. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Harrison, Gail G. 1975. Primary adult lactase deficiency: A problem in anthropological genetics. American Anthropologist 77.CrossRef Google Scholar

Hosley, Edward H. 1981a. Environment and culture in the Alaska plateau. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Hosley, Edward H. 1981b. Intercultural relations and culture change in the Alaska plateau. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Joos, Sandra K. 1985. Economic, social, and cultural factors in the analysis of disease: Dietary change and diabetes mellitus among the Florida Seminole Indians. In Ethnic and regional foodways in the United States: The performance of group identity, ed. Brown, Linda and Mussell, Kay. Knoxville, Tenn.Google Scholar

Kruse, John A., Kleinfeld, Judith, and Travis, Robert. 1982. Energy development on Alaska’s North Slope: Effects on the Inupiat population. Human Organization 41.CrossRef Google Scholar

Langdon, Steve, and Worl, Rosita. 1981. Distribution and exchange of subsistence resources in Alaska. Technical paper No. 55, University of Alaska. Fairbanks, Alaska.Google Scholar

Lippe-StokesSusan, . 1980. Eskimo story-knife tales: Reflections of change in food habits. In Food, ecology and culture: Readings in the anthropology of dietary practices, ed. Robson, J. R. K.. New York.Google Scholar

Martin, Calvin. 1978. Keepers of the game: Indian–animal relationships and the fur trade. Berkeley, Calif.Google Scholar

Mary-Rousseliere, Guy. 1984. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Maxwell, Moreau S. 1985. Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic. Orlando, Fla.Google Scholar

McClellan, Catharine, and Denniston, Glenda. 1981. Environment and culture in the cordillera1. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

McClellan, Catharine. 1981. Tagish. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

McKennan, Robert A. 1981. Tanana. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D. C.Google Scholar

Neatby, Leslie H. 1984. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Nelson, Richard K. 1986. Hunters of the northern forest: Designs for survival among the Alaskan Kutchin. Chicago.Google Scholar

Newman, Peter Charles. 1985. Company of adventurers. New York.Google Scholar

Newman, Peter Charles. 1987. The story of the Hudson’s Bay Company. New York.Google Scholar

Ray, Arthur J. 1974. Indians in the fur trade. Their role as trappers, hunters and middlemen in the lands South-west of Hudson Bay, 1660–1870. Toronto.Google Scholar

Schaefer, Otto. 1971. When the Eskimo comes to town. Nutrition Today 8.Google Scholar

Schneider, William S. 1986. On the back slough. In Interior Alaska: A journey through time, ed. Thorson, Robert M., Anchorage, Alaska.Google Scholar

Slobodin, Richard. 1981. Kutchin. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Snow, Jeanne H. 1981. Ingalik. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Spencer, Robert F. 1984. North Alaska Coast Eskimo. In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Townsend, Joan B. 1981. Tanaina. In Subarctic, ed. Helm, J.. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

VanStone, James W. 1974. Athapaskan adaptations: Hunters and fishermen of the Subarctic forests. Chicago.Google Scholar

VanStone, James W. 1984. Mainland Southwest Alaska Eskimo. In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

Vogt, Evon Z. 1972. The acculturation of American Indians. In Perspectives on the North American Indians, ed. Nagler, M.. Toronto.Google Scholar

Yerbury, J. C. 1986. The Subarctic Indians and the fur trade, 1680–1860. Vancouver, B.C.Google Scholar