JUNEAU — He could be considered the Justin Bieber of Alaska.
Teen Internet sensation Byron Nicholai is a Yup'ik Eskimo from Toksook (TUCK'-sook) Bay, a tiny community on Nelson Island just off Alaska's mainland in the Bering Sea. It's about 525 miles west of Anchorage.
The 17-year-old high school senior performs songs that blend traditional Yup'ik and English. He has more than 22,000 followers on the Facebook page "I Sing. You Dance," where he posts videos of himself singing and drumming. Nicholai released his first album "I Am Yup'ik" (or, "Wiinga Yup'iugua")? last fall.
Last weekend, Nicholai performed at the University of Alaska Southeast campus in Juneau as part of a program that prepares indigenous teachers for Alaska's schools.
He told the audience his drumming allows him to share the culture of his village, which has about 600 residents.
Among the songs he performed was one poking fun at dating in rural, sparsely populated Alaska villages. He called it the "Cousin Song."
A film about Nicholai produced by Alaska Dispatch News will show at the Mother Tongue Film Festival at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.