Valaam Monastery, and monks from Konev Monastery,
both located in northern Russia, arrived in Kodiak to
start the “Ka’diak Spiritual Mission”. ' Shelikhov,
exaggerating reports of his hold on the Natives and his
facilities, argued that conversion of the indigenous
peoples was vital to the new territory; Catherine the
Great assigned what seemed like a large religious
mission, instructing the missionaries not to proselytize
but to attract converts by example. The mission
consisted of ten men, three of whom were novices and
three who were priests including the Head of Mission,
Archimadrite Ioasaf. One of the priests, Iuvenalii, was
killed by Yup’ik near Quinhagak. In 1799, a mere five
years after they arrived, all but four missionaries
drowned when the frigate Feniks sank.'7*

Missionaries were well-prepared for life on Kodiak

but constant tension between Father Ioasaf and Baranov
complicated their work. Attempts to build schools,
establish gardens, and teach orthodoxy were met with
Baranov’s criticism.’ loasaf, as head of the mission,
contributed greatly to knowledge of the Sugpiat during
early contact. Father Gideon, who traveled to the
colony to inspect conditions there, left one of the

most complete collections of papers on the Sugpiat

in the early 1800s. Under his direction, Paramon
Chumovitskii compiled a Sugtestun dictionary (now
lost), translated Russian texts into Sugtestun, and wrote
ethnological descriptions of the Kodiak people.'” He
traveled to the villages baptizing souls and performing
marriage rites. He revitalized the school on Kodiak, and
soon 80 Russians, Natives, and Creoles were attending
classes in geography, history, foreign languages, art, and
religion, in addition to the “three R's.” And he reported
on the deplorable conditions of the mission, the

depravity of the Russians, and the mistreatment
of the Sugpiat by Baranov and his men.

Conversion of the Sugpiat and Alaska Peninsula
peoples was slow. In 1839, Father Veniaminov reported
that, partly due to Kodiak Parish’s large size and lack
of clergy, it was

spiritually the least advanced... All those who have
been to Kodiak unanimously agree that the Aleuts
there almost never go to church. They cling to their
shamans openly or in secret, and few fulfill their
[sacramental] duties to the Church... Probably the
Kodiak Aleuts lack faith because they know little of
Christianity, not because they are stubborn or hostile.
... The Kodiak parish needs better organization.'”

At the time, Kodiak parish included the Alaska
Peninsula settlements of Katmai, Ugashik, Unangashak,
and Severnovskie. However, in 1841 the villages near
Bristol Bay—Ugashik and the Severnovskie villages—
were moved to the Nushagak Parish.'”” The newly
assigned Nushagak parish priest recorded 17 Christians
living in Ugashik that year. A decade later Hieromonk
Feofil recorded 110 “Aleut” converts and, by 1867,
Ugashik had 161 churchgoers, probably the entire
population. The missionaries, though their visits

were infrequent, established a toion, a churchwarden
(starosta), and a church reader (psalomshchik) at every
settlement, and encouraged their converts to put icons
in their houses and, if possible, build small chapels.

In the larger villages, they established schools to teach
reading and writing. In spite of the rapid conversion
rate, parishioners did not necessarily understand the
church’ message and missionaries did not always gain
the cooperation of the local toions and interpreters.

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

47



The post-war life style included neither the hardship
nor rewards of moving families to remote cabins to
run trap lines, With the advent of wintertime schools,
the impact of the influenza epidemics, and more
centralized economic opportunities, the many small
villages and settlements on the Peninsula became
consolidated into a few towns where schools, churches,
fish processing plants, airstrips, docks, and roads

were built. People moved to the fishery villages when
Kanatak and Ilnik were finally abandoned. By the
mid-1950s, Chignik Bay, Chignik Lagoon, Pilot Point,
Ugashik, and Port Heiden were the remaining year-
round villages near Aniakchak. People thus became
more sedentary, living year round in one village,

or spending only a few weeks or months pursuing
commercial and subsistence fishing in a nearby village.

The period of commercial exploration proved once
again the resiliency of the Alaska Peninsula Alutiiqs.
As entrepreneurs and as employees, men and women
engaged in the new society and participated in the new
activities brought as a result of the transfer of Alaska
from Russia to the United States. Those who were able
to align themselves with the Euroamericans could get
the better jobs in the fishing and trapping industries,
gaining access to the new social and political order.
Trapping was still an important part of life but fishing
was the mainstay of the economy—whether the season
was good or bad. Subsistence hunting, fishing and
gathering plant foods and shellfish continued to sustain
families through years of uncertainty.

Many changes were brought to the Alutiiq community
as well. For many of the Native and Creole women who
married first- and second-generation Euroamericans,
marrying non-Native men meant giving up the

teachings of their mothers and grandmothers. This
conversion was reinforced by the isolation of women
from the Native community for much of the year. As
wives of Furoamericans, many women were no longer
required or allowed to practice many of the rituals that
served to distinguish men and women in Native
households. They were not, for example, allowed to put
their daughters in menstrual seclusion or use traditional
Native health practices or were not allowed to go to the
Russian Orthodox services, Some women, as daughters
of bilingual Creoles, identified relatively easily with the
Euroamerican culture. Separation from the Alutiiq
community further separated women from their families
and meant a loss of cultural knowledge. Their children
knew even less of their Alutiiq past. Others, while
married to men of European heritage, managed to
retain much of their Alutiiq cultural traditions and
beliefs. Some men welcomed Alutiiq knowledge and
beliefs and some families even learned Sugtestun

To varying degrees, families of the Peninsula showed
aspects of Alutiiq, Russian, and European heritage.

Peter Lind driving his brother
Bill Lind’s dog team on Chignik
Lake, circa 1950, The open
country north of Chignik Lake
and along the north side of the
Peninsula was ideal for dog sleds
which were used for traveling
between villages, trapping, and
hunting. Courtesy of Peter Lind.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! ~— III



The Sugpiat

Settlement

At the time of Russian arrival, the vast majority of
Sugpiat lived in permanently or semi-permanently
settled villages along the coast of Kodiak, Afognak,
and other islands of the Kodiak Archipelago. They
moved frequently throughout the year in order to
exploit the numerous resources of the Pacific coast.
Their strategy was described by loasaf:

.-almost every family has its own dwelling, and
many have more than one dwelling in various
places. They settle on the bays and inlets, on the sea
shore, and near streams, but change their location
and dwellings with the seasons. In the spring they
usually stay in places where the run of fish from the
sea (is early), and in winter near the shallows
where they can find subsistence for themselves.”

Individuals and whole families quickly traveled long
distances in baidarkas (kayaks). The Sugpiat most likely
seasonally used the Pacific coast and the outlying islands
of the Alaska Peninsula to just northeast of Kupreanof
Point.” These people relied on the abundant salmon runs
that came each year and a variety of other ocean and
terrestrial resources. It is hard to determine the extent of
Sugpiaq reliance on the salmon, sea otters and sea lions,
shellfish, and the inland caribou herds—all resources

of the Peninsula and of the area near Aniakchak.

Seasonal round

Extant descriptions of the seasonal round of food
gathering, equipment production and repair,

festivities, and travel may be from a time when
subsistence patterns were already altered by Russian
demands for quantities of sea otters, fish, and bird
skins, Later observations about seasonal resource
use may be relevant to traditional patterns but the
control exerted by Russian fur traders must be
considered. By living far south of the winter ice
pack the Sugpiat had resources available and easily
accessible year round, prompting Davydov to write
that the Sugpiat “glean what they can where they
can, in a random fashion, whenever the weather
permits them to put to sea.””

Kodiak Island had a population density greater

than any other area the Russians encountered. Fish
formed the basis of the Sugpiaq diet but marine and
terrestrial mammals were also important for food,
clothing, and raw materials. Sea birds were numerous
and were used for clothing, food, and decorations.
Bears were respected and valued for the ample supply
of fat and other resources they supplied. Berries and
other plants were used as condiments, medicines, and
raw materials for hats, baskets, and mats. Shellfish
beds were a year-round source of food. Sugpiat could
travel easily to Bristol Bay or down the Pacific coast
to exploit resources, if they did not encounter local
resistance. Additionally, they had access to the Alaska
Peninsula caribou herds—again, if they did not meet
hostile groups.

Summer and winter weather and migrations of fish
and mammals imposed a yearly pattern to pre-contact
Sugpiat life. When the weather permitted, the early
morning hours witnessed the men watching the sky
and the sea from the tops of their dwellings. If the

task of the day were to be hunting, sea and sky would = PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! 13



142

CHAPTER NINE

a lucrative occupation, well-suited to seasonal
movements and activities. In search of work, families
and individuals traveled south from the Nome area,
not only by Revenue Cutter and schooner but also

by wooden whale boats and skin-covered umiaks.

In the winter, they traveled by dog sled. In 1913 the
population from Nelson Lagoon to Port Moller swelled
from 18 “Aleuts”*” counted in 1910 to 186, “most of
them Eskimos [Inupiat] from the Nelson Lagoon
colony” at Port Moller.** Port Moller, Herendeen Bay,
and probably Nelson Lagoon had supported cannery
operations by 1913.** The population of Port Moller
comprised 131 men, 23 women, and 32 children
under the age of 12; of these, 33 men, 22 women,
and 32 children were working in the cannery.”

The many Inupiat who moved down to the canneries
at Herendeen Bay formed their own community near
the established settlements. In the years that followed,
family members joined them.

Three generations of the Supsook family made

the journey to the Alaska Peninsula with two other
families aboard Charlie Madsen’s schooner Challenger
in 1914.¥° The Zunganuk and Riley families came by
skin boat, a journey which took two summers. As
they made the long trip down the coast, the skin boats
periodically needed to be dried out, water-proofed
and repaired. They traveled during the summers and
stopped for the winter along the way.

Pacific American Fisheries, in Port Moller, packed
over 80,000 cases of fish in 1914, presumably assisted
by the new labor force of Inupiat.”” The Bering Sea
Packing Company built a new cannery in 1916 in
Herendeen Bay and it seemed the area was becoming a
well established cannery town. The increased activity

and population prompted the opening of a school

at “the old Eskimo village,” near Herendeen Bay,
where both Inupiat and “Aleut” (probably Alutiig

or Alutiiq and Unangan) students attended from 1915
to the late 1920s,”* However, there were not enough
jobs for the numbers of Inupiat who had migrated.
By 1917, families were moving northeast up the
Peninsula from the Port Moller area to Port Heiden
and the Ugashik River. At first, the newly migrated
Inupiat worked in the canneries, but those who
could soon became fishermen. They also established
traplines in the winters. Port Heiden became a village
of both Alutiiq and Inupiat. In Pilot Point, the Inupiat
established “Eskimo Town” outside of the old village.
The number of families who moved up the Peninsula
is unknown. The Inupiat community, like the Aleut
and Alutiiq community, suffered from the 1919
influenza pandemic. It is not known, however, the
extent of Inupiat die-off from influenza. Influenza
had left many villages, including Pilot Point, desolate.
Inupiat joined others to form new communities in
the depopulated villages.

The Inupiat formed small communities at
Unangashak, Shegong (at the mouth of the Cinder
River), Eskimo Town, at above Ugashik at Eskimo
Village. They established camps at Ugashik Lakes
where they could trap, hunt, and fish in winter.
Nick Ablama, a longtime resident of Egegik and Pilot
Point, remembers:

Lused to go there [to Ugaassaq] when the Eskimos
were there. When the original people were all gone
lafter the 1919 epidemic]. Some of them were over
here [Pilot Point]. There is Eskimo Village someplace
here, too.


Tariq’ (unidentified dried grass roo!
« Form into a bundle, use to scrub in the banya.

on the boil as that will infect it.

Porcupine feet

* Boil and peel off the skin from the bottom,
dry them and light them. The smell will drive
away the flu.

* The dried pads are also good to chew on
while out on the trail.

Tarnaq (wild celery) Angelica lucida

* Use leafy branches as a switch in the banya.

* Break open and rub roots on joints or aching
muscles.

* Break open roots and put on top of hot rocks
for an aromatic in the banya.

Maggots

* Put feet in a big pile of maggots for a few
minutes to warm feet and increase circulation
in winter.

Ugsuun (Puchki, cow parsnip) Heracleum lanatum

« Eat leaves in early summer when young.

* Peel and pickle stems can be pickled.

* Caution: in late summer plant can cause skin
sensitivity to sun and rashes.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 137







56

CHAPTER FOUR

throughout the twentieth century.” The Russian
government contributed to the American churches until
the Communist revolution, in 1917, ended funding for
Orthodoxy and Orthodox schools in Alaska.

The End of the Sea Otter Hunt

A typical sea otter hunt was described in 1880:

The mode of hunting the animal has not changed
since the earliest times. A few privileged white men
located in the district of Ounga employ firearms,
but the great body of Aleutian [Alutiiq] hunters still
retain the spear and in a few instances the bow and
arrow. The sea otter is always hunted by parties of
from four to twenty bidarkas, each manned by two
hunters. From their village the hunters proceed to
some lonely coast near the hunting ground, either in
their canoes [kayaks] or by schooners and sloops
belonging to the trading firms, a few women
generally accompanying the party to do the
housework in the camp. In former times, of course,
this was not the case. The tents are pitched in some
spot not visible from the sea, and the hunters
patiently settle down to await the first favorable
day, only a smooth sea permitting the hunting of
sea otter with any prospect of success.”

In the 1880s and 1890s, hunters searched the reefs and
islands of the coast of the Peninsula from the Shumagin
Islands to Puale Bay for the few remaining sea otter.
The attitude that wildlife resources were inexhaustible
was pervasive at the time: “the coast of the Aliaska
Peninsula is lined with hundreds of islands and reefs,
affording ample facilities for shelter and refuge to the

persecuted animal, and though it is hunted here
recklessly by white men and Native hunters alike, using
firearms in violation of existing regulations, no alarming
decrease can be ascertained from statistics at hand.”

The hunt did decline, however, and the Alaska
Commercial Company and other traders had an
increasingly difficult time profiting from the business.
Still, the frontier attitude that nature was inexhaustible
did not seem to diminish. Alaska’s salmon were soon
to be pursued with the same recklessness and
disregard for their reproductive limits. For a time,
however, the coastline provided for the pursuit of a
large variety of other resources, including an array of
fur-bearing mammals, fish, and caribou. People found
new ways to make a living off the land and off the
companies that were exploiting the new found riches.

Independence from the Russian-American Company
and the diminished sea otter hunt forced Alutiigs to
make independent choices and resume their seasonal
patterns. Many hunters quit going out on trader-
organized hunts in winter and late spring/summer,
preferring to pursue subsistence activities, like putting
up fish. People trapped fur-bearing animals, hunted,
and worked in the canneries to obtain cash. These
changes resulted in new seasonal settlements.

The high prices brought by sea otter pelts could not

be matched by other furs but hard work could yield an
income in trapping a variety of furbearers.” Trapping
and hunting for fur-bearing animals to sell and trade
to the Alaska Commercial Company and other
individual traders was a well-established part of life

by the late 1800s. For many, trapping was increasingly
incorporated into the traditional seasonal round.



40

CHAPTER EIGHT

either by poor shooting or lack of proper treatment
before bringing it to the villages. Two other factors
may enter into this refusal to accept wild game that
sport hunters do not use. Native subsistence hunters
not only have a lifetime’s experience hunting animals
in their environment, they also carry the experience
of their ancestors to the field. Signs that give
information about the spirit world are read, and
animals are assessed for health and normalcy before
they are shot. A lack of knowledge about the
circumstances of a hunt may cause people to be
reluctant to accept meat. Furthermore, accepting food
implies a relationship to another person—a Native
person, often already in an uneasy relationship to
sport hunters and their guides, may be unwilling

to accept the obligation along with the meat.

Many questions relating to use and value of resources
beg answering. Transmission of culturally sustaining
and environmentally healthy aspects of the traditional
ways of hunting, fishing, and gathering is a concern

to young and old hunters. It is too easy to judge
traditional knowledge as forgotten, although for much
specific knowledge that is the case, and hunters today
lament their own ignorance about what their ancestors
knew. Still, others try to uphold traditional ways and
encourage their hunting peers to do the same. It might
be important to document traditional ecological
knowledge of Aniakchak, and explore how much
ecological knowledge about hunting, trapping,

and gathering is being transmitted.


lasting from half a day to a day. Such weather did
not allow for fish to dry out and it fell to the ground
rotten and unusable even for dog food. In the spring
of 1897 famine made people eat rotten [fermented]
fish mixed with dirt. I have to say here that local
Natives do not live without rotten fish. To prepare
fish this way they dig out a pit in the ground—like
Russian pits for potatoes—and put unwashed and
ungutted fish there; then they cover everything up
with earth. There isn’t a family that would eat
fresh food without fish prepared in such way. By the
spring of 1897 famine reached such height that the
Natives had to beat off frozen dirt from the sides of
those pits and eat it with pieces of fish mixed in it

Many villages turned to me for help at that time
and received everything that I could spare for them:
money, flour or salted fish. For example, through
their toyon people from the village of Ekuk received
several dollars to buy fish from a store... Allin all
I did everything I could to ease the grasps of famine
and if anybody came from the remote villages,

I would be happy to help them as well. There were
no deaths due to famine. The very next summer
Natives stored up a lot of dried fish since there

was a large catch.”

Just two years later, in 1900, an influenza epidemicTM'
and other diseases struck the Nushagak parish, and
Father Kedrovskii reported that so many people had died
in the parish that the confessional lists were no longer
relevant and would need to be recompiled.*” This was
“The Great Death” of the Yup’ik people that devastated
the population and culture.” The 1900 epidemic left
whole villages dead in a large part of western Alaska."
According to the U.S. Census, population figures for

the area from Ugashik to Unangashak dropped from 418
in 1890 to 256 in 1900.

The next epidemic that struck the Alaska Peninsula
affected much of the world; the 1918-1919 pandemic
nearly exterminated entire adult populations on the
Peninsula, including those of Pilot Point, Ugashik,
Meshik, and possibly Wrangell. Many of the Bristol Bay
orphans were sent to Kanakanak (Dillingham) and while
some made it home again, many were never returned to
their home villages. A few orphans were raised either by
relatives, or by brothers and sisters who survived and
were barely old enough to maintain a household.

When the U.S. government assumed the management
and regulation of hunting and trapping in Alaska, the
sea otter hunt was opened up to the demands of the
competitive commercial market. Between 1870 and
1890, well over 4,000 sea otters were killed each year.
The prices rose as the otter became scarce, and by 1890
hunters received goods valued at about $100 per raw
skin. In the next decade sea otters were increasingly
difficult to find and, although the price of a prime fur
had more than doubled, hunters were increasingly in
debt to the fur traders, mainly the Alaska Commercial
Company. The company closed many of its outposts
and left small villages with no economic base. In 1910,
the United States government placed a ten-year
moratorium on the sea otter hunt within U.S. waters.
The next year a joint convention with the U.S., Great
Britain, Japan, and Russia prohibited sea otter hunting

outside of the three mile limit as well.” PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! 67



Range reaches up out of the Pacific Ocean; at its foot

is the Pacific littoral, characterized by rugged cliffs cut
by many deep bays and dotted with offshore islands
and reefs, In places, glacial streams pound down the
mountains; in other places they gently flow down to
shallow bays. High winds and rough waters
predominate during winter months. The mountains
comprise an upland zone of stark tundra and rocky
cliffs. Sweeping down from their northern flanks are the
Bristol Bay lowlands of undulating moist tundra, dotted
with uncountable lakes and slowly meandering rivers.
The coastline is smooth, gently forming the south coast
of Bristol Bay whose shallow waters, belying the smooth
coastline, are treacherous to deep drafted ships. The
Aniakchak, Meshik, and the Cinder rivers comprise a
river valley zone within Aniakchak. These, as well as
the Chignik and the Ugashik rivers, form travel
corridors for humans and animals alike.

These hugely varying physiographic and climatic
zones support an array of animals, fish, birds, and
plants. The Peninsula is narrow and river valleys cut
through the mountains creating easy travel corridors
for caribou, and humans, but still its ability to support
specific species varies greatly form north to south.
Ice-loving marine mammals inhabit Bristol Bay on the
north while warm water species like sea otter inhabit
the Pacific.

During the summer the cliffs of the Pacific wave with
tall grasses, home to hares, ptarmigan, porcupines, and
caribou. Within the last 50 years beaver and moose
have migrated onto the Peninsula. Foxes, mink and
other fur-bearers are relatively abundant. Wolves and
wolverines are said to be relatively scarce

Throughout the 200 year historic period, Aniakchak
has consistently been used by people on the Pacific
coast, including the sea otter hunting outposts of
Wrangell and Sutkhum just outside Aniakchak
boundaries. On the Bristol Bay side, residents of Meshik
and Unangashak used the Meshik River; some of this
use is reflected in Native place names (see map 1.A).
Settlement patterns indicate that people and whole
villages moved frequently until the canneries were
established in the 1880s. From the late 1890s to the
1950s, Aniakchak saw a divergent settlement pattern as
immigrant Europeans moved to the area and began
families with Alutiig or Creole women. In this period, a
succession of families spent most of the year in isolated
cabins, making a living fox farming, trapping, and
fishing on the Pacific coast of Aniakchak. This activity
peaked during the two decades prior to World War II.
The creeks and rivers extending into Aniakchak were
also trapped—most notably the Meshik and Aniakchak
rivers and Tunangapuk (Birthday) Creek. Today, the
coastline is used by people from villages who access it
either by boat or airplane.

An Inupiat inmigration at the beginning of this
century, while little studied, is an important part of
the area’ history. A few Inupiat still live in the area and
remember the time when Inupiat formed their own
communities at Meshik, Eskimo Town, Eskimo Village
and a settlement near the old Unangashak village. For
a relatively short period of time, Inupiat established a
reindeer corral and trap lines to the northwest of
Aniakchak caldera

Despite a long history of inmigration and epidemic die-
offs, Alutiiq culture remains strong in the area. Chignik
Lake and the village of Perryville, just south of the

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!



bibliography). U.S. BIA has many written
and audio taped interviews conducted
during research on ANCSA 14(h)(I) sites.

408

S

Asin any ethnic group some people
uphold the traditions of their forefathers
and others do not. The nature of culture

is its permutations and through whatever
changes a generation brings, the culture

is what it is. What concerned people

I spoke to was not whether their peers
upheld tradition but that they hunted in
responsible, non-wasteful manners so that
the resource would thrive, This ‘generation
gap’ is pervasive (of course!), see ‘Social
Indicators Study of Alaskan Coastal Villages,
Postspill Key Informant Summaries,” MMS
‘Technical Report #155 (1993), p. 837-838;
and many interviews with elders

409 J. A. Fall, L. B. Hutchinson-Scarbrough,
and P. A. Coiley, Fish and Wildlife Harvest
and Use in Five Alaska Peninsula
Communities, 1989. Subsistence Uses in
Chignik Bay, Chignik Lagoon, Chignite Lake,
Ivanof Bay, and Perryville Vol. #202
GQuneau: ADF&G, 1995).

410 But see ADF&G social indicator surveys.
411 Fall and Morris, 1987,

412 Tuten, 1977; Morris, 1987, Fall, et al.,
1995,

41

G

Information about food and medicinals
comes {rom an interview with Doris Lind,
Chignik Lake, 1997. Names of plants and
Alutiiq spellings come from Doris Lind and
{rom Jeff Leer, A Short Dictionary of Alaska
Peninsula Sugtestun, Revised Orthography
1996, (Alaska Native Language Center,
University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1996) and
Latin names come from Janice J. Schollield,
Discovering Wild Plants, Alaska, Western
Canada, the Northwest, (Alaska Northwest
Books: Seattle, 1996).

414 Morris, 1987,

415 Virginia Aleck, personal communication,
1997.

416 Morris, 1987. 4

417 Crab was not eaten in precontact and
Russian times, See Desson, 1995 for
discussion on crab image as a means of
transformation of humans into cannibals
or corpse robbers

418 James Fall & Lisa Hutchinson-Scarbrough.
Subsisterice Uses of Brown Bears in Communities
of Game Management Unit 9E, Alaska
Peninsula, Southwest Alaska, ADF&G
Technical Report 418. Juneau, 1996).

Chapter nine

419 Charles Madsen, Arctic Trader (New York:
Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1957). ‘Charlie
Madsen’ lived in Kanatak with his family
for many years. As well as being a trader
and a bear guide on the Peninsula, he
owned a schooner. His wife was Alutiig. His
son, Judge Roy (Vladimir) Madsen lives in
Kodiak, contributes to Alutiiq publications
and is a frequent speaker or master of
ceremonies at Alutiiq events. He also sings
bass in the Orthodox Church choir. Lydia T
Black, personal communication

420 John Christensen interview, 1997.
421 Valentine Supsook interview, 1997

422 The people at Herendeen Bay are classed
as Aleut in the 1910 U.S. Census reports
They were probably Ugaassarmiut who
have moved south from Bear River.

See Black, et al, 1999

423 Williams 1913 and Schlahen 1913,
Reindeer Records, General Correspondence
files, National Archives, Anchorage

424 Freeburn, 1996, and see the Pacific
Fishermen Yearbooks 1914-1932.

425 Williams, 1913.; Schlaben, 1913.

426 Valentine Supsook interview, 1997.
427 Pacific Fisherman Year Book, 1914:38.
428 Barnhardt, 1980.

429 Reindeer Creek on the USGS 1:250,000
quad.

430 Ablama, 1990a:22.
431 Henry Matson interview, 1997.

432 Aleck Constantine, interview, tape
HC-95-35-18, University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Elmer E, Rasmuson Library,
Alaska and Polar Regions Department,
Aleck lived in Chignik Lake when he was
interviewed in 1990.

433 Ablama, 1990b:17-18.
434 Pauline Supsook interview, 1997,

435 Reindeer Records, in Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) documents.

436 Valentine Supsook interview, 1997; RG22,
Reindeer Records, National Archives,
Anchorage

437 Valentine Supsook interview, 1997; RG22,
Reindeer Records, National Archives,
Anchorage

438 Valentine Supsook interview, 1997; RG22,
Reindeer Records, National Archives,
Anchorage

439 Ablama, 1990b:23.

440 Letter froin Samuel Hanson, General
Correspondence, RG22, Reindeer Records,
National Archives.

441 RG22, Reindeer Records, National Archives,

Anchorage

442 RG22, Reindeer Records, National
Archives, Anchorage

Chapter ten
443 Lydia T. Black, personal communication

444 Lydia T. Black 2002, personal
communication.

445 Marshall Sahlins, How ‘Natives’ Think:
About Captain Cook, For Example, (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1995) p. 12

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

185


116

CHAPTER SEVEN

threat and a constant, if slow, killer, Still, their time
was their own and trapping could be lucrative. They
worked hard, bore and raised children, established
life-long friendships, met future spouses, and lost
and buried loved ones.

Fox Farms

The only known fox farming operation that used
Aniakchak lands was that of the Axel Carlson family
which farmed Kumlik Island from about 1928 to
1934. It is also possible, because if its proximity,
that the Lowell and the Benson families used Cape
Kunmik or Amber Bay while keeping foxes at
Ugaiushak Island.

Members of the Carlson family lived at Cape Kumlik
and around Kujulik Bay for over twenty years. Axel
Carlson Sr. was a trap boss working for Chignik area
canneries in the early part of the century. The family
was broken apart in 1926 when Carlson's wife, Evelyn,
died of tuberculosis. With none to help raise the
children, his, like many others left without mothers,
were sent to an orphanage. Three of his children went
to the Jesse Lee Home in Seward, Alaska where they
remained until Axel remarried a year and a half later.
Carlson started farming foxes on Kumlik Island which
he stocked with three or four pairs of foxes in about
1928. He put a large frame house on the Island which
was close enough to the beach of Cape Kumlik to row
back and forth. In 1929 he sent for his two boys,
Edwin and Axel Jr. His youngest, Wilma, a girl of two
or three, was left at the orphanage and then was
moved along with all the other orphans to the
Wrangell Institute during World War II.

When the boys came back to Chignik they had to
adjust to a step-mother and a new lifestyle. Each
summer Carlson ran a fish-trap tender, ferrying fish
from Aniakchak to Chignik. Starting about 1928, in
the last tender run of the season, he picked up his
family in Chignik and dropped them off at the island
with supplies. Axel Jr. still remembers the “20 sacks
of flour, 20 sacks of sugar, 20 sacks of potatoes, and
30 cases of milk” they brought out and carried up the
beach to the house every autumn. Carlson caught a
ride back to Aniakchak with Hillborn or Benson and
joined the family when his summer work was done,
rowing his pulling dory to the island. They also had
barabaras on shore where they fished for fox food and
ran traplines. When Axel Sr. passed away the winter
of 1933-1934, his wife returned to Perryville with
her two boys, Carl and Erik.

By this time, Axel’s oldest son, Rudolf, was old
enough to take care of his brothers—and a trapline.
The boys were not interested in fox farming and the
fox island was robbed one winter and they were left
with skinned-out carcasses. Undaunted, the boys
made living quarters in one end of the abandoned
clam cannery and continued to trap the creeks and
uplands of Cape Kumlik each winter. In the summer
they fished out of Chignik.

Settlement of Aniakchak and
Amber Bay

The Pacific coast of Aniakchak—Kujulik, Aniakchak,
and Amber bays—were used extensively by the sea
otter hunters. The amount of Alutiiq activity on this


122

CHAPTER SEVEN

each winter, | use a couple of dozen fox snares, as
well. I use them in the alder brush country, and
have had very good results. For fox, | set my snare
in the trail just high enough so his head will be
caught, without getting his feet. In that way I’m sure
of my fox. I have had better luck with store snares
than with home made ones, but have found my own
baits superior to the artificial ones....

Most of my country is open, and I use trail sets with
good results. In making trail sets I use but one trap,
and stake it solidly. If there is snow on the ground

I cover my trap with a piece of soft tissue paper...
On barren knolls, and wherever the ground is clear
of snow | use a little moss or grass to cover the trap.
One has to be careful that his set doesn’t look like

a set to the fox. Even so, I have occasionally been
outsmarted by a crafty old red... In baiting for fox

I have found that dried silver salmon works best...
My sets for mink and ermine are usually along
creek banks, and | bait with canned salmon.

I bury about one-fourth of a can of salmon in the
bank of a stream, the opening in the can forming a
miniature tunnel. In front of this, I conceal my trap.

Every winter I have a dozen or more furs ruined
by wolverines, or trap robbers, as we call them...
In this district, the trapping season on most fur is
open for the months of December and January. The
season on otter, beaver, and fur seal is permanently
closed. This has led to some poaching of these
valuable furs...

