The annual World Eskimo Indian Olympics (WEIO) in Fairbanks, Alaska, draw hundreds of Indigenous athletes to compete in traditional Arctic games, celebrating heritage and survival skills. This year's event runs from 15 to 18 July 2024.
Record-Breaking Performances and Enduring Traditions
Nicole Johnson, a 57-year-old Iñupiaq athlete, set the women's world record in the two-foot high kick in July 1989, striking a seal-skin ball at 6ft 6in. She will compete this year in the dene stick pull, a contest of strength where participants grip a greased stick and try to wrench it from an opponent. Johnson has competed at WEIO for most of her life and serves as head official of the sporting events.
"I am going to be doing [Arctic sports] until I’m in my walker or wheelchair or until I can’t do it any more," Johnson said. "And when I can’t do it, I’m still gonna be sitting on the sidelines cheering everybody on, offering my coaching advice."
Origins and Cultural Significance
Traditional Alaska Native games, or Arctic sports, were developed over hundreds of years to build survival skills, endurance, and strength for life in the tundra. The two-foot high kick, for instance, originated from long-distance communication methods: messengers would kick both feet in the air to signal successful whale hunts to distant villagers.
The games were originally practiced by small communities in the Arctic circumpolar region after successful hunting seasons or special occasions. Historically, event organizers provided housing and food for visiting villagers.
Historical Suppression and Resurgence
After the US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, federal policies forced Indigenous populations to assimilate to Western values. The US Organic Act of 1884 established government systems, and American Christian missionary schools proliferated, forcibly removing children from families and punishing them for speaking Native languages. Traditional hunting and fishing methods were also forbidden.
Rosita Worl, president of the non-profit Sealaska Heritage Institute and a Tlingit anthropologist, experienced boarding school repression at age six in the 1940s. She was kidnapped by missionaries and physically abused for years. "The games were basic training for hunting and fishing," she said. "If you want to eliminate hunting and fishing, then you get rid of the training."
Indigenous people practiced traditions in private. "We had to practice our ceremonies away from where there were white people," Rosita said. When encountering non-Indigenous people while practicing language or games, "we’d stop what we’re doing and run around and act like we’re playing."
Assimilation policies began to wane in the 1960s after pressure from Alaska Native activists. The first WEIO was held in 1961 in Fairbanks to ensure the games were passed down. The resurgence solidified in the 1970s after the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act gave Indigenous people title to 44 million acres of land and more political power.
Modern Participation and Training
Today, Indigenous people learn Alaska Native games through families, schools, and community centers. Amber Vaska, WEIO’s board president, learned the games at age 10 through a school program in Aniak, Alaska. She began participating in the statewide Native Youth Olympics in seventh grade. The games help Vaska, who is Yup’ik, feel connected to her heritage.
"I don’t do a lot of sewing, and I haven’t learned my language, but I have learned the game," Vaska, 37, said. "It’s my way that I can share and celebrate our culture and to continue it into the future to the next generation."
Vaska trains for WEIO events including the kneel jump, a test of agility where athletes kneel and jump as far as possible. Historically, this helped ice fishers practice quickly getting to their feet if the ice broke. Her training includes weightlifting, plyometrics, and running.
Kyle Worl, a Tlingit, Yup’ik and Deg Hit’an Athabascan wellness administrator and coach, has competed in WEIO since 2011. Nearly a decade ago, he piloted an Alaska Native games program at a school in Juneau, Alaska, and now brings youth from southern Alaska to compete. He became passionate as a teenager after overhearing a teacher say the games weren't a legitimate sport.
"That lit a fire in me early on," Kyle said. "I was like: ‘I must show the world, I must show people that I’m a real athlete, this is a real sport.’"
Kyle practices the games in public spaces worldwide to build exposure and has invited Indigenous communities from Mexico and New Zealand to compete in Arctic sports. As a board member of North American Indigenous Games, he has helped introduce Arctic sports to the 2028 competitions. He will compete in multiple events at WEIO this year, including the knuckle hop, where athletes mimic seals by hopping on their knuckles across the floor.
Last year, WEIO sold nearly 3,000 tickets. Athletes compete for camaraderie rather than medals, with top three winners receiving awards. Kyle hopes to demonstrate Arctic sports at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, seeing the games as a tool to build awareness of Indigenous people in the Arctic, especially amid the climate crisis.
"I don’t want our culture to be a relic of the past in museums. It’s something alive, and it can live beyond its original context," Kyle Worl said. "Our own Indigenous sport, language and culture, are part of the fabric of what makes us human and diverse. It’s important that our culture, our voices are recognized on that world stage as well."
