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A group in Unalakleet is bringing traditional dance back to life — after more than a century without it. What started with just five women just a few years ago has grown into a community effort that is healing generational wounds, inspiring young people, and reconnecting families to their cultural identity.
Amber Cunnigham was born in Anchorage, she moved to Unalakleet to live with her grandmother when she was 13 years-old. She said she always used to travel for big cultural events in the state, like the Alaska Federation of Natives convention. But something was missing.
“I would go to AFN like, every year, and, you know, they have this big Quyana night where there's all these amazing dance group lineups. I would just stare and be like, man, we need that,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham is one of the five founding members of Uŋalaqłiq Iñuutchak, which is Inupiaq for Unalakleet comes to life. The group is bringing Native drumming and dancing back to her home community. She said older generations in Unalakleet had their culture stripped from them, which left long lasting wounds.
“In my grams generation, she felt so much guilt, she couldn't even watch dance,” Cunningham said. “We would be at AFN together, and she would refuse to go. But I know, I know that she wanted it because she had a pair of dance fans hanging on her wall.”
Cunningham said her grandmother told her that dance had mostly stopped in the community by 1915. Over a century later, the new dance group now has an unorthodox lineup of performers. The group started just three years ago.
“For a long time, we only had a drum line of women, so we've had to learn how to play the male role. Because I don't know if you've noticed, most of the drum lines are men, so that's been the struggle,” Cunningham said.
Uŋalaqłiq Iñuutchak’s repertoire of performances is borrowed with permission from different places in other parts of the state.
Unalakleet is an Inupiaq community, but Cunningham said borrowing songs helped unite different cultures, even if they were far away from each other.
“We take whatever song that anyone's willing to share with us, just because we want to keep practicing,” Cunningham said. “We want to grow, we want to share the beauty of both Inupiaq and Yupik culture. At this point, we're an Inu-Yupik Dance Group.”
Cunningham said kids in Unalakleet were slow to start dancing, but that they look forward to being on the dance floor now.
“And now, when I see them out there on the dance floor, like they're voluntarily going out when other people are doing their their Invitational dances, and to see my little cousin Roger stomping his foot, and I'm like, ooh,” Cunningham said.
The group has grown over the years, and now has about 20 members. Her biggest supporter, Cunningham said, was her mother.
“She would never consider joining a group, because she is very, she's very introverted, and she's not someone who will take center stage. But now she's joined because of me and my daughter,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said the group plans to keep dancing — so that the next generation never has to wonder what was lost.
