John "Selaap’aq" Constantine

John Selaap'aq Constantine was a Yup'ik elder born on March 3, 1925 to Marie (Wasco) and Simeon Constantine in Russian Mission, Alaska. John grew up living a traditional subsistence lifestyle of hunting, fishing and trapping. He married Carrie Moses on October 6, 1966 at the Moravian Church in Akiachak, Alaska. In order to support his family, John worked in fish canneries and fished commercially on the Yukon River. He was a member of the Alaska National Guard and was proud of this service. John spent most of his life traveling the area and living off the land, so he was very knowledgeable about survival, navigation, and traditional sites and place names. John Constantine passed away in 2002 at age 77.

View a short video clip of John Constantine speaking in Yup'ik about how to survive in cold weather conditions produced by Frank Chingliak of the Yupiit School District, along with a written English summary of the video.