The Alutiiq Ethnographic
Bibliography compiled by Rachel Mason

March 1995

This project is supported in part by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency. It is sponsored by the Kodiak Area Native Association, 402 Center Avenue, Kodiak, Alaska 99615.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Why This Bibliography Was Written
B. How To Use This Bibliography

II. ALUTIIQ CULTURE, PAST AND PRESENT

A. The Name "Alutiiq"
B. Prehistory
C. Koniag/Chugach Ethnography
D. The Russian Colony
E. The American Era, 1868-1964
F. The Earthquake to the Present Day
G. Cultural Revitalization

III. SOURCES ON ALUTIIQ CULTURE, PAST AND PRESENT

A. General
B. Prehistory
C. History: Russian Era, 1784-1867
D. History: American Era, 1868-1964
E. The 1912 Mount Katmai Eruption
F. The 1964 Earthquake and Tsunami
G. Current Ethnography, 1965-Present
H. The 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

IV. SPECIAL TOPICS

A. Language
B. Kinship
C. Subsistence
D. Warfare
E. Religion, Art, and Folklore
F. Medicine

V. VIDEOS AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE

VI. ALPHABETICAL LIST OF SOURCES

APPENDIX: MAP OF ALUTIIQ COMMUNITIES IN 1984.

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THE ALUTIIQ ETHNOGRAPHIC BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. INTRODUCTION

A. WHY THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY WAS WRITTEN

This project was undertaken in order to make what has been written about Alutiiq culture more accessible to the public. The "public" I am most concerned with is the Alutiiq people themselves. Alaska Natives have long been the subject of anthropological study, and many have been frustrated when they were unable to find out what happened to the information they provided. This bibliography is intended to serve primarily as a guide to those who want to find out what has been written and recorded about their own culture.

Anthropology, the study of human beings, is a broad field. Among the several branches of anthropology are archaeology, which focuses on the remains and artifacts of people who lived in the past, and ethnography, which deals with living people. Generally, ethnography is based on face-to-face interaction between the researcher and the people being studied. Ethnographers study human culture: how people live and how they view their world. The branches of anthropology also include physical anthropology, which studies man as a biological species, and linguistic anthropology, which focuses on human language.

While each of the branches of anthropology emphasizes a different aspect of human existence, there are some areas in which they overlap. All anthropologists have typically tried to understand the totality of culture in a holistic way, because they see that different aspects of culture are interconnected For example, in talking about Alutiiq culture, it is impossible to talk about subsistence hunting without talking about religion, because in Alutiiq tradition, humans and animals are part of the same spiritual world.

This bibliography emphasizes ethnography, rather than archaeology; however, it includes some entries by archaeologists, because archaeologists and cultural anthropologists who have attempted to learn about Alutiiq people are both trying to understand the same culture, only at different times. The bibliography also contains references to historical documents written by Russian colonials and others who came into contact with Alutiiq people. These historical documents are also important, since they give information about Alutiiq culture at a particular time.

I have attempted to compile material written or recorded about the entire Alutiiq culture area, including the Kodiak Archipelago, Prince William Sound, Lower Cook Inlet, and the south coast of the Alaska Peninsula. I was able to find more references on Kodiak than the other Alutiiq areas, both because more studies have been undertaken in Kodiak than the other regions and because I was working in Kodiak and had more access to Kodiak sources.

I am greatly indebted to the prior work of Dr. Donald Clark, whose ongoing bibliography of Kodiak Island, Alaska served as a starting point for my own research. Some of my entries and annotations are copied directly from his. Funding for this project was provided by the Alaska Humanities Forum. I am grateful for the Forum's support, as well as for the sponsorship provided by the Kodiak Area Native Association.

B. HOW TO USE THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY

The primary organization of the bibliography is by subject, and alphabetically within each subject by author. Each subject contains a list of annotated entries. If there is no description of the reference, it means that I have not been able to locate or review it.

The bibliography begins with a section on general sources. These are books or articles which deal with all Alaska Native cultures, or with a number of aspects of Alutiiq culture. Following that category, there are headings for prehistory and a series of historical eras, leading to the present day. There are separate sections for references on three disastrous events in Alutiiq history: the 1912 Mount Katmai eruption, the 1964 earthquake and tsunami, and the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Next, there are sections on special topics. These include language, kinship, subsistence, warfare, religion and mythology, and medicine. There is a short section containing references to videos and a computer curriculum on Alutiiq culture. Because not every source on the Alutiiq fits neatly into a small category, some entries are included in more than one subject heading.

Each bibliographic entry contains information on where the documents can be found. "AEB Collection" stands for "Alutiiq Ethnographic Bibliography Collection." Documents with this notation have been copied from journals or received from authors, government agencies, or private donors, and are located in the Kodiak Area Native Association Cultural Heritage Center.

I would especially like to thank Nancy Jones of Kodiak for her donation of the 1890 Alaska census (listed as Porter 1893). Other documents and tapes which can be found in the archives of the KANA Cultural Heritage Center are identified in the bibliography.

The libraries listed here are the A. Holmes Johnson and Kodiak College libraries in Kodiak; Anchorage Municipal (Loussac), Alaska Resource Library (in the Federal building), and University of Alaska-Anchorage Consortium Library in Anchorage; Homer Public Library; and Valdez Consortium Library. These were chosen because they seem the most accessible to people living in Alutiiq communities. In most cases, information on the locations of these documents comes from the LaserCat catalogue system available in each of the Anchorage libraries.

Several unpublished dissertations are included in this bibliography. While most of them are not available in Alaska libraries, copies of dissertations from United States universities may be ordered by calling UMI Dissertation Services at 1-800-521-0600. There is one Canadian dissertation (Grubis 1981), which may be ordered from Micromedia Limited in Ottawa, Ontario at 1-800-567-1914.

The final portion of the bibliography is an alphabetical listing by author. This contains the same entries as the annotated portions listed by subject.

I hope this bibliography is of assistance to those who want to know more about Alutiiq culture. This project can never be entirely completed, because new work on Alutiiq culture continues to be undertaken, and new articles and books written. If you have suggestions for correcting or updating this volume, please contact me at 4912 Roger Drive, Anchorage, Alaska 99507.

(Webpage converter's note: not all special characters are available; words with an asterisk contain a special character. OCR scanning may not have converted 100%. I've attempted to present this document like the original; so if there are any errors, please contact ANKN Clearninghouse)

II. ALUTIIQ CULTURE, PAST AND PRESENT

A. THE NAME "ALUTIIQ"

The term "Alutiiq" is relatively new. It has been used by Native speakers and scholars since the early 1980s to refer to both the language and culture of the group of Alaska Native people indigenous to the Kodiak Island Archipelago, the southern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, Prince William Sound, and the lower tip of the Kenai Peninsula. These people speak a language so similar to Central Yup'ik (a language spoken by Eskimos in Western Alaska) that they can almost converse with Yup'ik speakers of western Alaska. There are smaller dialect differences between Alutiiq groups.

