"Eskimo" is the best-known term for the Native Americans described in this book, but it is not their term. In their own language, they call themselves Inupiat, meaning "the People." "Eskimo," which was brought into Alaska by white men, is what certain Indian tribes in eastern Canada called their neighbors to the north; it probably meant "eaters of raw flesh."
Nonetheless, "Eskimo" and "Inupiat" are used more or less interchangeably in northwest Alaska today, at least when English is spoken, and that is the usage followed in this book.
But things are changing. To some extent, the authentic and indigenous "Inupiat" is superseding the imported "Eskimo," especially among younger and better-educated members of the culture.
Occasionally, the Inupiat use "Eskimo" in another way, in the same way that African-Americans use "nigger" among themselves. Sometimes this seems intended as a kind of ironic armor against white prejudice; sometimes it seems to reflect instead the internalizing of that prejudice. That usage also appears in this book, as when one of the characters refers to his own people as "dumb Eskimos."
In formal or public speech—such as journalism—"Inuit" is probably the most widely accepted collective term for the Eskimo peoples of Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, but it is not an Alaskan word and so is not much used by the Inupiat of the state's northwest coast. Accordingly, it doesn't appear in this book.
A few Inupiaq words—those commonly mixed with English in northwest Alaska—appear in the book. They are listed below, along with pronunciations and meanings. As the spellings vary among Inupiaq-English dictionaries, I have used spellings that seemed to me most likely to induce the proper pronunciation by non-Inupiaq readers.