Every year there are bears around my trapping
quarters—big Brownies who steal my dried fish and
break the roof of my provisions shed. I’ve never had

a bear actually attack me. I have had them run at
me to scare me away from the fish I was cleaning
though.... Usually, when I see a bear coming, I
shoul, wave my arms, and sometimes run at him.
He'll usually scamper off in a big hurry."

Despite the large brown bears on the Peninsula,
Hillborn was in the habit of hiking around with only
a short club that he used to kill trapped foxes, but no
gun. He taught his children to be observant, always
scan the country for bear, and never surprise one

He felt that since bears were usually wary of humans
they were easily scared off if a person made noise.

The families in Aniakchak and Kujulik bays
established working traplines and social paths and
trails between their houses so that at least the young,
vigorous men could go visiting. Many of these trails
had first been made by bears. Local routes between
the many homes and trapping cabins were well
trampled by bears and men in the early decades of the
century. Some of these had names such as “The
Boulevard” which went along Aniakchak Bay from the
river mouth to the lagoon. From Amber Bay to
Aniakchak to Kujulik Bay and all the way to Chignik
Lagoon were trails interconnecting the many houses,
cabins, and barabaras that dotted the coastline. Axel
Carlson Jr. remembers that while it usually only took
three days from Aniakchak Bay to Chignik, one time
he and several other young men spent eight days
getting to Chignik. They visited friends and relatives
all along the way and spent only one night out. Trails
from Aniakchak and Kujulik Bay into the interior met
at Albert Johnson Creek and went all the way down
the Meshik River to Port Heiden. That trail is said to
have taken 17 hours to walk.


38
39
40
41
4
4

4

$

4

&

46

4

48
4

S

5

ry

51
5:

8

they taught Aleutian Islanders their skills
See Black's remarks in Gideon, 1989:155;
J. L Rousselot et al., “Maritime Economies
of the North Pacific Rim,” Crossroads of
Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska

by William Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell,
(Washington: Smithsonian, 1988); see:
Dominque Desson, 1995, Masked Rituals of
the Kodiak Archipelago, unpublished Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Alaska Fairbanks
for a description of Kodiak whaling and
associated beliefs; and Clark, 1984

Gideon, 1989:56.

Davydov in Rosa G. Liapunova, 1994:179.
Gideon, 1989:56-57

Rousselot, et. al., 1988,

Gideon 1989:68.

Black 1977:97

Holmberg 1985:376-377

Gideon (1989) describes the anayugak as
a village chief. Holmberg (1985) describes
him as the strongest and most intelligent
man in the village. There were other names
recorded as wisemen or chiefs, this included
Kashpak. Davydov recorded wisemen as
Kasiats (in Liapunova 1994:181).

loasaf in Black, 1977:84

See Davydoy, 1977; Holmberg, 1985; and
Gideon, 1989.

Gideon, 1989.
Davydov, 1977.

Gideon, 1989; Richard Jordan,
“Qasqiluteng: Feasting and Ceremonialisin
among the Traditional Koniag of Kodiak
Island, Alaska,” Crossroads of Continents by
William Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell
(Washington: Smithsonian, 1988).

Gideon, 1989.
Gideon, 1989.
Gideon, 1989.

6.

63

64

6!

66
6

68

69

70
n
72
73
7

Davydov, 1977.; loasaf in Black,1977

Lisianski, 1968; Black, 1977; Davydov,
1977; and Carl Heinrich Merck 1980.

Davydov, 1977:148

Davydov, 1977.

Davydoy, 1977.

Gideon, 1989:97; Merck, 1980.
Davydov, 1977:181

Davydov, 1977:151

See Lydia Black, 1991, Glory Remembered
Wooden Headgear of Alaska Sea Hunters,
Alaska State Museum, Juneau for the
fundamental work on hunting hats.

For additional information on Kodiak
kayaks see Dyson, 1986 and 1991

Linda Ellanna and Andrew Balluta,
Nuvendattin Quht’ana: The People of
Nondalton (Washington: Smithsonian,
1992), p.58

Davydoy, 1977; Gideon, 1989; Holmberg,
1985.

Davydoy, 1977:159.
Gideon, 1989.
Wrangell, 1980:59.

Joan Townsend 1979 and 1981:623 in
Ellanna and Balluta, 1992:58.

Partnow compares old and new versions
of battles between Sugpiat and Unangan
(see Partnow, 1993:263-269. For Dena’ina
warfare see Joan Townsend (1979 cited

in Ellanna and Balluta, 1992.)

Davydov, 1977:162
Toasaf in Black, 1977.
Davydov, 1977:188.
Gideon, 1989

Mike Sam, BIA-ANCSA interview 91
AKPOOL, 1991

75
76

7

78
79

80

8

82

Henn, 1978:85.

Oswalt, 1967:8; see also Lydia Black's
testimony in United States of America vs.
Palakia Melgenak, 1985.

See Partnow, 1993, for a discussion of
Severnovskie affiliations with Katmai.

The evidence is inconclusive and even less
evidence exists for the ethnic affiliation of
Ugashik people. Russian Orthodox priest’
accounts distinguish Severnovskie and
Ugaassarmiut from Aglurmiut. The problem
is that there is a break in the occupancy of
the Ugashik River. In 1919 the original
population was nearly exterminated by the
influenza pandemic.

Wrangell, 1980:64

See Ivan Petroff, Report on the Population,
Industries, and Resources of Alaska, 10th
Census, 1880, US Department of the Interior
(Washington: Government Printing Office,
1884), p. 84, and see Partnow’s argument in
Partnow (1993). Apparent Yup’ik affiliation
is found in Korsakovski’ journal in
VanStone (1988), however, the use of
Ugashik men as translators near Togiak
River may be evidence of linguistic
capabilities rather than cultural affiliation.

Over the course of many battles the
Aglurmiut fought the Qaluyaarmiut,
Caninermiut, Kusquqvagmiut, and
Kiatagmiut. Nick Ablama (1990) tells the
story about the Ugaassarmiut fighting the
Aglurmiut north of the Ugashik River,
ending their advance. See Matt O'Leary,
Geography and Chronology of Central Yupitt
Warrior Traditions, paper presented at Alaska
Anthropological Society Meetings (1995),
for an explanation of battles during the
time-of-warring.

Kolmakov in Khlebnikov, 1994:90-93;
Wrangell, 1980.

Ablama, 1990; see also Kilbuck in
Fienup-Riordan 1988:32-33 and
pp. 43-47; O'Leary, 1995

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 177


166

APPENDIX ONE

thousands of years...the National Park Service
concept [on resource management] requires the
natural abundance, behavior, diversity, and ecologi-
cal integrity of native animals as part of their
ecosystem, and the Committee intends that that
concept be maintained (Senate Report 96-413:171).

Title VIII of ANILCA addresses subsistence manage-
ment and uses. Major topics that affect cultural
resources include access, trapping, resident zones,
traditional use areas, shelters and cabins, collection
and use of resource and user data, and resolution of
conflicts. Section 802 states the subsistence policy of
ANILCA. Section 804 provides for the priority of
non-wasteful taking of fish and wildlife for
subsistence uses over sport hunting and fishing.

Subsistence Regional Advisory Councils and
Subsistence Resource Commissions are authorized
under sections 805 and 808. However, authority for
establishing resource management policy clearly
resides with the Secretary and there is no provision
for incorporating traditional resource management
beliefs or traditional ecological knowledge in
“principles of wildlife conservation.” Native peoples
using resources on Aniakchak lands for generations
may recognize traditional Sugpiat conservation ethics
and standards. Section 808(b) states that:

“The Secretary shall promptly implement the
program and recommendations submitted to him by
each commission unless he finds in writing that such
program or recommendations violates recognized
principles of wildlife conservation, threatens the
conservation of healthy populations of wildlife in
the park or park monument, is contrary to the

purposes for which the park or park monument is
established, or would be detrimental to the satisfac-
tion of subsistence needs of local residents.”

Access to subsistence resources is provided for in
section 811 of ANILCA:

a) The Secretary shall ensure that rural residents
engaged in subsistence uses shall have
reasonable access to subsistence resources on
the public lands.

b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
Act or other law, the Secretary shall permit on
the public lands appropriate use for subsistence
purposes of snowmobiles, motorboats, and other
means of surface transportation traditionally
employed for such purposes by local residents,
subject to reasonable regulations.

In Aniakchak motorboats, foot, snowmobiles, and
dog teams are authorized for subsistence use under
ANILCA. However, if other means of surface
access can be demonstrated to have been tradition-
ally employed in Aniakchak for subsistence
purposes, it will be permitted (General
Management Plan, 1986).

Within the preserve units, the National Park Service
may also restrict use or close traditionally used areas
under sections 1313 and 816(b) of ANILCA in order
to protect people or the resources. Section 1313 may
affect cultural uses as it establishes that the National
Park Service “may designate zones where and periods
when no hunting, fishing, trapping or entry may be
permitted for reasons of public safety, administration,
flora or fauna protection or public use or enjoyment.”


62

CHAPTER FOUR

family with nothing. How the inhabitants of different
settlements suffered great starvation last winter, it’s
not possible to describe.”

Priests could less easily get rides across Shelikov Strait
on Company schooners although they still managed to
find transport on privately owned schooners.” The
initial criticism of the Alaska Commercial Company
policy to stop all credit and then the closure of stores
was followed by a general criticism of the way it had
negatively influenced Natives’ lives and a feeling that
people were better off without the Company. Residents
of small settlements had little chance for income or
access to goods in their settlements, but neither did
they have access to biwok or beer-making ingredients
such as sugar and molasses. An improvement of health
was attributed to the villager’s sobriety and the
necessary return to traditional foods.”

Homes and Habitations

Houses

Housing forms varied considerably simply because
people were building permanent and temporary shelters
out of whatever materials they had available. The priests
and medical officers encouraged everyone to build frame
houses, citing poor ventilation, unsanitary conditions,
and spread of disease as reasons to abandon their
traditional barabaras. Half-frame and half-barabara
houses came into use as a practical synthesis of Alutiiq
and Euroamerican building materials. The sod provided
warmth to the frame structures. Houses were roofed
with a variety of roofing materials, including sod and
thick layers of grass covered with old pieces of cotton

trap webbing thrown over the top and weighted down.
Frame houses were built more and more frequently and,
on the Pacific coast, large logs and salvageable timbers
that drifted up on the beach, were available for building.
Local materials for windows included dried and
stretched sea mammal gut, and as one aspiring miner
wrote, “at one of the native dwellings pieces of mica
used in lieu of window. As near as I can recollect the
piece was about 6" x 8"."”* Mica was used for windows
in early Russian built structures as well.” Barabaras
continued to be used well beyond this period, however,
and evidence suggests that the number of individuals
housed under one roof diminished.

Seasonal Camps

Besides the settlements where people built permanent
homes and chapels and spent much of the time, families
also had camps where they pursued economic activities,
both for food and for cash or trade. Seasonally used
barabaras and cabins were often small, temporary
structures. One elder remembers that houses:

Used to be some logs. They split the logs in

half for walls. ..then stick something between, you
know so the air wouldn't come in, cotton I think,
Some of them just covered with mud. Like around
Chiginagak and some places you could see that,
there the houses were, all this grass growing.
Where there used to be a cabin. Any kinda cabin
make out of alder, some way. They get old and fall
down. Nobody living [there] you know.**

Fish Village or Marraatuq was an important fishing
site near Kanatak—it was perhaps the largest of
several sites that Kanatak and Ugashik people used for
seasonal fishing. Bear Creek was also one of many



themselves, but more often with
aeighboring peoples such as
the Aliaksintsy and the Kinat.
So these people, because of
their geographic proximity

to the enemy, they had more

often recourse to caution

and bravery.**

~Davydov, 1805

20

CHAPTER TWO

Hunting hats and visors were of several different
styles and some were highly decorated, made of
thin, bent wood or of spruce roots. They had
different meanings and functions; they could
display information about a hunter's status and
success, disguise a hunter from his prey, and
shield the hunter from the sun’ reflectance."'

Watercraft

Sugpiat kayaks were small, one- and two-hatched,
skin-covered craft in which the hunter kneeled to
paddle with a short paddle. Beautifully designed to
carry hunters swiftly across the waters of their island
environment, they were light enough to be dragged
or carried across portages and they were sturdy
enough to transport loads under the deck. Women
and children fitted under the deck when necessary
to paddle to a new location. Alaska Peninsula kayaks
were of a slightly different design.

Larger boats, called baidaras by the Russians, carried
up to 20 people. These were the boats used to move
families or large numbers of hunters or warriors to
seasonal camps, hunting areas, or enemy villages.
Baidaras were lightweight and could be taken over
long distances. Sugpiat hunters typically traveled
down the coast of the Alaska Peninsula or over to
Prince William Sound to hunt or trade.

Trade

The Sugpiat groups, separated by expanses of water,
difficult terrain, and mountain passes, relied on each

other for trade. Trade goods traveled long distances
from one group to the next. People traded foodstuffs,
raw materials, and finished products of clothing,
hunting implements, ceremonial clothing, and
personal adornment. Often trade items were highly
valued symbols of prestige. The Peninsula Sugpiat
provided caribou sinew, antlers for arrows, caribou
parkas, and long hairs used for decorative stitching
and to adorn dance hats. Ugashik River people traded
walrus ivory with people from Katmai which
probably was then traded to Kodiak. From Kodiak
came amber and carved bone ornaments. Trade was
not limited to items available amongst Sugpiat
communities. Trade networks extended from the
coast to the interior through Yup’ik and Dena’ina
“middlemen.”” Highly valued dentalium and pearls
moved north along the Pacific coast of North America
through Tlingit hands to Eyak and Copper River
Ahtna neighbors.”

Warfare

Apparently people living on the Alaska Peninsula
coast had most interaction, both fighting and trading,
with the Sugpiat of the northwest side of Kodiak,
while people from the south and east part of Kodiak
were oriented toward the Sugpiat of lower Kenai
Peninsula and Prince William Sound.” Alaska
Peninsula Sugpiat were also known to fight with the
Unangan to the east and Dena’ina of interior regions.
Wrangell remarked that “the Chugach and Kadiaks
have intermingled with the American [mainland]
tribes, whose women they steal,”*’ although he does
not clarify which mainland group, the Dena’ina were


accepted into the Unalaska parish two-class school
on 25 September for education and preparation to
serve the Mitrofania chapel.”

In 1880, Petroff reported that 22 “Creoles” from
Kodiak had established the village of Mitrofania. They
may have been pensioned Russian-American Company
employees and their families.’ The village site had a
sheltered harbor and offered many benefits to the
newcomers. Herring Lagoon was used as an anchorage

for schooners during the years of hunting when sea
otter swam amongst the small islands and reefs near
the village. Sea lion rookeries dotted the islands
nearby and the shore provided ample places to fish
and trap fur-bearers. Mitrofania was rarely visited by
the Belkovski priest although Father Aleksin, who
traveled quite extensively, reported that:

The chapel is in the name of St. Mitrofan the
Miracleworker; it was built of old lumber by Nikolai

Beach in front of Vvedenski or
“Andersonville” in Anchorage Bay,
circa 1909. This three hole kayak
or baidarka has paddles on deck
and a bundle of gear next to it.
Baidarkas were used until the
1930s by Natives although
wooden boats like the one in the
background became increasingly
into use. This photo was taken
near the Andre family home.
Courtesy of Alaska State Library,
Ball Flamen, PCA-24-99,

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 9]



Chapter three
Commercial Exploration

Introduction

The Russian presence in the North Pacific

began after Czar Peter the Great dispatched the first
geographical expedition to chart the “Eastern Sea”.
Vitus Bering first explored Bering Strait in 1728 in
the Sv. Gavriil. In 1732 Fedorov and Gvozdev reached
Cape Prince of Wales." The second expedition under
the command of Vitus Bering, in 1741, sailed the
extent of the Aleutian Islands and made landfall on
the northwestern coast of America, in Prince William
Sound, and the Shumagin Islands. These were the
first Europeans to reach the North Pacific and find
land; on the basis of these discoveries the Russian
empire claimed sovereignty over Alaska. Private
entrepreneurs from Russia and Siberia quickly
followed the explorers and a long period of explo-
ration driven by economic conquest ensued. This
commercial activity established the Russian claim

of possession. These activities also began an intense
period of change for the aboriginal inhabitants
induced by their interactions with Europeans.

In 1774 Spain was anxious to forestall Russian
advance in North America, and between 1774 and
1792 it sent a number of naval expeditions to Alaska
waters to determine the extent of English and Russian
exploration.'” The English and French were soon to

follow Russia and Spain in exploring the North.

In quest of the Northwest Passage, the British Crown
sent Captain James Cook on his third voyage up the
west coast of America in 1778. He sailed into what

is now known as Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm

and south of Kodiak. Voyages of discovery—notably
the Billings/Sarychev Expedition, supported by the
Russian Navy between 1785-1793 was led by Billings
(of Cook's voyage) and Sarychev in 1790 and Sarychev
and Hall in 1790/1791—continued to add to the
knowledge of geography and natural resources of

the north. Their written accounts of Native peoples
encountered and objects collected provide much of
the knowledge we have today of the indigenous
peoples the explorers first met.

However, both Bering’s and Cook’ expeditions

alerted merchants across Europe and Russia to the
riches of the new lands. Russian fur merchants were the
first to economically exploit coastal Alaska. In general,
the early years of Russian exploration and exploitation
were years of greed-driven hardship and aggression,
environmental degradation, and, for the indigenous
inhabitants, social and cultural disruption. The
indigenous Aleutian Islanders, the Unangan, lost much
during the early years. Men were forcibly removed from
their villages to hunt sea otter. Thus, families were
separated, control over territory lost, and spirit crushed

as communities suffered wholesale loss of their men, PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

27



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52

CHAPTER FOUR

northern coast of the Peninsula, west of Ugashik,

was devoid of villages." The few extant written
materials about the Peninsula in the 1860s and 1870s
offer no evidence for new settlements. However, by the
1880s people were inhabiting a much larger area than
they had in the previous 100 years and resettlement
was growing." During the 1880 U.S. Census, Petroff
recorded the villages of Oogashik [Ugashik] where 177
residents were counted, Oonangashik [Unangashak],
and Mashikh on Bristol Bay and Kuiukak [Wrangell],
Sutkhoon [on Cape Kumliun], Kaluiak [near Chignik
Bay], and Mitrofania on the Pacific coast. Katmai, at the
time the largest Peninsular Sugpiat village, just to the
north of the study area, had 218 residents: 37 “Creole”
and 181 “Pacific Eskimo.”"”

Whether economic necessity, want of freedom, cannery
development, or scarce resources drove them to it,
people seemed eager to leave Kodiak, Afognak, Katmai,
and Ugashik and start new settlements. At the beginning
of this period, the economic ties instituted under the
Russian-American Company were severed, and Native
and Creole relations to the fur-trading companies,
government, and the market changed. The treaty of
1867 granted full and undisturbed use of Russian
Orthodox church lands to the Orthodox faithful.’
Eventually people settled at Mitrofania, Portage, Wide,
and Chiginagak bays in the villages of Mitrofania,
Kanatak, Wide Bay, and Wrangell (see Map 4.A), where
fish, shellfish, caribou, birds, and marine mammals were
available to support families that no longer relied on the
Russian-American Company to supply them with basic
necessities while the men were at the hunting grounds.

The Alaska Commercial Company and its competitors
influenced settlement patterns by starting new trading

posts and helping to build chapels which attracted
hunters and whole families. Much like their Russian
predecessors, the traders provisioned and organized
hunting parties and supplied schooners to take
hunters with their kayaks to the hunting grounds.
The trader or company agent wielded tremendous
power over the sea otter hunters and their families
by setting prices for furs, Over the next few decades
Alutiiqs continued to move extensively as they
pursued subsistence resources, trapping, and wage
labor opportunities, as well as cultural and class
alliances. Year-round settlements were recorded,
temporary or seasonal settlements were not. However,
following traditional patterns, families lived at least
seasonally in virtually every small bay and inlet along
the coast—some of these had barabaras and prayer
houses to which people returned every year. Right
Reverend Tikhon Bellavin reported:

“as in all the bays of the Alaska Peninsula, there are
burial mounds and crosses, under which lie the poor
and much suffering bones of the Aleuts; there are
lecterns and little tables, where they hold prayer
service and church service with the Aleuts while on
hunting expeditions.”””

From the time of the purchase and throughout the
1880s, fur hunting was the leading industry on Kodiak,
the Alaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands, although
development of mines and fisheries had begun.’

The resettlement was an indication of the Alutiiqs’
resilience and their proclivity to move as either the
resource or market economy demanded. Both freedom
of movement and the shifting economic base brought
people into contact with the influx of outsiders who
were searching for ways to exploit the new territory.


organization, economic organization, values, and
respondents’ views on oil development. Includes
descriptions or stories about, for example, family
migration patterns and family relationships,
religious history.

Davydoy, Gavrill 1.

1977

Two voyages to Russian America, 1802-1807.
[1810 Colin Bearne, translator; Richard A. Pierce,
ed. 1812] (Materials for the Study of Alaska
History). Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press.

“Koniaga” customs, ceremonies, material culture

and character described by young Russian Navy
officer. Pp. 147-191 on Koniag, Some mention of
Alaska Peninsula “Aliaksintsy” and ties to Koniag,
also “Ugashentsy”. Mentions settlements but fairly
negative view of Natives. Criticizes Russian American
Company policies toward Natives.

Desson, Dominique

1995

Masked Rituals of the Kodiak Archipelago. PhD
dissertation, Department of Anthropology,
University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Dumond, Don E.

1974

1986

1987

Prehistoric Ethnic Boundaries on the Alaskan
Peninsula. Anthropological Papers of the
University of Alaska 16(1).

Demographic Fffects of European Expansion:
A Nineteenth-Century Native Population

on the Alaska Peninsula, University of Oregon
Anthropological Paper #21. Eugene: University
of Oregon.

Examination of Russian Orthodox priest’s records
and other evidence for effects on population of 1890s
influx of Euroamericans to Paugvik.

Prehistoric Human Occupation in Southwestern
Alaska: A Study of Resource Distribution and Site
Location. Anthropological Papers of the
University of Oregon 36.

1988

1992

1975

1995

1976

1986

The Alaskan Peninsula as a Superhighway:

A Comment. Robert Shaw, Roger K. Harritt,
and Don E. Dumond, eds. Pp. 379-388.
Alaska Anthropological Association Monograph
Series #4. Anchorage: Alaska Anthropological
Association.

Analyzes the existing archaeological evidence—
good source for work done and conclusions drawn
by different archaeologists. Case for origin of Alaska
Peninsula people. Concludes that, based on recent
and past evidence, Koniag migrated from Bristol Bay
about 1000AD.

Archaeological Reconnaissance in the
Chignik-Port Heiden Region of the Alaska
Peninsula. Anthropological Papers of the
University of Alaska, vol. 24(1-2):89-108

Dumond, Don E., Leslie Conton & Harvey M. Shields

Eskimos and Aleuts on the Alaskan Peninsula:
A Reappraisal of Port Moller Affinities.
Arctic Anthropology 12(1):49-67.

Dumond, Don E. and James W. VanStone

Paugvik: A Nineteenth-Century Native Village
on Bristol Bay, Alaska. Fieldiana Anthropology,
new series, No. 24. Chicago: Field Museum of
Natural History.

Begins with a concise history of the Naknak River
drainage, Aglurmiut incursion, Severnovski people,
Russian exploration and trade, Russian Orthodox
Church, and cannery influences. Discusses relations
of Bristol Bay peoples with Pacific coast peoples.

Dumond, Winfield Henn, and R. Stuckenrafn

Archaeology and Prehistory on the Alaska
Peninsula, Anthropological Papers of the
University of Alaska, 18(1): 17-29

Dyson, George

Baidarka. Edmonds, Washington:
Alaska Northwest Publishing Co.

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

191


Food and Medicinal Uses for Plants and Other Resources

Aatunag (wild spinach, sourdock)
tage Rumex sp.

Asirllia’aruaq (candle flower)
* Make tea and drink when having chills—

* Has both food and medicinal uses.

Only young leaves should be consumed.

Use tart, lemony tasting leaves for akutaq, soups,
and pudding.

Use leaves for fruit pudding with sugar,
cornstarch, and flour.

To store, cook leaves, put in jars in layers with
fresh leaves on top.

Make poultice of large, whole leaves to chill a
fever—wrap feet in several layers of whole leaves
and wrap a cloth over to seal.

it makes you sweat.

* Boil roots or chew raw and swallow the juice
for relief of sore throat.

* Roots can be used as antiseptic on cuts.

Atsat blackberry (blackberry, crowberry)
Empetrum nigrum
* Use for akutaq, pies, and jelly.

Caa’in (alder) Alnus sp.
* Stool softener.
* Boil “berries”, strain and drink tea

(berries are green immature female fruit).
« Ashes crushed with mortar and pestle with
strong tea and tobacco used to make snuff.

Alagnat (salmonberry) Rubus spectabilis
* Use berries for jams and jellies and akutaq.

Alam’a’askaaq (wild chamomile or pineapple weed)
Matricaria matricarioides
* “Used to clean out the system.”

Curat (bog blueberry) Vaccinium uliginosum
* Use in akutaq and for jam.

* Given to mothers and infants to clean the system
and get the mother’ milk flowing and the baby’s
system working. Helps clean out the placenta.

Curarpiit (oval leaf or early blueberry)
accinium ovalifolium
* Use in akutaq and for jam.

* Can cause diarrhea.
* Barbara Shangin (b: 1896), used it to help sweat
off colds.

Kenegtat (lowbush cranberry, lingonberry)
accinium vitis-idaea
* Use in akutaq and for cranberry relish.

eines (high bush cranberry) Viburnum edule
Has food and medicinal uses,
Use for jelly and syrup.

Qangananguag or yarrow, 1997.
Michele Morseth, courtesy
National Park Service. 4
* Make tea out of the fresh inner-bark and berries
and give to people suffering from congested lungs
and pneumonia

Nuniguataq (Mountain Ash) Sorbus sp.
* Make juice out of berries and drink to
cure pneumonia,

136 CHAPTER EIGHT


It was reported that the Aglurmiuts on the
Nushagak River were 520 strong and had
relocated from their homelands to the Nushagak,
where the Russian traders afforded them some
protection from their enemies, the Kuskokwim
Yup’ik.“ Their move from the north had been
accomplished by the time the Russian Orthodox
Church was an established presence with an
active church community in the 1820s, yet they
continued to fight with their neighboring
Kuskokwim Yupiik. According to Kolmakov the
“uribes of Severnovskie and Ugashentsy, who
presently live on Aliaska [Peninsula] (the first
settlement from the Morzhovskoe settlement on
Aliaska)...being crowded by the Aglekhmut
[Aglurmiut], moved [from the Nushagak estuary]
toward the places which they now occupy. It was
after this that the terrible pursuit of the
Aglekhmut began from all sides.’ The Aglurmiut
suffered from increased attacks until they sought
protection from the Russian and Creole men at
the newly established Novo-Aleksandrovskii
Redoubt in 1818. Apparently, some time later,
the Aglurmiut were able to establish themselves
on the Naknek and Egegik rivers. Thus the
Naknek drainage apparently became home to
two different groups, the Severnovskie (inland)
and the Aglurmiut (at the coast).

An early account from an Ikogmut (Russian Mission)
elder, collected by E.W. Nelson around 1878, takes the
story of movement and resettlement further back in
time. This story relates that a sizable settlement on the
Yukon River fractured when groups started warring
over an eye-poking incident—neighboring groups

joined in and finally three separate groups left the
area. One group reached the Bristol Bay shore and
settled near Nushagak where they continued to battle
indigenous tribes. In the story, the Sugpiat got directly
involved in fighting off the newcomers:

The people on the great island of Kodiak, having
heard of the strangers near Nushagak, sent a war
party across from the island to attack them, but the
newcomers on Bristol bay succeeded in almost
exterminating them. After this the Aleut, on the
island of Uminak{sic], heard of the strangers, and
of their having defeated the Kodiak men, so they
sent out a war party against these people. This time
the Yukon men were defeated and lost half their
number. Those who were left then joined with their
friends from Nunivak Island and attacked the
people living at Goodnews Bay...killing them and
burning their village.”

The roving bands of Aglurmiut men who had
terrorized western Alaska and the Bristol Bay area for
many years were defeated. Russian sources mention a
pitiful remnant of survivors in the early 1800s. During
the 1800s, Russian trading presence on the Peninsula
increased; this was followed by establishment of a
parish and conversion of Bristol Bay peoples. During
this time, interactions between Ugaassarmiut and
Sugpiat were frequent and cultural borrowing grew.
The earliest records from the Russian Orthodox
Church indicate a strong connection between Ugashik
and Katmai as well as between Ugashik and Nushagak.
In 1866 the traveling priest from Nushagak Parish,
Father Feofil, wrote about the differences between the
Ugaassarmiut and the Aglurmiut and Kusquqvagmiut.TM

In 1888 traveling priest Shishkin again distinguished PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

23



’Russian Orthodox Church Records (ROCR), Confessional Lists, records Orthodox members only. Sometimes residents who have moved
away remain on the Church register for their village of birth. Non-Orthodox residents are not counted.

‘BIA Port Heiden, Unangashak, Herendeen Bay, Kanatak, Wrangell, Chignik Bay and Chignik Lagoon - BIA Reindeer Records, RG 75. Letter
from Schlaben to Lopp 1913. Others ROCR.

“US Census figures

55



178

ENDNOTES

8
84
8

&

8

8
89

B

90

9

9:

9.

95

96

Ablama, 1990.

Khlebnikov, 1994: 54-56.

Khlebnikov, 1994:90-91; Clark, 1984;
James VanStone, Mainland Southwest Alaska
Eskimo, in Handbook of North American
Indians: Arctic, vol. 5 by D. Damas, ed.
(Washington: Smithsonian Institution,
1984), pp. 224-242

see Don Dumond, Demographic Effects of
European Expansion: A Nineteenth-Century
Native Population on the Alaska Peninsula,
University of Oregon Paper #21 (Eugene:
University of Oregon, 1986) p. 5

Edward W. Nelson, The Eskimo About

Bering Strait, (Washington: Smithsonian
Institution, 1983), pp. 516-517.

Feofil, ROCR R149/1760, 1866

Vasilit Shishkin, ROCR R147/1327, 1888;
Modestov, ROCR R147/f612-615, 1895,
See also Petroff, 1884:84, and for a
discussion of this see Partnow, 1993.

Evfimii Aleksin, ROCR R 136/f 522-529,
1895-1897,

1920 US Census.Report for Alaska,
3rd District, National Archives.

Jeff Leer, “Prosody in Alutiiq,” Yup'hk Eskimo
Prosodic Systems: Descriptive and Comparative
Studies, Michael Krauss, ed., Research Paper
No. 7 (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language
Center, 1985), p. 77-133.

