Paul Tiulana

Paul Tiulana was born on June 20, 1921{{Cite news |last=Mike |first=Dunham |date=June 20, 1994 |title=Paul Tiulana |url= |access-date= |work=Anchorage Daily News |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-daily-news-paul-tiulana-mike/170619631/ A1] and [https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-daily-news/170619849/ A10] |via=Newspapers.com}} on King Island to an Iñupiat family.{{Cite news |last=Montague |first=Jeanne |date=October 29, 1971 |title=New craft shop: Caring out a career |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-daily-news-new-craft-shop-car/170620464/ |access-date= |work=Anchorage Daily News |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} He was given the name "Tiulana" after his grandfather and the name "Paul" when he was baptized.{{Cite book |last1=Congdon |first1=Kristin G. |author-link1=Kristin Congdon |title=American folk art: a regional reference |last2=Hallmark |first2=Kara K. |date=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-34937-9 |location=Santa Barbara |pages=659–660 |oclc=782906071}} Tiulana's father Ugitkuna, a Wolf Dancer,{{efn|name=dance|The term "Wolf Dance" may refer to one of several ritual dance performed by several Alaskan communities. The King Island Wolf Dance was performed to allow for the rebirth of the spirits of animals, especially eagles, hunted by the King Islanders.}}{{Cite journal |last1=Kingston |first1=Deanna M. |last2=Koyuk |first2=Lucy Tanaqiq |last3=Mayac |first3=Earl Aisana |date=2001 |title=The Story of the King Island Wolf Dance, Then and Now |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1500408 |journal=Western Folklore |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=263, 277 |doi=10.2307/1500408 |jstor=1500408 |issn=0043-373X|url-access=subscription }} died in a hunting accident when Tiulana was nine and so he was mentored by his uncle, John Olanna, in Inupiat traditions, art, and heritage.{{Cite web |title=Paul Tiulana |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/paul-tiulana |access-date=April 19, 2025 |website=National Endowment for the Arts |language=en}} He attended formal school on King Island starting when he was nine, but only for a few years.

In the 1940s, Tiulana was drafted to fight in World War II; his leg was broken while he was stationed in Nome. He was treated at a hospital in Washington after doctors incorrectly set the leg, resulting in gangrene that necessitated its amputation. As a result of the injury, he was honorably discharged and returned to Alaska with an Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon. He became depressed and was forced to re-learn subsistence skills, especially hunting Back on King Island, he married{{Cite web |last=Hulen |first=David |date=September 1, 1990 |title=The Culture That Almost Got Away |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-01-ca-330-story.html |access-date=April 19, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} Clara Tiulana in 1945.{{Cite news |last=Edwards |first=Hermann |date=August 31, 1946 |title=Eskimo veteran finds ice rough on artificial limb |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oregonian-eskimo-veteran-finds-ice-r/170633663/ |access-date=April 19, 2025 |work=The Oregonian |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}} The next year, Tiulana traveled from Nome to Seattle to be fitted with a high-quality prosthetic leg as a replacement for one he had been given in 1944. Due to his lifestyle, the 1944 limb was too damaged to be of much use.

File:Paul Tiulana in 1959.jpg

In the 1950s, the Iñupiat people were moved away from King Island. Tiulana and his family ended up living full time in Nome, where he worked as a janitor in a bank. In 1959, Tiulana was invited to stay, with his wife, at the Hotel Deauville in Miami as part of a publicity stunt likely organized by the owner of the hotel.{{Cite news |date=December 7, 1959 |title=King Island couple flown to Miami Beach |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-nome-nugget-king-island-couple-flown/170634258/ |access-date=April 19, 2025 |work=The Nome Nugget |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} While he was there, he was asked by a hotel press worker if a women's jacket really was mink; Tiulana identified the coat as rabbit, which caused her embarrassment and was widely reported on at the time.{{Cite news |last=Lipka |first=Mitch |date=July 5, 1987 |title=Painstaking carving captures old memory, ancient craft |url= |access-date= |work=Anchorage Times |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-times-painstaking-carving-capt/170622447/ B1] – [https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-times/170622658/ B2]}} He also saw his first igloo in Florida,{{Cite news |date=December 21, 1959 |title=Paul Tiulanas return from Miami trip |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-nome-nugget-paul-tiulanas-return-fro/170634161/ |access-date=April 19, 2025 |work=The Nome Nugget |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} and he and Clara arranged for William A. Egan to donate a polar bear cub to Crandon Park Zoo.{{Cite news |date=May 25, 1960 |title=Hot welcome afoot for polar bear cub |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-news-hot-welcome-afoot-for-pol/170635231/ |access-date=April 19, 2025 |work=The Miami News |page=22 |via=Newspapers.com}} He was also made an honorary member of the Miami police department.