Beginning in Russian colonial times, most Alutiiqs were called and have called themselves Aleuts, although their language is not very similar to the language spoken by Aleuts on the Aleutian Chain. The Russians recognized that Alutiiqs were different from Aleuts, and referred to them by area as Kadiaks or Chugashes. However, the Russians used one blanket term, Aleuts, to distinguish Alutiiqs and Aleuts from other Native groups. In addition to a common language and traditional culture, Alutiiqs share a history of Russian colonization and the lasting influence of Russian Orthodox religion. Following the end of the Russian colony, Alutiiqs experienced a common induction into commercial fishing when it became the main wage industry in their coastal villages. In the twentieth century, many Alutiiqs also shared the experience of three disasters: the 1912 Mount Katmai eruption, the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake and tsunami, and the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Those who attempt to find ethnographic references to Alutiiqs will find that they are known by a variety of names. Linguists have referred to the language spoken by Alutiiqs as Sugpiaq, Sugcestun, Suk, Western Eskimo or Pacific Eskimo. Other terms used by anthropologists include Yup'ik or Yuit.

Throughout this report, the term Alutiiq refers to the people and language of the entire culture area. Natives of the Kodiak area and south coast of the Alaska Peninsula are called Koniag (Koniagmiut) and their counterparts in Prince William Sound and Lower Cook Inlet are called Chugach (Chugachmiut). Within the Koniag group are the Qikertarmiut (people of Kodiak Island) and Aglegmiut (people of the Alaska Peninsula). The people of Lower Cook Inlet are the Unegkurmiut, while the Chugach of Prince William Sound are the Paluwigmiut (Haggerty et al. 1991:76-77).

B. PREHISTORY

Some archaeologists believe that the ancestors of the present-day Native Alaskan residents of the Alutiiq culture area have continuously inhabited the area for at least 7,000 years (Jordan and Knecht 1986). They developed a ritually elaborate maritime hunting culture with many connections to other peoples through trade and warfare. Archaeologists have identified several distinct cultural traditions in the Kodiak Island area. These are Ocean Bay (ca. 4500-1400 B.C.), Kachemak (ca. 1400 B.C.-1200 A.D.) and Koniag (ca. 1200-1784 A.D.). The dating of these phases continues to be a matter of debate. Archeological data has been found from each part of the historically known Alutiiq culture area--Kodiak, Alaska Peninsula, Lower Cook Inlet, and Prince William Sound--for all the prehistoric traditions.

The "Ocean Bay" tradition was first identified with a site near the present-day village of Old Harbor on the south end of Kodiak Island. The name "Kachemak" was first used by archeologist Frederica de Laguna in 1930 to describe assemblages from Kachemak Bay. Koniags were the people inhabiting Kodiak Island at the time of European contact. The Chugach were the people living in Prince William Sound when the first Europeans arrived.

Because of purported physiological and cultural differences between the Kachemak and Koniag phase peoples, and because of chronological gaps between phases in the archeological record, there has been debate about the continuity of residence of Alutiiq Natives in prehistory. Some scholars, following Hrdlicka's* early research (1944), argue that the Kachemak people were annihilated in war or were gradually replaced through in-migration of the Koniags. However, more recently archaeologists have suggested that the Kachemak and Koniag peoples are not separate groups, but represent evolutionary phases of a single cultural tradition (Jordan and Knecht 1986).

C. KONIAG/CHUGACH ETHNOGRAPHY

The Koniags and Chugach lived in semi-subterranean sod houses in their permanent winter villages. In summer, they moved to temporary fish camps. They hunted sea mammals such as whales, seals, sea lions, and sea otters. Some Alutiiqs were able to hunt caribou on the Alaska Peninsula. Although the Koniags were more dependent on salmon than the Chugach, salmon was a major dietary staple of all Alutiiqs. They dried great quantities of salmon for use in the winter. They also caught other fish, and gathered intertidal resources on the shores. Hunting was done with harpoons and clubs, and fish were speared, gaffed, harpooned or hooked. Salmon were often caught in weirs built across rivers.

Skilled in handling skin kayaks (which the Russians called bidarkas) and larger wooden boats (bidars), they travelled over rough seas for war raids and more peaceful trading with other Alutiiq groups and with people as far away as the Aleutian Islands and Southeastern Alaska. The Chugach warred with the Koniags and the Tlingits of Southeastern Alaska, and traded with the Athabaskan Ahtna, with the neighboring Eyaks serving as middlemen.

Despite the many contacts with other groups, each Alutiiq village was politically autonomous, headed by an inherited chief. Invariably, the villages were on the coast, reflecting the Alutiiqs' love of and dependence on the sea. Above the level of the village, there were eight autonomous groups of Chugach Natives in Prince William Sound at the time of contact (Hassen 1978). Among the Koniags, there were at least four (Townsend 1980).

There was marked social hierarchy which early European observers interpreted as a class system of nobles, commoners, and slaves. Slaves, who were generally war captives, were the property of wealthy people. Wealth was redistributed in ornate ceremonies which included dancing and feasting.

Government was through a system of hereditary leaders who also had to prove their worthiness to rule. Because these leaders were also wealthy, one word for them is "richman" (Townsend 1980). There were also wise men similar to priests, some of whom composed poetry and songs.

Alutiiq shamans were healers and ritual performers. They could forecast the weather and make contact with the supernatural. Women as well as men could be shamans. Some of the men belonged to a secret whale hunting society. Their wives also had important ritual roles in the whale hunt.

Both men and women could have more than one spouse. Most commonly, an important man had several wives. Divorce was possible and not infrequent.

Marriages were arranged by the parents of the bride and groom. The couple usually went to live with the bride's parents for a year or until they had children of their own. The young husband was expected to work for his in-laws and bring them food during this period.

It is uncertain whether Alutiiq kinship was matrilineal (reckoned through the mother's side), patrilineal (reckoned on the father's side), bilateral (both), or neither. There is some evidence that both Koniags and Chugach were matrilineal, but Alutiiq kinship terminology suggests a bilateral system. The Alutiiqs had many contacts with known matrilineal groups such as the Tlingits and Aleuts. In matrilineal societies, the mother's brother has a strong role in raising children. The importance of such uncles to Alutiiq children as late as the mid-1980s has been interpreted as evidence of past matrilineality (Davis 1986:186).

Alutiiq children were raised permissively but also taught stoicism. At their first menstrual period, girls were secluded for several weeks in a special hut and taught adult skills by a knowledgeable older woman. Adult women stayed in menstrual huts for a few days every month. Men feared bad luck in hunting if their gear came into contact with a menstruating woman. Childbirth also took place in special huts, and both mother and baby stayed there for several days. Before they re-entered society, the new mother and infant would have a sweatbath (or banya, as the sweatbath has been called since Russian times).

Occasionally, a boy child would be raised to dress and act like a woman. Less often, a girl would be raised like a boy. Being a transvestite was an esteemed role, and some transvestites became shamans.

Both men and women wore long hoodless fur or bird skin parkas, and hooded rain parkas (which came to be called by the Siberian Russian term kamleikas) made from strips of intestine. Shoes were not worn in summer, and archaeologists have not discovered any trousers or gloves. Men's (and possibly women's) lips were pierced to allow the insertion of small plugs called labrets. Women's chins were tattooed at puberty. Sea hunters wore bent wood hats in the shape of a cone, decorated with amulets and painted designs.

D. THE RUSSIAN COLONY

Soon after the explorer Vitus Bering first stopped in the Aleutian Islands in 1741, Russian hunters and merchants called promyshlenniki established a colonial presence in what is now Alaska to profit from the furs of sea otters. Lacking the sea mammal hunting expertise of Aleut and Alutiiq people, the Russians exploited Native labor for their colonial venture. They sold the valuable pelts of sea otters to a Chinese market and to fellow Russians.