Josiah E. Spurr, A Reconnaissance in
Southwestern Alaska in 1898 (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1900), p. 93.

Jell Leer, A Short Dictionary of Alaska
Peninsula Sugtestun (Fairbanks: Alaska
Native Language Center, 1996).

See Russian Orthodox Church Vital Statistics
for the Kodiak and Afognak parishes and the
Belkofsky and Nushagak parishes.

Leer, 1996; Michael Krauss, Alaska
Native Languages (Fairbanks: Alaska
Native Language Center, 1980).

97 Ablama, 1990:9.

98 Nick Ablama interview, parts a-c,
BIA Reports of Investigation for BLM
AATLT74-A-R, (Anchorage AK: ANCSA
Office, 1990), part b, pp. 7-9.

99 Ablama, 1990, part e, p.3.
100 Pinart, 1873; Veniaminov, 1984

Chapter three

101 1817 Calendar, Anonymous. In:
Documents on the History of the Russian-
American Company, R.A. Pierce, Otowa:
The Limestone Press, 1976

102 See Stephen Haycox, et. al., eds.,
Enlightenment and Exploration in the
North Pacific, 1741-1805 (Seattle: University
of Washington Press, 1997) for an overview
of explorations and references.

103 Anonymous in Pierce, 1976

104 Singular is promyshlennik, plural
is promyshlenniki

105 Fedorova, 1973:185
106 Holmberg 1985:81

107 L. Black, 1998 personal communication
See L. Black (in press). Pan’kovs reports
remain.

108 L. Black, 1998 personal communication

10°

S

Polonskii n.d. in Partnow, 1993:108.

110 1776 Orders from the Okhotsk Port office
in Khlebnikov, 1994:179.

ll

Fedorova, 1973:124-130.

112 James VanStone, ed., V S. Khromchenko’s
Coastal Explorations in Southwestern Alaska,
1822, Fieldiana Anthropology, Vol. 54 (Chicago:
Field Museum of Natural History, 1973).

113 Tikhmeney, Petr Aleksandrovich, A History
of the Russian-American Company, R.A. Pietce
and A. S, Donnelly trans, and eds. (Seattle
U Washington Press 1978), pp.41-61.

114 Tikhmeney, Petr Aleksandrovich, A History
of the Russian American Company, vol.2.
wanslated by Dmitri Krenov (Kingston,
Ontario: The Limestone Press, 1979), p. 7

115 Richard Pierce, ed., Documents on the
History of the Russian-American Company
(Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press,
1976), pp. 18-19.

116 Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of
Alaska 1730-18835: The works of Hubert
Howe Bancroft. Vol. XXXII! (San Francisco’
A.L. Bancroft & Co, 1886), p. 378.

117 loasaf in Black, 1977:86.
118 Tikhmeney, 1979:6-14.
119 Tikhmenev, 1979:14.
120 Black, 1977.

121 lzmailoy, Gerasim, Ms., Log of the vessel Tri
Sviatitelia Vasilii Veliki, Grigorii Bogostov, 1
Joann Zlatoust. RGAVMF (former TsGAVMF)
(Navy Archive of Russia), St. Petersburg,
Fond 870, opis’ 1, delo 1784, F 16 and 20,
cited after Partnow 1993: 109, 441.

122 Waterproof anorak type garment made of
dried, soltened sea lion, whale or bear gut

123 Richard A. Pierce, ed., and trans., The
Russian-American Company: Correspondence
of the Governors Communications Sent: 1818
(Kingston Ontario: The Limestone Press,
1984).

124 Khlebnikov, 1994.

125 Amdt 1998, personal communication;
Black, 2002 personal communication.

126 Wrangell, N.D.
(in Khlebnikov, 1994:349-350),

127 Wrangell, N.D. (in Khlebnikov, 1994:59.)
128 Wrangell, N.D. (in Khlebnikov, 1994:359.)
129 Gideon 1989.

130 Gideon 1989-63-64.

131 after Fedorova, 1973: 189.


184

ENDNOTES

380 Russel Knappen, Geologic and Mining
Resources of the Aniakchak District, Alaska
USGS Bulletin 797-F, (Washington:
Government Printing Ollice, 1926)

381 USS. Statutes at Large, Vol. 32, Part 1,
Chap. 1037, pp. 327-28. “An Act For the
protection of game in Alaska, and for other
purposes.” Public Act No. 147. Library of
Congress, American Memory, The Evolution
of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920.
hupy/memoryloc.gov/ammeny
amrvhtmV/conshome. html

382. Sarah McGowan, Fox Farming: A History
of the Industry in the American Period, in
Black, et al, 1999:243-251. For additional
information see also M.L. Washburn, in
John Burroughs, John Muir, et al., Alaska
The Harriman Expedition, 1899, reprinted in
1986 (New York: Dover Publications, Inc.)

383 Wendall H. Oswalt, An Alaskan Eskimo Ethno-
history, 1778-1988 (Norman and London:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1980).

384 Washbum in Kutchin, 1900:56.
385 Kutchin, 1900:55.
386 Kutchin, 1900:54.

387 Bower, W.T. and H.D. Aller. 1917
Alaska Fisheries and fur industries in 1915.
Pages 108-140. U. S. Department of
Commerce, Bureau of Fisheries.

388 J.R. Huston, A geographical analysis of the
fur farming industry in Alaska, M.S. thesis,
(Berkeley: U of California, 1956), 137pp.

389 Edgar P. Bailey, Introduction to Foxes
of Alaskan Islands. USF&W Resource
Publication #163 (Washington, D. C.
Government Printing Office, 1989). Bailey
lists Nachimak as being stocked in 1924

390 Susie Pedersen, “Helen Neilsen: Life on a
Blue Fox Island,” The Cama’i Book, by Vick,
et. al. (Garden City, New York: Anchor
Press. 1983), pp.80-83.

391 Lowell is listed by Bailey, (1989)
Benson is listed in U.S. BIA Site Report

for AALI774-D&E, Benny Benson, Jr
designed the Alaska state flag.

392 The 1920 U.S. Census reports Olsen,

Weidemen, and Von Himmel on Unavikshak;

Lowell, his children Anna, Arthur, and
David, and Rufus Karakin on Ugaishak;
George Anderson, his children, John, James,
Minnie, and Rosa, his son-in-law Lars
Hanson and wife, Nancy, and their children
Minnie and Dan on Chankliut Island.

393 Henry Sanguinetti interview. 1998.

Chapter seven
394 Partnow, 1993; 1900 U.S. Census.

395 AC Co. Box 155/fldrs #1624-1629
1888-1900.

396 Lydia T. Black, personal communication.

397 Frank B. Norris, Isolated Paradise:
An Administrative History of the Katmai and

Aniakchak National Park Units (Washington:

Government Printing Office, 1996).

398 John Hillborn, Chignik Trapper, Alaska
Sportsman, 1937, vol. 3 (12):12-13.

399 Annie’s son, Henry, was uncertain about
the spelling of her last name, he knew
however, that it was not Abyo like her
brothers but something like Moronich.

400 USGS Chignik Quad, 1: 250,000.

401 Russell S. Knappen, Geology and Mineral
Resources of the Aniakchak District, Alaska.
USGS Bulletin 797-F (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1929).

Chapter eight

402 James Fall and Lisa Hutchinson-
Scarbrough, ‘Subsistence Uses of Brown
Bears in Communities of Game
Management Unit 9E, Alaska Peninsula,
Southwest Alaska,’ ADF&G, Division of
Subsistence, Technical Paper No. 235
Quneau; ADF&G, 1996). See also Judith

403

404
405

407

M. Mortis, ‘Fish and Wildlife Uses in Six
Alaska Peninsula Communities: Egigik,
Chignik, Chignik Lagoon, Chignik Lake,
Perryville, and Ivanol Bay,’ ADF&G,
Division of Subsistence Technical Paper No.
151, Guneau: ADF&G, 1987).

James Fall, ‘An Overview of Subsistence
Uses of the Northern Alaska Peninsula
Caribou Herd by Communities of Game
Management Units 9C and 9E, ADF&G
Subsistence Division, Technical Paper
#224, (Juneau: ADF&G, 1993).

Fall, 1993.

Chignik Bay was included in Joanna
Endter-Wada, ‘Social Indicators Study

of Alaskan Coastal Villages’, Minerals
Management Service’ Technical Report
#155, (1993); and Chignik Bay and
Chignik Lake were included in MMS

“An Investigation of the Sociocultural
Consequences of Outer Continental Shelf
Development in Alaska,’ Technical Report
#160, edited by James Fall and Charles
Utermohle (1995). These reports address
cultural differences in subsistence use of
resources and land areas, and they address
ethnic differences in subsistence related
social relationships, beliefs et cetera, and
in household economies. They do not,
however, look at the Aniakchak area
villages as a group. For ADF&G subsistence
studies see Fall and Morris 1987, Technical
Paper #158; Morris 1987, Technical Paper
#151; Fall, et al, 1995 Technical Paper
#202. For specific species see: Fall 1993
Technical Paper #224 on caribou; Fall and
Scarbrough 1996 Technical Paper # 235,
on brown bears; and Hutchinson-
Scarbrough 1996 Technical Paper #230 on
subsistence salmon and other fin fish.

Tuten, 1977.

University of Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E.
Rasmuson Library, Alaska and Polar Regions
Department, Oral History, has over 20 oral
history interviews from the Chigniks, Port
Heiden, Pilot Point, and Perryville (see


Mitrofania Bay provided a safe
harbor for schooners and a rich
source of sea mammals.

The village of Mitrofania was
established around 1880 by
“Kodiak Creoles.” Photo courtesy
of University of Alaska Fairbanks,
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library,
Alaska and Polar Regions
Department, Capps Album
83-149-3060.

92 CHAPTER FIVE

Ol’gin in 1881... The Mitrofania Creoles all speak
Russian fairly well, live according to the Church...
They are not given to drunkenness and therefore
they are all healthy and tall. They raise their
children to be god-fearing and nearly all the adults
know the primary prayers, the Creed and Our
Father... | administered confession and communion
to 12 men, 9 women, and 12 children and infants;
but according to the confessional list I compiled,
there are 50 residents in all"

Ina report to Bishop Nikolai of Alaska in 1895,
Aleksin described his arrival in Mitrofania: “The
people, catching sight of the flag from afar and having
recognized the schooner...[with] the promised and

long expected batiushka [priest], began to fire

guns and revolvers and to ring the little chapel

bell. On shore all the residents, large and small,
approached for a blessing.”TM° By the late 1890s, many
Mitrofania residents were spending summers in
Chignik Bay where they attended church, and Aleksin
was traveling on the coastal steamers which did not
stop at Mitrofania. At least one family, the Stepanoffs,
continued to use their summer camp “seven miles
from Mitrofania” where they had a prayer house.**

The Alaska Commercial Company had a small post
in Mitrofania from 1894 to 1898.*” The goods came
through Wrangell Station, but the store was shut
down when the accounts were transferred to
Wrangell.** Among the people of Mitrofania, as in
many communities, music was an important part of
life. The account books in Wrangell include an entry
from 1892 when Gregoria lvanich Millivak ordered
and paid for an Imperial accordion to be delivered
to Mitrofania.”

In 1890, 49 people lived at Mitrofania. But over the
next decade the population halved when some of the
Stepanoffs, and Morris, the Company agent, and Harris
moved to Chignik permanently. Oscar Lind[holm] and
his wife, Annie, lived in Mitrofania but they too moved
to Chignik in 1904. When the first group of Kodiak
Creoles moved to Mitrofania, they spoke Russian and
Sugtestun. By 1906 Aleksin lamented that the young
people did not understand the church Slavonic as their
parents did.** The Stepanoffs started working and
attending church in Chignik and eventually moved
there. The other main family, the Phillips’, relocated to
Perryville. Both families have many descendants still
living on the Peninsula.


Inupiat who migrated to the north side of the

Alaska Peninsula around 1913 and engaged in various
occupations, including reindeer herding. Descendants
of all three groups live in the study villages and most
are Alaska Natives. Of those, many did not think of
themselves as Natives until the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act passed; they were raised as the sons
and daughters of Euroamericans. A comment not
infrequently heard in communities on the Peninsula
is “we weren't Native until land claims.”

During the present study, questions of culture,
ethnicity, and identity constantly arose. The issue

of self-ascription and identity became one of the
more intriguing problems. Who is Native, or for what
reasons people identified themselves as Aleut, Russian
Aleut, Alutiiq, Native or non-Native was not always
apparent. The 1990 U.S. Census reported the
percentage of Alaska Natives in each study village

as: Chignik Bay-45%, Chignik Lagoon-57%, Chignik
Lake-92%, Port Heiden-72% and Pilot Point-85%,
but these figures are not illuminating.’ People living
in the study area who identify a particular village as
their home, identify to different degrees with their
Alutiiq or Euroamerican ancestors. This phenomenon
poses significant issues of identity for study of the
area and its historical and cultural antecedents.

Enrollment as an Alaska Native is determined in the
legal system by blood quantum or social acceptance,
but alleged percentage of Native “blood” and Alutiiq
identity do not necessarily correlate. Some people of
Native ancestry are neither comfortable with a Native
designation nor knowledgeable about Native culture.
There are historical reasons for this. As a group of
people well aware of their own relatives, people

often point to their Russian heritage by referring
to their ancestors as Russian Aleuts, and they are
equally versed in their more recent connections
to European ancestors—most often Scandinavian
or German. People remain acutely aware of the
racism that accompanied the influx of new
people; in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was
advantageous to align one’s self and family with
Euroamerican culture. Many outsiders who came
to Alaska considered the indigenous people
ignorant, dirty, lazy savages. Some of the men
who married Native women would not allow
their wives to attend the Russian Orthodox
Church or continue Native traditions they
viewed as uncivilized. The women learned

to deny their past and raised their children as
Euroamericans. Denial of Native heritage became
another part of the history of Alutiiq people.

So a pivotal question arises: What makes these
fisherfolk Natives? Is it that one is Russian-Aleut
(Alutiiq) by blood, or by participation in the
Native political processes in place since the Alaska
Native Claims Settlement Act, or “by virtue of
believing and calling himself (Alutiiq) and in
acting in ways that validate his (Alutiiqness).”*”

Partnow suggests that ethnic identity, once
developed, is “internalized in the individual but
held in common among all of a given ethnicity,”
and that a group with a sense of identity have
“strategies involved in the maintenance of this
ethnic identification.”"* These strategies, as
identified by Partnow, include maintaining ties
to acommon history, religion, and language.
People today explain that Alutiiqness is an

Understanding American and

Russian “occupation” of Alaska can

be confusing at times. The Russia

not so much “occupy” the land as —
participated in and controlled events and.
people. They did not “own” property,
and Native peoples continued their time-
honored tenure of the land, Russian.
relationships with the people of the
Alaska Peninsula involved trade and
other related activities. Trading posts
themselves, such as the one at Lake
Ilfiamna, were run by Native peoples.
The Americans, on the other hand,
acquired land through a variety of means
and were granted title to that land,
Residents who had lived and used the
land for generations did not have a valid
claim to the land. The Russians
fecognizeda “customary occupation” in
which those who lived and used the land
had valid rights to continue to do so,
whereas the Americans recognized “land
ownership” through title, The other
difference between Russian and American
land use involves a differing view of how
things ought to be: the Russian concept
of land tenure and use was by
community, whereas the American
concept involved the individual.”

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! =155



however, in the sea otter hunting
-as the loss of struck animals —
was too high. Increased use of
firearms occurred with the
arrival of the Euroamerican

sea otter hunters who flooded
the area of Kodiak, the Alaska
Peninsula and the eastern
Aleutians after 1867.

The breach loading rifle arrived
in Alaska through Natives from
around Fort Yukon

114 CHAPTER SEVEN

settling in bays and inlets along the coast, where they
could trap and hunt. The extent of displacement of
Alutiiq peoples from traditional use areas during this
period is unknown. However, local families had long-
established seasonal trapping and fishing areas along
the coast. At least two instances of outsiders impacting
local use are remembered. One interview revealed that
Euroamerican men got trapping areas by marrying local
women. Also, it is well known that when the Katmai
people, seeking a new townsite, came to the shores of
Ivanof Bay, the Euroamerican trappers who occupied
the valley discouraged them from settling there.*

The early frontiersmen were the first in a wave

of newcomers who worked for the fisheries and
stayed the winters to trap. Charles Brandal, George
Anderson, and George Morris had private accounts

at the Wrangell store by the mid-1890s when Frank
Lowell was the store’s agent. John Erickson, Oscar
Lindholm, Peter Anderson, and Victor Erickson also
came to the Peninsula prior to 1900.” Some of these
newcomers were hired to hunt sea otters with rifles, a
weapon Alaska Natives were not yet legally allowed to
use, others were hired to care for semi-domesticated
foxes on remote islands. Many of them married local
women and established families whose descendants
presently live in the Chignik area. Some of them, like
Charles Brandal, have sons and daughters who moved
to Chignik, others, like George Anderson, eventually
built a home at Chignik and began families whose
descendants remain in the area to this day. It is these
men and their descendants who spent years making
their homes along the Alaska Peninsula coast—a
number of them were at Kujulik, Aniakchak, and
Amber bays.

For nearly fifty years, these families and individuals
who raised blue fox and those who trapped the along
the beachfront coastline and along inland creeks and
rivers lived most of the year in isolated sites along the
coast or on the islands. The beaches of the treeless
peninsula provided ample logs for building homes
where they could be comfortable for eight or nine
months of the year. Those who could afford it brought
lumber in and built frame houses, Many homes were
modified barabaras with elements of frame houses.
Some had an arched grass and sod roof, timber floor,
small windows and a wooden door. Others were frame
structures, half built into a hillside to utilize the
insulating properties of the earth. Discarded cotton
webbing off the fish traps served well to hold the
grass roofs down. Sod piled along the sides in the
winter and wood stoves kept the cold out. Temporary
structures were made of driftwood, standing on end,
and caulked with whatever suitable material was
available, or willow and alder branches woven
through upright poles and covered with grass and trap
webbing. Families built caches to protect food stores
and sheds to protect boats hauled up on the ways.

Today people look back on those times fondly.

They looked forward at the end of every summer

to leaving the Chignik villages where mountains
blocked the winter sun and spending the winter along
the south coast where the sun reached their homes.
Without radios or telephones news was scarce and
people often did not know how friends and relatives
were faring during the long winter. Life was hard, but
in many ways simple—no one owned many material
possessions but people got by. There was little medical
aid for the sick or injured. Tuberculosis was a constant


Having received information from all sides, of
disorders, outrages, and oppressions of the natives,
caused in the colonies by parties of Russian
hunters. .. [the new territory] in the hands of one
strong company...would prevent many disorders
and preserve the fur trade, the principal wealth of
the country, affording protection to the natives
against violence and abuse, and tending toward

a general improvement of their condition."

The maltreatment of the Unangan and Sugpiat
people concerned the Russian court under Catherine
the Great, yet the first charter of the Russian-American
Company, granted by her son Paul, failed to address
conditions for Natives working for or enslaved by the
company. The early phase of Russian influence was
focused on exploiting the fur-bearing mammals in

an ever-widening area, something that could not

be accomplished without gaining control over the
population and stopping internecine and intertribal
wars. As one early missionary wrote: “the most
pleasurable exercise for the local inhabitants is war,
to the exercise of which nowadays there exists a
formidable obstacle; the presence of the Russians.”!"”

Once Shelikhov had subdued Kodiak, he was quick to
begin the process of gaining control over neighboring
areas. He instructed chief manager Samoilov in 1786
to employ those people already pacified to complete
the subjugation of the Sugpiat on Kodiak Island, the
Alaska and Kenai peninsulas, and Prince William
Sound. About those not willing to comply he wrote:
“all rebels will be totally exterminated by Her [the
Empress’) strong hand” but those who submitted

to Russian rule and taxation, however, would be
protected and, through work they would benefit.

Shelikhov encouraged his manager to supply
workers with food and clothing if they were lacking."
The prudent Shelikhov requested of his managers:

a thorough description of all the villages, the places
where they are located, the number of inhabitants,
male and female, and their age, even if this last can
be done only approximately. Designate on the maps
each river or creek, lake or village, every item in
the survey by a letter which will indicate the exact
location. Use the native place names instead of

inventing new ones, so they can be located easily.'”

Through a system of impressment and coercion,
virtually every able person was set to work for the
Company. Company control of the Sugpiat was greater
and more intrusive on the aboriginal way of life than
in other areas because in the early years Kodiak was
the headquarters of the Company and had the greatest
number of employees.’” Hunters and workers were
organized into artels, each headed by a baidarshchik
who was responsible for the crew and location from
which they operated. Kaiurs and kaiurkas were male
and female enslaved workers, formerly slaves held by
the Sugpiat, who were sent out in parties to work at
the Company outposts. Russian hunters also used
them as personal servants.

Shelikhov set about building permanent settlements
and, in the spirit of colonialism and civilization,
demanded that settlements have order with straight
streets and wooden houses and outbuildings. He
began the process of setting up a system of artels and
odinochkas which were trading outposts. Outposts
housed the baidarshchik and the Native hunters,

stored furs and food that would be taken back to PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 33



one dead. Epidemic has not reached Upper Ugashik
or Egegak villages yet. Assistance advisable should
they be affected. Am giving all possible assistance at
my command here and Ugashik. Nurses required
to handle orphans. Will advise later what funds
are required."

The U.S. Navy ship the S.S. Vicksburg arrived at the
Ugashik River on June 20, while the epidemic was at
its height at the old Ugashik village. By the middle of
July, mass graves held the canvas wrapped corpses of
most of the Native population of the Ugashik River.
Superintendent Heinbockel had agreed to transport
orphans to Dillingham, and

on July 24 the [APA] Steamer Kodiak took sixteen
native orphans from the Upper and twelve from
the Lower Ugashik village to Naknek where they
were cared for at the company’s orphanage. These,
with sixteen orphans from Naknek were sent on
the Steamer Kodiak to the Government hospital

at Dillingham."

A list of chapels still in existence after 1919 reports
that the population of Agishik died out during the
epidemic.*” By 1920 the population consisted of newly
arrived people, there to work in the fishing industry.

Meshik/Port Heiden

of baidarkas and people have been lost here.

Children at Meshik around 1910.

The boy second from the left is wearing
caribou mukluks, traditional footwear
for Bristol Bay. They are standing in
front of a barabara, a new, frame house

This place sometimes detains travelers for a week or
two, but we waited out the wind for only five hours
[and arrived in Inangashek nine hours later].*"

The trip [from Ugashek to Inangashek] is very
difficult: open sea, almost constant wind. Between
Ugashek and Inangashek is Mashkhik Bay, located

at the foot of an extinct volcano [Aniakchak].

This bay is the most dangerous on the whole route.
It is rarely calm here and it is constantly choppy.
One needs 4 to 6 hours to cross it. No small number

Port Heiden and the adjacent Native village of Meshik
lie on the eastern shore of Port Heiden or, as it was
once called, Mashkhik Bay. They are the closest
villages to Aniakchak caldera. When the clouds lift,

towers over it in the background.
Courtesy of University of Washington
Library, Elkinton Collection NA-3177.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

75



FOREWORD

identify themselves as Alaska Natives. The term

both demarcates them from and connects them to
pre-contact Sugpiat who once occupied and defended
the lands stretching from Kupreanof Point to Prince
William Sound, and included the Kodiak Archipelago
and lower Kenai Peninsula, and to pre-contact
Ugaassarmiut who occupied the southern shore

of Bristol Bay.

To the National Park Service, the term “traditional
associations” signifies uses of park resources that

have endured at least two generations. Alutiiqs,
Euroamericans, and Inupiat who were brought to work
in the canneries around 1913 have all used Aniakchak
lands, and their occupation and use of the land is a
salient part of their history. Examples of multi-
generational groups affiliated to Aniakchak lands
include Alutiiq sea otter hunters and their families in
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, trapping
families who established homes along the Pacific coast
and inland rivers in the early 1900s, and twentieth-
century subsistence hunters, fishers, and berry pickers.
Inupiat reindeer herders and trappers also used the
Bristol Bay plain adjacent to Aniakchak in the early

to mid-1900s. These are the groups of people whose
cultural affiliations and historical associations to
Aniakchak are described in this document.

This ethnographic overview and assessment examines
present knowledge of the cultural history of the mid-
portion of the Alaska Peninsula. The description of life
in the region from the late 1700s to the present offered
here is based on written materials, photographs, and
oral accounts of historic and present day life in the area
of Aniakchak. The study area includes the region of the
Alaska Peninsula south of Becharof Lake to the Chignik

area and the Bristol Bay plain to Port Moller. It
includes the present day villages of Pilot Point, Port
Heiden, Chignik Bay, Chignik Lagoon, and Chignik
Lake, all with residents who once used Aniakchak
lands. This document is not a comprehensive history
of the area—many missing pieces of history are
identified and this document will serve to guide further
research. | apologize to the descendants of the people
from Katmai, Afognak, Karluk, Unga, and Unalaska
who were once involved in sea otter, sea lion, and
seabird hunting near Aniakchak—they too are part
of its history, but time constraints and project scope
did not allow a more comprehensive examination.
The study area was chosen to reach the core groups
of people who occupied the Aniakchak area.

Organization of this Report

This report deals primarily with Alutiigs connected
through cultural and historical ties to Aniakchak,
although use by Euroamericans and Inupiat is also
described. Chapter one provides a brief description
of the area and contemporary villages. Chapter two
provides a sketch of at-contact Sugpiat culture and
outlines Sugpiat relationships with other indigenous
groups. The next chapter describes the impact of the
Russian domination of the Peninsula and its influence
and ramifications on the indigenous people’ culture,
traditional economy, and population. Included is a
description of activity near Aniakchak. Chapter four
examines the resettlement of the Alaska Peninsula after
the 1867 U.S. purchase of Alaska and the changes in
lifeway the Alutiiq people underwent as a direct result
of the influx of Euroamericans and the demise of the


Acknowledgements

A great number of people have contributed their

time, energy, knowledge, and enthusiasm to this project

My thanks to the many people who deserve recognition for
their part, large and small, in bringing this project to its end.
In particular I would like to thank Jeanne Schaaf, who
conceived of the project and provided encouragement,
support, and her organizational skills.

Special thanks to Lydia Black who, on short notice, spent
hours reading and commenting on chapters—her generosity,
encouragement, and sense of humor are greatly appreciated.
And to Gordon Pullar who read, commented, encouraged,
and always provided new ways to look at things. Orville
Lind who was always willing to answer questions. Nancy
Yaw Davis, Frank Norris, and Don Callaway read and
commented on dralt chapters.

Without the many people who shared their history,
knowledge, and thoughts, the scope of this project would
not have been possible. My deepest gratitude to the many
people with connections to Aniakchak National Monument
& Preserve, and to those I interviewed: Valentine Supsook
and Pauline Supsook, Nick Neketa, Sophie Abyo, Marlane
Shanigan, Nick Shanigan, Arthur Condrardy Sr., and Arthur
Condrardy, Jr., all who have ties to Pilot Point; Carol Carlson
and her family, Henry Matson, Maggie Carlson, Andrew and
Lena Matson, Johnny and Annie Christensen of Port Heiden;
Doris Lind and her family, Ronald Lind, Virginia Aleck, Sam
and Christine Martin, Andrew and Mary Boskovsky of
Chignik Lake; Alec Pedersen, Tony and Rhonda Gregorio,
Louise Anderson, Julius and Nina Anderson of Chignik
Lagoon, Roy and Minnie Skonberg, Lars Anderson, Art and
Nancy Skonberg, Axel and Alva Carlson, Andy Stepanoff,
Billy and Clara Stepanoff, and Tina Carlson of Chignik Bay;

and Peter and Darlene Lind of Homer. Those of you who
shared your homes with me, thank you for the warmest
hospitality, delicious food, and the maqiwik.

I relied on many members of the NPS Alaska Support Office
for their assistance, knowledge, and time. My thanks to the
members of the Cultural Resources team who kindly offered
their assistance and support, George Dickison and the GIS
team who supplied computer space and their time and
expertise, Teri Hudgins in Acquisition/Property
Management, Karen Cox who helped me with travel, Thetus
Smith who patiently explained publishing and printing, and
others who helped—I thank you all. People at the Lake
Clark and Katmai offices in Anchorage and the Katmai office
in King Salmon—Superintendent Bill Pierce, Administrative
Officer Susan Anderson, Katmai Unit Manager Karen Gustin,
and the staff—thank you for your support.

Many people on staff at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks,
Rasmuson Library archives assisted in many facets, your help
is greatly appreciated. The Alaska State Library provided
photos, thanks for your long distance help. Dee Hunt kindly
offered archival photos she had discovered through her
research on Alutiiq area historic photos. Carol Carlson,
Debbie Dougherty, and Lorraine Hillborn generously loaned
photos from their family photo albums. Kathy Arndt and
Trina Dubinina translated Russian materials which proved
invaluable to tum-of-the-century history of the area.

Molly Beich, Bill Lee, and Martie Sucec—I know I can’t thank
you all enough for the work you generously put in, so, my
deepest thanks for helping to put the final product together.

—Michele Morseth, 1998

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!



138

CHAPTER EIGHT

plants are taken for use from specific areas because
they contain certain qualities. Remedies for various
maladies were found in introduced plant products
such as Black Bull Tobacco which was used as an
antiseptic. Plants were also used for mats, scrubbers,
and other household items, but little detailed
information on these uses has been collected.

Local, Sugtestun, and Latin names and uses of
various plants also remain to be documented.

Mammals

Large mammals, both terrestrial and sea, form a large
part of the diet in the Chigniks and along Bristol Bay.
Large mammal species hunted in Aniakchak include
moose and caribou. Residents of the Peninsula hunt
mainly caribou and, for those who have developed

a taste for it since its relatively recent arrival, moose.
When they first arrived, some people were afraid of
the large, unfamiliar animal and others who were
offered the new meat refused to accept the gift.

Bears are dispersed across the landscape for part of the
year, but concentrate at salmon streams during salmon
runs. Bear hunting for food continues to be part of the
subsistence take, although it is of less importance than
in previous generations. Peninsula bears are hunted
more as trophy animals than for food

Seals and sea lions were once taken off the shores

of Aniakchak. They were used for food and also for
feeding semi-domesticated foxes. Fewer sea mammals
are taken today but some people continue to enjoy
seal oil, braided seal intestines, and dried seal meat.
The seal stomach has long been used as a container
for seal oil. Residents of Chignik Lake hunt harbor
seals in the lake near the village.

