Nunivak Island Genealogy

About the Book

The genealogical information of Nunivak Island, dating back to the early 1800s, was primarily gathered from the book Eskimo Childhood and Interpersonal Relationships written by Margaret Lantis. Lantis took three expeditions to Nunivak Island, the first one dating at the start of World War II, 1939–1940, in which she spent her time getting acquainted and gaining trust with people of Nunivak. After the war, she visited the island again for four months in the summer and fall of 1946 to gather information on social and economic changes and gathering of autobiographies. The last visit was 1955–1956 to record the genealogies of Nunivak Island. All the Cup’ig names were recorded in Lantis’s phonetic style. In the years between 1994–1995 the discovery of Lantis’s work was an enabler to translate all of Lantis’s Cup’ig writing style names in the key to genealogies to the present style of Cup’ig writing.

About the Author

Nussaalar Muriel Amos is the graduate of University of Fairbanks with a Bachelor's degree in Education. She has taught elementary education for 33 years for BIA Mekoryuk Day School and for Lower Kuskokwim School District. She and her husband Nakaar Howard Amos published a Cup'ig Eskimo Dictionary in 2003, and are instrumental in reviving Cup'ig language and culture in the village of Mekoryuk.