Nussaalar Muriel M Amos releases ‘Nunivak Island Genealogy’

Nussaalar Muriel Amos of Mekoryuk recently published her second book, "Nunivak Island Geneology". It is a collection of Nunivak Island ancestral peoples' names and how they are related.

Book shares collection of Cup’ig people’s names, their relationships dating back to early 1800s.
Nussaalar Muriel M Amos wanted to find out the ancestry of the Cup’ig people of Nunivak Island. This objective prompted her to come up with “Nunivak Island Genealogy” (published by Xlibris), a collection of people’s names and their relationships dating back to early 1800s.
Amos gathered the genealogical information on the book from the book “Eskimo Childhood and Interpersonal Relationships” written by Margaret Lantis who took three expeditions to Nunivak Island, the first one dating at the start of World War II, 1939–1940, in which she spent her time getting acquainted and gaining trust with people of Nunivak.
After the war, she visited the island again for four months in the summer and fall of 1946 to gather information on social and economic changes and gathering of autobiographies. The last visit was 1955–1956 to record the genealogies of Nunivak Island.
All the Cup’ig names were recorded in Lantis’ phonetic style. In the years between 1994–1995 the discovery of Lantis’ work was an enabler to translate all of Lantis’ Cup’ig writing style names in the key to genealogies to the present style of Cup’ig writing.
Through the publication of this book, readers will learn more about the Cup’ig people’s ancestral family lineage, how they are related to each other and how they should carry on their Cup’ig names.
“Nunivak Island Genealogy” by Nussaalar Muriel M Amos is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble in hardcover, softcover, or E-Book.
About the Author
Nussaalar Muriel M Amos is a graduate of University of Fairbanks with a bachelor’s degree in education. She has taught elementary education for 33 years for BIA Mekoryuk Day School and for Lower Kuskokwim School District. She and her husband Nakaar Howard Amos published a “Cup’ig Eskimo Dictionary” in 2003, and are instrumental in reviving Cup’ig language and culture in the village of Mekoryuk.