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 These are bear masks.
They represent a grizzly bear and a black bear. Each bear's
yua (or special person) looks out from the mask. The Yupitt
people believe that everything has personhood--every animal,
every plant, and every stone--humans must constantly take
this shared personhood into consideration.
Humans are told to treat animals with
respect. Bears are particularly sensitive to human acts.
Alma Keyes tells this story about bears (1993):
"It was a very important rule. My late
father used to tell us not to call them by their names. .
.They say (bears) could hear you talk to them even though
they were far in the distance. They would tell us not to
make fun of them out there or in our homes. . .They say they
could hear your voice under the ground.
He told me that bears wintered in dens that had skylights at the top. If a bear became hungry, it would look around and examine the people and their cache to see if the food in it was desirable. . . Then the person would begin looking
for the food he had cached. . .He would ask why (the food)
was disappearing fast. They say the bears would just reach
out and eat whatever they liked. . .
Evidently, the bear can reveal itself to a person if it wants to. If a person wanted to see it, it will come to that person. It will reciprocate according to how people treat it. If a person mistreats it, it will mistreat that person.
 Alaskan bears, both brown bears
and grizzly bears, generally hibernate each year for up to
seven months. They usually choose to sleep in high
elevations in dens or caves.
When they are active they eat enormous
amounts of fish, and berries. They sometimes eat 90 lbs of
food per day.
Male and female bears are together only
during the breeding season (May to June), but a mother bear
may live with her cubs for two or three years.
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