Following the decline of sea otters in the Aleutian Chain, the Russians turned toward the rich waters of the Kodiak region. Although Kodiak Natives successfully repelled an initial trading visit by a promyshlennik, the Russians' muskets and cannons soon enabled the colonials to dominate the Alutiiqs by force. One way the Russians were able to subjugate the Alutiiqs was through their practice of taking hostages, usually the children of chiefs. When one of the Russian leaders, Shelikhov, approached the southern end of Kodiak Island, several thousand Natives took refuge on a large rock near Sitkalidak Island. They were betrayed by an Alutiiq man travelling with the Russians who knew the hidden access to the refuge rock. Hundreds of Natives perished as they jumped over a cliff to escape. Others were shot with cannons or rounded up and speared to death.

Thus in 1784 the first sustained Russian contact with Alutiiqs occurred when Shelikhov's men founded a Russian settlement on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay, near the present-day village of Old Harbor. Soon they conscripted the local population as laborers in the sea otter hunting industry. Able-bodied Alutiiq men were organized into work groups and forced to hunt at sea in large fleets of bidarkas, while women, old men, and children were made to work on shore. Hardship, accidents, and starvation, along with diseases introduced by the Russians, quickly led to a decimation of the Native people. By the end of the Russian colony in 1867, the pre-contact population of perhaps 8,000 on Kodiak Island had dwindled to around 2,000. The many deaths disrupted every aspect of Alutiiq society.

The Chugach had less intense and less devastating interaction with the Russians than did the Koniags. The first European to visit Chugach territory was Vitus Bering in 1741, on a further leg of the same journey in which he travelled to the Aleutian Islands. Spanish explorers soon followed. Captain Cook, who arrived in 1778, was the first European to meet the Chugach people. In 1793, the Russians founded a post near Nuchek on Hinchenbrook Island. Partly because the population of Prince William Sound was quite small (between 400 and 1000 people), and perhaps also because the sea otter population was not as large there as in other areas, the Russians did not see the Chugach as a likely source of mass conscripted labor for sea otter hunting. Similarly, while Russians traded with Alutiiqs on the Alaska Peninsula, they did not establish such a ruinous colonial presence there as they did on Kodiak Island.

In 1793, the Russians decided to move the capital of their colony from Three Saints Bay to the northern part of Kodiak for better access to lumber. They established a new center of government, which they named Pavlov Harbor ("Paul Harbor"), at the site of today's city of Kodiak. Pavlov Harbor's central position in the colonial empire lasted until 1808, when the capital was again moved, this time to Sitka, for closer access to the Russian's expanded holdings in California.

A contingent of Russian Orthodox clergy arrived in Kodiak in 1794 to convert Alaskan Natives to Christianity. They immediately began to perform mass baptisms and marriages, and soon afterwards established a school and orphanage near Kodiak. The clergy also opposed the abuses the colonial officials inflicted on Natives. One of the original eight monks, Father Herman, was canonized by the Orthodox church in 1971. This saint, highly revered among Alutiiq Orthodox people, is credited with performing miracles such as healing the sick and turning back a tsunami.

Among the Alutiiq people, the Orthodox church is the most enduring remnant of the Russian colony in Alaska, and is a central feature of social life in almost every village. Among the American missionary groups who began to work in the territory of Alaska in the early 1880s were the Baptists, who sent religious workers to the Kodiak area, Prince William Sound, and later the Alaska Peninsula. As part of the Baptist mission, an orphanage and school were opened in Kodiak in 1886. While some Alutiiq villages now have both Protestant and Orthodox churches, the Russian Orthodox church has remained the dominant religion in every Alutiiq community except Ivanof Bay.

Today, most Alutiiqs are baptized, married, and buried in Russian Orthodox ceremonies. In the villages, services are usually led by Native lay readers. Priests who live in Anchorage or Kodiak travel to villages for important ceremonies. It has been suggested that the Alaskan Russian Orthodox religion incorporates some indigenous beliefs and customs (Oleksa 1982). Membership in the Orthodox church became a symbol of Native identity (Davis 1970; Rathburn 1984).

In the 1840s, following a smallpox epidemic, the Russian colonial administration consolidated the remaining Native population of Kodiak Island into seven villages. Two villages were intended as "creole" settlements. Creoles were the children of Native women and Russian men, or the children of creoles. This group increased in size during the years of the Russian colony. Many creoles were educated for trades or religious leadership in Russian church-operated schools. Creole settlements included Afognak and Ouzinkie, in the northern part of the Kodiak Archipelago; these villages were also conceived as "retirement communities" for colonial employees, especially those with Native families, who wanted to settle permanently in Alaska. There was also a significant creole population in the Russian capital, which is now Kodiak city.

During the Russian period Natives became more dependent on European goods and were increasingly involved in a cash economy. Some Alutiiqs in outlying areas, such as the shore of the Alaska Peninsula, traded furs and other products to the Russians instead of providing labor in the indenture system that characterized other Alutiiq-Russian relations. In the final days of the Russian colony, Alutiiqs began working for trade goods or cash. As Natives became more involved in trading and a wage economy, they became bound by debt to traders and employers.

E. THE AMERICAN ERA, 1868-1964

By the time the Russians sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, their colonial venture had become unprofitable. Soon after the sale, a number of American entrepreneurs arrived to continue sea otter hunting until the near demise of this animal led to a ban on hunting it in 1911. The Americans attempted various other industries, including trapping, whaling, cattle ranching, and gold mining. A number of tiny islands around the Kodiak Archipelago and off the Alaska Peninsula were deemed suitable for fox farming. The farms were largely owned by trading companies which hired Native men to hunt and fish to provide food for the foxes.

The salmon fishing industry, which had both high risks and high profits, enjoyed the most dramatic and lasting success of the new commercial efforts. The barely-tapped potential of the Karluk River on the west side of Kodiak Island, one of the richest salmon streams in the world, had long been recognized. The Russians built zapors (weirs) on the river to catch red salmon, and Alutiiq women dried the fish for winter use for the colony. A commercial salmon saltery was experimentally operated by the Russians on the Karluk River in 1867, the same year the United States purchased Alaska.

The first cannery in Karluk was established in 1882. Within a few years, there were several canneries there. By 1890, there were fish processing operations at Chignik on the Alaska Peninsula and on the mouth of the Copper River in Prince William Sound. Canneries rose and fell regularly, their competition sometimes manifested in sabotage of each other's efforts. Generally, the isolation of the canneries discouraged any interference from the government, to the satisfaction of unscrupulous operators. The expansion of the industry quickly led to overfishing and a dramatic decline in salmon runs.

Some Natives were hired as cannery workers, but the early cannery operators preferred Chinese labor, mainly hired in through Chinese employment contractors. In most canneries, only a few Natives were hired to work as laborers in fishing operations. In 1900, for example, the three canneries in Karluk together had 43 white, 8 Native, and 263 Chinese processing workers. They employed 171 white and 13 Native fishermen (Moser 1899:53). Cannery operators complained that Natives were likely to leave before the season was over, often in order to pursue seasonal subsistence fishing and hunting.

Starting in the 1870s, Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes were among those who came to hunt sea otters around Kodiak; a later wave of Scandinavians came to work as fishermen. Some of them married local Alutiiq women and settled permanently in the Kodiak area and Alaska Peninsula. The Scandinavian names of many Alutiiq Natives are a reflection of this intermarriage.

Soon after the establishment of the Karluk, the fishing industry grew in other parts of the Alutiiq culture area, especially Chignik, Afognak and Uyak (now Larsen Bay). Natives sold fish to the canneries. Most operations were confined to beach seining until purse seining took hold following the advent of fuel-powered boats in the 1920s.