Environmental Influences on
Subsistence

The environmental factors influencing subsistence
effort and subsistence catch include proximity of
resources to villages, weather and storm cycles, and
amount and duration of freezing on both land and
water.*"* In general, the temperate climate of the
Peninsula allows a large variety of subsistence foods
year-round. Proximity of subsistence resources to
villages and fish camps influences the frequency and
duration of attempted harvest and harvest levels.
Traditionally villages were placed where resources
were abundant and most present day villages have
followed that same pattern. Peninsula residents can
often take fish and caribou throughout the year,
thereby foregoing frozen storage which can be an
expensive alternative. As one resident of Chignik Lake
emphasized, “we are not freezer people, we eat fresh
foods. When we run out, we go out and get meat or
fish or whatever we need.”’Storage is often limited
to supplies of smoked salmon and small amounts

of recently caught fish or meat

Weather directly influences subsistence potentiality
and success. While the Peninsula is known for rainy,
foggy weather, storms are not usually of long duration;
hunters and fishers are not usually stopped by
inclement weather for more than a few days to a week.
Longer term weather patterns that affect the caribou
and fish populations or the fruiting of berry plants
have greater impact. While decreases in population

of caribou or fish may no longer be life threatening

to residents, they can bring economic hardship. Fish,


of some merchants. They sent
no glance to the future. Their
only goal was to acquire wealth
for the moment. The crown had
no part In these endeavors, and
as a result, these entrepreneurs
needed to give no account of
their actions and procedures.
Therefore, they cared little
about the means toward their
entichment and did not mind
the loss of a few human lives.'*

~Holmberg

30

CHAPTER THREE

decimating their populations. On Kodiak Island,
which were the farthest reaches of sea otter
explorations, promyshlenniki had less success—
they were driven off numerous times.

In 1761, the largest ship yet to sail the Aleutians,
Merchant Bechevin's 62-foot ship Sv. Gavriil, over-
wintered on the Alaska Peninsula at Bechevin Bay.
Quartermaster Pushkarev and his promyshlenniki
built winter quarters and explored both coasts of
the Peninsula and the islands of the Pacific side.
The extent of their explorations are unknown but
they were able to establish a presence on the Alaska
Peninsula. In about 1763 Pan’koy, in search of
Bechevin, sailed into Bristol Bay, reaching the
mainland coast near Nushagak.'” Although the
records have not survived, it is known that by the
1780s private entrepreneurs were trading in Bristol
Bay on the northern shores of the Peninsula. The
Lebedev-Lastochkin Company was making inroads
into the interior of the upper Peninsula as well.'*

The year Pan’kov sailed north of the Peninsula,
Glotov sailed south of it, and in 1763 he sailed to
Kodiak where he was able to communicate with
the islanders through an Unangan boy who had
been taken hostage in a battle on Sanak Island.
The Sugpiat, like their Aleutian enemies, did not
welcome the promyshlenniki. They attacked Glotov’s
men repeatedly. The hostile environment finally
drove off the Russians in May 1764. For the next
two decades the Sugpiat were able to hold off
foreigners trying to gain a foothold.

In the nineteenth century, a sparse report indicates
that Pan’kov and Polutov’s ship, along with 200

Unangan baidarkas, sailing northeast of Unga,

met Sugpiat from Katmai at an island off the coast
of the Peninsula. The local Sugpiat fought with
Unangan hunters, killing many and capturing and
killing a leader of the Akun Unangan. The intruders
were driven off." An early attempt to establish

an artel on the Peninsula met with failure as well,
although by the early 1780s promyshlenniki were
operating from the Peninsula.

By 1766, Russian domination in the Aleutians

was sealed. The Russian government recognized

that episodes of extreme violence had occurred and
some perpetrators were put on trial. In 1780 Empress
Catherine the Great sent a number of Russian crests
to inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska
mainland so that the inhabitants could display that
they and their lands were under the protection of the
Russian Court." Complaints of cruelty and abuse
brought response from the Imperial government and,
although control over the actions of the traders was
not effective for another few decades, the Siberian
authorities, attempting to exert some control,
encouraged government sanction of companies

from this time on. As the center of the fur trade
shifted eastward to Kodiak Island, the Kenai
Peninsula, and Prince William Sound, two companies
emerged to dominate the trade.'" From one of these,
the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company, few records
survive. The other, a particularly enterprising group,
would successfully establish itself on Kodiak Island,
exaggerate reports of abuses in the Aleutians, and
gain a monopoly on the Russian America fur trade.
This was the Shelikhov Company, under the
direction of Grigori Shelikhov.


inherited their herds from their fathers, as a death
knell for reindeer herding in the area. It also appears
that consolidation of the reindeer into herds of 2,000
animals, made a herd impossible for the few
dedicated herders to control.

Hanson described the 1937 roundup:

Two weeks the Native Aleuts and Eskimos were

out hunting for the deer. There had been three
weeks of fine weather to go by, since the trapping
season had close [sic] Feb. 15. After the first day or
so out, the Natives sent back the Russian Priest
after rubber boots. But he had bad luck with his
dogs, and pretty nearly broke his leg on a “Nigger-
head” [tussock]. He had to take the plane to the
hospital at Kanakanak. This delayed the round-up.
But luckily the weather turned again and held. So
we had fine weather until all the deer except about
400 that would not be rounded up, including some
bucks away north-east near Gas Rocks, south shore
of Lake Becharoff.

When all the rest of the deer were together,

Willie Zunganok came in after me with his dog
team. The day was ideal. Fine weather favored us.
A shift of snow had lately fallen which grew deeper
the further we went east, until the dogs, already
weary with two weeks of almost constant going
from morning til night, could scarcely pull the sled.
Finally, after traveling about fifteen miles to the
north-east of Pilot Point Village, we saw the deer
on the knolls to [the] left. Across “Pike Lake” was
the camp, about two miles further.

Willie’s leader, which he had turned loose, broke
and ran after the deer, and “Snowflake”, a reindeer

dog that used to belong to Pete Olimpie, followed
her. Sometime after the five Eskimo dog teams that
had come with us had arrived, Eskimo teams from
Ugashik arrived. (The way these Eskimos can smell
when the others are coming is uncanny).

The Natives kept by themselves and the Eskimos by
themselves, but the Eskimos predominated. Lunch
time was declared. Lunch over, we started out back
tracking to surround the deer and drive them down
on Pike Lake to divide the herd between Eskimo and
Aleut. Willie complained that the Eskimos wouldn't
“mind” him. Charley [Johnson] complained of the
same about the Natives. I told Willie to take charge,
as he is an old experienced herder. 1 told the rest to
mind him. But soon | could see that they were not
accomplishing their purpose. The deer were getting
away, I ran over and started directing the natives
where to go, etc., but they minded me about the
same as they do their mothers when they are babies.
(Their mothers always give them their own way).

Finally, however, we had the deer down on Pike
Lake, in spite of the contrary wind. We let them
spread out in a crescent, over the surface of the
lake—a crescent about a mile long. From a knoll
I took pictures in sections of the whole herd—the
only one like it in eight years.

The plan was to see from the “hill” where to divide
the herd. It had been agreed by all that the Eskimos
were to have about 400 deer—over half the herd,
to compensate for the 400 that weren't rounded
up. I then told the two presidents where to divide
the herd, and Willie Zunganok, the president of

PE.R.Co., and Charley Johnson, the president of PUYULEK PU IRTUQ!

149


Russian-American Company. While the Alaska
Commercial Company could not force hunters out
to sea, they also did not appear to feel responsibility
for a lost hunter’ family:

The uncollectable Debts are Young Hunters who
were frozen to Death this last Winter, we have a
very severe Winter here, Nicoli Olgin who wintered
at Sutwic [Kujulik] Bay lost some of his Hunters the
same way.”"*

Near the turn of the century, the Alaska Commercial
Company was dealing with an increasing number of
Euroamericans who were trapping terrestrial mammals
and hunting in the area. These hunters had a different
relationship to the Company agents and may have

had a different pay scale for furs, as this letter from
agent Frank Lowell to the general manager in

Kodiak indicates:

Please let me know what I shall pay White Hunters
for good large sea otter, large Spring Bear, first class
Fox Red, & Land Otter, there are quite a number of
Hunters coming here from Cape John [Kupreanof
Point] this Summer, or at least they told me so.

Mr. Jackson, who you landed on Sutwik Island

last Summer, got two Large fine Otter during the
Winter. I bid $580.00 for the two, he may bring
them here to sell as he wishes to get his Outfit from
us, & Hunt on Sutwik Island this coming Winter?”

Despite Lowell’ attempts to make the Peninsula stations
a success in the mid-1890s, he too was discouraged by
the lack of furs which he in part blamed on Kodiak
hunters wintering on Sutwik Island rather than on

the mainland,”

The Ugashik store was bought out by Frank Kruger,
who was married to a Ugashik woman and considered
a permanent resident.” In 1898, after getting no otter
the previous year, Lowell suggested that the store sell
their Wrangell stock and accounts to Kruger for cash.”
Even though the Wrangell hunting party returned

with only one otter by August, Lowell continued to be
optimistic that the otter population would increase and
Kruger would be able to collect the debts from the
Natives he was “well acquainted with” and apparently
got along well with. The outcome of this transaction is
not known. Stores supplying the Alaska Peninsula
began to be operated out of the cannery towns, either
by the canneries or by independent traders like Kruger.

In the 1890s the Alaska Commercial Company sought
new endeavors as the pelagic (sea otter and fur-seal)
hunts were failing, The priests criticized Company
policy and provided a bleak picture of relationships
between the trading company and Natives:

This company, owning all of Alaska without any
competition, during the last two years in many places
removed their stores, and in other places, where
stores still exist, stopped distributing to Natives not
just goods, but even food on credit or on account
against future animal catches. Moreover, for furs on
hand, which Natives bring to the store for sale, they
are paid, not in money but by company checks,
which can be cashed only at the company agents’, in
order that not a single company cent escapes to the
side. It’s not an infrequent occurrence, where even for
furs in hand such checks are not issued, but simply
the catch added to a half-century old debt. The poor
hunter, being rewarded by a pound of tea or a twist
of tobacco, returns to his barabara to his starving

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

6l



Women cleaning fish on the Ugashik
River in 1900. They are rinsing the
fish in a hole dug in the sand and
filled with water. Branches protect
the clean fish from the ground.
Courtesy of Dee Hunt and National
Archives, RG 22-FFA-2552

70 CHAPTER FIVE

summer through the Ugashik River system, across

Lake Becharof, along the Kejulik River, and over the
divide between Bristol Bay and the Pacific—indicating
long-established ties. This trans-peninsula travel gave
Ugaassarmiut access to an array of land and sea
mammals unlike that pursued by Kodiak-dwelling
Qikertarmiut. In Bristol Bay they hunted spotted seal,
bearded seal, walrus, and beluga, all species unavailable
in the Pacific. And they hunted the caribou herds that
migrated past the inland settlements.

Ugashik was visited relatively frequently by the
traveling priest. Father Modestov described his visit
there in 1895. He was accompanied by 57 residents
of Agishik:

There are up to 25 barabaras here. The residents
are all Aleuts [Alutiiq]. There are up to 200
residents here in all. The chapel here was built

as early as 1879, in the name of the Holy Trinity...
everything is clean, there are enough icons, there


IS1/D-llA

— Thess Sale a the Volcanoes ggaE

TECHNICAL INFORMATION CENTER
DENVER SERVICE CENTER
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

<i

q ERE NATIONAL MONUMENT AND PRESERVE ETHNOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW & ASSESSMENT



Henry Sanguinetti leads the
Alaska Packers Association
Fourth of July Parade down
the boardwalk of Chignik,
1937. Filipino workers
Sollow behind holding an
APA banner. The Fourth of
July was a big event the
whole village participated
in. After the day’ festivities,
the cannery hosted a big
dinner for everyone.
Courtesy of Alaska State
Library, Childs Collection,
PCA 37-4.

96

addition to the cost of conducting business.

I confess to a pretty complete want of sympathy
in these touching tales of the unmerited hardships
visited upon the ‘poor’ natives by the aggressions
and hard-heartedness of the white man.”

The Ugashik Fishing Station in 1889 hired 20
Euroamerican workers and no Natives.” But by the
1890s, Alaska Peninsula locals were hired. Even then
only a few were employed to work in packing, they
were not hired as fishermen or trap tenders. They
could fish independently and sell fish to the packing
houses but in 1898 it was explained that, “fresh fish
are bought from the natives; though there are few
natives, and fewer still who care to exert themselves
beyond taking fish for their own wants, so that the
number of fish thus furnished is extremely small, and
the canneries cannot depend upon this source of
supply.”*' Compared to sea otter pelts, salmon were
not lucrative, especially for people without tenders or
even skiffs to bring the fish to the canneries. As long
as the sea otter hunt remained viable it remained the
mainstay of the Native participation in the money
economy. However, “set-nets” or gill nets set from

the beach were used extensively in Bristol Bay and
were a way for locals to enter the fishery.

By 1897, many Ugashik residents had moved down to
the mouth of the river and 24 Natives were employed
by the Ugashik Fishing Station at Pilot Station.»

In 1899, at Chignik no Natives were reported working
at the canneries but at Ugashik 10% of the workforce
was Native. By 1900, 54 Ugaassarmiut worked in
three packing houses on the Ugashik River and at
Chignik twelve Alutiiq or Aleut worked in Chignik
area packing houses, out of 119 Native residents.”


170

APPENDIX ONE

“Native” community (those who began to identify
with their Native ancestry after ANCSA) and the
traditional Sugpiat community might not be one and
the same. Involving the traditional voice when for

example, trying to identify sacred sites, may be
difficult when there is more than one Native voice.
While management policy may not require this,
political expediency may demand it.


‘Mount Chiginagak

ieee

Boat Haul Out

i)
i oa

A “ Travel Route

Ww Trap Lines

é
i

——  Brandal
Carlson

1930s Cabins

Brandal

wy
‘Sutwik Island
(Cape Kumliun Losin

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve A
Trapping Cabins
1930s to 1940s a

Carlson
Erickson

Hillbom
Neilsen
Osbekoff
Pedersen

i

Map 7.B Cartographic Mlustration: Wm. J. Lee



consolidate the work through the company. Zunganuk
moved his family permanently to Pilot Point.

Valentine Supsook remembers when the reindeer
herds on the Peninsula had grown to more than
3,500 animals and all of the herds had joined into
one large herd. At a big roundup “they tried to divide
up the large herd and Eskimos take half and half,
take to big lake, chase ‘em down there and take ‘em
across the Ugashik, in winter, hear the ice crackling,
March maybe sometime. [We were] hunting and
trapping to make a living those days. They mixed
back together, after they split the herd—they can’t
stay apart.”**

Poaching by non-owners from Egegik, Kanatak,

and people living around Lake Becharoff, the Ugashik
Lakes, and Dago Creek, was also a problem. Poachers
killed deer for food and for bait to use for trapping.
People were known to camp out near the herds with
their dog teams, fattening the dogs on reindeer meat.
One trapper was rumored to have killed 20 deer for
such uses. Nick Ablama remembers:

We used to travel by dogteam. We would look for
reindeer. We would hunt reindeer. It was the source
of food for the people... The [domesticated] reindeer
used to be plenty back in those days in the area of
Kuigaaq creek.”®

A letter from Samuel C. Hanson, the local reindeer
superintendent in 1937, gives some insight into the
state of the industry and relations between the “Native”
(Alutiiq) and Inupiat herders. By that time, the herd
had expanded to over 4,000 animals and recruiting
dedicated herders was a continuous challenge. The
Alutiiq herders had organized into the Ugashik

Cooperative Reindeer Company as a parallel to the
Peninsular Eskimo Reindeer Company.

The herds harvested through the cooperatives could
be sold or butchered only through the permit system;
permits were issued to local people to butcher 250
reindeer that year. However, Superintendent Hanson
complained that illegal private sales were taking
place, and often the seller owned few or no deer. The
herd was also heavily preyed upon by wolves and
coyotes that year. Since 1932, the last year Hanson
had gotten a herd population estimate, the population
had decreased by about 20%.*”

Hanson described that “the corral I built in 1934 was
rotten before the next season. As I have told the Nome
office many times before, we are up against something
different here, with the deer proposition, than you are
up there in the Seward Peninsula. Here this winter, we
had open weather [sic] all winter, water, water
everywhere. There was so much water this winter that
the Natives and Eskimos couldn't trap, nor visit their
traps for weeks.”

The lifestyle of the reindeer owners was also seen

as a problem, the trapping season overlapped with
corralling which, according to the Range Rules,

must have transpired by the end of February.

In the summer, people were occupied with fishing
and putting up fish and plant foods for the winter.
Hanson reported that liquor was licensed to be sold
even though two thirds of the population had
petitioned against it, and “the boot-legger even going
[sic] around to the Native’s houses soliciting.” He
viewed the increased availability of alcohol, combined
with an unmotivated generation of herders who had

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!



Puyulek Pu’irtuq! “The volcano is smoking!” can

be approximated by saying Poo-yoo-lik Poo-ukh-tuk,
although for the correct pronunciation it is best

to ask an Alutiiq speaker.

Cover photos:

Main Creek at Amber Bay.

Mike Hilton photo, courtesy of NPS.
Residents of the Aniakchak area from various
archival photos.

Title page:
Inside Aniakchak Caldera
Mike Hilton photo, courtesy of Mike Hilton.

National Park Service

Lake Clark - Katmai Studies Center
4230 University Drive, Suite 103
Anchorage, AK 99508

NPS-D-11

December 1998

Second Printing 2003
Alaska Natural History Association

ISBN; 0-941555-05-4
Printed in Hong Kong

Editors:
Martie Sucec (first printing)
C. Anne Worthington (second printing)

Design and Layout:
Molly Beich, Northwind Prepress, Anchorage, Alaska

Cartographic Illustration:
William Lee

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Katmai National Park and Preserve/
Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve
Lake Clark-Katmai Studies Center
4230 University Drive, Suite 311, Anchorage, Alaska 99508

The Lake Clark-Katmai Studies Center, established in February
1999, is a research and curatorial facility for the museum collections
from Katmai National Park and Preserve, Lake Clark National
Park and Preserve, Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve,
and the AJagnak Wild River. The Center supports the Cultural
Resource program for these parks with responsibilities that include
stewardship of historic buildings, museum collections, archeolog-
ical sites, cultural landscapes, oral and written histories, and
ethnographic resources.

Our mission is to identify, evaluate and preserve the cultural
resources of the park areas and to bring an understanding of these
resources to the public. Congress has mandated that we preserve
these resources because they are important components of our
national and personal identity.

The National Park Service Cultural Resource Preservation Program:
Special Ethnography Studies provided the initial funding for
this publication to identify the cultural and natural resources of
Aniakchak that are of traditional significance to traditionally asso-
ciated peoples. This knowledge allows for respectful treatment of
ethnographic resources through careful consideration of the effects
that our management actions may have on them.

Special acknowledgment and sincere appreciation for contributions
to this second edition are to Lydia T. Black, Professor Emerita
University of Alaska Fairbanks, who edited content and citations
with her inimitable energy, devotion to the subject, attention to
detail and generous spirit.

Mention of trade names of commercial products does not consti-
tute endorsement or recommendations for use

Jeanne M. Schaaf
Cultural Resources Manager
September 2003



132 Hooper 1897 cited in Black, “he Story of
Russian America,” Crossroads of Continents
(Washington: Smithsonian, 1988), p. 79

133 Khlebnikov, 1994: 40.

134 Davydov 1977: 192. Pinart indicates that the
settlement had shrunken and become dilapi-
dated by the time he was there in 1873.

135 Tikhmeney, 1861/63, vol.2, p. 103.
136 Khlebnikov, 1994:9

137 Khlebnikov, 1994:26. The reference to
Kenai Bay is lower Cook Inlet

138 Lydia T. Black 2002, personal
communication; see also James VanStone,
Russian Exploration in Southwest Alaska: The
Travel Journals of Petr Korsakovsky (1818)
and Ivan Ya, Vasilev (1829), (Fairbanks:
University of Alaska Press, 1988).

139 Khlebnikov, 1994:27 & 37

140 Kashevarov 1834 in Khlebnikov, 1994:362
141 VanStone, 1988:17-75.

142 VanStone, 1988:89-109

143 VanStone, 1988:46.

144 Litke, 1835,

145 Tikhmeney, Petr Aleksandrovich,
Historical Survey of the Formation of
the Russian-American Company and its
Activities to the Present Day, translated by
Richard A. Pierce, Alaska Division of State
Libraries microfiche (1974). The Vasiliev
survey was in 1832 and the Voronkovskii
survey in 1836 according to Baer in
Wrangel 1980: 186.

146 Khlebnikov, 1994:63.

147 Black, 1990:151

148 Fedorova, 1973:206, 210-211.
14

S

Fedorova, 1973, p. 165; Golovin (1979,
p. 17) in Michael Oleksa, Orthodox Alaska:
‘A Theology of Mission (Crestwood:

St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1992).

150 Black, 1990:145.
151 Black, 1990:145.
152 Wrangell, 1980:15.
153 Fedorova 1973.

154 Michael Oleksa, “The Creoles and Their
Contribution to the Development of
Alaska,” In Russian America: the Forgotten
Frontier, edited by B. S. Smith and R. J
Barnett (Tacoma, Washington: Washington
State Historical Society).

155 The Committee for Organization of the
Russian American Colonies, 1861 in
Fedorova, 1973:213.

156 Black, 1990. Golovin was critical of the
Creoles yet attributed many accomplishments
to individual Creoles. Golovin, 1979.

157 Fedorova, 1973:165.
158 Black, 1990.
159 Oleksa, 1992:157.

160 William H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources
(Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1870) p. 241.

161 Robert Fortuine, Chills and Fever: Health
and Disease in the Early History of Alaska
(Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 1992).

162 Tikhmeney, Petr Aleksandrovich, A History
of the Russian-American Company, translated
and edited by R.A. Pierce & A. S. Donnelly
(Seattle: University of Washington Press,
1978).

163 Tikhmeney, 1978.
164 Tikhmenev, 1978: 201

165 Lydia T. Black 2002, personal
communication.

166 Wrangell in Khlebnikov, 1994:7 & 358.
167 Tikhmeney, 1974:312

168 The term “under company control” seems
to mean just employed by. For population
figures see Fedorova, 1973:200, and
Khlebnikov, 1994:8

169 Khlebnikov, 1994:19,

170 The Committee for Organization of the
Russian American Colonies, 1861 in
Federova, 1973.

171 Wrangell’ remarks in Khlebnikov, 1994:358,
172 Oleksa, 1992:106-108.

173 Black, 1996, monograph on Orthodoxy
in Alaska, Distinguished Lecture Series 6,
Berkeley.

174 Wrangell remarks concerning Kad iak
in Khlebnikov, 1994:353

175 Russian era texts in Alutiiq, as well’as
many parish documents, are housed at the
Russian Orthodox Seminary in Kodiak

176 Veniaminov in Oleksa, 1992:159.

177 Modestov, ROAM vol. 1, (1898)
pp. 287-289, 303-305; vol 3.,
pp. 224-227, 248-250 (1902)

178 Feofil, ROCR Reel 149/179 1-804, 1865.
179 Feofil, ROCR R149/f792, 1866

180 Apollinarii Kedrovskii ROCR R139/{201,
£320, 1908.

181 Oleksa, 1992:161

Chapter four
182 Bancroft, 1886:599-601.

183 Petroff, 1884. The 1880 census enumerated
95 people for the Pacific Coast between
Mitrofania Bay and Wrangell in Chiginagak
Bay, and there is no village reported between
Wrangell and Katmai village. On the Bristol
Bay coast the total population is given as
254 from Unangashak at the Seal Islands
north to Ugashik, where 70 percent of
these people resided,

184 Bancroft, 1886:603.

185 Anonymous, American Orthodox Messenger,
Vol. 2, no. 8, (1898), pp. 265-266,
translated by Patricia H. Partnow.

PUYULEK ‘PU IRTUQ!

179


translations pp. 68-72 Valaam archives 894—

description of Aleut religious beliefs and origin story

and interpretation and biblical parallels. pp132-135

let. Fr Veniaminov 1829—man with miraculous

healing, clairvoyance, premonition and spirit guides.
Orth, Donald J.

1971 Dictionary of Alaskan Place Names. Washington:

Geological Survey Professional Paper 567.
The book on Alaska Place names.

Osgood, Wilfred, H.

1904 A Biological Reconnaissance of the Base of the

Alaska Peninsula. North American Fauna No. 24.
U.S. Deparument of Agriculture, Division of
Biological Survey. Washington: Government
Printing Office

Mainly north of the Ugashik River but talks about
decline in Caribou herds and bearded seal in early
1900s due to sale of skins to traders and meat

to ships. Trading post at Unangashik dealing in
caribou meat and skins.

Oswalt, Wendell H.
1967a Alaska Commercial Company Records: 1868-1911.

University of Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson
Library, Alaska and Polar Regions Department.

Index of ACCo records. Wide Bay, Wrangell,
Sutkhum posts on Alaska Peninsula. List of hunters
in debt to the company gives names of people from
Katmai, Ugashik, Wrangell

1967b -Alaskan Eskimos. San Francisco:

Chandler Publishing,
Includes discussion of Aglegmiut (Aglumiut).

An Alaskan Eskimo Ethnohistory, 1778-1988.
Norman and London: Univ. of Oklahoma Press.

1980

Pacific Fisherman

1918-
1966

Yearbook. Seattle.

Partnow, Patricia H.

1993 Alutiiq Ethnicity. Unpublished PhD. Dissertation,
University of Alaska, Fairbanks

General history and ethnography of Alaska Peninsula
Alutiiq. Examines ethnic identity, primarily in
Perryville and Chignik Lake. Looks at ethnicity
development, claims, and maintenance through story.
Examples of stories that link contemporary people

as Alutiigs to past and present activities.

2001 Making History, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq Life on the
Alaska Peninsula. Fairbanks: University of

Alaska Press.
Pederson, Susie

1983 Helen Neilsen: Life on a Blue Fox Island.
The Cama'i Book by Vick, et. al., Garden City,
New York: Anchor Press.

Petroff, Ivan

1881 Preliminary Report on the Population, Industry,
and Resources of Alaska, U.S. Congress, House
Executive Document No. 40, 46th Congress,
3rd session, 86 pages.

1884a Report on the population, industries,
and resources of Alaska, 10th Census, 1880.

USS. Department of the Interior.

1884b Population and Resources of Alaska
USS. Congress, House Executive Document

No. 40, 46th Congress, 3rd session.

1900 Population, Resources, Etc., of Alaska: from
U.S. Census Report of 1880. In Compilation
of Narrative Explorations in Alaska.

U.S. Senate. 1900. Pp. 55-281

Section on the Kodiak people including the Pacific
coast of the Alaska Peninsula. Population and
cultural designation of villages on Alaska Peninsula.
Description of sea otter hunt. Furs sold from Russian
America and in first 13 years of American period.

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

199


The canneries eventually drew people in from both
sides of the Peninsula to Ugashik and Chignik. Nick
Ablama remembered that, “Some of them [residents
of Kanatak] would go down below to Chignik to fish
in the summer. And some went to Kodiak. Some of
them came from Karluk to here [Ugashik] and some
went elsewhere. They would work in the canneries

in the summer.”

But after the turn of the century, the salmon industry
became increasingly important to local people as it
replaced the fur trade as the primary economic activity.
People were drawn for the summer fishing season to
the towns of Egegik, Pilot Point, Ugashik, and Port
Moller on Bristol Bay and to Chignik, Sand Point, and
Unga on the Pacific. In these villages the Alutiiq and
Creole population were in the minority during fishing
season as canneries continued to bring men up from
San Francisco and Seattle. Crews of Chinese, Japanese,
and Filipino cannery workers were brought north at
each season's beginning and sent back down south
with the loads of salmon. Scandinavians, Germans,
Italians, and other Euroamericans also traveled north
on the cannery ships. They were paid to work on the
ships as they traveled north to the fisheries. Once at
their destination the men spent two months preparing
for the short, intense fishing season. They too were
supposed to go south at the end of each season
although not all did.

Farly methods of fishing were often efficient but
wasteful, and attempts by the government to regulate
the placement of traps and nets often went unheeded.
The fish traps, carefully placed to intercept the salmon
trying to go upstream to spawn, could efficiently
decimate entire runs. Packing companies fished as if

the supply was endless. Sometimes they caught more
fish than they could process and attempts to move
excess fish to other canneries often failed; shiploads
were dumped into the ocean. Accusations of purposeful
waste circulated but were largely unsubstantiated,
although elders today remember fishing even during
cannery breakdowns. Some of the runs, most notably
Karluk, had already experienced serious declines by the
turn of the nineteenth century, yet the canneries
disclaimed any fault for the low fish runs.

Clara and Annie Anderson, young
suitor and horse, circa 1910, Chignik
Bay. The boy was from Sand Point,
courting Clara and working in the
cannery. Courtesy of Lorraine and
Rubin Hillborn.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

97


18

CHAPTER TWO

They had no wealth and, although they occasionally
married, their life of servitude would change little.
As part of a chief's wealth they could be left to heirs
or killed and buried when their owner died.*

In the early 1800s, Davydov observed that adults were
“well-built, probably as a result of their very healthy
upbringing as children.”” To an outsider, young
Sugpiat children may have seemed excessively spoiled.
Children were prevented from crying, often by giving
in to their every want. They were never physically
punished; control was exerted through lecturing and
shaming. Elders played an important role in keeping
children in line and could form a united front toward
the incorrigible. This seemingly permissive start in life
coincided with teachings in stoicism which included
water deprivation and cold water immersion. It also
ended at initiation into adulthood.

Children started learning adult tasks at an early age.
Girls began sewing, processing fish and animals, and
gathering firewood at age six. By age seven boys were
practicing with darts and throwing spears, and by
age 14 they were becoming adept at kayak travel,
accompanying their uncles on hunts. Both boys and
girls could be raised as a child of the opposite gender.
If a boy seemed like a girl he might be raised as one,
or if a baby was predicted to be a girl but born a boy
the baby might be raised as a daughter.”

Girls often married at a young age. Marriage was
frequently initiated by the couple. A young girl might
establish the bond by bringing a young man into her
father’s house. The new man would contribute his
catch to the household economy. For this reason,
according to Davydov, marriageable girls were

valued.” If the marriage lasted, the couple
would eventually move out and establish their
own household. Young girls were also married
to older men, sometimes as a second wife.

The Spirit World

Before their conversion to Russian Orthodoxy,

the Sugpiat lived in a spirit world about which
comparatively little is known today. This world
was inhabited by humans, animals, spirits, and

a variety of other creatures. The spirits also had

a world unseen by most humans. The spirit world
was inseparable from daily thoughts and actions,
customs and traditions kept a balance between the
physical and the spirit world. The Sugpiat practiced
shamanism and the shaman, or kahahulik, helped
mediate between the human and spirit world.

