‘They’re reaching for this’: Students compete in Yup’ik and Iñupiaq spelling bees - Alaska Public...

Alayna Canoe, a seventh grader from Nunam Iqua, stood on stage Saturday in a red and white floral kuspuk and accepted her first place award in the Yup’ik spelling bee.

“I’m a bit shocked,” she said after the award ceremony at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage. “I was a little bit scared, but mostly confident.”

There was one word she found really difficult to spell: cuukiiq. It means sock.

“I just forgot one u,” she said.

Canoe was one of 13 students, in third through eighth grade, who competed in this weekend’s 10th annual Yup’ik spelling bee. They came from all over Alaska: Akiachak, Akiak, Anchorage, Brevig Mission, Dillingham, Golovin, Nunam Iqua and Stebbins.

Freda Dan, organizer of the Yup’ik contest, was one of the judges. She said the spelling bee gives students the opportunity to practice reading and writing a language they might only speak or hear. Canoe, for example, doesn’t speak Yup’ik but hears it spoken by elders.

“This might be the only time they learn how to spell,” Dan said. “Maybe it never happens again. So this is a really big opportunity.”