Natives became increasingly involved in commercial fishing after 1900. Few owned their own boats, but some fished on cannery-owned boats. Most Native fishermen moved to fishing camps for the summer, harvesting salmon with beach seines. As Natives became fuller participants in a cash economy, they coordinated traditional hunting and fishing with commercial fishing.

The lives of Alutiiq residents of the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak were disrupted by the volcanic eruption of Mount Katmai in June 1912. The Alaska Peninsula villages of Katmai and Douglas were destroyed by ash from the eruption. People from those communities were first brought to Afognak, then relocated back to the mainland where they established the new village of Perryville, named after the captain of the ship that brought them there. The volcano covered Kodiak with eighteen inches of ash, clogged salmon streams and killed vegetation. Commercial salmon fishing was halted that year. In subsequent years, however, the ash served as fertilizer for bumper-crop gardens.

Halibut fishermen from the Northwest Coast, many of them Norwegian immigrants, began stopping in Kodiak in the early twentieth century. By the 1920s, herring and cod boats also fished in Kodiak waters, although Native Kodiak fishermen's efforts continued to be mainly concentrated on salmon fishing.

In 1938 and 1939, the U. S. Congress allocated funds for the construction of a Navy base at Kodiak. During World War II, the military presence increased dramatically. Kodiak became a base for as many as 15,000 servicemen. After the war, the Navy base remained in Kodiak and later became a Coast Guard base.

In the post-war years, salmon continued to be the major fishery. Both Native and white fishermen began to concentrate more on purse seining than other gear types. There were several the town of Kodiak, and several more scattered in remote areas throughout the island. Commercial fishing was the main source of cash for Natives living in Kodiak area villages, who continued to fish for subsistence as well as for sale. In some villages, residents moved each summer to live and work at nearby canneries.

F. THE EARTHQUAKE TO THE PRESENT DAY

The Great Alaskan Earthquake of March 27, 1964, and the tsunami that followed it, caused great destruction to Alutiiq communities. Three Native villages, Chenega, Kaguyak, and Afognak, were destroyed. Twenty-three people died in Chenega, about a third of the population of the village. There were eleven deaths in the Kodiak Island area. The town of Kodiak was greatly damaged, as was the village of Ouzinkie. Old Harbor was practically demolished and had to be substantially rebuilt. Residents of Afognak were relocated to a new village, Port Lions, and Kaguyak villagers were moved to the existing community of Akhiok.

While a considerable portion of Kodiak's fishing fleet was destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami, the rebuilding of Kodiak city hastened its emergence as the "king crab capital." The canneries near Old Harbor and Ouzinkie, destroyed in the earthquake, were never rebuilt. As a result, processing was increasingly consolidated in the town of Kodiak. Some fishermen, both in Alutiiq villages and in non-Native centers such as Kodiak and Cordova, were able to buy bigger and more modern boats with disaster loans.

During the 1960s, Alaska Natives began pressing for the settlement of land claims. The discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay gave the state and federal government new incentive to settle these claims. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was passed, allotting cash settlements and land grants to regional and village Native corporations. The regional corporation for the Kodiak area is Koniag, Inc., and Chugach, Inc. represents Natives of Prince William Sound and Lower Cook Inlet. Residents of the five Chignik villages on the Alaska Peninsula belong to Bristol Bay Native Corporation. Enrollment in Native corporations propelled the Alutiiq people into new forms of government and sometimes unfamiliar business ventures.

In 1975, the state of Alaska issued limited entry permits for commercial salmon fishing, giving the right to fish only to a limited number of people with gear licenses who could establish a past fishing history. This had a dramatic effect on skipper-crew relationships. It also changed the ease of entry into fishing for both Native and non-Native fishermen. Alutiiqs who did not qualify for the permits because they were young crewmen at the time of the establishment of limited entry, or who sold their original issue permits, found themselves locked out of fishing in their home communities. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, most Alutiiq Natives who were commercial fishermen continued to concentrate on salmon, although some diversified into other fisheries such as herring, cod, and crab.

The state of Alaska passed a law in 1978 granting harvest priority to subsistence users. The term "subsistence" has a special meaning in Alaska, referring to the harvesting, processing, and consumption of wild foods. It implies not only personal harvesting, but also cultural activities. Subsistence is a lifestyle that involves sharing, teaching, and learning, oral traditions, and respect for the land and resources. It is a past and present relationship between people and their environment. The issue of determining which Alaskans are eligible for subsistence remained contentious and unresolved in Alaska throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, involving further state and federal legislation as well as several court actions.

Both commercial and subsistence harvests were strongly affected by the huge Exxon Valdez oil spill which occurred on March 27, 1989. When the Exxon Valdez tanker hit Bligh Reef, it spilled almost 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. Response teams were unable to contain the oil before it was carried by currents throughout the entire Alutiiq culture area, ending as far south as Ivanof Bay on the Alaska Peninsula. The oil first hit Kodiak area beaches in mid-April. The salmon season there was closed due to the fear of oil contamination of fish. Fishermen in Prince William Sound and Lower Cook Inlet were eventually able to fish that summer, but their season was disrupted by the oil and the cleanup efforts. In the Chignik villages on the Alaska Peninsula, salmon fishing was allowed but was restricted to a smaller area than normal. In all Alutiiq communities, subsistence harvests of salmon and other resources were considerably lessened by the presence of oil, by the residents' involvement in the cleanup effort, and by their fears of oil contamination of subsistence foods.

Today, the Alutiiq villages include Akhiok, Karluk, Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, Ouzinkie, and Port Lions in the Kodiak region; Chignik Bay, Chignik Lagoon, Chignik Lake, Ivanof Bay, and Perryville on the Alaska Peninsula; Port Graham and Nanwalek in Lower Cook Inlet; and Chenega Bay and Tatitlek in Prince William Sound. Port Lions was built after the 1964 earthquake and settled by residents of Afognak, which was destroyed in the disaster. Some of the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami at Chenega founded Chenega Bay at a new site in 1982. Nanwalek was formerly called English Bay but in the 1990s changed its name back to the Alutiiq name for the community. The villages range in population from about 35 to 300; all are predominantly Native. There are also sizeable Alutiiq populations in the larger towns of Kodiak, Cordova, and Valdez.

G. CULTURAL REVITALIZATION

A cultural revitalization movement has strenthened the identity of Alutiiq people, and has enhanced their pride in their cultural traditions. Similar movements have occurred elsewhere among Alaska Natives. In the Kodiak area, efforts toward cultural revitalization began to gather force in the early 1980s, aided greatly by the development of an energetic cultural heritage program within the Kodiak Area Native Association. The North Pacific Rim Health Corporation (now renamed Chugachmiut), representing Alutiiq communities in Prince William Sound and on the Kenai Peninsula, has also supported programs contributing to cultural identity and self-esteem.

At the time of the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971, enrollment in Native corporations was a controversial issue for some Alutiiq people who had not previously thought of themselves as Natives, but instead as Russian or Creole. During the Russian period, intensive intermarriage occurred between Russians and Natives, and the children of these unions were known as "creoles." Later intermarriages with other Europeans, especially Scandinavians, resulted in the further "creolization" of Alutiiq culture. Under the rule that enrollment required that a person be at least one-fourth Native, and the original stipulation that the earliest identified creole in a person's ancestry was to be considered 50 percent Native, some Alutiiq Natives with creole ancestors were at first excluded. After a series of hearings and appeals, the Secretary of the Interior issued an order that these people were eligible for enrollment (Pullar 1990b:3).