While in Nome, Tiulana felt isolated from his culture. He continued the carving he had learnt on King Island and, in 1956, began organizing dances at the local community hall. He and the group traveled from Nome to Anchorage to dance and sell carvings; he moved there permanently in 1967 after getting a job as a coordinator for a law group.{{Cite news |last=Carpenter |first=Dave |date=December 23, 1979 |title=Decade's pluses outweigh minuses for Tiulanas |url= |access-date= |work=Anchorage Times |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-times-decades-pluses-outweigh/170635710/ B1] – [https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-times/170635702/ B2], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-times/170635680/ B5] |via=Newspapers.com}} The dance group was official founded in Anchorage in the sixties{{Cite news |last=Dunham |first=Mike |date=October 22, 2006 |title=Quyana: The gift of dance |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-daily-news-quyana-the-gift-of/170629172/ |access-date=April 19, 2025 |work=Anchorage Daily News |page=M6 |via=Newspapers.com}} as the King Island Inupiat Singers and Dancers. By 1990, the King Island Inupiat Singers and Dancers had performed all over Alaska and the lower 48, as well as in London and Siberia.

In the late 1960s or early 70s, Tiulana opened up a gift shop in Mountain View, Anchorage. It sold ivory carvings that Tiulana, his family, and other people from King Island had handmade. He worked as the director at Alaska Native Welcome Center in Anchorage until sometime before 1980, by which point he had moved to work at the Cook Inlet Native Association; he retired from his job at the association in 1986. During this time, he continued to teach classes and workshops on art, drum-making, and boatmaking.

In 1983, he was made the Citizen of the Year by the Alaska Federation of Natives for his efforts to teach King Island Iñupiat culture and, in 1984, was given a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for his contributions to art and dance.

In 1987, CIRI published A Place for Winter: Paul Tiulana’s Story. The memoirs, written by Tiulana and Vivian Senungetuk,{{Cite news |date=February 3, 2002 |title=Alaska Scrapbook: This week in Alaska history |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-daily-news-alaska-scrapbook-t/170630235/ |access-date=April 19, 2025 |work=Anchorage Daily News |page=60 |via=Newspapers.com}} described life on King Island and Iñupiat culture.{{Cite journal |last=Clark |first=Emily Suzanne |date=2019 |title=Jesuits, the Iñupiat, and Catholicism on the Seward Peninsula Coast, 1898–1937 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/739823 |journal=American Catholic Studies |language=en |volume=130 |issue=3 |pages=48–50 |doi=10.1353/acs.2019.0051 |issn=2161-8534|url-access=subscription }} They incorporated photographs taken of the island in the late 1930s by Jesuit minister Bernard R. Hubbard. A 2002 review of the book in the Anchorage Daily News described the book as an "evocative tribute" to the island and its people.

File:Alaska Native Heritage Center across Lake Tiulana.jpg

In the later years of his life, Tiulana developed arthritis and needed his son's assistance in doing some finer handiwork. He died of cancer{{Cite news |date=January 1, 1995 |title=The march of time |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-daily-news-the-march-of-time/170669777/ |access-date=April 19, 2025 |work=Anchorage Daily News |page=4 |via=Newspapers.com}} on June 17, 1994, at the Alaska Native Medical Center. Clara Yamane died of cancer three years later, in 1997.{{Cite news |date=November 13, 1997 |title=Clara Yamane Tiulana |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-daily-news-clara-yamane-tiulan/170635063/ |access-date=April 19, 2025 |work=Anchorage Daily News |page=16 |via=Newspapers.com}} The couple had seven children.

