American Eskimos: The Yup’ik and Inupiat
The American Eskimos is a group of indigenous Native Americans living in Alaska, commonly known as Alaska Natives. The group is divided into two; the Yup’ik also is known as the Southern Eskimos and the Inuit who are also commonly known as the Northern Eskimos (DeLapp, 2020). According to the 2010 census, the Eskimos composed of 56.8% of the population of the Native Alaska people. The Southern Eskimos or the Yup’ik speak Yup’ik language which is one of the predominant western division Eskimo languages while the Northern Eskimos or the Inuit speak Inupiat language (DeLapp, 2020).
Before the Christian missionaries entered Alaska, the Eskimos traditionally believed in Shamanism and Animism whereby they believed in everything to be imbued with a spirit. An array of spirits was added but had no specific material form associations (DeLapp, 2020). Through amulets wearing, the spirit world had to be maintained with harmony while observing a great number of taboos and participating in various ceremonies such as hunting. However, some Southwest natives previously converted to Christianity begun evangelical work in the year 1890 and after a difficult evangelical work managed to convert a lot of the Eskimo Community members resulting in a large Christianity congregation in North Alaska. Currently, there is a representation of almost every Christian faith and denomination in the region and among the Eskimos groups(DeLapp, 2020). But even as of today, some Inuit community members continually practice Inuit traditional spirituality as part of living, oral tradition part of contemporary Inuit society.
Traditionally, the American Eskimos believed in life and death as a perpetual cycle through which every individual passed. After the death of a community member, during the sendoff ceremony, the deceased personal possessions were put on the grave to accompany them and to use them the afterlife although they still believed in reincarnation of the spirit (Hippler, 1974). They believed that when a person died, their soul could be reincarnated as a newborn infant. However, Christian beliefs diffused all those traditional death and afterlife beliefs. With the Eskimo people residing in the harsh and frigid Northern and Southern regions of Alaska, traditional Eskimos hunted, trapped, fished, and gathered tundra foods for survival in the non-crop production frozen region (Hippler, 1974). Their dietary mainstay mainly consisted of wild meat such as seafood and Caribou.
As of today, indigenous population members of Alaska are collectively known as Alaska natives. Therefore, the socioeconomic status of the American Eskimos is generalized as Alaskan natives’ status. Socioeconomic activities such as educational level and employment rates are always generalized as numbers and percentages of all the Native Alaskans (DeLapp, 2020). In that, Native Alaskans have had a history of high socioeconomic status with higher employment rates than the national rate varying in different state regions. For instance, a 2015 study reported a 6.5% statewide Alaskan Natives employment rate with regions dominated by Eskimo ethnicity population recording rates as high as 17%. Besides, with the U.S poverty rate at 12% by 2015, (DeLapp, 2020) Alaska Natives living in Alaska recorded poverty rates of 23% with ranges as high as 35% recorded in regions largely occupied by Eskimo peoples.
The most common health risk behaviors among the American Eskimos are among them tobacco use which is one of the highest preventable causes of death among the Eskimos. Overweight is another risky behavior that has resulted in too many cases of Hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes (Slattery et al, 2009). The Eskimos also have a habit of alcohol use which is also a risk behavior contributing to the many cases of homicides, unintentional injuries, and suicides.
Until recently, the Yupik and Inupiat community members have been getting medical care as a treaty right from the U.S Indian Health Service (I.H.S) (DeLapp, 2020). Indian Health Service assigned doctors in Bethel Hospitals, Kotzebue, Nome, as well as Alaska Native Medical Center have been offering inpatient and outpatient care to the Eskimo community. Besides, at least one in a year physicians traveled to the villages to provide medical care to the Yupik and Inupiat people(DeLapp, 2020). Additionally, at least once per year and when needed preventive health services are provided to the village people by the State of Alaska public health nurses. Also, Yupik and Inupiat people have been receiving medical care from a health care system instituted by the I.H.S located in each village using the indigenous residents in conduction with I.H.S and regional cooperation doctors through means of telephone.