The ANCSA enrollment effort attempted to group together people of common cultural heritage in regional corporations, Alutiiqs were enrolled in three different corporations. Although both Koniag, Inc. and Chugach, Inc. are dominated by Alutiiq people, Alutiiqs on the Alaska Peninsula were included in the mainly-Yup'ik Bristol Bay Native Corporation. While enrollment in Native corporations created a new institutional framework for Alutiiq unity within each region, it also underscored the separation of Alutiiq subgroups.

In 1976, Kodiak High School began a project modelled after the Foxfire program previously used elsewhere in the United States, in which students interviewed elders and other knowledgeable people and wrote stories about local traditions. Other communities in the Alutiiq culture area (Ouzinkie, English Bay, Port Graham, and Cordova) also established such programs. Excerpts from the Kodiak students' journal Elwani/Iluani and from interviews conducted by youths on the Alaska Peninsula are included in Vick (1983). These projects were intended to teach the younger generation to record their elders' traditions and knowledge that might otherwise be lost, and to reinforce a sense of continuity between the generations.

The Kodiak Area Native Association's Cultural Heritage Program, begun in the early 1980s, made great strides in fostering Alutiiq pride and achievement. Some projects included oral history programs, arts and crafts programs, elders' conferences, and educational outreach. KANA worked closely with archaeologists conducting research on the island and coordinated local Native youths' involvement in archeological excavations. It encouraged the development of an Alutiiq language dictionary, grammar, and school curriculum. In 1988, KANA and the Alaska Humanities Forum sponsored a Kodiak Island Cultural Heritage Conference, and the next year, KANA hosted another conference focusing specifically on kayaks. Several annual Cultural Heritage Conferences have followed.

Also in the 1980s, a group of traditional dancers formed in Kodiak. At first called the Shoonaq Dancers, they have been renamed the Alutiiq Dancers and are sponsored by the Kodiak Tribal Council. They have traveled widely to perform in the United States and overseas. The Kodiak Tribal Council also markets Native crafts and has worked to protect Native subsistence rights.

Part of KANA's mission is to work toward solutions to health and social problems. Its leadership has taken the view that such problems, including alcohol abuse, can be addressed through developing cultural pride and self-esteem. KANA's social service programs have therefore focused not only on counseling individuals, but on encouraging community activities that allow elders and other knowledgeable persons to transmit traditions to younger people. Toward this end, KANA has held several Elders' Conferences, often in conjunction with a Cultural Heritage conference.

Another aspect of cultural revitalization is the Native sobriety movement. The village of Akhiok received widespread attention in 1988 when at first a few residents of the village, then almost every person in the village, stopped drinking. One of the aspects of sobriety that Akhiok residents said they appreciated was having the time and energy to participate in traditional subsistence activities with their families. The movement had some setbacks during the months following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, but many Akhiok residents and other Alutiiqs have persevered in the collective sobriety movement.

Ironically, although the Exxon Valdez oil spill wreaked havoc in residents' lives throughout the Alutiiq culture area, it also contributed to a sense of cultural unity. Some Alutiiq people had more opportunities to travel to other parts of the culture area (for example, to work on the cleanup operation) and to communicate with residents of other Alutiiq communities whose lives had been disrupted by the oil spill. At the end of the summer of 1990, Native residents of Prince William Sound hosted an Alutiiq cultural celebration, inviting other Alutiiq people from Prince William Sound, Lower Cook Inlet, and the Kodiak area.

An important development for Alutiiq identity was the 1991 repatriation to Larsen Bay of human remains that had been taken by Ales Hrdlicka* in the 1930s and stored in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The story of Hrdlicka's* excavations and of Kodiak Island Natives' efforts to retrieve the Larsen Bay bones is detailed in Bray and Killion (1994). The Smithsonian was reluctant to relinquish the remains until it was demonstrated that the people whose bones were taken were ancestral to the present-day residents of Larsen Bay. The eventual return and reburial of the remains contributed to Kodiak Alutiiqs' unity with their past.

In the 1990s, some Alutiiq tribal organizations made new forays into ecotourism (or "ethno-tourism "). In 1994, the Afognak Native Corporation instituted a program called Dig Afognak that allows tourist participation in archaeological excavations and also offers instruction in Alutiiq cultural traditions. The Kodiak Tribal Council has promoted a tour package which includes learning about Alutiiq culture and performances by the Alutiiq Dancers.

The 1990s have seen new progress in Alutiiqs' efforts to make sure their language is learned by a younger generation. Due to the work of Alutiiq speakers such as the late Nina Olsen, Florence Pestrikoff and Ephraim Agnot, Sr., as well as to the efforts of Philomena Hausler-Knecht, Alutiiq language classes have been held in Kodiak area elementary and high schools and at Kodiak College. Port Graham residents participated in a language course in 1993.

Since the passage of ANCSA in 1971, Alutiiqs' pride in and interest in their culture has slowly grown, thanks in large part to cultural revitalization efforts. Younger people are learning to speak the Alutiiq language, once thought to be lost or nearly forgotten. KANA is in the process of opening a Native museum in Kodiak that will be a center for research and education as well as a repository for Alutiiq art and artifacts. The establishment and development of cultural heritage programs, the sobriety movement, the response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Larsen Bay repatriation, the development of ecotourism, and the new museum are all part of a growing sense of Alutiiq unity and continuity with tradition.

III. SOURCES ON ALUTIIQ CULTURE, PAST AND PRESENT

III. A. GENERAL

Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs

1981 Village profiles prepared by DOWL Engineers, with North Pacific Aerial Surveys and Honda Graphics. Akhiok, Karluk, Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, Ouzinkie, Port Lions.

A series of aerial maps with narrative portions on community government and services. Although the information given is dated, it would be useful for historical studies.

Location: KANA Cultural Heritage Center Archives.

 

Alaska Geographic

1977 Kodiak, Island of Change Alaska Geographic 4(3).

Includes a short summary of Kodiak prehistory and ethnography by Donald Clark, pp. 10-16.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Alaska Resource Library, UAA.

 

Alaska Geographic

1979 Alaska's Native People. Alaska Geographic 6(3).

The chapter on the Koniags and Chugach, pp. 175-193, contains photos of several well-known residents. Karl Armstrong, Jr. wrote an essay on the Koniagmiut, pp. 176-179.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Homer Public Library.

 

Alaska Geographic

1992a Kodiak. Alaska Geographic 19(3)

Includes a summary of the prehistory of the Kodiak Archipelago by Richard A Knecht, pp. 30-35.

Location: Kodiak College, UAA, Homer Public Library.

 

Alaska Geographic

1992b Prince William Sound. Alaska Geographic 20(1).

Section by Chris Wooley and Jim Haggerty, "The Hidden History of Chugach Bay," pp. 12-17, tells of Native population and traditional culture. Chenega Bay and Tatitlek are described on pp. 56-60.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource Library, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Alaska Geographic

1994 The Alaska Peninsula. Alaska Geographic 21(1).

Brief mention of prehistory and Native residents of the Alaska Peninsula, pp. 13-15. Discussion of contemporary villages concentrates on commercial fishing and non-Natives.

Location: Anchorage Municipal.

 

Arnold, Robert D.

1976 Alaska Native Land Claims. Anchorage: The Alaska Native Foundation.

An introduction to the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the founding of Native corporations. Includes thumbnail sketches of the main Alaska Native culture areas, including prehistory and history, and brief descriptions of Chugach, Inc. and Koniag, Inc., the two regional corporations with a majority of Alutiiq members.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource Library, UAA, Homer Public Library, Valdez Consortium.

