I heard that Alaska has the most cases of rape and incest . Is this true?

Just wondering

But of course, the whites up there blame it on the Eskimos.

Esp in AK they are called Inupiat, or Yup'ik or Cup'ik, or Native. Not "eskimos". Good lord the stuff that is coming out of people's writings...

Is the term 'Eskimo' considered derogatory? I understand that it's ethnographically meaningless, but does it kind of constitute a slur?

I'd put it in the slur category.

The fact that there's controversy surrounding its etymology would support your hunch.

From Wikipedia, 'Origins of the name Eskimo':

Two principal competing etymologies have been proposed for the name "Eskimo", but the most commonly accepted today appears to be the Montagnais word meaning "snowshoe-netter". The word assime·w means "she laces a snowshoe" in Montagnais. Since Montagnais speakers refer to the neighbouring Mi'kmaq people using words that sound very much like eskimo, Ives Goddard of the Smithsonian Institution has concluded that this is the more likely origin of the word.<1><2>

Jose Mailhot, a Quebec anthropologist who speaks Montagnais, however, published a paper in 1978 which suggested that the meaning is "people who speak a different language".<3>

Folklore has it that some Algonquian languages called Eskimos by names that mean "eaters of raw meat". Linguistic research by anthropologists does not support that etymology, but regardless it is commonly felt in Canada and Greenland that the term Eskimo is pejorative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_name_Eskimo

http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifeskimo.shtml

It now seems unlikely that "Eskimo" means "eater of raw meat".
Merriam-Webster changed its etymology when it brought out MWCD10,
and referred me to an article by Ives Goddard in _Handbook of
North American Indians_ (Smithsonian, 1984), vol. 5, p. 5-7.
Goddard cites the following Amerindian words:

Montagnais _ayassimew_="Micmac"
Plains Cree _ayaskimew_="Eskimo"
Attikamek Cree _ashkimew_="Eskimo"
North Shore Montagnais _kachikushu_ or _kachekweshu_="Eskimo"
"not analysable but explained by speakers as meaning 'eater of
raw meat'"
Ojibwa _eshkipot_="Eskimo" (literally "one who who eats raw")
Algonquin Eastern Ojibwa _ashkipok_="Eskimo" (literally "raw
eaters")

Goddard writes: "In spite of the tenacity of the belief, both
among Algonquian speakers and in the anthropological and general
literature <...> that Eskimo means 'raw-meat eaters', this
explanation fits only the cited Ojibwa forms (containing Proto-
Algonquian *_ashk-_ 'raw' and *_po-_ 'eat') and cannot be correct
for the presumed Montagnais source of the word Eskimo itself. <...>
The Montagnais word _awassimew_ (of which _ay-_ is a reduplication)
and its unreduplicated Attikamek cognate exactly match Montagnais
_assimew_, Ojibwa _ashkime_ 'she nets a snowshoe', and an origin
from a form meaning 'snowshoe-netter' could be considered if the
original Montagnais application (presumably before Montagnais
contact with Eskimos) were to Algonquians."...(more)

In Canada, we've recognized that for decades.

I think it was originally an Algonquin term meaning "eaters of raw meat"

Nowadays we use the term "Inuit", although that's not linguistically inclusive of all the cultures in the area.

As Uppity has pointed out, we have several different Native cultural groups here -- generally, the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshimian in Southeast (who are considered Indian tribes); the Athabascan Indians in the Interior; Aleuts in the Southwest and the Islands; Yupiks/Cupiks in the Northwest and Inupiat on the North Slope. I guess the Yupiks and Inupiat are theoretically what are commonly referred to as "Eskimos" but it's just not a common term here, and I'm pretty sure they see it as an ethnic slur, at least. I know the Indians HATE to be called Eskimos because they are a completely different culture.

it's a strange, distant, alien, almost foreign place and it would be very hard for someone from there to understand the rest of America and Americans.
That is an idea we need to keep pushing. Make her out to be the other.

"Not this shit again" picture?

such strange creatures

what's a little rape and incest.

California is way ahead here, but the population is larger also.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_for_rap-crime-forcible-rape

I'd look for more but am at work on a crappy computer with poor connection.

I would think they were like any rural state, as far as overall sex crimes.

survivor myself

I looked for stats and found some that showed not so far as sheer numbers go. Not sure about % of pop, but I didn't see it as more of problem when living in Fairbanks, Juneau, or Ketchikan than I've seen living in rural WA (a community 30 mi away from me has a reputation for being seriously inbred, here in WA). I'd like to see #s if anyone can come up with them.

Like other poor rural states, alcohol can be a serious problem though. I know, AK isn't poor, but a lot of people there are leading subsistance lifestyles not only of the sort of actually living off the land, but living in villages or towns or the cities being very poor.

Edited to add, ask in the AK forum as there are several active DUers there that may have links to numbers. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=138

http://www.disastercenter.com/alaska/Year2004/WasillaPD.html
Ak 558 total in 2004, 84.8/100,000 inhabitants.

http://safety.fizber.com/Alaska/Wasilla/
this one says
2000 1
2001 2
2002 2
2003 1
2004 1
2005 3

%/population is highest, but the number of cases is not the highest.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004912.html
can't find incest numbers.

but i guess that you can only count the oines that get reported.

on a per capita basis, not overall totals, of course. This is the great shame of our state, closely tied with our very high rate of alcohol abuse.

If so, put that together with drinking and it's a very bad mix.

Every state has its pros and cons. I think your state is beautiful.

what are you implying?

if new york city has the most cases of crack whores, what does that mean?

if indiana has the most cases of gun shot deaths per capita, what does that mean?

i california has the most cases of child molestation, what does that mean?

if this just some sort of cheap ass way to cast aspersion on a state as a way of inflicting some damage to a political campaign, then you are way off base.


my god, du is getting embarrassing...