Four years after Tiulana's death, Vivian Senungetuk published another book based on his writings: Wise Words of Paul Tiulana: An Iñupiat Alaskan's Life.

A lake near the Alaska Native Heritage Center is named after Tiulana.{{Cite web |title=Authentic Native experiences await in Anchorage |url=https://www.travelweekly.com/North-America-Travel/Authentic-Native-experiences-await-in-Anchorage |access-date=April 19, 2025 |website=Travel Weekly |language=en}} Additionally, the Center gives out an Paul Tiulana Elder Award, named for Tiulana, to Native Alaskan elders they feel have "sustained and advanced Alaska Native culture".{{Cite web |date=April 15, 2025 |title=Alaska Native Heritage Center honors two community leaders with awards at annual spring brunch |url=https://alaska-native-news.com/alaska-native-heritage-center-honors-two-community-leaders-with-awards-at-annual-spring-brunch/78334/#google_vignette |access-date=April 19, 2025 |website=Alaska Native News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=April 20, 2023 |title=Indigenous leader recognized for sharing traditional values |url=https://alaskapublic.org/news/2023-04-20/indigenous-leader-recognized-for-sharing-traditional-values |access-date=April 19, 2025 |website=Alaska Public Media |language=en}} In 2023, the award was given to Oliver Aveogan Leavitt.

Tiulana first learned to carve ivory when he was twelve, and he continued to practise carving throughout his adult life. He often made masks, and made many carvings designed to represent life on King Island. He normally took one day to complete most carvings. Tiulana mostly used traditional, handmade tools in his work, many of which he inherited from his father, because he felt they gave him more control and because modern tools could be "too fast, too big, and too hard to handle". In later works, such as a model schooner he completed in 1987, Tiulana used traditional tools and methods alongside more modern equipment such as electric drills and Super Glue.

In the 1980s, Tiulana was commissioned by the Cook Inlet Native Association to make an umiak for display at the Anchorage Museum, It was still on display as of 1987. In 2018, it was taken out of storage from the museum and donated by the Cook Inlet Native Association and CIRI to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.facebook.com/AlaskaNativeHeritageCenter/videos/the-paul-tiulana-umiak-donated-by-citc-and-ciri-is-being-delivered-here-from-the/10155521441618471/ |title=The Paul Tiulana umiak donated by CITC and CIRI is being delivered here from the Anchorage Museum warehouse! |date=February 13, 2018 |language=en |publisher=Alaska Native Heritage Center |access-date=April 19, 2025 |via=Facebook}}

Tiulana organized the revival of ceremonial King Island Wolf Dances{{efn|name=dance}} in 1981 or 1982 and 1990. The dance had not been performed in over fifty years, since the 1930 dance Tiluana's father, Ugitkuna, participated in. At the time of the 1980s dance, there were only three remaining King Islanders who remembered how to perform it. It took three months to prepare and was filmed to preserve it.{{Cite news |title=Eskimo artist Paul Tiulana cherishes the 'old ways' |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0807/080708.html |access-date=April 23, 2025 |work=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729}}

• 1983: Alaska Federation of Natives' Citizen of the Year
• 1984: National Heritage Fellowship

• {{Cite book |last1=Tiulana |first1=Paul |title=A Place for Winter: Paul Tiulana's Story |last2=Senungetuk |first2=Vivian |publisher=CIRI |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-938227-02-1}}
• {{Cite book |last=Tiulana |first=Paul |title=Wise Words of Paul Tiulana: An Iñupiat Alaskan's Life |publisher=Franklin Watts |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-531-11448-3 |editor-last=Senungetuk |editor-first=Vivian |location=New York |author-mask=5}}

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Category:1921 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:20th-century Alaska Native people

Category:20th-century American artists

Category:20th-century American dancers

Category:20th-century Native American artists

Category:Artists from Alaska

Category:People from Anchorage, Alaska

Category:People from Nome, Alaska

Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners

Category:Carving

Category:Deaths from cancer in Alaska

Category:Inupiat people