 

Case, David S.

1984 Alaska Natives and American Law. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.

Laws and court cases affecting Alaska Natives, including land claims, reservations (there is an enlightening discussion of Karluk's status as a reservation, pp. 102-107), human services, subsistence, and self-government. In Chapter 8, "Traditional Native Societies," written by Anne Shinkwin (pp. 354-359), Alutiiqs are included as part of Southwestern Alaskan Yup'ik.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Homer Public Library, Valdez Consortium.

 

Chaffin, Yule, Trisha Hampton Krieger, and Michael Rostad

1983 Alaska's Konyag Country Pratt Publishing

An update and revision of Chaffin's earlier "Koniag to King Crab." History of the Kodiak area, with many old and new photos. Also includes sections on Kodiak villages.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, UAA, Homer Public Library.

 

Clark, Donald W.

1975 Koniag-Pacific Eskimo Bibliography. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada

Includes prehistory, history, and current ethnography, as well as articles appearing in popular journals.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Clark, Donald W.

1984a Pacific Eskimo: Historical Ethnography. In Handbook of North American Indians: Arctic Vol. 5 D. Damas, ed. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 185-197.

Description of Alutiiq culture as observed by Russians and other early European visitors.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Homer Public Library, Valdez Consortium.

 

Clark, Donald W.

1988 The Peoples and History of Kodiak Island, Alaska: A Bibliography. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Unpublished manuscript and diskette.

A continuation or work begun for Clark 1975. The author sees this bibliography as a work in progress.

Location: AEB collection.

 

Davis, Nancy Yaw

1984 Contemporary Pacific Eskimo. In Handbook of North American Indians: Arctic. Vol. 5. D. Damas, ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 198-204.

Summary of recent history and influences on the four different Alutiiq areas (Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska Peninsula, Lower Cook Inlet, and Prince William Sound). Includes discussion of involvement in commercial fishing, the Russian Orthodox Church, and disasters (1912 Mount Katmai eruption and 1964 earthquake and tsunami), along with profiles of Alutiiq villages. Also listed under 1912 Mount Katmai Eruption and 1964 Earthquake and Tsunami.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Homer Public Library, Valdez Consortium.

 

Fitzhugh, William W. and Aron Crowell, eds.

1988 Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

An edited volume of papers on Siberia and Alaska. Contains several references to Kodiak, placing its culture and prehistory in broad context, and illustrates in color numerous ethnographic and archaeologic specimens.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, UAA, Homer Public Library, Valdez Consortium.

 

Haggerty, James C., Christopher B. Wooley, Jon M. Erlandson, and Aron Crowell

1991 The 1990 Exxon Cultural Resource Program Site Protection and Maritime Cultural Ecology in Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska. Anchorage: Exxon Shipping Company and Exxon Company, U.S.A.

Chapter 4 presents a very complete cultural and historical information on Alutiiqs. Contains many pictures of traditional items. Also listed under 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Location: Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Krauss, Michael E.

1982 Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, Center for Northern Educational Research, University of Alaska.

Wall map showing geographic distribution of language groups The Alutiiq language area is shown as "Pacific Eskimo" or "Sugpiaq." Also listed under Language.

Location: UAA.

 

Langdon, Steve J.

1987 The Native People of Alaska. Anchorage: Greatland Graphics.

This slim volume with chapters on each of the major Alaska Native groups provides a good overview. Alutiiqs are categorized as part of "Southern Eskimos - Yuit" in pp. 40-53.

Location: UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Mobley, Charles M. , et al.

1990 The 1989 Exxon Valdez Cultural Resource Program. Anchorage: Exxon Shipping Company and Exxon Company, USA.

This multi-authored report of the Exxon Valdez program contains succinct regional summaries of prehistory and natural environment. Also listed under 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Location: Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Oswalt, Wendell

1967 Alaskan Eskimos. San Francisco: Chandler Publishing.

A general volume on Alaskan Eskimos which contains information on the Pacific Eskimos, or Alutiiq people.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, UAA , Homer Public Library, Valdez Consortium.

 

Orth, Donald J.

1971 Dictionary of Alaska Place Names. Washington: Geological Survey Professional Paper 567.

Reprinted from the 1967 edition with minor revisions. Includes many place names in the Alutiiq culture area.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Pullar, Gordon L.

1994a Alutiiq. In Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia. Mary B. Davis, ed. New York: Garland Publishing. Pp. 29-31.

A concise summary of the history and culture of Alutiiq people as a whole, and of regional subgroups. Includes a description of recent events and movements contributing to cultural revitalization. Also listed under Cultural Revitalization.

Location: AEB collection.

 

Townsend, Joan

1980 Ranked Societies of the Alaska Pacific Rim. In Alaska Native Culture and History. Y. Kotani and W. Workman, eds. Senri Ethnological Series No. 4. Senri, Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology. Pp. 123-156.

Interprets historical ethnographic information for various groups, including the Koniags. The book is a collection of papers given at the Second International Symposium of the National Museum of Ethnology. Townsend asserts that there are broad similarities in social organization among several groups (she objects to calling them "tribes") of southern Alaska, including the Koniags, Chugach, Aleuts, Ahtna, and Eyaks. These are all ranked societies which traditionally had slaves. Townsend uses the term "richman" to refer to a leader in these societies. Wealth and inheritance were the two important factors in rank. Leaders also had to demonstrate their worthiness. Townsend suggests that southern Alaska societies had at least two spheres of exchange: one for common objects such as food and skins, and another for wealth items such as shells and amber. Slaves might have been exchanged in a third sphere.

Location: Alaska Resource, UAA.

 

Townsend, Joan B.

1983 Pre-contact Political Organization and Slavery in Aleut Society. In The Development of Political Organization in Native North America. Elizabeth Tooker, ed. Philadelphia: American Ethnological Society. Pp. 120-132.

Mainly about the Aleuts, but also discusses Koniag slavery.

Location: Not found.

 

III.B. PREHISTORY

Clark, Donald W.

1974 Koniag Prehistory. Tubinger Monographien zur Urgeschichte, Band 1. Stuttgart, Germany: Verlag W. Kohlhammer.

This document, which contains much ethnographic information, is a revision of the author's 1968 dissertation.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Alaska Resource.

 

Clark, Donald W.

1984b Prehistory of the Pacific Eskimo Region. In Handbook of North American Indians: Arctic. Vol. 5. D. Damas, ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 136-148.

A good introduction to sources on Alutiiq prehistory. Clark mentions sites in the Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska Peninsula, Kachemak Bay, and Prince William Sound. Not much comparative information is available from Prince William Sound because many early sites were destroyed by changes in the level of the land.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Homer Public Library, Valdez Consortium.

 

Clark, Donald W.

1992 Only a Skin Boat Load or Two: The Role of Migration in Kodiak Prehistory. Arctic Anthropology 29(1):2-17.

Addresses the problem of whether the Koniags were an outgrowth of the earlier Kachemak people, or migrated to Kodiak. Using archaeological and linguistic evidence, it is proposed that there was a modest amount of migration, but not population replacement. This article gives a concise summary of current findings on the phases of Alutiiq prehistory.

Location: UAA, AEB collection

 

Clark, Donald W.

1994a Archaeology on Kodiak: The Quest for Prehistory and its Implications for North Pacific Prehistory. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 24(1&2).

A guide to the archaeological literature up to 1990.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, Valdez Consortium.