A spirit of the sky has been described as the supreme
being but many spirits and beings inhabited the
Sugpiat world. These included giants and dwarfs
that roamed the physical world, supernatural
animals, and shaman helpers, both good and evil.
A few stories about the Sugpiat spirit world have
survived. The Sugpiat also believed that animal and
human spirits would return to earth and live again
as expressed in a mourning song that ends “the
man died but will live again.”*

The shaman, as noted earlier, could be either male

or female. Often a boy, who was chosen to be a
shaman, was raised as a girl and then apprenticed to
a shaman. As an adult he dressed and played the role
of a woman while performing the duties of a shaman.



Rousselot, J. L. et al.

1988 Maritime Economies of the North Pacific Rim. In
Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and
Alaska, by William Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell,
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Russian-American Company
1818- Records of the Russian-American Company,

1867 Correspondence of the Governors General,
Communications Sent, Record Group 11,
National Archives, Washington. Washington:
Government Printing Office.

Microfilmed records of the Russian-American
Company. Available at libraries in Alaska.

Russian Orthodox American Messenger (Amerikanskii
Pravoslavnyi Vestinik) 1897-1973

Journal put out by the Russian Orthodox Church

in America. Articles are in English and Russian.
Various information about area and the church—
locations, populations, health conditions etc. See entry
under Smith and Sudkamp for finding aid. Journals
relevant to the Peninsula include those of the
Afognak, Nushagak, and Belkovski parishes

Russian Orthodox Church of Alaska, Diocesan Archive
at St. Herman’s Theological Seminary,
Kodiak, Alaska

Sahlins, Marshall

1995 How “Natives” Think: About Captain Cook,
For Example. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Sarychev, G. A.
1806- Account of a Voyage ol Discovery to the
1807 Northeast of Siberia, the Frozen Ocean and the
Northeast Sea. London: Richard Phillips.
Schlaben, H. O.

1913. Reindeer Records, General Correspondence files,
National Archives, Anchorage.

Scholfield, Janice J.
1996 Discovering Wild Plants, Alaska, Western

Canada, the Northwest. Seattle: Alaska
Northwest Books.

Shalamoy, Tikhon

1896

1899

1907

The Alaska Travel of the Right Reverend
Tikhon, Bishop of Aleut and Alaska: From the
Travel Journal of 1895 of a Priest of the Kodiak
Resurrection Church, Richard Bland, translator.
Russian Orthodox American Messenger

vol.1, p.23.

Russian Orthodox American Messenger
vol. 3, p.91

The Alaska Travel of the Right Reverent
Tikhon, Bishop of Aleut and Alaska. From

the travel journal of 1895 or a priest of the
Kodiak Resurrection Church, Patricia Partnow,
translator. Russian Orthodox American
Messenger vol. 11:63

Shishkin, Vasilii

1985

1922

Alaskan Russian Church Archives, Records

of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church
of North America, Diocese of Alaska, Library

of Congress, Manuscript Division,

Washington, D.C.

Smith, Barbara, and Anne Sudkamp

Alaska Names and Places in the Russian
Orthodox Messenger (1897-1973). Alaska
Historical Commission, Studies in History
No. 136, Anchorage.

Index of Russian Orthodox messenger includes many
Alaska Peninsula villages, parish priests, and few
personal names.

Smith, WR. and Arthur A. Baker

The Cold Bay District. In Mineral Resources
of Alaska, Report on Progress in Investigations in

1922, Pp. 151-218. USGS Survey Bulletin 755 PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

201


through the zeal of the residents. It is 350 [sic]
nautical miles from the local [Nushagak] church. It
is consecrated in honor of Church Teacher Nikolai
the Miracleworker2”

Father Kashevarov provides the only detail on
Mashkhik available after a visit in February 1908
when 32 adults and 10 infants took communion.

1 February. At 8 am I left [Agishek] for Inangashak
settlement, where I arrived safely on Sunday the
3rd at noon [and conducted church services].

At 10 am [on 4 February] I left for Mashkhik

settlement, where I arrived the same day at 2 pm.’”

In the same report Kashevarov mentions George
Albert's activities at the settlement at Port Heiden:

The chapel [at Mashkhik] was built on private
[financial] means and donated to the residents of
this settlement by the American George Albert,
who lives in the settlement.”

George Albert lived in the Port Heiden area for many
years. Around 1906 he brought several immigrants,
Olaf Matson and George “Scotty” Irons among them, to
the Port Heiden area on his two-masted schooner. They
worked for Albert in the Port Heiden Packing Company.
When he opened a trading post at Unangashak, Albert
hired locals to work there, including at different times,
Olaf Matson and Willie Zunganuk.

After the 1919 epidemic, Meshik was reported by the
parish priest to have few residents.’” The 1920 census
included 13 “Eskimos” (Inupiat from the Nome area)
and a family of six orphans, headed by a 17 year old
boy and his sister. In 1925 a USGS survey crew visited
and recorded four remaining families."”

Unangashak

Inangashek settlement is small, with six to seven
barabaras and 50 residents in all. In Inangashek
settlement there is a chapel in the name of the
Apostles Peter and Paul. ... The residents of
Inangashek are all Aleuts and are good Christians.
Their chapel is not large, rather neatly decorated,
and from everything it was noted that the residents
love it very much. The residents welcomed me in
the usual manner with the firing of guns, rather
heartily. ... [I] learned from them that Fr: Vasilii
Shishkin had consecrated the chapel in the name
of Apostles Peter and Paul.”*'

By 1890, in Bristol Bay, the Nushagak Parish’s
southwestern boundary was the Unangashak

River which the traveling priests rarely reached.
Unangashak had been settled prior to 1880;

37 people were listed in the U.S. census that year.

In 1889, after a visit to Ugashik where he found only
125 Russian Orthodox members, Shishkin reported
that “close to 100 souls, have moved farther [from
Ugashik] toward the sea to Inangashak”®” settlement,
where they are planning to build a prayer house,
whither it was not possible for me to go at present
due to the difficulty of the trip.” His parishioners
did, indeed, build a thatch-roofed chapel. In 1890 the
census reported 190 people in Unangashak. However,
by 1896 the village population during the priest’ visit
was only 52 and Ugashik’s population had again risen.

Priests’ visits were infrequent owing to the difficulty
of making the trip:

Thad not yet been in this settlement and priest

Shishkin in his 15 years of service was here twice, PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

77



Alaska Peninsula Alutiig Bibliography

Alaska Commercial Company

1880-
1900

Accounts, Log Books, and Correspondence of the
Alaska Commercial Company. University of
Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library,
Alaska and Polar Regions Department.

Records and correspondence from the company
outposts in English and Russian. Includes original
records from the Wrangell, Sutkhum, Sutwik Bay,
Wide Bay, and Katmai stations. Names of hunters
and hunting parties, lists of items stocked, lists

of debtors and a few letters and logs provide
information about activities and relationship
between AC Company and Native hunters

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

Brief mention of prehistory and Native residents of
the Alaska Peninsula, pp13-15. Concentrates on
commercial fishing and non-Natives.

1991 The Silver Years: An album of historical photos of
(1976) the Alaska Canned Salmon Industry.
Alaska Geographic 3(4).
Photos and information on early Salmon Canneries,
including tally of employees by race.
Alaska Packers Association
1919 Report on the Influenza Epidemic, Naknek
Station, Bristol Bay, Alaska. J. F Heinbockel,
Superintendent; Frederick B. Spencer, M.D.,
Medical Officer.
APA reports on the epidemic and its aftermath.
The magnitude and rapid advance of the tragedy

is conveyed through entries written as the epidemic
is taking its toll. Includes APA discrimination in
treatment of Natives and cannery workers,
U.S. government action and inaction.

Alaskan Russian Church Archives
Records of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic
Church of North America, Diocese of Alaska,
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division,
Washington, D.C

Aleksin, Evfimii

1895- Alaskan Russian Church Archives, Records of the
1897 Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of

North America, Diocese of Alaska, Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Arnold, Robert D.
Alaska Native Land Claims. Anchorage: The
Alaska Native Foundation.
An introduction to the history of ANCSA and the
founding of Native corporations. Includes sketches
of the main Native culture areas, prehistory and
history and the two corporations with a majority
of Alutiiq members.

Atwood, William W.

1911 Geological and Mineral Resources of Parts of the
Alaska Peninsula, USGS Bulletin #467,
Washington: Government Printing Office.

Bailey, Edgar P
1989a Introduction of Foxes to Alaskan Islands. U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service Resource Publication No. 163.

Washington: Government Printing Office.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

187


72 CHAPTER FIVE Cape Kumlik, Aniakchak Bay. Michele Morseth photo, NPS.



FOREWORD

Fairbanks. She conducted interviews during her
research on Alutiiq ethnicity in the early 1990s.
Transcripts of previous interviews were also obtained
through the Bureau of Indian Affairs~Alaska Native
Claim Settlement Act Office and the Alaska
Department of Fish and Game. These prior interviews
often allowed me to focus my interviews on topics
specific to Aniakchak. I made a preliminary trip to
Pilot Point, Port Heiden, Chignik Lake, Chignik
Lagoon, and Chignik Bay, the five villages initially
chosen for the study. On this trip I discovered several
things—due to weather conditions it is often a very
difficult place to move around in, residents were
welcoming and interested in their history, and my
predecessors had endeared themselves to the villagers,
making initial village contact much easier.

I returned to each of the villages in May and in
August of 1997 to conduct interviews. Through

the help of people in the villages, I was able to
contact and interview people in Anchorage, Homer,
and Kodiak during 1997 and 1998. Thirty people
were interviewed during site visits. After obtaining
permission, | tape recorded seven of these. The
individuals who agreed to be interviewed welcomed
me into their homes and gave valuable insights and

information about life on the Peninsula and in
Aniakchak. People told about the huge changes
families have undergone as they committed themselves
to living on the Peninsula, persevering through an
array of international influences that have strongly
affected their lives. | was able to talk to some of the
families that lived along the coast of what is now
Aniakchak. Stories about that area, including land
use, historic settlement patterns, spiritual beliefs,
and environmental knowledge add to the existing
historical documents from the region. Some of the
more enlightening interviews pertinent to Aniakchak
were those about the years of reindeer herding, place
names from the historic period, and descriptions

of trapping and traveling in Aniakchak. Through
interviews some obscure or misleading historical
references found in the written record were clarified.
Historical and prehistoric archaeological sites within
Aniakchak were identified as were sites of cultural
significance, including historical gravesites. Written
documentation from the early 1900s was augmented
and enriched through oral history accounts. Few
elders remain, however, who remember the early part
of the century when the Peninsula was undergoing
tremendous changes in settlement patterns and
resource use.


Fedorova, Svetlana G. Gibson, James R.
1973 The Russian Population in Alaska and California: 1976a Imperial Russia in Frontier) America:
Late 18th Century-1867. Richard A. Pierce and The Changing Geography of Supply in
Alton S. Donnelly, trans. and ed. Kingston, Russian America, 1784-1867. New York:
Ontario: Limestone Press. Oxford University Press. qo
Includes survey of literature on Russian America. Analysis of lines of supply to Russian America, as
Analysis of various population figures of Russian well as attempts at establishing agriculture in Alaska.

period. General description of people during

Russi 1976b Russian Sources for the Ethnohistory of the
ussian period.

Pacific Coast of North America in the Eighteenth
Feofil, Hiermonk and Nineteenth Centuries. Western Canadian
Alaskan Russian Church Archives, Records Journal of Anthropology 6(1):91-115.
of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church
of North America, Diocese of Alaska, Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Gideon, Hieromonk

1989 Round the World Voyage of Hieromonk Gideon
1803-1809. Translation, Introduction and Notes
by Lydia T. Black. R.A. Pierce, ed. Kingston,

1988 The Yup'ik Eskimos: As Described in the Travel Ontario: The Limestone Press.

Journals and Ethnographic Accounts of John and
Edith Kilbuck, Who Served with the Moravian
Church, 1886-1922. Edited with an introduction
by Ann Fienup-Riordan. pp32-33,43-47.
Phzhugh, William Ww. and. ‘Aron Crowell, eds. Company and Church.

1988 Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Colder, Frank A.
Alaska. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1903. Tales from Kodiak Island. Journal of American
*! Folklore 16(60):16-31.

Fienup-Riordan, Ann, editor

Detailed Koniag ethnographic description
Russian Orthodox missionary to Alaska.
Correspondence between Russian American

An edited volume of papers on Siberia and

Alaska Native peoples. Articles provide perspectives 1907 A Kodiak Island Story: The White,Faced Bear.
on relationships and similarities and differences Journal of American Folklore 20(79):269-299.
between Alaska and Siberian peoples. 1909a Eskimo and Aleut Stories from Alaska. Journal
Freeburn, Laurence, editor of American Folklore 20:296-299.
1976 The Silver Years of the Alaska Canned Salmon 1909b Primitive Warfare Among the Natives of
Industry. Alaska Geographic 3(4):168. Western Alaska. Journal of American Folklore
Pictoral History of Salmon industry. Photos from 22:336-339. :
Chigniks and Pilot Point, data on salmon pack, 1914 Russian Expansion on the Pacific 1641-1850.
cannery employees by race, start of salmon industry. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark
Fortuine, Robert, M.D. An account of the earliest and later expeditions
1992 Chills and Fever: Health and Disease made under the Russians along the Pacific Coast
in the Early History of Alaska. Fairbanks: of North America. Including some related expeditions

University of Alaska Press to the Arctic Regions. PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! 193


42

CHAPTER THREE

The colonization of Russian America was almost
exclusively by males—both bachelors and men

who had left their families at home in Russia and
Kamchatka. Few women or families made the long
journey to Alaska. The Company recognized that
children of Russian males and aboriginal females would
create unbreakable bonds between the new colony and
the old country. In 1816 the Main Office explained:

From a political point of view, the ties of the Russians
with the Aleuts are nearly essential, both for exposing
hostile schemes, and for permanent ties, for the
resultant offspring willy-nilly join those Aleuts who
are related to the Russians and the children, being
christened, will be Russians, and not Aleuts, and so
the new generation is permanently Russian... The
lack of Russian people in the colonies can be compen-
sated for.... Creoles, brought up and educated at the
Company's cost and effort, thereafter employed in
various capacities, or carrying on its business, can
obtain food and livelihood.'*

The Company thought that the children of these
Russian men might become so numerous as to replace
the Native population on Kodiak.'* The number of
Russian and Siberian born men in the colony averaged
only about 500-600. But foreign-born men were not
encouraged to stay and settle in the new lands and
Native women were often left to raise their half-Russian
children within the Native community. In Russian
America, an individual's status was hereditary—

passed through one’ father. In addition, by personal
achievements one could attain a different status through
civil or military service, or the clergy. The status of the
Creole was defined in the charters of the Company.

In the third charter, five separate estates or social

groupings were outlined: contract employees, colonial
citizens, Creoles, settled foreigners, and foreigners of
other religious faiths." Colonial citizens were those
“persons of Russian citizenship and other free persons,
who have a right to leave America but out of their own
free will wish to remain there”, Creoles could be eligible
to enter this class when they left the Company service
and lived as residents of a town."

The Creoles comprise a particular class and

enjoy all the privileges of the lower middle class
accorded by Russian law. There is this difference—
they do not pay taxes and are not attached to the
government by any formal tie; when they have been
educated by the company, they must serve it for a
period of ten years. The company has undertaken
the education of this class with praiseworthy energy;
many Creoles have studied at higher institutions of
learning in St. Petersberg or have been instructed

in various branches of the arts and sciences. Many
have received their education in the colonies and
are considered to be almost the equal of the
Russians. Most of the Creoles hold responsible
positions; among them, for example, are the post of
bookkeeper, warehouse overseer, captain’s assistant
and the position of captain itself, church officials,
etc. All Creoles are conversant with Russian, but not
with the Aleut nor the Kadiak languages. Their way
of life is the same as that of the Russians.'”

Creoles were considered Russian subjects and

were granted full protection as other members of
the burgher estate. In the colony, colonial citizens
were registered in Kad'iak and Unalaska and had to
ask for permission to move from home villages to
other settlements. As pensioners they were permitted


still alive. For this reason, the recommendations
outlined below focus primarily on the urgent need
to collect oral testimonies.

Involve Native and Local People in Research

A limitation of this study is its failure to involve
Natives and local people more intensively in
designing and conducting the research. In part this
failure stemmed from the project's short duration,
timing, and the researcher’ lack of familiarity with
National Park Service organization and funding.

It takes time to establish relationships with other
groups, especially with several different groups whose
members are spread out over five villages, Kodiak, the
Mat-Su Borough, and the Kenai Peninsula. A necessary
and laudable goal of the National Park Service for an
overview and assessment could be met with more
involvement of the persons who are “subjects” of

the study.

Document oral history of the families who
trapped Aniakchak

Assessment

From about 1900 until World War II, Aniakchak was
home to many Euroamerican/Alutiiq families. For most
of the year, these families trapped, hunted, and fished
along the coast of Aniakchak and along the Meshik
River. A few men continued to trap after the war but
by then the heyday of coastal trapping was over.

At one time, during the 1930s and 1940s, as many as
ten families occupied the Pacific coast of Aniakchak for
six to eight months of the year. Little is known about
this period and few people are left who lived it.

During this study I was able to interview Alec
Pedersen who extensively trapped the Aniakchak
River as a young man. I also spoke to several men
and women who were children when their fathers
and brothers trapped the Aniakchak coast. These
interviews were brief and many questions remain.
Few women have had a chance to tell their stories
of raising their children in such remote places.

Recommendation:

Interview those men and women who lived out on
the coast, targeting those who used the Aniakchak
coast. Locate missing trapline areas and trapline
cabins. Refine maps of known cabin sites.

Document oral history of the Inupiat migration
to the Peninsula

Assessment

Little is known about the Inupiat migration or
reindeer herding on the Peninsula. Several natural,
historical and cultural themes should be explored.
The couple remaining in the area, Valentine and
Pauline Supsook, were born in 1917 and 1925.

In 1998, they continue to have excellent recollections
of stories their parents told of this time, and they have
good memories of their own lives on the Peninsula.

Recommendations

1. At one time the Native Alaskan population of Pilot
Point included more Inupiat than Sugpiat. Today
only one family remains. For over 50 years Inupiat
captained fishing boats in the lucrative Bristol Bay

fisheries, herded large reindeer herds, and trapped PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

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84

CHAPTER FIVE

the Nushagak parish. They are attracted to the sea
by sea otters, and they remain in the place where
they were born through poverty and because of the
oppressive steward of the company in the Nushagak
District. Resettlement up to now has not ceased, but
grows and grows. The Aleuts here are healthy,
strong, handsome, vigorous, no drunkenness or
sickness, births over two years are double the deaths.
Few speak Russian, though there is literacy. Prayers
are known only poorly, quarrels and fights are
almost unknown. | asked them about this and they
naively answered that fights are between the
Russians. At 5 o’clock we anointed the children,
buried the dead and solemnly consecrated new icons;
prayers were offered for the whole chapel.”

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
Wrangell was the closest village to Aniakchak Bay.
Tt was an active community and a center for the
Sutwik Island sea otter hunt.

The village began as Kuiukuk or Kuyuyukuk and

was identified by Petroff as a settlement of 18 people

at “Kuiukuk” on Cape Providence west of Port
Wrangell. The bay was mentioned by Chief Manager
M.D. Teben’kov (1845-1850) in his Atlas and shown on
Chart XXIV. Port Wrangell Bay was named for Chief
Manager of the Russian-American Company (1830-
1835), later admiral of the Russian Navy, FP. Wrangell. It
was identified as the only safe harbor along the coast but
Teben’kov gave no indication that people lived there.*”
In 1895 Shalamov indicated that the village of Wrangell
was on Cape Kuyuyukuk, known locally as Wrangell
Point. The association with the village of Wrangell and
the bay by the same name to the north has caused some
confusion. It seems likely that the village of Kuiukuk

was located at Wrangell Bay at one time, but by 1882
all evidence places the village of Wrangell on the west
side of Chiginagak Bay.” Residents may have moved to
be near the Alaska Commercial Company station. The
bay was considered by Russian Orthodox traveling
priests to be a difficult place to land:

The region was mountainous...the vegetation is
stunted, no forests, desolately bare stone and snow
in the mountains. A dreary, harsh, cheerless region!
...The village is located near the open ocean. When
there is wind it is dangerous for ships lo stop here:
rocks, island-cliffs, reefs and shoals all around.*”

By about 1885, people from the Kodiak and
Nushagak parishes (most likely Ugashik and Katmai)
were reported to live at Wrangell where they had a
chapel and an Alaska Commercial Company station."
Resident hunters traveled to Sutwik Island to hunt sea
otters. Hunters from Ugashik who traveled seasonally
to join the hunt, rather than going through Wide Bay
and down the coast, traveled up the Dog Salmon River
and portaged over the mountains, across the northern
flanks of Mt. Chiginagak, and down to the sea at
Chiginagak Bay.®” Porter described that 59 “Kodiak
Eskimo” and three “Creole” residents “have their sod
huts on the mainland [at Wrangell] as well

as on the island of Sutkhum, or Sutwik, for sea otter
hunting.”** The Russian Orthodox Church listed

29 males and 20 females in the settlement’ first
confessional list in 1893."

By the 1890s, the trading post was drawing Americans
who were trapping along the coast. Both the resident
population of over 80 Orthodox residents and other
people hunting in the area used the store to trade and


c. the purposes, goals, and time-frame of
the research;

d. data-gathering techniques (tape and video
recordings, photographs, physiological
measurements etc.) and the uses to which
they will be put;

e. foreseeable positive and negative implications
and impacts of the research.

The duty of researchers to inform communities
continues after informed consent has been
obtained. Ongoing projects should be explained
in terms understandable to the local community.

Researchers should consult with and, where
applicable, include communities in project planning
and implementation. Reasonable opportunities
should be provided for the communities to express
interests and to participate in the research.

Research results should be explained in non-
technical terms and, where feasible, should be
communicated by means of study materials that can
be used by local teachers or in displays that can be
shown at local community centers or museums.

Copies of research reports, data descriptions,
and other relevant materials should be provided
to the local community. Special efforts must be
made to communicate results that are responsive
to local concerns.

Subject to the requirements for anonymity,
publications should always refer to the informed
consent of participants and give credit to those
contributing to the research project.

The researcher must respect local cultural
traditions, languages, and values. The researcher
should, where practicable, incorporate the
following elements into the research design:

a. use of local and traditional knowledge and
experience;

b. use of the languages of the local people;

c. translation of research results, particularly
those of local concern, into the languages of
the people affected by the research;

When possible, research projects should anticipate
and provide meaningful experience and training
for young people.

In cases where individuals or groups provide
information of a confidential nature, their
anonymity must be guaranteed in both the
original use of data and in its deposition

for future use.

. Research on humans should only be undertaken

in a manner that respects their privacy and

dignity:

a. Research subjects must remain anonymous
unless they have agreed to be identified. If
anonymity cannot be guaranteed, the subjects
must be informed of the possible consequences
of becoming involved in the research.

b. In cases where individuals or groups provide
information of a confidential or personal nature,
this confidentiality must be guaranteed in both
the original use of data and its deposition for
future use.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

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158

CHAPTER TEN

One can think of ethnicity as “a social and cultural
product which anthropologists contribute to
creating.”*** Government agencies also contribute to its
construction—for better or worse. The relationship
between processes of ethnicity and identity and
governmental structures and political processes are
important to peoples affiliated with Aniakchak.
Participation in the State and Federal governments,
through regulatory agencies, grants one considerable
power. Participating on boards and councils that set
regulations, using one’s persuasive and organizational
skills before the legislative bodies, or using one’s skills
to form new legitimate councils provides the potential
for changing the rules that people live by. Ultimately,
one who participates in these processes has a source
of power. People who consider themselves “Real
Alutiiq” may resent “since-ANCSA-Natives” who serve
on boards which are or are perceived to be an avenue
for advancing the Native agenda, or maintaining the
cultural traditions. It should be recognized that there
may not be just one Native voice in a diverse
community. Those who consider themselves closely
aligned with their Alutiiq past, brought up as

Natives and as culture bearers, may feel that Native
organizations do not include their voice, a voice rooted
in a past that maintained itself through oral history,
story and song, but was not written until the 1800s.

The cultural revitalization movement reveals that
participants in the Alutiiq culture, in the closing of
the twentieth century have a strengthening sense of
what their culture means to them and how they are
connected to their past. Alutiiq continue their
traditional spiritual beliefs through the Christian
church, hunting practices, and daily activities.

The strength of the family continues to be a binding
force in each community, and among the larger Alutiiq
community. These relationships to the extended family
and to the whole Alutiiq community are strengthening.
Commitment to language, oral history and stories, and
artistic expression through dance, poetic verse, song,
and carving and woodworking continually finds new
outlets. Respecting elders, procuring and sharing wild
foods, and celebrations like the community wide
birthday parties, starring at Russian Christmas, and
now the yearly Alutiiq gathering are constant reminders
of the continued integrity of the Alutiiq people.

Recommendations for Research

The findings presented in this report point to

several areas where additional research is imperative
if the knowledge and history of the indigenous
peoples, other inhabitants with early connections

to the area, and the lands themselves are to be
preserved and passed on, in accordance with the
NPS°s responsibility to cultural resources as set forth
in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
(see Appendix). The following recommendations are
logical extensions of the natural, cultural, and historic
aspects described briefly in this report. Further
research will likely reveal other traditional uses and
resources of the Aniakchak lands that are not always
accessible or apparent to outsiders or casual observers
but might be inferred from evidence, such as
ceremonial offerings left at specific places on the
landscape. From the period of historic use pre-dating
World War Il, few Sugpiat, Alutiiq, and Euroamerican
elders who lived and hunted in Aniakchak lands are


places used for summer fishing. As mentioned

above, Sutkhum was primarily a sea otter hunting
camp. The Stepanoff family of Mitrofania spent much
of each summer at their fish camp where they had
built a prayer house. Other seasonal camps had
lecterns or tiny chapels. The shelters and barabaras
where whole families lived seasonally at some of these
locations also served as winter trap-line cabins.

While it is likely that residents of Sutkhum and
Wrangell had summer camps at the various bays and
inlets nearby, the exact location of camps in the late
1800s is not known. People would have had access to
and probably utilized the fish, shellfish, caribou, and
bear of Kujulik, Aniakchak, Amber, Yantarni, and
other bays. They also would have had access to sea
mammals from many of these spots.

Subsistence

Seasonal patterns of the nineteenth century were
probably similar to contemporary ones, although
people would have used a much larger variety of
resources and they certainly traveled more frequently
and for longer periods to procure food and trade items.
Subsistence resource use differed between people living
on the Bristol Bay side of the Peninsula and those
living on the Pacific. Ugashik River residents were
likely oriented toward land animals and freshwater
fish, although probably not to the extent they are today
with land resources making up about 70% and sea
resources about 30% of their food resources. Pacific
coast residents who had less access to caribou herds
were primarily oriented toward fish, shellfish, and sea
mammals, and they continue that reliance today.

Bristol Bay Seasonal Round

The following is based on Nushagak Parish and Alaska
Commercial Company records which give some idea
of the nineteenth-century seasonal round in Ugashik.
These are augmented by contemporary sources on
resource availability.

Men hunted seal, bearded seal, and beluga
(belukha)’ in May while women trapped ground
squirrels and dug roots. Later in May and June,
when the ice went out, the first fish would arrive.
The priests tried to time their visits either before or
after these subsistence activities when men and
women were not absent from villages. One year the
priest was concerned about getting to Ugashik when
people were in the village because the fish, probably
hooligans or a type of smelt, were a month late
coming into the bay.’” Men traveled out along the
beaches where they dip-netted the hooligan, usually
in May. In June king salmon would arrive just before
the large runs of red salmon.

The end of July marked the beginning of the most
important time to gather and store food for winter.
The men would disperse again for fishing, and many
of the women would be out gathering sorrel and other
plants.*' Chum salmon were taken to dry for people
and dogs. Pike, and to a lesser extent land-locked
salmon and smelt, were important winter fish because
they could be taken out of many of the lakes

around Ugashik.

In the winter [Ugaassarmiut] would subsist on pike
fish. Lots of smelts, too. There were lots of pikes in
this area, too.... There were some hooligans. There’s

a name for them...it’s qimaruat. We call hooligans PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

63



206

BIBLIOGRAPHY

91-AKPO02 Jenny Kaiakonak (O'Leary and Bartolini)
91-AKP-O1 Nick Ablama

91-AKP-03, 04 Pete Knagin (O'Leary and Bartolini)
91-AKP-IN-02 Elly Shanigan (O'Leary and Bartolini)
91-AKP-IN-03 Elia Phillips

91-AKP-IN-04 Walter Stepanofl

91-AKP-IN-05 Clements Grunert (O'Leary and Bartolini)
91-AKP-IN-06 Julius Anderson (O'Leary and Bartolini)

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Interviews

Bear Study
ADFG: Virginia Aleck

(Lisa Scarbrough, interviewer)
ADFGJLL Johnny Lind (Jim Fall and Lisa

Scarbrough, interviewers)
ADFG:BL1 Bill Lind

(Fall and Scarbrough, interviewers)
ADFG:LL,ELL Lola and Elia Lind

(Fall and Scarbrough, interviewers)
ADFG:DLI Don Lind

(Fall and Scarbrough, interviewers)
ADFG: Mary and Alvin Boskovsky

(Scarbrough, interviewer)
ADFG: Ronnie Lind

(Craig Mishler, interviewer)
ADFG:SS1 Sammy Stepanoff

(Fall and Scarbrough, interviewer)
ADFG:JC1 John Constantine

(Scarbrough, interviewer)
ADFG:AAT1 Afonie and Annie Takak (Susan Savage

and Scarbrough, interviewers)
ADFG:1K1 Ignatius Kosbruk

(Scarbrough, Savage, and Partnow)
ADFG:EP MP1 Elia and Mary Phillips
(Scarbrough, Savage, and Partnow)

Sea Mammal Study

ADFG:AATL Afonie & Annie Takak
(Scarbrough & Savage)
ADFG:IKL Ignatius Kosbruk

(Scarbrough, Savage, & Partnow)
ADFG:EP MP1 Elia & Mary Phillips
(Scarbrough, Savage, & Partnow)

ADFG:BL2 Bill Lind (Scarbrough & Savage).

