The natives here are fascinating, ancient customs mixed with modern technology, like blue jeans tucked into handmade sealskin mukluks - with a smartphone in the back pocket. Or a Northface down jacket with a mink-skin hat. The younger ones seem to have a haughty tolerance of Kass'aqs (white people) while the "elders" (anyone older) are genuinely friendly - although you still get the sense that it's benign tolerance, like being polite to a visitor in their home. Plus, few elders speak English so who knows what they're really saying to you in Yupi'k. It's strange that the grandchildren speak only English and the elders only Yupi'k so they can't even talk to their own grandkids!
Here's an example of the native teenager's attitude and also how different it is in Bethel:
I volunteered at their annual dance festival - Cama-i - this past weekend, held in the local highschool. I sat checking in dance groups at a table backstage where the dancers prepared. Two Bethel high school students, Seth and Katrina - both locals, were volunteering with me. A teen volunteer usher came by the table after his shift to turn in his usher vest. He looked full-blooded Yupik and had an obvious dip of tobacco in his lip. Katrina told him:
"The high school is a tobacco-free zone, you can't chew here."
He looked at her with disdain and said insouciantly:
"I'm Native, who cares. And you shouldn't be so judgemental".
As if to say "Your silly rules don't apply to us, we only just barely tolerate your existence. You're lucky we don't take our Ulus and turn you into fish bait".
Later, when I donned his vest and took over his job as usher (which involved the sisyphean task of deflecting mischievous children away from the 'Elders Only' entrance to the gym) I stood next to a trash can that was really a spittoon: at least a third of all the teenagers swung by to spit tobacco juice into it. So I got the impression that 1.) "Tobacco-Free Zone" is viewed as a humorous suggestion rather than a strictly-enforced rule, 2.) Native teenagers don't feel the need to hide their rule-breaking activities, 3.) Pointing out a disagreeable fact is "being judgmental", 4.) Natives distingish sharply between 'native' and 'local', and 5.) Trash bags full of spit quickly become quite heavy.
