Bow and Arrow Wars

The Bow and Arrow Wars or Anguyiim Nalliini (Time of Warring) were a series of conflicts among the Yup'ik people in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta that lasted for several centuries until the consolidation of Russian power in the region in the early 19th century. During these violent conflicts, the various Yup'ik regional polities and social structures formed factions against each other and frequently waged wars that engulfed most of the Alaskan Yup'ik population.

Timing and Causes

Relying solely on oral history, it is unknown when the Bow and Arrow Wars begun. However, several theories regarding the timing of the wars have sprung up, many of which cite the beginning of the conflicts with fission shifting populations. Specific hypotheses credit migrations of the Aglurmiut (a war-like people from Norton Sound) sometime in the past five hundred years or the development of the Thule people around 1000.

Another theory dates the wars towards the 18th century, with the arrival of the Russian Empire in Alaska. It credits the wars from European disruption in pre-established networks of trade between the Yup'ik. However, this theory has recently been challenged with archeological finds in the 2010s around the Yukon Delta. Thousands of artifacts as well as human remains credited to intertribal Yup'ik conflict have been uncovered by archeologists, which date as early as the 15th and 16th centuries, well before the Russian discovery of Alaska in the 18th century.

Various Conflicts

Bow and Arrow Wars
Date See Timing and causes section Location Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
Belligerents
Triangle Alliance	Riverine Yup'ik peoples

Yukon region

Peoples and villages of the Bow and Arrow Wars. The Triangle Alliance is shown in red, with riverine peoples shown to the east and north.

The most likely scenario is that the Bow and Arrow Wars were not one long war with a single cause but rather multiple wars between different tribes, each with their own individual causes. However, the conflicts were generally waged between the coastal peoples and the riverine tribes further inland. Two conflicts are generally associated with the southern Norton Sound and Yukon Delta region:

• Hooper Bay - Pastulirmiut War: The people of Hooper Bay fought the Pastulirmiut who lived in the Yukon Delta. It is said to have been caused by a series of homicides accredited to a son-in-law of the Pasturlirmiut, who murdered Hooper Bay hunters to steal their catch.
• Pilot Station - Chevak War: The most recent war of the conflicts, the Pilot Station people of the Yukon River fought the Chevak people on the Ninglikfak River. Some oral traditions also accredit this war to the murderous son-in-law, while others believe it sprung from a dart incident: as the story goes, a boy accidently hit another boy in the eye with a dart, and after a series of retaliations from the relatives of the two boys, a feud broke out that engulfed their families and eventually the entirety of their peoples.

The Chevak and Hooper Bay peoples frequently allied, as well as Scammon Bay. Located between the two villages and the riverine tribes to the northeast, the village of Scammon Bay often acted as . These three villages formed an alliance frequently labelled "The Triangle," referring to the shape that grouped together the three villages. It is generally believed to be a permanent alliance that did not change much throughout the wars.

The duration of these conflicts was generational, and enemies and allies rarely changed during the wars.