People of the Noatak

by Claire Fejes

During five long visits to Alaska's remote northwest coast to sketch and paint, the late Claire Fejes became guest and friend to the Native inhabitants there, learning their ways and customs. A personal narrative in text, drawings, and paintings, People of the Notatak concerns the people of two villages--Noatak, the summer settlement of a nomadic tribe that lives mainly in the wilderness interior, and Point Hope, whose economy centers around the hunting of the great bowhead whale. Claire eloquently captures the life of the Native Inupiat in Northwest Alaska, before outside influences changed their lives. In a few simple strokes, her drawings evoke the heart and life of the Inupiat. Thanks in part to her habit of journal-keeping, Claire was able to record what she had witnessed in her years of travel and painting up the Yukon River into the Arctic Refuge. A native New Yorker, Claire received her art training at the Newark Art Museum and taught art until moving to Alaska. She wrote with rare insight and understanding about the intimate daily lives of mothers and fathers and their children, of husbands and wives and in-laws in the villages in which she lived, an aspect of Eskimo life rarely treated in books. Originally published in 1966, People of the Noatak is an excellent portrayal of the Inupiat people before modern changes, a glimpse into the Inupiat world when traditional values and roots were strong.

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Trula Rae]

What a soul filled book. The author/artist was able to depict the ancient Eskimo culture with the written word just as skillfully, and beautifully, as the pictures she sketched, and painted of the Eskimos. She had such passion for her art; resulting in adventure's up the Noatak River, Alaska, to record these ancient cultures before they were gone forever. To quote Claire Fejes, "I had not viewed Sheskalik as an anthropologist or scientist but as a woman and an artist." She had to gain the trust of these very remote, primitive people, that were not immediately trusting even if she was a kind 'white woman'; still an intruder. She became part of the Eskimo family/community over the ten years journaled in this book. Love and relationships grew out of enduring adverse living conditions together, by taking potentially deadly boat rides up the Noatak River, to experience the real Eskimo life. Claire Fejes said she wanted to paint the Eskimos to show the spirit of love in man. I think she accomplished that. I love this book.

[Peter]

Well journaled and put together, this is a great, honest look into NW alaskan native life early in the transition from traditional to post-western contact. Claire does a great job of observing and recording frank and honest words without romanticizing, speculating, or embellishing the daily lives of these people.

[Danthony74]

I enjoyed learning about the culture and the lives of the Noatak people. The author went to live with the people in their villages and lived as they lived and ate what they ate, dressed as they dressed. It is a very harsh life. Claire Fejes recorded it all by her artistic hand.