01122nas a2200133   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002100001200043245013700055300001000192490000700202520076500209022001400974                                       d1 aH Ikuta00aEmbodied Knowledge, Relations with the Environment, and Political Negotiation: St. Lawrence Island Yupik and Inupiaq Dance in Alaska  a54-650 v483 aThis article explores how Alaskan Eskimos  relationship with the environment is recapitulated in their indigenous forms of dance and what roles these dances play in political discourse. Traditional dance has been a means by which Alaskan Eskimos express their sentiment about the environment. It often draws upon imagery of the landscape and seascape of the Arctic, human and animal interaction, and body movement of hunting and gathering activities. I argue that Eskimo dance, which encodes a culturally specific system of embodied knowledge, is a powerful presentation of political symbolism that people employ in various social contexts, particularly in indigenous empowerment and political discourse of land claims and subsistence hunting issues in Alaska.  a0066-6939