Pitengnaqsaraq app for iPhone and iPad

Pitengnaqsaraq literally means ‘how one catches things’ in other words subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering. The game tries to model how the Yup’ik subsistence system worked at the time of first intensive contact with Western culture, around the 1870’s. Players try to enact how a person/family would go through the year, saving up food in the plentiful seasons of spring and summer and managing to survive through the lean seasons depending upon fresh and stored foods. All of the while, weather, luck and interactions with other people affect their lives, as well. Winners are those who make it through one or more years. Players can trade or give each other resources. To this day, generosity remains a virtue in Yup’ik culture, and people store surplus in relationships of mutual support.
The original Pitengnaqsaraq game was a board game developed by the Lower Kuskokwim School District Bilingual Department (Chase Hensel, Phyllis Morrow, Penny Panlener, Oscar Alexie, James Berlin, Hubert Angaiak, and Helen Morris) as part of a high school Yup’ik Language and Culture Curriculum. The work was guided by a committee of Yup’ik high school teachers including Agnes Ashepak, Sophie Enoch, Elsie Jimmy, Henry Lupie, Andrew Paukan Sr., Paul J. Paul, Moses Peter, and Walter Terchik. Michael Smith, LKSD principal, also served. The game also reflects Elsie Mather’s work on traditional ceremonies.
The map represents an area of southwest Alaska that includes the Yukon River and Kuskokwim River deltas and the ocean and other areas near by. This is the region of Alaska inhabited by the Yupik people.
Comment from the developer: The original game was intended to be educational. As happens in many native cultures throughout the world, many decendents loose a connection with their native language and traditions. I became involved in making digital version of Yupik texts to help a personal friend regain that connection with her past. As I started to build this game, I set as a goal, to retain that purpose of keeping a connection to the Yupik language and culture and preserve the original rules of the game as much as possible in a digital version. The game can be played in two languages. Yupik and English. As you enjoy the game, it is my hope you will learn a few Yupik words along the way.