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Abstract YUP'IK ESKIMO CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARCTIC RESEARCH Ann Fienup-Riordan Yup'ik Eskimo men and women began their exploration of Smithsonian ethnographic collections in 1994. Prior to the opening of the Yup'ik mask exhibit, Agaiyuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer) in 1996, elders worked with photographs of objects, but few entered museums to see the real thing. Beginning in 1997, Yup'ik elders have had unprecedented opportunities to visit Smithsonian collections and view collections, including research trips to the National Museum of the American Indian in 1997 and 2002, and the National Museum of Natural History in 2002 and 2003. Agayuliyararput opened doors, and those who entered found an unimagined array of artifacts, which most had viewed only briefly when they were young. All were deeply moved by what they saw. Elders also recognized the potential power of museum collections to communicate renewed pride and self-respect to a generation of young people woefully ignorant of the skills their ancestors used to survive. Finally, in 2000 the Calista Elders Council began to actively search for ways to bring museum objects home. Repatriation was not the issue, as ownership of objects was not the goal. Rather, "visual repatriation" was what they sought – the opportunity to show and explain traditional technology to contemporary young people. The results of their work in Smithsonian collections has not only enriched our understanding of nineteenth-century Yup'ik technology but laid the foundation for a new exhibit, Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival, bringing Yup'ik materials home to Alaska in this Fourth International Polar Year.
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