In Inupiaq, when the weather talks, you listen

By: Laureli Ivanoff

Outlets: Alaska Beacon

Published: August 7, 2026

Words: 1,134

Last Updated: 1 week, 5 days ago

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In winter, Papa would stand at the north-facing window of his home, looking to the open sky and his neighbor’s sleeping garden. “Alapaa,” he would say: “It likes to be cold,” in Inupiaq. He was talking about Sila, the weather.

And on January days during my childhood, when we all gathered for supper and the house shook from coastal storms and the snow berms throughout town grew and grew over the season, Papa would say …

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