 

Clark, Donald W.

1994b Still a Big Story: The Prehistory of Kodiak Island. In Reckoning With the Dead: The Larsen Bay Repatriation and the Smithsonian Institution. Tamara L. Bray and Thomas W Killion, eds. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp. 137-149.

Summarizes the archeological work done on Kodiak Island and the prehistory of the area. The author points out that there is still no definite answer to the key question of continuity, either between Kachemak and Koniag traditions, or between Ocean Bay and Kachemak traditions.

Location: Kodiak and Anchorage libraries.

 

de Laguna, Frederica

1934 The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum

Record of materials found in Lower Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay. De Laguna used the term "Kachemak" to describe the culture of a prehistoric group of people that lived in this area. The name has also been applied to a cultural phase of Kodiak Island and parts of the shore of the Alaska Peninsula during this same period, perhaps around 1400 B.C. to 1200 A.D. De Laguna mentions sites at Alexandrovsk at English Bay (today known as Nanwalek) which have the Native name "Nanu'aluq," and at Port Graham, called in Alutiiq "Palu'vik." Seldovia has a Kenai Athabaskan name, "Axitaxnu." The author promises a further report of research in Prince William Sound.

Location: Kodiak College, .Anchorage Municipal, UAA.

 

de Laguna, Frederica

1956 Chugach Prehistory: The Archaeology of Prince William Sound, Alaska. Seattle: University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, Vol. 13.

Excavations and surveys in Prince William Sound in the summers of 1930 and 1933. The author calls the culture "Palugvik." The material compares to Kachemak findings in other Alutiiq areas. De Laguna concludes that Prince William Sound, Lower Cook Inlet, Kodiak and parts of the Alaska Peninsula are subareas of the "Pacific Eskimo-Aleut province." In discussing findings on Kodiak Island, de Laguna harshly criticizes the work of Ales Hrdlicka*.

Location: Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Donta, Christopher

1988 Archaeological Indications of Evolving Social Complexity on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Bryn Mawr College.

Looks at late prehistoric material culture and describes practices such as gambling.

Location: Bryn Mawr College.

 

Donta, Christopher

1992 Koniag Ceremonialism. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Bryn Mawr College.

Karluk and Monashka Bay sites provide data on traditional Alutiiq ceremonial life. A model previously applied to ranked societies of the Northwest Coast is employed to interpret Koniag cultural change.

Location: UMI Dissertation Services.

 

Donta, Christopher

1994 Continuity and Function in the Ceremonial Material Culture of the Koniag Eskimo. In Reckoning with the Dead: The Larsen Bay Repatriation Case and the Smithsonian Institution. Tamara L. Bray and Thomas W. Killion, eds. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp. 122-136.

A Koniag site in Monashka Bay gives clues to the elaborate ceremonial life of this tradition. Also listed under Religion, Art, and Folklore.

Location: Kodiak and Anchorage libraries.

 

Dumond, Don E.

1994 The Uyak Site in Prehistory. In Reckoning With the Dead: The Larsen Bay Repatriation Case and the Smithsonian Institution. Tamara L Bray and Thomas W. Killion, eds. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp. 43-53.

The original version of this paper was written in response to Pullar and Hausler-Knecht's (1990) argument for continuity of residence at the Uyak site. Dumond's perspective is that of a broad regional context. While he concedes that nearby Karluk seems to have had at least partial continuity of residence, he says there is no archeological evidence that specifically demonstrates continuity of residence in Larsen Bay/Uyak.

Location: Kodiak and Anchorage libraries.

 

Hausler-Knecht, Philomena

1993 Early Prehistory of the Kodiak Archipelago. Paper presented at the International Seminar on the Origins, Development, and Spread of North Pacific-Bering Sea Maritime Cultures, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Discusses ties between weather and subsistence in the Kodiak area, such as the problems the weather poses for hunters. Also listed under Subsistence.

Location: Author.

 

Heizer, Robert F.

1956 Archaeology of the Uyak Site, Kodiak Island, Alaska. University of California Anthropological Records 17:1.

Describes Hrdlicka's* collections from "Our Point," near the present village of Larsen Bay; contains data on burials and houses.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resources.

 

Hrdlicka, Ales*

1975 The Anthropology of Kodiak Island. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. Reprint of 1944 edition by AMS Press, New York.

Part I is primarily quotations from historical sources. Part II is an archaeological survey of Kodiak Islands. Part III contains daily notes for the Uyak excavations at Our Point, Jones Point, and Larsen Bay, and a summary of archaeological work. Part IV deals with the physical anthropology of Kodiak.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource.

 

Jordan, Richard H.

1992 Qasqiluteng: Feasting and Ceremonialism Among the Traditional Koniag of Kodiak Island. In Anthropology of the North Pacific Rim. William W. Fitzhugh and Valerie Chaussonnet, eds. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press.

Describes traditional Koniag life and places artifacts from Kodiak Island in cultural context, using archeological data as well as the statements of early European observers.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Alaska Resource, Homer Public Library.

 

Jordan, Richard H. and Richard A. Knecht.

1986 Archaeological Research on Western Kodiak Island, Alaska: The Development of Koniag Culture. In Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska's Native People. R. D. Shaw, R. K. Harritt, and D. E. Dumond, eds. Anchorage: Aurora IV, Alaska Anthropological Association. Pp. 225-306.

Formulates a view of continuity between Koniag culture and previous phases of Alutiiq prehistory.

Location: Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA.

 

Kemp, Kenneth L.

1981 Differential Development of Village Size Social Units. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico.

Location: UMI Dissertation Services.

 

 

Moss, Madonna L. and Jon M. Erlandson

1992 Forts, Refuge Rocks, and Defensive Sites: The Antiquity of Warfare Along the North Pacific Coast of North America. Arctic Anthropology 29(2):73-90.

See listing under Warfare.

 

Pullar, Gordon L. and Philomena Hausler-Knecht

1990 Continuous Occupation of Larsen Bay/Uyak by Qikertarmiut. Paper prepared for the Native American Rights Fund.

This paper was written in support of Larsen Bay Natives' efforts to retrieve and rebury the human remains taken from the community by Hrdlicka* in the 1930s. It documents the continuity of occupation in Larsen Bay/Uyak in order to demonstrate that the people whose remains were excavated were ancestral to those living in that village, and throughout Kodiak Island, in the present.

Location: AEB collection.

 

Simon, James J K and Amy F. Steffian

1994 Cannibalism or Complex Mortuary Behavior: An Analysis of Patterned Variability in the Treatment of Human Remains from the Kachemak Tradition of Kodiak Island. In Reckoning With the Dead: The Larsen Bay Repatriation and the Smithsonian Institution. Tamara L Bray and Thomas W. Killion, eds. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp. 75-100.

Some of the bones Hrdlicka* found at the Uyak site had been modified after death, and he thought this was evidence of cannibalism. Simon and Steffian argue that cannibalism and violence alone cannot explain the complex mortuary behavior of Kachemak-era people. The authors place bone modification in a larger cultural context, suggesting that human bones might have been used as ritual objects and territorial markers.

Location: Kodiak and Anchorage libraries.

 

Urcid, Javier

1994 Cannibalism and Curated Skulls: Bone Ritualism on Kodiak Island. In Reckoning With the Dead: The Larsen Bay Repatriation and the Smithsonian Institution. Tamara L. Bray and Thomas W. Killion, eds. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp. 101-121.