Photographs

San Francisco Maritime Museum

Fred Heick Collection
Alaska Packers Association Collection
Carl Johnson Collection

National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Albatross Collection, Record Group 22

Alaska State Library, Juneau

E.R, Childs: Margaret R. Culler photos
Leslie Melvin Collection

J. E. Thwaites Collection

Flamen Ball Collection

Kenneth Chisholm Collection

University of Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson
Library, Alaska and Polar Regions Department

Various collections (15 or more) have photos of the area:

Lois M. Morey Collection, Box 6 Folder #3

Amelia Elkington Photo Collection 1909-1912

Kirtley F Mather Collection

Seiffert Family Collection

Stephen Reid Capps Collection. Miscellaneous photos
from 1908-1924

Rust Photo collection

Romig Photo collection—Post Cards

Talmadge Photo Collection

McAlister Photo Albums 1&2



24

CHAPTER TWO

between 18 households of Aleut and the one
household of Aglurmiut residing in Ugashik, and
in 1894 Modestov clearly indicated when a family
of “Kuskokvimsky” moved to Ugashik.”

Despite the fairly consistent account of war,
displacement, and drawn boundaries on the Naknek
and Ugashik rivers, and a seemingly Sugpiaq origin for
at least part of the nineteenth-century inhabitants of
Ugashik, there are references to Aglurmiut and
Kuskokwim speakers from Ugashik moving down the
Peninsula and across it to Chignik Bay on the Pacific.
In 1897 the Orthodox population of Chignik consisted
of Creoles, “Aleuts” [Alutiiqs], and “Aglomiuts.””

In 1919, the historic population of Ugashik and Pilot
Point was almost extinguished by the flu epidemic.

A few Ugaassarmiut survived, however, and were living
in Bear River, Ilnik, and Port Heiden/Meshik, and the
Chigniks in 1920.” Later many more of these people
moved to the Chignik area.

Language as Evidence for Cultural Affiliations

An examination of language indicates that Yup'ik
languages from the Bering Sea to Kodiak via the
northern Alaska Peninsula formed an unbroken dialect
chain of Yup’ik.” Early explorers often wrote that the
languages were the same. For example, Spurr wrote
that “from Komakof...to Katmai the language. ..was
the same, although. ..different dialects exist.”” At the
southwestern extent of this continuum the people in
Katmai spoke the Kodiak Island dialect of Sugtestun.

In the southem portion of Bristol Bay, Central Yup'ik
was very similar to the Peninsular Sugtestun. The
Aglurmiut, fighting their way into the area, broke the

dialect continuum and displaced people on the
northeast coast of Bristol Bay to the Naknek area.

The Alaska Peninsula Alutiigs today speak two
different dialects of Sugtestun—one was spoken at
Katmai and is similar to the Kodiak dialect. A second,
not so extensively studied, is a sub-dialect and was
probably spoken at Ugashik among the Ugaassarmiut.”
These two dialects persist in communities of the
Peninsula today: people of Chignik Lake who moved
there during the 1890s distinguish their language from
those of Perryville who originated in Katmai. It is clear
that Katmai people had definite linguistic and cultural
affinities with Kodiak islanders, just across Shelikof
Strait. The Russian trading post at Katmai was large
and probably well-stocked, and Severnovski people
came there to visit and trade. Some people stayed and
married into the community.” Those who moved back
to their native Severnovski with their Alutiiq speaking
families may have been agents of linguistic shifts

Ugaassarmiut had a natural travel route up the

river and through the lakes, where caribou and fish
were plentiful, to the Pacific Ocean. Their trips were
frequent to Katmai and later Kanatak, a mixed
settlement originating in the American period—

even part of a seasonal cycle. It has been suggested,
however, that the Ugaassarmiut spoke a unique dialect
of Sugtestun. They also distinguish themselves from
people to the north. The Chignik Bay area, settled at
the close of the eighteenth century, drew many people:
Peninsula and Kodiak (Afognak) Alutiiq, Russian
Aleuts from Mitrofania, many people from “outside”
and foreigners. Despite this language and cultural mix,
today there is a clear dialectical difference between


but not limited to access to sites, use and possession
of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through
ceremonial and traditional rites.” This act does not
provide access to federal lands and resources when.
contflicts exist between exercise of religious freedom
and site preservation and protection. To address this
problem, President Clinton issued Executive Order
13007 on May 24, 1996

Executive Order 13007 addresses sacred sites
“identified by an Indian tribe, or Indian individual
determined to be an appropriately authoritative
representative of an Indian religion.” Presently there
are no such identified sacred sites within the
Monument or Preserve. The Order is intended to
accommodate access to sites and avoid adversely
affecting the physical integrity of sites. It calls for
the development of policies and procedures to
protect sacred sites. First in this process should

be identification of such sites.

Section 1 (ii) defines “Indian tribe” to mean “an
Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo,
village, or community that the Secretary of Interior
acknowledges to exist as an Indian tribe pursuant to
Public Law No. 103-454, 108 Stat. 4791, and
“Indian” refers to a member of such an Indian tribe.”

Section 1 (iii) defines “sacred site” to mean “any
specific, discrete, narrowly delineated location on
Federal land...as sacred by virtue of its established
religious significance to, or ceremonial use by, an
Indian religion; provided that the tribe or
appropriately authoritative representative of an
Indian religion has informed the agency of the
existence of such a site.”

Public Comment and the
Planning Process

Involving interested groups in cultural resources
planning, decision-making and research, from the
beginning, is crucial to successful National Park
Service planning. National Park Service Management
Policy requires that the National Park Service
consult with affected communities before reaching
decisions about the treatment of traditionally
associated resources. Section 1110(a) of ANILCA
{36 CFR 13.30 and 13.46, 43 CFR 36.11(h)}, the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA),
National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act (NAGPRA) call for adequate public notice and
opportunity to comment when management
decisions may affect cultural resources. NEPA

often requires federal agencies to consult with
Indian tribes during the environmental compliance
process. NHPA requires consultation when federal
agencies seek to identify historic properties and
religious or sacred sites and NAGPRA requires
consultation when objects covered by the act

occur on federal lands.

Ways to deal with cultural differences in
communication styles must be accounted for

when consulting with or trying to elicit comments

by interested parties. Native people may be reticent

or reluctant to talk about sacred sites or the cultural
landscape. Their comments may go unheard because
of what Euroamerican culture considers a lack of clear
statement or lack of assertiveness. Additionally, the

PUYULEK PU’IRTUO!

169


As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the department of the Interior has responsibility for most of our
nationally owned public lands and natural and cultural resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of our
land and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values
of our national parks and historical places, and providing for enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation.
The department assesses our energy and mineral resources and works to assure that their development is in
the best interests of all. The department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation
communities and for people who live in island territories under U.S. administration.

The National Park Service, Alaska Support Office, provided publication assistance for first printing.
NPS D-11. December 1998.



36

CHAPTER THREE

Sea Otter Hunting

Sea otter hunting in the Kodiak district was managed

through Pavlovskaia Harbor. Several groups of hunters,

under the leadership of a baidarshchik, traveled to
different areas each year. The orchestration of the
commercial sea otter hunt was much like it had been
in pre-contact times. Groups of hunters in two-hatch
baidarkas, using darts for weapons, worked together
to take their prey. Before Kodiak’s population fell, the
company sent out as many as 1,600 men in two-hatch
baidarkas. In 1799, 500 baidarkas were sent out and
by 1804, only 300 baidarkas were assembled.

Gideon described the organization of hunting parties
around 1805 when the largest contingent of the best
hunters went to Fort Aleksandrovsk at the mouth of
Cook Inlet where they met up with a contingent from
the north side of Kodiak and the Alaska Peninsula
(Katmai) and local hunters. This party then paddled

to Nuchek, where it was joined by Chugach hunters.’
At Nuchek the entire party underwent inspection, and
hunting areas were assigned. The hunt lasted from
April to September. In March a smaller party of up to
“150 Kad'iak-manned” baidarkas headed west toward
the Shumagin Islands via Tugidak, Chirikof, Semidi,
and Sutwik islands and then along the Alaska
Peninsula coast. A small hunting party of inhabitants
of the Alaska Peninsula and the north side of Kodiak
hunted from Cook Inlet south along the Alaska
Peninsula to Cape Kumlik, where Sutkhum odinochka
was located. Parties were outfitted with some basic
necessities, but had to hunt for their own food. At the
end of the hunt they were released to hunt seals and
birds for baidarka covers and parkas. The Company
also drafted 100 men who were either too young or
too old and infirm to hunt sea otter, these men were
taken by baidara (large, skin-covered rowing boats) to
hunt birds off the coast of the Alaska Peninsula.’ The
system of forcing hunters to hunt was eased after 1818.

Furs exported by the Russian-American Company Colonies”

Table 3.1

Period of time: Fur Seal Sea Otter River Beaver River Otter Arctic Fox Sable
1797-1821 72,894 1,232,374 34,546 14,969 40,596 17,298
(24 years)
1821-1842 458,502 25,416 162,034 29,442 69,352 15,666
(21 years)
1842-1862 25,899 372,894 157,484 70,473 54,134 12,782
20 years)



Mining

When Alaska opened up to commercial exploration,
miners quickly came north. The Alaska Peninsula did
not prove to be a particularly rich area for mineral
resources. Around 1888, however, Alaska Commercial
Company agent Fischer, having seen mica windows in
Alutiiq barabaras, tried to convince his employer that
mining for mica on the Peninsula might be lucrative.”*
The company apparently rejected his idea.

In 1893, the Alaska Packers Association opened a mine
on the Chignik River to procure coal for the cannery at
Chignik Lagoon and for the steamers that transported
fish. The mine was operated by cannery workers; it is
not known if any were local residents. Whalers Creek
in Chignik Lagoon, Thompson Valley in Chignik Bay,
and inland from the head of Hook Bay also had coal
outcrops. The coal at Whalers Creek, although of better
quality than that at Chignik River, was never mined.
Thompson Valley was mined briefly but no coal was
sold from this site.” No coal was taken from the region
after 1912. The Native population was not directly
involved in the coal-mining endeavors. Any local
impact was part of the larger impact from the canneries
and the many men who spread out across the country
in the hopes of exploiting the riches of the land and sea.

Reindeer

The reindeer industry is described in Chapter 9. Most of
the reindeer brought to the Peninsula were owned and
herded by Inupiat who had migrated to the Alaska
Peninsula, although an Ugashik River herd was owned

by local Alutiiqs. A few people in Port Heiden also
bought into the herds. By the time most people entered
the business, a method called “open herding,” which
pooled the herds but did not require herders to watch
over them, had been instituted. This method of reindeer
herding was doomed to fail from its inception as,
without herders to watch over the herd, the animals
were prey to wolves, bears, and human hunters. They
were also likely to mix in with caribou herds. By the
late 1940s, the reindeer industry collapsed for several
reasons, in part because markets in the lower-48 did not
open up for reindeer meat and because the numbers of
caribou increased and absorbed the reindeer herds.

Fur Farming and Trapping

After the demise of the sea otter and the subsequent
moratorium on the hunt, the fur traders and hunters
quickly diversified their prey. Furs were an
internationally valued commodity and Alutiiqs

and Creoles, while still chiefly self-sufficient for basic
needs, had come to rely on trade goods. Euroamerican
businessmen committed to the fur trade saw an
opportunity in the Alaska Peninsula and the many
small islands off its coast. They thought the solution
to the lack of sea otter and increasingly stringent
government regulations on trapping might lie in using
the isolated islands for raising semi-domesticated

foxes with valuable pelts. For many hunters the
solution to the loss of sea otter was to work in the
rapidly expanding salmon packing houses and

trap a variety of fur-bearers in the winters.

Restrictions on Alaska Native hunting methods
eased in 1900 when the U.S. government rescinded

Opposite:

Stella Brun, Alva Skonberg,
Minnie Wallin, Julia Stepanoff,
Christina Wallin, and others
go Hawaiian for the Fourth of
July Celebration. Their teacher
Margaret Culler took the photo
in 1937. Courtesy of the
Alaska State Library, Childs
Collection, PCA 37-14.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! =105



In 1829 the Company dispatched another overland
expedition, this one led by I. Ya. Vasilev, to investigate
the Nushagak, Yukon, and Kuskokwim rivers.'?
Among Vasilevs crew was a Ugaassarmiut marksman,
Yuniyak Tytkuk. This expedition took a more northerly
route across the Peninsula—traveling from Katmai
across the mountains, down the Savonoski River to
Naknek Lake, and on to the Aglurmiut settlement of
Paugvik [Naknek]

The journals from these expeditions reveal both lack of
Company control of the region and the independence
of Bristol Bay and Bering Sea Natives. In 1818, trade
from Siberia through Chukchi middlemen had reached
southwest Alaska." The establishment of the Redoubt
on the Nushagak increased contact with Bristol Bay
and northern areas and brought some local inhabitants
into the Company’ sphere, although most inhabitants
retained their independence. Trade, controlled by
middlemen, was already an important part of the lives
of Natives north of Bristol Bay.

Several expeditions were sent out to gather information
about the Pacific coast of the Alaska Peninsula. In
command of the Moller, Captain Mikhail Staniukiovich
used baidaras to explore the northern shore of the
Alaska Peninsula in June and July of 1828. In 1831,
under orders from Wrangell, Ivan. la. Vasiliev traveled
by baidarka surveying the coast from Cape Douglas to
Cape Kumlik, 80 miles southwest.'* And in 1836,
Voronkovskii and his crew traveled by baidarka from
Katmai to Sutkhum village where Vasiliev had stopped.
From here they surveyed to Khitkuk, 300 miles west,
including Unga and the Shumagin Islands and joining
yet another expedition of Captain Staniukiovich which
surveyed the Aleutian Islands (See map 3.C)."”

Communication between Katmai and other mainland
artels and Kodiak was often sporadic because crossing
Shelikof Strait was dangerous. Sutkhum was a relay
point between Unalaska and Kodiak but frequent
wind and storms made the strait and the coastline
impassable during much of the year. On the mainland,
travel routes across the Peninsula connected Kodiak
and Katmai with Novoaleksandrovskii Redoubt on the
Nushagak River. These routes also were affected by
the Peninsula’ quickly changing weather. A winter
route went to Paugvik, up the Naknek River to the
Severnovskie villages of Ikak and Alinnak and over
the mountains to Katmai artel. This was purported to
take from eight to ten days of travel in the winter and
three to four days in summertime. An alternate route
following the coast and utilizing the large Becharof
Lake, went from Katmai south along the Pacific coast
over a neck of land at Puale Bay, across the lake,
down the Egegik River and across Bristol Bay to
Nushagak. Yup’ik and Sugpiat probably established
these routes and others long before the Russians
arrived and continued to use them in their trade

at Russian posts."

The Creole Estate

As the number of persons of mixed ancestry,

often bicultural and bilingual, with some education
provided through the efforts of their fathers and
grandfathers grew, the company established
guidelines for a social experiment—creation of a
social stratum with loyalties both to Alaska and to
Russian culture and state. Thus, the Creole estate
was officially established.”

Opposite:

Aleut kayakers in an unidentified
location, in the early 1900s.
Unangan sea otter hunters
traveled east, scouring the Pacific
coast of the Peninsula for otter, and
met with Alutiiq hunters at the
Sutkhum artel at Cape Kumliun.
Courtesy of University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson
Library, Alaska and Polar
Regions Department,
774-175-510.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 4



192

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1991 Form and Function of the Baidarka:
The Framework of Design. Bellingham,
Washington: Baidarka Historical Society.

Efimoy, A.V.

1964 Atlas geograficheskikh otkrytii v Sibiri i v
Severo-Zapadnoi Amerilke, XVIL-XVIII wy.

Map #180 is Bocherov’s map of Alaska Peninsula from
his 1791 survey on the north side of the Peninsula.

Ellana, Linda and Andrew Balluta

1992 Nuvendaltin Quht ana: The People of Nondalton
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Endter-Wada, Joanna

1993 Social Indicators Study of Alaskan Coastal
Villages IV. Anchorage: Minerals Management
Service Technical Report # 155.

Erickson, Thomas Hylland

1993 Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological
Perspectives. London: Pluto Press.

Erlandson, Jon, et. al

1992 Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Alutiiq,
Paleodermography. Arctic Anthropology
vol. 29 (2):42-62
Erskine, W. J

1910 Letter to Alaska Game Commission. Wickersham
Collection, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer
E, Rasmuson Library, Alaska and Polar Regions
Department

Fall, James A.

1993 An Overview of Subsistence Uses of the Northern
Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd by Communities
of Game Management Units 9C and 9E. Alaska
Department of Fish and Game, Division of
Subsistence Technical Paper No. 224. Juneau:
Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Chigniks, Perryville, Ivanof Bay. Port Heiden, Pilot
Point, Ugashik. Caribou numbers and Harvest levels

1980s and 90s seasons of hunt for many species
of fish and mammals. Maps of main hunting area
by village. Use of caribou parts.

Fall, James A. and Judith A. Morris

1987 Fish and Wildlife Harvests in Pilot Point, Ugashik,
and Port Heiden. Alaska Department of Fish and
Game, Division of Subsistence Technical Paper No.
158. Juneau: Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Brief history of area, first published subsistence report
from the area, maps of use areas.

Fall, James A. and Lisa B. Hutchinson-Scarbrough

1996 Subsistence Uses of Brown Bears in
Communities of Game Management Unit 9E,
Alaska Peninsula, Southwest Alaska. Alaska
Department of Fish and Game, Division of
Subsistence Technical Paper No. 235. Juneau:
Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Ethnographic material on bear hunting methods,
beliefs, rituals, food preparation, conflict between
regulations and indigenous beliefs. See Hallowell, 1926

Fall, James A., Lisa B. Hutchinson-Scarbrough, and Philla A.
Coiley

1995 Fish and Wildlife Harvest and Use in Five Alaska
Peninsula Communities, 1989: Subsistence Uses in
Chignik Bay, Chignik Lagoon, Chignik Lake, Ivanof
Bay, and Perryville. Alaska Department of Fish and
Game, Division of Subsistence Technical Paper No.
202. Juneau: Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Subsistence harvest, use and sharing by community.
Other demographic and economic data. Effects of
Exxon Valdez oil spill on area subsistence uses.

Fall, James A. andi Charles Utermohle, editors

1995 An Investigation of the Sociocul.ural
Consequences of Outer Continental Shelf
Development in Alaska. Technical Report #160,
Minerals Management Service, Anchorage.


<== = =— —= — — — —=

The site near Amber Bay of the
Hillborn’s house. The two room
frame house was partially built
into the bank to take advantage
of the earth’ insulation. A small
wood stove was enough to heat it.
Richard Vanderhoek, NPS 1997.

Fox and mink were the mainstay of trapping on the The part of the peninsula where Aniakchak now is
Peninsula but other fur-bearers added to the yearly was an ideal place to raise a family and trap in the
income. A good winter’ catch for the Pedersen family first half of the twentieth century. Food was plentiful
was about 100 foxes, 100 mink, three to four wolves, on the grassy capes and valleys. Caribou, arctic hare,
six wolverine, and 200 ermine. Hillborn and Iron’s and ptarmigan were abundant. Salmon and other fish
were also known to have taken around 100 foxes, could be taken in many streams along the beach and

plus other fur-bearers, each year. The fox population

never seemed to decline, but trappers had to be

careful not to over-trap mink and other fur-bearers.

Not until after World War Il did fishing provide
126 CHAPTER SEVEN __ enough income to support a family.

trapping was good along the top of the bluffs and
along the small creeks.


Russian American Company
Sea Otter Hunting Parties
circa 1804 (Gideon 1989)

Map 3.B

Sea-ottes hunting parties sent out by the
‘Company as described by Gideon in 1804,
Parties went out in March or April and did
‘ot return until September, While out they
were required to procure their own food.
They also hunted birds and seals. The petts
were used for clothing and bairdarka covers.

‘Afognak, Barron Is., Kenai Bay

Cartographic Illustration: Wm. J. Lee



Alaska Division. Microfilm Edition, one roll.
Anchorage: University of Alaska Archives.

Some files for Alaska Peninsula villages. Native
household members, income, property.

1934 Village school descriptions, health records,
food—1950 survey, and census data

Chignik, Perryville

1966 Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts of Alaska. United
States, U.S. Department of the Interior, BIA.

Washington: Government Printing Office. p. 16.
Pilot Point, Alaska—Village Study. U.S. BIA.
p. 18.

Description of village, history, housing, economic
conditions and prospects. Native village and “Eskimo
Town” as separate communities.

Ugashik, Alaska - Village Study. U.S. BIA p. 15.

1966

1966

Includes Lado A. Kosely 1963 report. Community
Development Survey: Native village of Ugashik,
Alaska. P. 8. History, community resources,
economics, population, physical description

of Ugashik. History of canneries

U.S. Census
1920 Report for Alaska, 3rd District, National
Archives, Anchorage.
USS. Geological Survey

1921 The Cold Bay District, In Mineral Resources
of Alaska: report on progress of investigations
in 1921. Stephen R. Capps. USGS Bulletin 739.
Washington: Government Printing Office.

1929 Geology and Mineral Resources of the Aniakchak
District, Alaska. Bulletin 797-F. Russell S. Knappen
Washington: Government Printing Office

Short description of settlements and travel

routes on Peninsula

The Cold Bay-Chignik District. In “Mineral
Resources of Alaska: report on progress of

1924

1889

1898

investigations in 1922. W. R. Smith & Arthur
Baker. USGS Bulletin 755. Washington
Government Printing Office

The Fur-Seal and other Fisheries of Alaska.
Investigation of the Fur-Seal and Other Fisheries
of Alaska. Report from the Committee on
Merchant Marine and Fisheries of the House

of Representatives. Washington: Government
Printing Office

Map of Alaska Peninsula with Alaska Commercial
Co. posts. Including Katmai

Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General Resources
of Alaska in Four Volumes.1898. Washington:
Government Printing Office. 55th Congress
House of Representatives. Doc 92

V. I Report on Condition of Seal Life on the Pribilof
Islands from 1868 to 1895, both inclusive. V2 Fur
Sealing and decline of Salmon Fisheries of Alaska
rept’s for 1892, 94, 95 by Joseph Murray. Report
for 1893 by Paul Luttrell. Little on Natives.

VanderHoek, Richard

1998

Aniakchak Archeological Surveys. Unpublished
MS. Anchorage: National Park Service.

VanStone, James W, editor

1967

1973

1984

1988

Eskimos of the Nushagak River: An Ethnographic
History. Seattle: University of Washington Press

VS. Khromchenko’s Coastal Explorations
in Southwestern Alaska, 1822. Fieldiana
Anthropology 54. Chicago: Field Museum
of Natural History.

Mainland Southwest Alaska Eskimo. In
Handbook of North American Indians:
Arctic, vol. 5 by D. Damas, ed. Washington:
Smithsonian Institution Press

Russian Exploration in Southwest Alaska:
The Travel Journals of Petr Korsakovsky (1818)

and Ivan Ya. Vasilev (1829). Fairbanks: PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

203


Litke, Fedor P.

1835  Puteshestvie vokrug sveta, sovershennoe po
poveleniiu imperatora Nikolaia 1, na voennom
shliupe “Seniavine,” v 1826, 1827, 1828 i 1829
godakh. Otdelenie morekhodnoe, s atlascom
[Voyage around the world...aboard the sloop
“Seniavin” in 1826, 1827, 1828, and 1829.
Navigational section, with atlas]. St. Petersburg:
Kh. Gintse.

Reports Vasiliev’s charts from his 1832 exploration
of the Pacific coast of the Alaska Peninsula.

Madsen, Charles
1916 Report on the Game Conditions on the
Alaskan Peninsula. Anchorage: Unpublished MS,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Report on terrestrial and marine mammals
and discussion of game regulations.
Madsen, Charles and T. S. Douglas
1957 Arctic Trader. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co.
Makarova, Raisa V.
1975 Russians on the Pacific 1743-1799. R.A. Pierce
and A. S. Donally, trans. and eds. Kingston,
Ontario: The Limestone Press.
Early exploration and mapping of Alaska; Pushkarev
(1760-1762) and crew's (Gavriil) first winter on the
Alaska Peninsula and their mistreatment of the
inhabitants. Soviet anthropological theory. Tables of
amounts of furs got on these early expeditions.
Martysh, Vasilii
1902 Voyage Taken in 1901. Russian Orthodox
American Messenger, vol. 6, pp. 431-3, (1902),
translated by Patricia H. Partnow.

1904 Voyage Taken in 1902 on the Alaska Peninsula
Russian Orthodox American Messenger vol. 8,
pp. 13-15, 32-34 (1904), translated by Patricia

H. Partnow.

Merck, Carl H
1980 Siberia and Northwestern America, 1788-1792:

The Journal of Carl Heinrich Merck, Naturalist with

the Russian Scientific Expedition Led by Captains
Joseph Billings and Gavril Sarychev. F Jaensch,
urans.; R. A. Pierce, ed. (Materials for the Study of
Alaska History 17) Kingston, Ontario: The
Limestone Press.

Early account of Koniag and mentions Chugach.
Source of details on Koniag customs, dress, games,
dances. Natural history of Kodiak.

Mishler, Craig

1991 From Quantitative to Qualitative: Subsistence
Food Harvests and Alutiiq Cultural Traditions.

Paper presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the

Alaskan Anthropological Association, Anchorage.

Villages with the highest subsistence harvest are
not necessarily the most “traditional” (based on
language, participation in traditional celebrations
or the Russian Orthodox Church).

Modestoy, Vladimir
Alaskan Russian Church Archives, Records of
the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church
of North America, Diocese of Alaska, Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C
Moerman, Michael

1965 Who Are the Lue: Ethnic Identification in a
Complex Civilization, American Anthropologist
67:1215-1229,

Morris, Judith M.

1987 Fish and Wildlife Uses in Six Alaska Peninsula
Communities: Egigik, Chignik, Chignik Lagoon,
Chignik Lake, Perryville, and Ivanof Bay. Alaska
Department of Fish and Game, Division of
Subsistence Technical Paper No. 151. Juneau:
Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Subsistence use areas, village profiles including

PUYULEK PU'IRTUO!

197


204

BIBLIOGRAPHY

University of Alaska Press.

Korsakovsky and Kolmakov led an expedition from
Katmai to Egegik and around Bristol Bay to Togiak
area. Among the many Natives who accompanied
them was a Ugaassarmiut translator/hunter. Vasilev
also had Ugashik people with him. Mentions trade
items seen in Bristol Bay and interior.

Veniaminoy, Ivan

1984 Notes on the Islands of the Unalashka District
1840] Lydia T. Black and R.H. Geoghgan,
translators, Richard A. Pierce, ed. Kingston,
Ontario: The Limestone Press.

Vick, A., J. Chaliak, K. Jaehning, D. Kubiak, M. Murray,
D. Vanasse, editors

1983 The Cama-i Book. Anchor Press. 411 Pp.

Stories about various aspects of Koniag and
Yupik history.

Williams

1913 Reindeer Records, General Correspondence files,
National Archives, Anchorage

Workman, William

1979 The Significance of Volcanism in the Prehistory of
Subarctic Northwest North America. In Volcanic
Activity and Human Ecology. Pp. 339-371

Wrangell, Ferdinand P

1980 Russian America: Statistical and Ethnographic
(1839) Information. Translated from the German
Edition of 1839 by Mary Sadouski, R. A. Pierce,
ed. Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press.

Wrangell was Chief Manager of the Russian
colonies from 1830-1835. Ethnographic information
on Koniag, Creole, among others. Pg. 64 about
Aglurmiuts moving to Nushagak and people from
Nushagak parish moving to Ugashik area

Baer’s extraction of Glazunov’s journal from 1834,
Veniaminov on Fox Islanders. Little information

on Alaska Peninsula peoples.

Interviews

Tape recorded and written interviews relevant
to Aniakchak.

Conducted by Michele Morseth,

National Park Service:

The Lake Clark Katmai Study Center has copies of these
interviews. Those with release forms are available to the
public through the National Park Service or holding
archives noted below. University of Alaska: Fairbanks
holdings can be found at the Elmer E. Rasmussen Library,
Alaska and Polar Regions Department.

Pilot Point

Valentine Supsook and Pauline (Zunganuk) Supsook
(University of Alaska: Fairbanks tape H98-04-03)

Nick Neketa

Sophie (Andre) Abyo

Marlane Shanigan

Nick Shanigan, Anchor Point

Arthur Condrardy, Kenai

Arthur Condrardy, Jr., Kenai

Port Heiden

Henry Matson

Maggie (Matson) Carlson

Andrew Matson and Lena (Orloff) Matson

Carol (Neilsen) Carlson

Johnny Christensen and Annie (Carlson) Christensen

Chignik Lake
Doris (Murphy) Lind
Ron Lind
Virginia Aleck and Ronald Lind
(University of Alaska: Fairbanks tape H98-04-01)
Sam Martin and Christine (Artemie) Martin
Andrew Boskovsky and Mary (Lind) Boskovsky
Peter Lind (University of Alaska: Fairbanks
tapes H98-04-05 and 06)


66

CHAPTER FOUR

1905 the first reindeer herds were brought to Egegik,
and shortly after that Alutiig and Inupiat people of
Pilot Point had reindeer herds. This introduction of
reindeer may have been possible because of a lack of
caribou on the Peninsula. Chapter 9 deals more with
the reindeer period on the Peninsula.

Famine and Sickness

Historically, for Alaska Natives, hunger and famine

may have resulted from periods of exceptionally poor
weather during crucial food gathering times, inability
to procure food resources due to illness, or natural
fluctuations of important resources like caribou, fish,
and sea mammals. Epidemic illness devastated popula-
tions, not only in Alaska.’* but worldwide, as medical
knowledge and natural immunity were not able to keep
apace with the viral diseases transported aboard ships in
an increasingly mobile world. As people from all over
North America, Europe, and Asia came to Alaska, they
brought new diseases which often proved fatal.

In Russian-America, famine found a new inroad when
forced labor interrupted food procurement. For the first
decades of the Russian-American Company, men of the
Kodiak Archipelago and Eastern Aleutians were forced
to hunt for furs during key times of the year, although
the Company often supplied families with at least a
minimum subsistence, there were times when women
and children were left desperately without food or the
resources to obtain it. This condition improved over the
course of the Company's tenure. After the purchase

by the United States, people were no longer obliged

to hunt for the Company; they continued to juggle
subsistence with participation in the market economy.

The Alaska Commercial Company was not as willing
to finance sea otter expeditions nor did it feel obligated
to care for sea otter hunters’ families while the men
were away at the hunt.

In some areas, the fishing industry affected the
Native people's ability to get fish, but in other areas,
they continued to fish their traditional streams and
they also took fish out of cannery nets to put up

for subsistence. A few references to difficulties in
subsistence procurement survive in the record.