The most common challenges and barriers to healthcare among American Eskimos include communication barriers, geographical location, poverty, isolation, and inadequate data (Marrone, 2007). To begin with, the language barrier is the greatest challenge to healthcare in almost all regions. Ineffective communication between patients and medical practitioners always provides a formidable obstacle among various indigenous groups not leaving out the American Eskimos Yupik and Inupiat(Marrone, 2007). This impacts how the patients communicate their symptoms and the provider’s feedback. Besides, it is always a challenge to ensure that the staffs working on those areas have skills and appropriate cultural knowledge about the American Eskimos.
Moreover, rural remoteness/ geographical location of areas where most of the Eskimos live poses a major challenge. Recruiting able and willing health professionals to work in such remote areas as the Inuit Arctic is always a challenge due to the distance and smallness of the communities (Marrone, 2007). This leads to inadequate healthcare providence among the Yupik and Inuit communities. Also, Poverty has stricken some of the marginalized communities such as the Eskimos whose population constitutes a small number of the total American population (Marrone, 2007). The low per capita reflects on the service delivery expense in those areas that are remote and sparsely populated hence healthcare services are unimproved and sometimes unavailable (Marrone, 2007). Also, with the healthcare system in the U.S tiered based on health insurance coverage, the low socioeconomic status of some of the American Eskimos greatly affects healthcare providence. Moreover, there is no adequate recorded data on American Eskimos’ health and wellbeing (Marrone, 2007). This makes it hard to measure the health inequalities accurately and apply programs and funds accurately to the American Eskimos.
To improve the healthcare outcomes and healthcare access to American Eskimos, the state of Alaska’s government should introduce mobile clinics to reach out to more patients in remote areas (Marrone, 2007). These clinics should be able to provide preventive care services, primary care as well as dental care from movable facilities such as Military Helicopters which can maneuver to the most remote inaccessible areas. Also, the healthcare access taskforce should be set up by the government to find key organizations to work on improving transportation services in the inaccessible areas. The taskforces should also work to publicize the existing resources in aid of making plans to curb the barriers and challenges (Marrone, 2007).
Moreover, universal healthcare should be extended to all American Eskimos to make access to quality health care available to every Eskimo. As well, the government can subsidize health insurance covers to make it easy even for the poorest Yupik and Inupiat community members to afford medical covers. All healthcare centers should acquire IT equipment to help inpatient data storage and increase patient safety while reducing medical errors (Shekelle et al 2006). Furthermore, the health ministry should set aside funds to research the American Eskimos’ health and wellbeing so that it will be easy to accurately apply healthcare programmers and funds specifically to the American Eskimos. Interdisciplinary members should setup detailed care plans focused on the increased native American Eskimo health issues such as Obesity, Diabetes, (Gomez & Calcio 2013) Hypertension, Tuberculosis, and Cancer.
References
Shekelle, P. G., Morton, S. C., & Keeler, E. B. (2006). Costs and benefits of health information technology. Evid Rep Technol Assess (Full Rep), 132(April), 1-71.
Gomez, F., & Curcio, C. L. (2013). Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Gerontology and Geriatrics in Latin America: Conceptual Approaches and Health Care Teams. Gerontology & geriatrics education, 34(2), 161-175.
Marrone, S. (2007). Understanding barriers to health care: a review of disparities in health care services among indigenous populations. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 66(3), 188-198.
Slattery, M. L., Murtaugh, M. A., Lanier, A. P., Ma, K. N., Ferucci, E. D., Etzel, R. A., & Edwards, S. (2009). Family health history and health behaviors in Alaska Native and American Indian people. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 20(3), 678.
Hippler, A. E. (1974). The North Alaska Eskimos: A culture and personality perspective. American Ethnologist, 1(3), 449-469.
DeLapp, T. D. (2020). American Eskimos: The Yup’ik and Inupiat. Transcultural Nursing-E-Book: Assessment and Intervention, 280.