Like Simon and Steffian (1994), this author responds to Hrdlicka's* conclusion that bone modification on Kodiak Island was evidence of cannibalism. Urcid examines drilled and cut skulls and other bones from the Uyak site. He suggest that the skulls of certain individuals were used after their deaths as ritual objects.

Location: Kodiak and Anchorage libraries.

 

Workman, William B.

1980 Continuity and Change in the Prehistoric Record from Southern Alaska. In Alaska Native Culture and History. Y. Kotani and W. Workman, eds. Senri Ethnological Series No. 4, pp. 49-101. Senri, Osaka (Japan): National Museum of Ethnology.

A comprehensive summary of the prehistory of the entire Alutiiq region, with a map of important archaeological sites. Workman proposes that this culture area be designated as the Eastern Sector of a North Pacific maritime "co-tradition." The co-tradition's branches include the traditions of the eastern Alaska Peninsula, the Kodiak Archipelago, outer Cook Inlet, and Prince William Sound.

Location: UAA, Alaska Resource, AEB.

 

Workman, William B.

1992 Life and Death in a First Millennium A.D. Gulf of Alaska Culture: The Kachemak Tradition Ceremonial Complex. In Ancient Images, Ancient Thought: The Archaeology of Ideology. S. Goldsmith, S. Garvie, D. Selin, and J. Smith, eds. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Chacmool Conference. Calvary Archaeological Association.

Location: Not found.

 

Yarborough, Linda F.

1993 Prehistoric Use of Cetacea Species in the Northern Gulf of Alaska. Paper presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Alaskan Anthropological Association, Anchorage.

Summarizes ethnographic information on Alutiiq whaling. Also listed under Subsistence.

Location: Author.

 

Yesner, David R.

1992 Evolution of Subsistence in the Kachemak Tradition: Evaluating the North Pacific Maritime Stability Model. Arctic Anthropology 29(2):167-181.

Argues that some Kachemak peoples' intensive exploitation of sea mammals may have led to the demise of their culture, or at least to their dependence instead on storable resources such as salmon instead. Kodiak is discussed, among other areas.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, UAA, AEB collection.

 

III.C. HISTORY: RUSSIAN ERA, 1784-1867

Bancroft, Hubert Howe

1959 History of Alaska, 1730-1885.

The adventures of the Russian promyshlenniki and of well-known businessmen such as Shelikhov, Baranov, and Rezanov are told in colorful fashion. Much of the book is supposed to have been ghost-written by Ivan Petroff, who lived in Kodiak in the 1880s and was Bancroft's research assistant

Location: Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, Valdez Consortium.

 

Birket-Smith, Kaj

1941 Early Collections from the Pacific Eskimo Ethnological Studies, Nationalmuseets Skrifter Etnografisk Raekke 1:121-163. Copenhagen, Denmark: Gyldendal.

Describes Alutiiq items collected by Holmberg on Kodiak and in Prince William Sound.

Location: University of Washington

 

Black, Lydia, trans. and ed.

1977 The Konyag (The Inhabitants of the Island of Kodiak) by Iosaf [Bolotov] (1794-1799) and by Gideon (1804-1807) Arctic Anthropology 14(2):79-108.

Two documents by clergymen in the Russian Orthodox mission to Kodiak Contains an introduction telling what each of them were doing in Kodiak. One was Archmandrate Iosaf, the head of the original mission in 1794, and the other is Hieromonk Gideon, who was sent by the church in Moscow in 1804, probably to investigate the situation in the American colony Gideon. especially, gives detailed ethnographic information The text is difficult because of the large number of Russian and Alutiiq words. However, at the end there is a glossary of such terms, as well as a list of plants and animals referred to in the text.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, UAA, AEB collection.

 

Black, Lydia T.

1992 The Russian Conquest of Kodiak. In Contributions to the Anthropology of Southcentral and Southwestern Alaska. Richard H. Jordan, Frederica de Laguna, and Amy F. Steffian, eds. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 24 (1&2).

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, Valdez Consortium.

 

Clark, Donald W.

1987 On a Misty Day You Can See Back to 1805: Ethnohistory and Historical Archaeology on the Southeastern Side of Kodiak Island, Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 21(1-2):105-132.

Lisiansky's observations of 1805 villages are compared with the archeological remnants of these settlements. Settlement pattern is examined and discussed.

Location: UAA.

 

Crowell, Aron

1992 Postcontact Koniag Ceremonialism on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula: Evidence from the Fisher Collection. Arctic Anthropology 29(1):18-37.

Discusses ceremonial articles collected on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula by naturalist William J. Fisher between 1879 and 1885. Fisher also commissioned Chugach items. The presence of dance masks, headdresses and shaman's articles shows that traditional religious activities continued well after Russian contact.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, UAA, AEB collection.

 

Davydov, Gavriil Ivanovich

1977 Two Voyages to Russian America, 1802-1807. Colin Bearne, trans. Richard A. Pierce, ed. Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press.

Customs, ceremonies, material culture, and character of the "Koniagas" as observed by a young Russian Navy officer. A much-quoted source.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA , Valdez Consortium.

 

D'Wolf, John

1968 A Voyage to the North Pacific. Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press.

Facsimile of 1861 edition. Describes travels to Russian America and Siberia, 1804-1807. D'Wolf (1779-1872) visited Kodiak in July 1806, as described in pp. 63-66. He also visited Kukak on the Alaska Peninsula.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Anchorage Municipal, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Fedorova, Svetlana G

1973 The Russian Population in Alaska and California: Late 18th Century - 1867. Richard A. Pierce and Alton S. Donnelly, trans. and ed. Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press.

Emphasis on labor relations in the colony. Among other things. Fedorova discusses the conditions of the large population of creoles in Russian America. Sporadic references to Kodiak, called Kad'iak.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Gibson, James R.

1976a Imperial Russia in Frontier America: The Changing Geography of Supply in Russian America, 1784-1867. New York: Oxford University Press.

Analysis of lines of supply to Russian America, as well as attempts at establishing agriculture in Alaska.

Location: Anchorage Municipal, UAA, Valdez Consortium.

 

Gibson, James R.

1976b Russian Sources for the Ethnohistory of the Pacific Coast of North America in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology 6(1):91-115

Location: Not found.

 

Gideon, Hieromonk

1989 The Round the World Voyage of Hieromonk Gideon, 1803-1809. Lydia T. Black, trans. Richard A. Pierce, ed. Fairbanks, Alaska: The Limestone Press.

Contains much of the same as Black 1977. Also included is correspondence between Gideon and the church synod, and between Russian American Company officers and the clergy of the Kadiak Spiritual Mission.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA.

 

Golovnin, Pavel Nikolaevich

1979 The End of Russian America: Captain P. N. Golovnin's Last Report, 1862. Basil Dmytryshyn and E. A. P. Crownhart-Vaughan, trans. and ed. Portland: Oregon Historical Society.

Notes and records of Russia's Alaska colony, including description of conditions, expenditures, composition of sea hunting parties, summary of trade in furs, and population censuses. Golovnin announces the Russian company's intention to develop commercial fishing at Karluk.

Location: A. Holmes Johnson, Kodiak College, Anchorage Municipal, Alaska Resource, UAA, Homer Public Library, Valdez Consortium.

 

Golovnin, Vasilii M.

1985 Memorandum of Captain 2nd Rank Golovnin on the Condition of the Aleuts in the Settlements of the Russian American Company and on its Promyshlenniki. Katherine Arndt, trans. and ed. Alaska History 1(2):59-71.

Reports on investigations in 1817 of abuses of Natives in the colony, at Kodiak