In 1889 over 100 residents of Ugashik moved south,
supposedly to hunt caribou on the lower Peninsula
The reasons for this move are not known.

One description of the combined effects of food
shortage and sickness on Bristol Bay comes from the
journal of Father Modestov:

I believe it is important to mention an
extraordinary event in the lives of my Native
parishioners—famine all across Nushagak mission
which reached its peak in the spring of 1897 due to
shortage of dried fish. In winter of 1896-7 there was
such shortage of dried fish (ocal bread) that 1/3 of
a fish cost 5-7 cents in comparison to better times
when a whole fish is worth less then that. Famine
happened not due to shortage of fish in rivers and
seas but because during preparation of dried fish

(in the spring of 1896) 2/3 of all Natives fell prey

to an epidemic of cold which was complicated by an
illness called flu. This made them unable to do any
work for a while. The situation was worsened by the
fact that the spring and almost all summer of 1896
were rainy. It rained for two weeks straight at a
time and there were short dry periods between rains


76

CHAPTER FIVE

volcanic peaks dominate the skyline in what is
otherwise a flat horizon of Bristol Bay and tundra
lowlands. While local people place the old village
of Meshik on a small, eroding spit near Port Heiden,
locating it in historic documents can be confusing.
Maps, Russian Orthodox priest's journals, and U.S.
census records from the late 1800s place it south of
its present location. These sources indicate a village
south of Unangashak (see below and map 1.A) called
variously Mashikh, Mashkhik, Mishik, and Meshik.
Maps drawn in the 1800s and Porter's 1890 census
map show Unangashak on the west of Port Heiden
Bay, near the coast, and Meshik at the Seal Islands
at the mouth of the Ilnik River where, by 1920, the
village of Ilnik was built.’ Petroff writes in

the 1880 U.S. census report that Mashikh was at
Port Moller on Entrance Point. In Russian Orthodox
Church records from the Nushagak parish the village
of “Mashkhik” is reported variously to be between
Ugashik and Unangashak and to be 350 nautical
miles from the Nushagak church, further away than
Unangashak which is reported at 280 nautical miles.

Nushagak Parish documents rarely mention Mashkhik
Bay. In 1891 when Father Shishkin was the traveling
priest apparently no one lived there, although he was
said to have traveled south of Ugashik only twice in
his 15 years of service in the parish.” Father Modestov
became the parish priest in 1896 and made efforts to
visit the farthest reaches of the parish. In his yearly
reports the only villages listed south of Cape Chichagof
are “Ig'iashk [Egegik], “Ugashek,” and “Inangashek”
[Unangashak]. Modestov does not clarify the location
of “Mashkhik Bay” in his travel report of a visit to a
settlement in the area. In June 1896, on his way to

Unangashak, Father Modestov was brought down the
coast by steamer.

25 June, 1896. At 4 am we weighed anchor

[at Ugashik River] and by 2 pm we arrived in
Mashkhik Bay, where I and the American with the
mail [he was carrying to San Francisco] were put
ashore and the steamer went back to Nushagak.
There was formerly a large settlement at Mashkhik
Bay; now there are only two barabaras, ten
residents, and those resettled here just last

winter from Kog'ian [Koggiung]”

27 June. At 4 o'clock we left Mashkhik settlement
and traveled all day along the coast.

28 June. At 10 am with the tide we entered the
Inangashek River, where there is a settlement.TM

This Mashkhik Bay was probably the present day
Port Heiden, which at that time was deep enough

for ships to navigate. In 1898 Father Modestov again
traveled through “Mashkhik Bay” without mentioning
people living there. People in the Nushagak parish
had experienced famine that winter and spring after
fish stores had been spoiled and then people were ill
with colds and flu. While there were no reported
deaths from the lack of food, people may have moved
to villages where food was available.’ The 1900
census, after a lethal flu epidemic had struck the
Nushagak parish and much of western Alaska, listed
no village of Meshik or Mashikh. In 1905 the
Orthodox church recorded residents of “Mashkik”
and by 1907 they had built a chapel.

[There is a chapel] in Mashkhik settlement, which
is on Bristol Bay, built in 1907 of American boards


The Russian-American Company

Subjugation of Kodiak and Establishment
of the Russian-American Company

Russian attempts to settle on Kodiak were thwarted

by the numerous and well-organized Sugpiat. In

1784 Grigorii Shelikhov arrived on Kodiak Island,
determined to establish a base for fur-trade operations
and expansion to the mainland, The Sugpiat responded
to the intrusion much as they had in the past, with
open hostility and, probably because of past successes,
a confident mien. Shelikhov, anticipating armed
resistance, came prepared with 181 men and substantial
firepower, including five cannons. After a fierce battle
in which they killed and took hostage many of the
Sugpiat, they were able to establish a permanent hold
They built a settlement on Three Saints Bay on the
southwestern end of Kodiak Island and began the
subjugation of the Sugpiat throughout the Kodiak
Archipelago. Shelikhov and his men exploited the
abundant natural resources and, in many ways,
destroyed the aboriginal way of life by near enslavement
of the men and women, control over their children,
and disruption and control of their subsistence. The
Russians moved quickly to establish a presence in
nearby islands and on the mainland, and in only two
years a second settlement was begun on Afognak Island
and another in outer Cook Inlet, on the mainland.

By 1784 Shelikhov had taken numerous hostages

and, in order to reign over settlements, he modeled a
system of authority similar to the aboriginal system of
village leadership. The established leader, or “toion,” in
each village was to act as an intermediary between the

Company and villagers and assist in acquiring furs
from the hunters."? Shelikhov left the settlement under
temporary management in 1786 to return to Russia.

In 1790 Shelikhov appointed a new manager with
extensive powers; Alexander Baranov arrived by skin
baidarka in 1791 after his ship ran aground and he
over-wintered on Unalaska. Baranov soon moved the
settlement to Pavlovskaia Harbor (Paul's Harbor,
Kodiak City today) where, amid tall trees, the
promyshlenniki built homes, barracks, storehouses,
and a smithy for their population of about 150 Russian
and Siberian men and about 300 Sugpiat hostages. In
Russia, Shelikhov worked until his death in 1795 for
the right of his company to reign over the new
territory. In 1799, under the direction of Shelikhovs
wife, an association of companies was consolidated
into the Russian-American Company. The Imperial
government granted a monopoly over trade in the
newly opened territory and, although it never held
judicial powers, the Russian-American Company
effectively became the governing body of the American
Territories. From that point on, Alaska Natives had
to deal with only one set of intruders.

Treatment of Natives during the
Shelikhov-Baranov Administration

Shelikhov used the alleged deplorable treatment

of the Unangan by the promyshlenniki to make his
case for single-company control. In response to the
case for a monopoly, the report of the Committee on
the Organization of the Russian America Colonies
addressed only in general terms the exploitation of
fur-bearing animals and the treatment of Natives:

The honorary citizen of Ryl'sk,
Shelikhoy, being a partner in.
i I companies and having

ht than his

, found that all the
fother] companies did not bring
as much benefit as they might have.
if they had established a settled
way of life throughout the islands,
so he himself dared first to start
further exploration of the
northeastern part of America...
pooling his capital with Captain.
Mikhail Golikoy and the Kursk
merchant, lvan Golikoy, he built
three vessels in Okhotsk, and in
1783, accompanied by his wife,
went out to sea, and put in at
Kad’iak... [and] established a
permanent settlement and a fur
trading company, which to this day
goes by the name of the Russian-
American Company. ...On 8 July
1799, His Imperial Highness not
only found the company’s act
worthy of his monarchical favor,
but also ordered a special
confirmation of its rights and...
bestowing on it for 20 years
privileges and a charter and took it
under its immediate protection.

na

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! ~—31



area of the coast around the turn of the century

is only known through a few documents from the
Alaska Commercial Company records. The early
Euroamerican names associated with the area are
Charles Weideman, Adolph Von Himmel, “Bald-
headed” Charlie Olson, Fred Gungas, and Albert
Johnson who presumably trapped Albert Johnson
Creek. Little is known about Johnson or the other
early trappers of the Aniakchak area except their
approximate cabin sites and trapping areas (see map

7.A). In the 1920s, and possibly before, “Bald-headed”

Charlie Olson and Charles Weideman lived and

trapped in Aniakchak Bay on the shores of the lagoon.

Weideman’s traplines extended up the Aniakchak
River where he had at least one cabin, Fred Gungas
had a barabara on the south coast of Cape Ayutka
where he trapped. Von Himmel trapped the east side
of Aniakchak River and Main Creek in Amber Bay.
Lars Hanson also trapped in Aniakchak Bay in 1928.

Many of the people who grew up along the coast are
still alive today. Their family traplines and homesites
are initially documented here (see map 7.B). In the
1920s and 1930s more families began trapping out of
remote homes along the coast. The Carlson brothers
built several barabaras along the northeast shore of
Cape Kumlik. Their neighbors,

the Pedersens were living at Aniakchak Lagoon and
trapping the Aniakchak River. To the west, a short
days hike over the mountains, the Brandals, Grunerts,
and Andersons lived at North River on the east end
of Kujulik Bay. To the east of the Pedersens, Erickson
and Hillborn had their traplines.

In Kujulik Bay, the Alec Brandal family had begun to
trap by 1925. As far as is known, Brandal’s trapping

area was along the small creeks around North Fork
River and a trapline went along the North Fork as
well. Frank Grunert, who had married Brandal’ sister,
Mary, and his family lived next to the Brandal home
and trapped the area although the extent of his
trapline is not known. George “Bobbin” Anderson,
who had married Florence Grunert, built a home
near his father-in-laws and began trapping the
Meshik River area and using a cabin on Meshik Lake.
He trapped to the north of the Meshik River from
1937 and until 1943. To the west, Harry Harris was
the first to live at and trap the area around Taps Point
and Rudy Creek; subsequent trappers include Pete
Pedersen, Rudy Carlson, and Julius Anderson

Pete Pedersen, and his wife, Annie, another sister of
Alec Brandal, moved his family several times before
settling in Aniakchak Bay. They had moved from their
1920s home on Nakchamik Island where several
children were born, to Chiginagak Bay and then to
the Lake Bay herring salting station. They spent one
season at Kujulik Bay and finally moved to Aniakchak
where Pete took over Charles Weideman’ trap lines.
The family lived at Aniakchak Lagoon from 1934 to
1943. Their oldest daughter, Helen, and her husband,
Harold Neilsen, lived on the lagoon, behind Pete’s
house a few hundred feet. Three of the young
Pedersen men were energetic hikers. They expanded
Weideman’ line up the Aniakchak River drainage and
to Meshik Lake. They, like everyone else in that area,
walked their traplines. Several trapline barabaras and
cabins near the Aniakchak River and Albert Johnson
Creek enabled them to stay out for days at a time.

John Hillborn had an extensive trapline on the lower

Aniakchak River where he trapped for a few years with PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

117



Oil Exploration

The U.S. Geological Survey first reported oil near

the old village of Kanatak in the 1870s. Oil leaked
out of the ground forming thick pools, clogging creek
beds, and running into ocean waters. Local people
used the surface oil to clean their guns and also
reported seeing bears coated in it. The oil seeps
attracted exploratory drillers to the area of Dry and
Cold (Puale) bays, and the first claims were staked in
1901. Drilling commenced in 1903 in the Cold Bay
district but none of these wells produced commercial
oil, and by 1906 activity had stopped.” The facilities
at Puale Bay continued to be used as a trading post
and postal stop. Mail was freighted by dog sled to
Bristol Bay where ice kept ships out much of the
year.” Then, in 1920, the Mineral Leasing Act
opened up the oil fields of Alaska and the oil rush to
the Alaska Peninsula began anew. Many of the valleys
along the coast were explored and claims were
staked. Many claims were filed in the Aniakchak
River valley but nothing was drilled there.” At the
time, the Native village of Kanatak consisted of a few
barabaras, but when Earl Grammar concentrated
drilling on Bear and Salmon creeks, the boom town
of Kanatak sprouted up across a small creek from the
traditional village. The Alaska Commercial Company
store and the post office were moved from Wide Bay
to the new center of activity. Spatially separated and
linked by a small plank bridge, the towns reflected
the culture of the inhabitants. The old village had
been built of grass-covered, rounded barabaras
randomly placed like giant hummocks on the tundra
valley. When people from Katmai moved there, new

frame houses had been placed amongst the old
barabaras. The new town with big new frame
buildings was laid out with straight streets—ordered

and neat with board sidewalks. Natives from Ugashik,
Wrangell, and Egegik were attracted to the area by
the store, bars, and post office, and the activity. The
town became the shipping port for goods and mail
going overland to Bristol Bay in the winter. Trappers
at Ugashik Lakes could sell their furs, spend some
time in the new town and pick up supplies. Both
sides of the town grew and, by 1923 when the town-
site was dedicated, there were 73 buildings in the old
town and 59 buildings in the new section.

Kanatak panorama from the east
showing the old village on the left,
in back, and the new oil-town on
the right. Courtesy of University of
Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E.
Rasmuson Library, Alaska and
Polar Regions Department, Seiffert
Collection, 85-122-828.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 101



110

CHAPTER SIX

effectively over.” Still, there were those who raised
their families on the fox-farming business, and a few
who got rich. Many, like the Pedersen family,
exhibiting the resourcefulness and tenacity demanded
by the country and the times, were able to use the
skills learned in fur-farming to pursue new markets.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Pete Pedersen and his sons
and Helen and Harold Neilsen spent the winters
trapping from their homes in Aniakchak Bay. The use
of Aniakchak is covered more fully in Chapter 7.

Trapping

Trapping a variety of wild fur-bearers proved to be a
more viable strategy for cashing in on the lucrative but
capricious fur market. Some families involved in fox
farming also trapped. When the first frontiersmen came
into the country, Alutiiq occupied much of the
Peninsula coastline and hunted over much of its
interior. Some Alutiiq were displaced by Euroamericans,
other newcomers married Native women and trapped
their inlaws’ traditional areas. East of Chignik along
Ocean Beach, on the shores of Kujulik, Aniakchak, and
Amber bays, at Surf Beach, and in Chiginagak Bay,
families and individuals trapped and lived for much of
the year. Bays and inlets southwest of Chignik were also
home to trappers. The fox was the main fur-bearer but
people also trapped mink, ermine, land otter, wolverine
and occasionally wolves. Trappers utilized the creeks,
rivers, open areas, and bear trails along the coast. While
most did not have long traplines, many areas yielded 80
or even 100 or more foxes in a winter.

Trapping was a necessary occupation for most of the
people living on the Peninsula into the 1940s. Fishing
did not often provide much more than the income to

buy the winter’ supplies. If one was willing to work
hard, winter trapping could be lucrative, especially
when fur prices were up. World War II is often
mentioned as the one factor that drew an end to the
trapping and changed peoples lives. Trapping on the
Alaska Peninsula sustained many families up until the
outbreak of World War II. After the war, a few returned
to trapping but it was never again to reach its former
importance, economically or socially, For many families,
1943 was the last winter spent on traplines. The pattern
of living out in remote cabins was followed by fewer
and fewer families in the decade after the war until
nearly everyone lived in towns and villages year round.

Individuals who continued to trap did so near the
villages where their children went to school. The war,
for many, effectively put an end to the lifestyle that
dominated the first four decades of the twentieth-
century. People also began getting their own boats
for commercial fishing, thus making more money

so trapping was no longer the necessity it had been
before the war.

During the first four decades of the twentieth century
adventurers and inmigrants worked hard to find riches
on the Alaska Peninsula. Of the commercial endeavors,
only the salmon industry proved successful in the long
tun. Despite the building of a frontier town at Kanatak,
hopes for riches in oil and mining were dashed by the
late 1920s, Blue fox farming was lucrative for a few
decades but failed when prices dropped in the 1930s.
Trapping continued until the 1940s when, during
World War Il, fur prices dwindled and young men
went off to work for the war effort or join the forces.


economy, ethnic makeup of communities, resources
used by community.

Moser, Jefferson E

1899 The Salmon and Salmon Fisheries of Alaska,
Report of the Operations of the United States
Fish Commission Steamer Albatross for the Year
Ending June 30, 1898. U.S. Fish Commission
Bulletin for 1898. Pp. 1-178, Plates 1-63, Charts
A&B. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Some information on early fisheries in Bristol Bay
including Ugashik River.

Alaska Salmon Investigations in 1900 and 1901
In The Salmon and Salmon Fisheries of Alaska,
Report of the Operations of the United States
Fish Commission Steamer Albatross in 1900 and
1901. U.S. Fish Commission Bulletin for 1901
Pp. 173-401, Plates I-XLIV, Charts A&B.
Washington: Government Printing Office.

1902

Information on Ugashik River and Chignik Bay
fisheries including conservation concerns. Little
information on villages.

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

Examines archaeological evidence for warfare among
Aleut, Alutiig, and Northwest Coast Indians.

Murray, Joseph
1898 Salmon Fisheries of Alaska Reports for 1892,
94, 95. Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General
Resources of Alaska in Four Volumes, 55th
Congress House of Representatives. Doc 92,
Washington: Government Printing Office

Napoleon, Harold

1996 Yuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being.
Fairbanks: Alaska Native Knowledge Network.

198 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nelson, Edward W.

1983 The Eskimo About Bering Strait. Washington:
Smithsonian Institution Press.

Norris, Frank

1996 Isolated Paradise: An Administrative History

of the Katmai and Aniakchak NPS Units, Alaska.
National Park Service, Alaska System Support
Olfice, Anchorage, Alaska. Washington:

Government Printing Office

History of Katmai, including Katmai village,
and Aniakchak. Includes history of establishment
of Aniakchak Monument and Preserve.

OlLeary, Matthew
1995 Geography and Chronology of Central Yupiit
Warrior Traditions. Paper presented at the Alaska

Anthropological Association meetings Anchorage,
AK 1995. Unpublished manuscript.

Primarily examination of evidence for warring
among Southwest Alaska Yup’ik. Includes references
to battles with Alutiig, Aleut, Koniag. Regional battles
near Port Moller, Mitrofania, Egigik.

Oleksa, Father Michael

1990 The Creoles and Their Contribution to the

Development of Alaska. In Russian America’
the Forgotten Frontier, edited by B.S. Smith
and RJ. Barnett, Tacoma: Washington State
Historical Society.

Orthodox Alaska: A Theology of Mission
Crestwood: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press

1992

1987 Alaska Missionary Spirituality. New York:
Paulist Press.

Introduction history of Russian Orthodox Church
in Alaska, Key figures in history. Aleut role and
participation in history. Explanation of Aleut

world view and parallels to Russian Orthodox and
Russian Orthodox interpretation. Also development
of Aleut-Orthodox ethnicity. Selection of letters and


Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve
Trapping Cabins
1920s to 1930s

Mount Chiginagak
Main
Creek
toa 7)
& ~
Benny Benson's
XN. Fox Farm
- An
os SE Boat Hau! Outs
‘&, Axel Carlson's
Fox Farm 1920s Cabins
e Kumlik Island

e Benson

Poa a Brandal

® @ Carlson

A Gungs

Chartie Olsen's
Cape Kumliun Fox Farm ‘Sutwik Island e Harris
x Lo} Johnson
N e Olsen
Von Himmel
se 5 Maes
——_ @® — Wiedeman
Cartographic Illustration: Wm. J. Lee

Map 7.A



NPS D-11

A
4
rs
ia
=
x
g
3
vA
Fal
cas



because they are a subsistence resource and the
economic mainstay of the Peninsula, are especially
important to the economic health of residents

Weather directly influences subsistence potentiality
and success. While the Peninsula is known for rainy,
foggy weather, storms are not usually of long duration;
hunters and fishers are not usually stopped by
inclement weather for more than a few days to a week.
Longer term weather patterns that affect the caribou
and fish populations or the fruiting of berry plants
have greater impact. While decreases in population of
caribou or fish may no longer be life threatening to
residents, they can bring economic hardship. Fish,
because they are a subsistence resource and the
economic mainstay of the Peninsula, are especially
important to the economic health of residents.

Patterns of sea ice freezing influence the difference in
amount and number of resources harvested between
Pacific and Bristol Bay communities." The year-round
open water of the Pacific provides on-going access to
fish and invertebrates like cod, halibut, crab", and
octopus for Chignik residents. In contrast, Bristol Bay,
at the southern extent of the winter ice pack, freezes
over in winter, blocking off access to salt water
resources. On land, a lack of freezing and snowfall, in
comparison, can make it difficult for caribou hunters to
travel in wintertime, making access to herds difficult.

Sport Hunting

Sport hunting, especially trophy hunting for bear,
caribou, and moose, exerts a particular influence on
subsistence. Local residents established a tradition

of guiding sport hunters nearly a century ago.

Both Non-native and Alutiiq locals have guided,
although today the majority of big game guides do
not live in the local area. For some Alutiiq, subsistence
beliefs cannot be reconciled with sport hunters’ beliefs
and goals, but others accept the differences and earn
income guiding big game hunters.

The strong indigenous belief in using all of the animal,
and not bringing parts back to the village that are not
going to be used is antithetical to the trophy hunter's
aim to bring back the head and hide, merely for show.
Sport hunting is a way to display power and wealth;
to the extent the big game hunter embraces his identity
as a big game hunter, success reinforces his position of
prestige back home. For the traditional Alutiiq hunter,
hunting carries prestige, but in a different way.

A life-long commitment to hunting is built on a
relationship with animals that involves humility and
respect; the animal is hunted for food (and previously
was hunted for raw material for implements, clothing,
bedding, etc.), with all of the responsibility inherent in
subsistence, and the “trophy” parts—the head, teeth,
and sometimes the hide and claws—are left in or
returned to the animal’ environment.’

Auempts have been made to supply villages with
meat from trophy moose and caribou kills, thereby
fulfilling the legal requirement that sport hunters
not waste edible parts of animals. This meat is often
rejected, to the puzzlement of the non-Natives who
are trying to give it away. Too often, trophy hunters
are careless about placing shots—they may shoot an
animal several times, unnecessarily hitting it in the
abdomen or hindquarter, thus destroying the edible

parts. Villagers explain that the meat is often spoiled, PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

139


Inupiag Migration from the
Seward Peninsula
Circa 1913 to 1920

. °

. Alaska Peninsula

From:
Teller

Route of Inupiag Migration to the Alaska Peninsula

DD Aninkchak Monument and Preserve

Map 9.A Cartographic Illustration: Wm. J. Lee



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE * ANIAKCHAK NATIONAL MONUMENT AND PRESERVE * ANCHORAGE, ALASKA * 2003

Color Scans

3117/2005



importance to the economy and well being of
Peninsula households.

Over two centuries ago, Russian fur traders in the
Aleutians and the Kodiak archipelagos forced Alutiiqs
to disrupt their traditional economy, thus putting their
families in danger of starvation. From an economy
based on the fur trade and subsistence, adjustments
were made for cannery work and fishing a century
ago. Since then wage labor and salaried jobs have
come to the Peninsula, along with seasonal demands
of movements to cities, school, and the various
meetings, conferences, and church events people

are involved in.

Fishing, long a principal activity of Alutiiq people,
became a wage labor job for many Natives in the early
part of the century. The industry evolved until the
limited entry system combined with high prices and
large fish runs provided large amounts of cash income
in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, fish runs are smaller,
prices are lower, and many permits have gone to
outsiders. Many residents feel that limited entry system
severely disrupted the village socio-economic structure.
For those who hold permits, incomes can fluctuate
widely from year to year, and tend to vary greatly
between villages. Subsistence fishing and hunting are
not a supplement or a bonus to the other, mainstream,
“legitimate” economy, nor is it a relic of the past—it

is a part of contemporary life that is separate from the
capitalist economy engaged in through fishing, wage
labor, and collecting government transfer payments
Households do not rely on a single source of income,
nor does any one household tend to be self-reliant,
rather they are linked to family and connected to

a system of resource exchange. To an outsider, that

system of exchange might seem to give people less

as they give away their hard won resources to family
members in need. The same family that to an outsider
looks impoverished, can easily invite elders to eat with
them, give large amounts of fish and meat to others,

or host a village-wide birthday party where everyone

is invited to come and feast on lavish dishes of caribou,
local fish and shellfish, fresh bread, berry pies, and
birthday cakes

Harvest and Harvest Areas—

Aniakchak

Aniakchak contains one of the main Bristol Bay

to Pacific Ocean corridors on the Peninsula—the
Meshik River lowlands to the Aniakchak River
drainage. It is ideal terrain for caribou, moose,
waterfowl, and fur-bearing animals. The Meshik
River forms a large lowland with many tributaries,
small lakes, and marshes. This, along with the
Black Lake/Unangashak River to the south and the
Cinder/King Salmon River lowlands to the north,
forms a large area suitable for caribou. It is the main
harvest area for villages of Port Heiden and Chignik
Lake. The Pacific coast of Aniakchak Preserve is a
primary subsistence use area for Chignik Bay and
Chignik Lagoon, although Port Heiden residents
have been known to use Aniakchak Bay as well.

As Peninsula residents tend to harvest resources

close to their villages or easily accessibly by boat, use
areas are generalized for each village. However, a move
from one village to another may effectively widen an

individual’ or family’s subsistence use area to include PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

133



Chignik Bay and the Nor’Western
Fisheries cannery, circa 1910. To the
right of the ship’s masts, the old
village, where the Russian Orthodox
Church stood, and which became
known as Andersonville, is visible.
Courtesy of University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Elmer E, Rasmuson
Library, 74-175-443.

94 CHAPTER SIX

other industries were to have on the indigenous
population of the Peninsula.

The Salmon Industry

From 1884 to 1900 the pack of Alaska salmon more
than doubled each year, and the entry of Native people
into the industry proceeded slowly but with certainty.
Early on, government agents expressed concern that,
between the salmon industry take and Alaska Native'’s
use of fresh and dried salmon, salmon stocks would be
threatened.’* Special Agent Kutchin wrote in 1900
that “many of the best informed fishermen give the
fishery but a brief lease of life, some putting the

limit as low as ten years.”

The two largest fish runs near Aniakchak are the
Chignik and the Ugashik rivers, both of which had
had high concentrations of indigenous peoples at
one time. By 1883 salteries were operating in both
places and the word about salmon soon spread. The
Alaska Packers Association built one of the first large
canneries in Chignik Lagoon in 1889. Two additional
canneries, Pacific Steam Whaling Company and Hume
Brothers and Hume Company, were operating out of
Chignik by 1896. Once the Ugashik fishery was
discovered, ship-based and shore-based packing
companies flocked to the area. The Bering Sea Packing
Company began a saltery in 1891, and then Alaska
Packers Association began salting fish and buying up
the other companies in 1895 when it built a Ugashik
River cannery at Pilot Station (now Pilot Point).

By the mid-1890s, five salteries and two canneries
were operating on the Ugashik River”? The Ugashik,
or Salima River as it was also called, which had
supported hundreds of Ugaassarmiut for many
centuries, now supported a rapidly growing fish
industry. In 1897, 40% of the Alaska canned salmon
came from the Kodiak and Chignik district, and
slightly less than 20% from Bristol Bay.

Different methods of fishing were used at Ugashik
and Chignik. At Chignik and along the Pacific coast
canneries drove wooden piles and constructed traps
in the path of the schools of fish entering rivers and
creeks. Pile traps so choked Chignik Lagoon that the
Chignik fishery became a major concern to the
government. Pile fish traps and attendant buildings
were also placed in Aniakchak Bay. In 1932 the
moving seine was introduced to the Chignik fishery.
This method allowed fishermen in small dories to


54

CHAPTER FOUR

Euroamerican men were working the fish-traps

and fishing, living in cannery villages, and seasonally
inhabiting small bays and inlets along the coastline for
winter trapping.’* These new-comers had access to cash
and could amass a large number of steel traps. Families
and individuals moved around trying to make a living
trapping, hunting, fishing, and working at canneries to
earn money or trading credits at the stores.

Table 4.1 shows the villages enumerated in the

U.S. censuses and counted by Russian Orthodox priests
on their yearly visits. The priests counted only the
Orthodox and those married to members of the church.

The Russian Orthodox Church

Orthodoxy remained a strong force among Peninsula
peoples in spite of the infrequent visits by the priests.
The system of establishing toions and lay readers
helped to keep people’ faith between many-year
absences by priests. Under the governance of Bishop
Nikolai (Ziorov) the church grew in Alaska and over the
whole of the U.S. New schools were opened, including
one in Ugashik. With increased support, the Church
became more of a presence on the Peninsula; concur-
rently, travel for priests became easier. Travel journals
suggest that the priests were more motivated to reach
the furthest corners of their parishes in the late 1800s—
in part because of increased schooner traffic. The
renewed effort to teach Christian beliefs to Orthodox
Alutiiq was helped by Native clergy educated at
Unalaska and at the seminary in San Francisco. At least
one child from Chignik and one from Mitrofania was
sent to the Unalaska school in the 1890s.'"? They came
back to be lay readers in the Chignik area.

Even with the renewed efforts by the Church, Chignik,
Unangashak, and Wrangell were at the furthest corners
of their respective parishes. The Bristol Bay settlements
west to Unangashak had been placed in the Nushagak
Parish at its formation in 1841. Unangashak was rarely
visited because of the difficulty getting there. The
northern Alaska Peninsula settlements on the Pacific
side were placed in the Afognak Parish when it was
formed in 1896. The Chignik villages and Mitrofania,
however, were in the Belkofski Parish. When the priest
began regular visits to Chignik in 1898 people began
coming from the Nushagak and Afognak parishes to go
to services. Wrangell and Unangashak residents asked
the priest to visit their villages, but, unable to step
outside the boundaries of his parish, he instead sent
runners out to notify people in distant villages of his
arrival. Several days later, whole villages returned for
services. In 1906, the Belkofski Parish priest requested
that the parish church be moved to Chignik where half
of the members lived and increasing numbers of
people were moving."

In the 1890s and early 1900s the Church appealed to
the U.S. government to protect the rights of Orthodox
people of Alaska to practice their religion and speak
their languages."*”’ They felt they were persecuted by
government agents and their efforts to provide
education for Natives were ignored—and in one case
stopped.'* The assimilationist policies of the U.S.
government, championed by Sheldon Jackson and his
mission, was seen as a direct threat to Orthodoxy and
to the rights of Natives. It proved to be a threat when
established Orthodox schools were not funded and
Jackson's schools were. His policy of assimilation and
prohibition of Native languages dominated the schools


40

CHAPTER THREE

ordered an expedition to explore the country north of
Bristol Bay (map 3.C). Petr Korsakovskii, a Company
employee, kept a journal of this expedition which
traveled across the Alaska Peninsula from Katmai to
Bristol Bay, to the Kuskokwim Bay, Nushagak and then
the Togiak River, and then into the Lake Iliamna region
and beyond to the Kuskokwim River upstream.'"' The
crew consisted of over two dozen people including an

interpreter and marksman from Ugashik, named Yakov,
who met up with the party at Egegik. Upon reaching

the Togiak River, the Ugaassarmiut accompanied the
Aglurmiut toion, Alinak, in negotiations with the wary
Yup’iks. The abundance of resources available to the
travelers is striking. A year later, Kolmakov who led
much of the expedition, returned to the Nushagak
where he established Aleksandrovskiy Redoubt.



In Aniakchak few place names have been documented.
The lands historically have been occupied by Alutiiq,
Russian, Euroamerican, and Inupiat descendants.

Dr. Jeff Leer of the Alaska Native Language Center

has collected some names along the Pacific coast,

and many of these appear to be Unangan in origin,
indicating Unangan occupation at one time.

Some presumably traditional Native names survive in
Anglicized spellings and pronunciation; these appear
to have Unangan, not Sugtestun, roots. Cursory
interviews were conducted in 1997 to discover names
on recently occupied land. Many of these names were
locally produced and used by families or individuals
while they resided there. Some of them have prevailed,
others will soon be forgotten.”

Recommendations:

1. Conduct oral history and mapping projects to
document place names on park lands, especially
along the Pacific coast, Meshik River, and the
Reindeer Creek. Names that all three historic
user groups—Alutiiq, Inupiat, Yupik and
Euroamerican—have used and currently use
should be documented

2. Assist in the production of a current map of
Aniakchak with local names.

Identify plants used by Alaska Peninsula peoples
Assessment

Alutiiq people had a rich body of medicinal
knowledge. Between 1804 and 1807, Heiromonk
Gideon** documented methods of healing which

included blood-letting and plant medicinals.

People on the Peninsula continue to collect and use
local plants for a variety of uses including tea, food,
and internal and external medicines. In the steambath
they also use plant roots to scrub with, branches to
stimulate blood flow, and fresh roots to scent the
steam. Medical techniques form an important part
of intellectual culture that may not only benefit local
people but could potentially benefit the larger field
of medicine. Plants used for medicine, food, and
the household are an important part of resource
use. Traditional medicinal knowledge has not been
documented among the healers in the study villages.

Recommendations:

Document Alutiiq name for plants and plant parts,
specific instructions for use and preparation, storage
methods, and quantity typically needed for a family.
Document special locations and time of year each
plant is taken. Photograph plants in situ, collect plant
samples and record areas where desirable samples are
collected. Process plants for traditional use and record
stages of process. Press whole plants and submit
sample for museum or herbarium collection.
Diagram or photograph plants or useful plant parts.

Identify sacred sites
Assessment

Few sacred sites were identified but this is hardly

proof that such sites do not exist. For example, that
someone died may be remembered but grave sites are
undocumented, crosses have fallen down, and exact
location unknown to people alive today. Other sites that

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

161


Therefore, I most humbly ask you to petition

the diocese authorities to issue at least a little
monetary aid for this purpose and then I could,
given convenient opportunities, visil the sellement

once per year.”

Chignik Bay was a growing area and canneries
continued to draw people, Natives and Euroamericans
alike. In 1901 the priest offered confession to 150
people, including 16 from Mitrofania and 25 from
Unangashak.>* Mikhail Ivanov lakunak, servitor,
worked diligently to teach the children prayers.

In 1903, a summer school opened on the south side of
the lagoon where families headed by Euroamerican men
had begun a new settlement. Kedrovskii reported that:

There are 20 students—children of both sexes.

All of them are Russian Orthodox and are children
of Creole women who are married to Americans.
The school is small but clean. Children are taught
by a teacher [female] who is Methodist. On
Sundays there are praying gatherings. According
to parents (mothers), these gatherings do not harm
Orthodoxy. I asked the teacher to accept native
children as well. She replies: “I would be glad but
there is nol enough room.” By the way, all students
confessed and accepted communion. Only two
Americans, heads of the household, did not let
their families go to church.”

In 1906, 43 Creoles in 14 houses were listed on

the south side of the lagoon. All household heads

were Euroamericans: Harris, Morris, Lindholm, Oliver,
Johnson, Gaaf, Beilin, Brown, Moore, Erikson, Edward,
Erikson, Anderson, and Brandal. Seventy-seven.
“Aleut/Aglomiuts” lived on the north side of the

lagoon at the old village where
St. Nicholas chapel stood.”
To attend services parishioners
paddled and rowed from the
settlement across Chignik
Lagoon and from four
Orthodox settlements along
the Chignik River. Many also
traveled from the villages of
Wrangell, Unangashak, and
Mitrofania. Nikolai Ashvignak
and Vasilli Stepanov, both back
from school at Unalaska, were
readers at the church
Throughout these years the
Belkovski parish priests were
using a Koniag interpreter.

ZC

The lagoon itself became an
early geographical boundary
between the new community
of immigrant men married

to local women, and the
local Native community.

The distinction between the
two communities was soon
evident since, for many
families, establishment of a
separate community meant a
rejection of Native culture and,
for some, Russian Orthodoxy.

Over the next 13 years, Chignik Lagoon continued
to support two villages. The south side became a
permanent year-round village with school, health
clinic, and airstrip. Few of the original residents of

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!


4

CHAPTER TWO

need to be calm. While the temperate weather on
Kodiak Archipelago and the Alaska Peninsula might
allow people to hunt, fish, and gather year round,
many species were not available in every season.
Moreover, periods of good summer and falltime
weather were crucial to the success of food gathering
and storage since long, rainy spells could rot the
drying fish. The short summer in the north brought
an abundance of migrating fish and birds which, if
prepared properly, could last well into winter when
resources were limited. Families dispersed from
winter villages to live in small encampments near the
mouths of streams where men, women, and children
worked hard during the long days of summer to put
up stocks of fish, berries, and roots that would feed
them for the months to follow. In late summer and
fall they put up the last of the winter stocks of fish
and edible plants.

In autumn families would return to permanent
settlements and prepare for winter. They cut grasses
to be used for sleeping areas, baskets, and insulation.
They repaired houses and the communal kashim,
while the village leader, or anayugak, fed the work
group. They stored winter food supplies, and in many
areas late fall fish runs provided an important supply
of winter stocks.

Winter was the time for festivities—visiting, singing,
drumming and dancing, gift exchanges, and a cycle
of rituals and ceremonies. In January, at the end of
the period of feasts, much of the summer food stocks
would be gone. People then relied on shellfish and,
when conditions permitted, fish. Sea mammals were
also available much of the year.

Well-developed technology for open-water hunting
made it possible to exploit a wide variety of marine
mammals and fish which were the coastal Sugpiat’s
focus. Seals and sea lions provided food and leather
for skin boats, bags, footwear, and rope. Sea otters
provided warm furs for parkas. Whales provided large
quantities of meat. And fish—the vast stocks of fish
in the ocean and in streams—supplied a reliable food
source. Sugpiat were adept at deep-water fishing for
the Pacific’s bountiful supply of halibut, cod, sculpin,
and other fish. Salmon were taken in large numbers
at spawning streams where they could be easily
speared, gaffed, and harpooned. Shell middens
provide evidence of the prodigious amounts of blue
mussels, clams, sea urchins, chitons, periwinkles and
other shellfish they ate. Shellfish beds provided not
only a source of delicacies but also a reliable source
of foods when other food supplies were low. Sugpiat
had many different methods for procuring ocean
resources and they were experts at il

Sea Mammal Hunting

Gideon described the sea otter and seal hunt

which took considerable cooperation and skill.

One of the most dramatic hunts was for the
humpback and fin whales that seasonally inhabit the
waters of southeast Alaska-the whale was speared by a
single man in a baidarka. Whaling, as described in the
early 1800s was exciting and dangerous, and imbued
the successful hunter with considerable prestige.
These descriptions illuminate the Sugpiats’ mastery

of the sea.


10

CHAPTER TWO

William Sound." Ugashik River people also identify
themselves with this group. Members often use the
Sugtestun equivalent “Alutiiq” for Aleut. According

to anthropologists the major divisions of the Sugpiaq
group, based on territory, language differences, and

a common history are the Chugach of Prince William
Sound and the lower Kenai Peninsula and the Koniag
of the Pacific coast of the upper Alaska Peninsula and
the Kodiak Archipelago. The Koniag of the Kodiak
Island group and Alaska Peninsula Sugpiat speak

a mutually intelligible language with dialects and
sub-dialects within each major group. Hieromonk
Gideon, an inspector sent by the Ruling Synod of the
Russian Orthodox Church between 1804 and 1807,
observed that the similarity between the language of
the Kodiak Islanders and the Alaska Peninsula people
supported the story that “their ancestors lived in former
times on the northern side of Alaska [Peninsula], near
the river Kvignak [unknown location].”” The daughter
of their anayugak [leader] had disappeared so he and
his followers, together with another anayugak, traveled
in search of her. They finally ended up on Kodiak
Island or Qikertaq where they settled."

Twentieth-century anthropologists labeled these maritime
people Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yup'ik and placed them
with Yup’ik and Inupiat into the larger group of Eskimo
speakers, defining a language area which stretches
across the Arctic from Siberia to Greenland and around
the Alaskan coast to Prince William Sound.

The Severnovski® and Ugashik people were called
“Peninsular Eskimo (Yuk)” by Oswalt.” These designa-
tions fit neither the peoples own world view as a people
different from their Yup’ik neighbors nor their Russian-
Aleut world view as distinct from the “uncivilized”

Eskimos outside of the Russian sphere of economic and
religious influence. Today one hears Sugpiaq descendants
refer to themselves as Aleut, Russian-Aleut, Sugpiaq, and
Alutiiq, but never as Eskimo.

The group we are concerned with then are the
inhabitants of the Alaska Peninsula, predominately
descendants of Sugpiat and speaking a dialect of the
Sugtestun language. Because little was written about
the Alaska Peninsula by early Russian explorers,
missionaries, scholars, and sea captains and because
very little is known about pre-contact culture, the
description presented here is based mainly on
information about the Kodiak Islanders. These
descriptions come from many sources."

Settlement Patterns and Resource
Use on the Peninsula

The narrow strip of land that makes up the Alaska
Peninsula divides the Pacific Ocean from the Bering
Sea; it is frequently hit by earthquakes and volcanoes,
its lands are covered in layers of ash, and for
thousands of years it has been home to indigenous
peoples. The two coasts of the Alaska Peninsula vary
dramatically in topography, climate, and resource
availability. For humans, in historic and prehistoric
time, these differences have greatly influenced the
strategies used to exploit resources, travel, and settle
on the land

Bristol Bay

The Bristol Bay coast gently slopes out of the shallow
bay, creating miles of beaches where skin boats could


Chapter six

Industrialization—Fisheries, Mining, & Oil Exploration

Txys, Eguator ne Uitack, Towing Ship Star Of Rlasxe, Into Chignik Bay,

Sea otter parties are fitted out in nearly every
village, and are frequently taken to distant hunting
grounds in sloops and schooners. The old men and
youths remain at home and employ their time
profitably in hunting bears and trapping foxes,
principally of the black and the cross variety.
The salmon fishery is increasing in volume with
astonishing rapidity.

~Petroff, 1900

Alter Alaska became a U.S. territory it was opened
up for exploration and commercial ventures. The fur
industry was among the first to expand but once the
salmon industry began it increased quickly, probably
even more quickly than census enumerator Petroff
imagined. Entrepreneurs and adventurers also came
looking for gold and other metals, oil, coal and

whatever else they could lay claim to and profit from.

Perhaps unimagined was the impact the fishing and

Alaska Packers Association
square-rigger, Star of Alaska
arrives laden with groceries and
goods for Chignik, as well as crew
and equipment for the fishing season.
Each year from 1905 to 1929, the
steel hulled, fast-sailing ship
anchored in Chignik Bay in early
April. The crew spent the spring and
summer working for the cannery.
Not until September, when all the
salmon was packed, did the

ship return to San Francisco with
salmon and crew. The ship, bearing
her original name, Balclutha, has
been restored and is a National
Historic Landmark, administered
by the National Park Service.

She is docked in San Francisco

at the Hyde Street Pier.

Courtesy of University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson
Library, Alaska and Polar Regions
Department, 74-175-386.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! §=93


150

CHAPTER NINE

the UVRCo. [sic] approached the herd from opposite
directions, and the herd was easily divided, the
Aleuts to the north to the range—what I will
hereafter call the “Dago Creek Range”, and the
Eskimos to the south, to cross the Ugashik River

to what I will designate as the Ugashik Range

Some of the younger Eskimo boys drove the deer
on to cross the river. Their partners brought the dog
teams. By the time we had reached the teams on
foot and “mushed” for several hours we nearly
caught up to the herd. They can travel some,

Jor just a walk, those reindeer.

When we first arrived at the camp earlier in

the day, I took several pictures of the camp and
assemblage, one of John Kiglonok, our faithful,

old herder from Nome, who retired the year after

I came here. He was strutting around in his Golivan
{sic} squirrel skin Eskimo Parka—the only one in
the bunch of 23 who had a parka on. He had his
plump, old faithful collie reindeer dog posing
against his chest with her front feet-—"A’chie”....

Thirteen dog teams make quite a showing together,
all lined up on the lake shore while we were eating
supper. I often wondered what the Eskimos eat. But
I saw on round-ups they “live like kings!”—canned
cheese and other canned goods, cocoa, steaming hot,
doughnuts, bread, butter, and in camp, always
reindeer stew, fried or roast. Some have coffee, of
course, with no cream nor sugar. Why, I looked like
a pauper with my lunch of bread and butter with
raisins and nuts, along side of the Eskimos

Lunch over on the lake near the corral, by
“Riley Hill”, the sleds were laced up again and ten

dog teams were on their way to Pilot Point, ten or
twelve miles westward. That evening we were home
before dark of the same day we started, and the
Eskimos’ herd of deer were [sic] across the

Ugashik River.

But they didn’t stay there. The Ugashik Eskimos
who were to watch the deer laid down on the job.
The deer came back over. Although attempts

were made by all combined again, yet they were
unsuccessful in driving them over back to the south
side of the Ugashik River. The ice was too rotten.
The deer broke through the ice and-nearly drowned
some of them.

Now we will have it all to do over next year

Willie came in telling his troubles just a day or two
ago.... The deer were fawning but he couldn’t

get any one to help. They wouldn’t mind him.

Some want to withdraw from the company. They
are not used to being bossed—their parents never
bossed them from the time they were babies, so why
should anyone do so now. (The Ugashik Eskimos
-drink too much Bevock, that’s no doubt why the
deer got away.) ...

What can be done about poaching and illegal killing
of the deer?

And is anything being done about the Eskimos request
for.permit to graze south of the Ugashik River?

Can you give me any advice [about] how to stop
poaching by whites, etc.?""

The problems with herders and poaching did not
ease. Caribou returned to the Ugashik area for the first
time in many decades in 1945 when 100 caribou were


Chapter ten

Conclusion and Recommendations

This project set out to identify, collect, and

evaluate written, oral, and photographic historical

and ethnographic information about groups historically
and culturally affiliated with Aniakchak. A specific
goal was to identify the Alaska Native groups that have
cultural affiliation or direct lineal descent relevant to
potential archaeological discoveries. Although this
overview and assessment only scratches the surface

of the area's history, it is evident that the indigenous
Alutiiq people have been intimately tied to the land

in and around Aniakchak for centuries, their tenure
reaches far back into prehistoric times, and their rich
and vivid—as well as difficult—history is deeply
interwoven with the natural patterns of the seasons,
the animals, fish, birds of the land and sea, and the
volcanos that grace the horizon of every village. Recent
immigrants to the Peninsula quickly developed a
relationship to the land and relationships to the people
through marriage, partnerships, and friendships. They
too have a viable history with Aniakchak.

As a resource-oriented organization, the National Park
Service is interested in cultural issues pertaining to land,
and I accordingly attempted to identify cultural uses of
natural resources, traditional use areas, and sacred sites.
This study necessarily fell far short of a comprehensive
identification of culturally significant sites, especially
sacred sites. Because of the sensitivity of this and other
issues, it became apparent through the research and

interview process that investing in long term Aniakchak
employees, who can establish a relationship with local
people, is crucial to understanding, documenting, and
preserving cultural resources.

Like most original research, this effort has raised as
many—indeed more—questions than it has answered.
For example, prior to this project, Aniakchak lands
were thought to have been rarely used by indigenous
peoples or immigrants—this project found them to
have been extensively used and the full extent of that
use is still not known. At the outset of the research,

I had heard comments from the general population
that the people who live in the Chigniks, Port Heiden,
and Pilot Point are not Natives, or are Natives only
since the passage of Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act. Instead, I found a group of people living a rich,
unique culture that weaves together their past and the
contemporary world. Theirs is a common history and
ancestry lived out on a landscape rich in beauty and
natural resources. Their tapestry is highly textured and
complex—remarkable and intriguing to examine.
Threads of many cultures—Russian, Scandinavian,
German, Italian, and Japanese—have been intricately
interwoven with threads of Sugpiat ancestors.

The information gathered for this report from people
met and interviewed and the various other sources has
profound implications for the future of the area as well

Opposite:

Formed during a catastrophic
ashflow-producing eruption about
3400 years ago, Aniakchak
caldera is about 6 miles

(10 kilometers) across and
averages 1,640 feet (500 meters)
in depth. Voluminous postcaldera
eruptive activity has produced

a wide variety of volcanic
landforms and deposits

within the caldera.

Photo by M. Wiliams, 1977.
Courtesy National Park Service.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 153



Claims Settlement Act. Although adapted to the
majority culture, they are now faced with legitimizing
their Nativeness so as to participate in the Native
political process. This is not to say that people do not
have a legitimate claim to this part of their heritage or
that they might not take pride in it, because today at
the tur of the twenty-first century, culture provides
community and has “standing’—it identifies and
differentiates people. Cultural revitalization movements
are gaining force for political motives and reasons of
self-worth and belonging. “ANCSA Natives” do,
however, cause some discomfort among those who
identify themselves as members of the Alutiiq
community, who question how people who only
recently began to be Native can further Alutiiq

goals. They often feel that the elders—those most
knowledgeable about the culture—do not have
access to the political processes and are not heard.

On the other hand, those who have always been
“Native” (i.e., grown up in households affirming
Alutiiq values and identity) recognize that their cousins
who may have grown up “White” are also Alutiiq
descendants—they do not, however, recognize them as
experts on culture or as culture bearers, and they do
not necessarily believe that they should be deciding the
fate and future of Alutiiq people. To the extent that
culture lives in the knowledge of group history,
language, values, and beliefs and within individuals,
families and family groups, the culture will continue to
be strongest in families that retain the language and
traditions. To the extent that culture is played out
through political or academic processes, Alutiiq future
may be determined by those who know little about the
Alutiig culture but a lot about being Native.

Formation of new political organizations around

some cause or another have again prompted people

to rethink their self-identification, provoking some
discomfort with the powerful culture brokers who are
in a position to decide the fate of the cultural objects.
These organizations often have a dual role: negotiating
with mainstream culture and politics and contributing
to their own cultural revitalization. They may or may
not include those who are knowledgeable about Alutiiq
history, language, or culture.

It is in the context of the cultural revitalization
movement that the reintegration of Alutiiq people,

the coming together of the “Real” and the “ANCSA”
Alutiiq can be seen. Recent workshops for the “Looking
Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq People”
exhibit and the “We Are One” gathering exemplify
another side of Alutiiq identity: its expansiveness. The
narrow view of who is and who is not Alutiiq can be
attributed to much of what Partnow described as the
“identity configuration” of the Pacific coast Alutiiq. On
a larger scale, however, Alutiiq membership is inclusive
and the culture dynamic. Descendants of Native people
who are enrolled as Alaska Natives whose ancestors
spoke a dialect of the Alutiiq language and who share
a common culture and history are included and
welcomed. While one person may regard another as
either more or less Alutiiq, he or she will acknowledge
that same individual as a close relation—unconnected
to their degree of Alutiiqness—and recognize that they
share a certain sense of continuity with their Alutiiq
past and common ancestry. Common ancestry cannot
be denied; knowledge, language, and even values can
be taught; and aspects of culture and history can

be remembered and passed on.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 157



CHAPTER TWO

Alaska Peninsula People—
East and West

Ugaassarmiut and the Aglurmiut

From about 1OOOAD into the 19th century, the
Ugashik River drainage was occupied extensively

by a group of people exhibiting traits of the Western
Thule tradition. The river was a rich source of salmon,
and archaeological evidence indicates habitation of the
area near the mouth of the river was increasing in
recent prehistory.” In early historical times these
people had interactions with both Pacific coastal
Sugpiat and Bristol Bay Yup’ik. It has been proposed
that Ugashik and affiliated Severnovskie people were
more closely aligned with their Yup’ik neighbors than
with the Sugpiat of Kodiak Island.” However, in
historical times the Ugashik River settlements, along
with the Severnovskoe settlements, had strong cultural
and social ties with Katmai residents, as well as their
Yup'ik neighbors.” If these ties affirm an ethnic affinity
and Wrangell was correct when he explained: “the
Agolegmiuts [Aglurmiuts] expelled the natives living
at the mouth of the Nushagak, and these wandered

as far as the eastern half of the Aliaska Peninsula and
are now known as the Severnovtsy and Ugashentsy,””*
then it would seem that the Severnovskie and
Ugaassarmiut were not Sugpiat but rather Yup’ik,
speaking a dialect similar to Kiatagmiut. Nineteenth-
century journals and marriage records reveal language
and social affiliations with Yup’ik residing along
Bristol Bay.”

The Aglurmiut, a small group of people originally
driven out from the Lower Kuskokwim River, moved

into the Bristol Bay area and fought with several
Yup’ik groups until finding a place to reside.” Many
people fled their advance. According to oral accounts
and earlier Russian sources, displaced people moved
from a more northerly part of Bristol Bay to the area
of Naknek and Ugashik rivers and even fled inland
up to Naknek, Becharof, and Ugashik lakes when the
attackers came." Stories told today in the Ugashik area
may well refer to halting the advancing Aglurmiuts
who were being pressed from the north by the
Kusquqvagmiut.” These stories relate how people
fled to the Egegik and Ugashik river areas—they tell
of whole villages running inland from enemies and
relocating during the warring time:

when the enemy comes they would flee to [the
area]. And those that fled would stay and probably
established settlements. And at that time in the
spring and summer when a cuicuicuaq (bird)
sounds out they would move on even in the middle
of the night. They were afraid of the warriors...
[Perhaps they reached] right along [Lake
Becharof]...they probably populated that area
there. Perhaps they never returned because of fear.
Or, maybe when they told that it was safe they
returned. They also say that the fighting began
[above or in the Kuskokwim area]. They say there
were those who started fighting from a dart game.
They say the fighting began out there and the
fighting moved towards this way [Egegik]. They
were killing people. When they reached a settlement
they would kill the people or take all their food
supplies and perhaps they do something to their
fish. They reached down the coast somewhere...

I don’t know where.*


Long term patterns of residency may offer insights into
future use of Aniakchak lands

Document the impact of World War II on area
villages and the involvement of the residents in
the war effort

Assessment

World War Il had a sizeable impact on residents and
communities of the Alaska Peninsula. The impact on
the study area is not well known or documented. Few
men are left who served. World War II is often
mentioned as the one factor that drew an end to the
trapping and changed the lives of residents on the
Alaska Peninsula. The war, for many, effectively put an
end to the lifestyle that dominated the first four
decades of the twentieth-century—that of spending
winters in isolated homes where families ran traplines
and spending summers in cannery towns. The war
took many young men away from their families and
villages as young men served at Unalaska, in the
Aleutians, and more distant places; those who were
left at home lived through blackouts, difficulties in
traveling, army boats docking at Chignik, and air craft
flying overhead at frightening speeds. After the war,
people were scattered, and, as one man remembers,
the communities were never the same. By the end of

the war many people had seen the outside world,
expanded their network of friends and associates,
and received training in a variety of skills. The war
also had an effect on fish runs. In Ugashik and
Chignik the fish runs were depleted after years of
unlimited catches during World War II. During the
war an army base was built north of the old site of
Meshik and several thousand men were stationed
there. After the war people from nearby settlements
moved there and reoccupied the village of Meshik.

Recommendation:

Interview those men and women who served in
World War II, either as enlisted personnel or as
civilians, and also interview those men and women
who did not serve and those who were children but
remember war-time activities and impacts. Research
records and interview army personnel who served at
Port Heiden to put interviews in the context of the
Aleutian campaigns. Interviews might focus on war-
time events and impacts but also should cover the
aftermath of the war and how communities were
affected. The connection between stories of army
deserters and “hairy men” could be explored as
well as people’ perceptions of their place in the
larger world.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

163



The same year, a storm hurled waves and wind up
against the newly erected buildings and many were
lifted off their foundations. Grammar noted in his diary
a comment by Chief Nikolai Reuff of the Native village
that the hard-drinking, non-church-going White-men's
houses were the only ones damaged by the storm.”

In 1924 a school was opened and the town seemed

to be thriving.” Grammar’ diary, however, records
the deaths by accident, suicide, and illness of 50
people in the years he lived in Kanatak from 1920

to 1926. Chief Nikolai Reuff and Second Chief Fred
Reuff are among those listed in the deaths of Natives
who died from tuberculosis. Others, like Fred Reuff’s
wife and infant daughter, were recorded as dying from
“pneumonia-like” symptoms.’ Then in 1926 the Cold
Bay oil strike ended and the oilmen left. Still, the new
town that had been a traditional settlement for
unknown numbers of years and a modern town for
only half a decade persisted. The school closed in
1943 but it was not until the mid-1950s that the last
two families, the Mike Boskovsky’s and Nick
Shanigan's, moved away.” One more attempt to
extract oil from the area was abandoned in 1958

by Exxon after drilling to 14,000 feet. Costing seven
million dollars, it was, at the time, the costliest well
drilled in Alaska.”

Oil exploration, albeit lasting only a short time,

had a significant impact on the people living on the
Peninsula. The small village of Alutiiqs that had been
spread out from Portage Bay to Wide Bay became
concentrated in Kanatak, a multi-cultural boom town.
Transportation became much easier as large dog teams
and horses helped transport goods to nearby drilling
sites and across the Peninsula. As a port town, a

variety of ships and planes landed there, including a
USS. Air Service plane on the first circumnavigation of
the globe in 1924.” For the first time, many children
had access to formal education. The influx of outsiders

and ships likely also brought an increase in disease
to the area. The saloons of Kanatak might have been
opened for the oil drillers, but they brought a steady
supply of alcohol to the Native population as well.
In general, the boom years were an exciting time for
both long- and short-term residents, and people
fondly remember their years in Kanatak.

Pack train at Wide Bay, circa
1920s. Pack trains took gear out to
oil camps throughout the region.
The area horse wrangler, Jack Lea,
had a cabin on Wide Bay. Courtesy
of University of Alaska Fairbanks,
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, Alaska
and Polar Regions Department,
Capps Albums 83-149-2246.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! 103



182

ENDNOTES

288 Andrew and Lena Matson interview, 1998;
Russian Orthodox Messenger, vol 41, No.7
(1945)

289 Black, et al, 1999:185-194.
29

s

Christine Martin interview, 1997; Peter
Lind interview, 1998,

291 See Nancy Yaw Davis, A Sociocultural
Description of Small Communities in the Kodiak/
‘Shumagin Region, OCS Technical Report

No. 121, Minerals Management Service
(Anchorage: Cultural Dynamics Lid., 1986)
‘The Belkofski parish church/clergy register for
1897 (mf 139, R 132/f 748) mentions Artemii
Rodionov Ushagkak as a church trustee for
the chapel built at Chignik Lagoon.

292 Howard M. Kutchin, Report on the
Inspection of the Salmon Fisheries,
Department of Commerce and Labor,
Document #618, (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1906), p. 41

293 1920 U.S. census, Alaska, and in Black,
et. al,, Ethnohistory of the Aleutians East
Borough Area; NPS interview with Lena

Orloff Matson, Port Heiden, 1998.
29

g

Father [Hotovitskii] Khotovitskii, Belkofski
Parish, 1945 Russian Orthodox American
Messenger, vol. 41, (7) p.112, in Black et
al., 1999.

295 ROAM, Vol. 2, no. 17, pp. 508-510, 1898.

296 Shalamov, ROAM Vol. 1, #2, pp. 22-23,
1896, Bland translation.

297 Kashevarov, Confessional records for 1896,
trans. Ekaterina Ogan, Afognak Village
Corporation

298 Bensin, 1967.
299 Ablama, 1990b:9.
300 AC Co., Box 119/fldr 1099, 1896.

301 AC Co., Box 119/fldr1097, incoming letters
to Kodiak from Wide Bay.

302 V. Manyysh, ROAM, vol. 8, pp. 32-34
(1904), translated by Patricia Partnow.

303 Ablama, 1990b; Kosbruk and Shanigan
BIA-ANCSA interview, 91AK-P-INO1 (1991),

304 Vital Statistics and Confessional Records
1896-1965, Vital Statistics for Kanatak
Settlement [1923-1952], trans. Ekaterina
‘Ogan, Afognak Village Corporation.

305 ROAM x. 11 p. 163, 1907. The Alaska
Travels of the Right Reverend Tikhon, Bishop
of Aleut and Alaska. By Bishop Tikhon
Bellavin, In Annual Report by Bishop
Innokentii [Pustynskiil for the year 1906.

306 Petroff, 1884:28.

307 Teben’kov, M.D., Atlas of the Northwest
Coasts of America, Maps of Russian America I,
translated and edited by Richard A. Pierce
(Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press,
1981) p. 60.

308 ROAM v. 11 p. 163, Bellavin, 1907.

309 USS. BIA 1995 AA-11774-Q; U.S. Coast
and Geodetic Survey of 1879, USS 467.

310 ROAM v. 11 p. 163, Bellavin, 1907.

311 Kasheverov, ROAM, Vol. 2, no. 17,
pp.508-510, 1898; Agent Fisher AC Co.,
Box 155/f1634, 1888.

Davydov, 1977; AC Co., Box 155/111634,
1888.

313 Porter, 1893.
314 ROCR, R178/1443-444, 1893.

315 Aleksin, ROCR R136/f352, 1897; Kedrovskii,
R135/1350-352, 1898 2:265, 508-510.

316 AC Co., Box 119/11099, 1896.
317 AC Co., Box 115/f1009:

318 ROCR R180/1547-548, [560-562; AC Co.,
Box 115/f1009.

319 AC Co. Box 119/f1099, 1896.

320 AC Co. Box 119/f1099, 1896 mentions.
Simeon Hochikunack as the chief, however
the Wrangel Confessional list 1893, (Alaskan
Russian Church Archives, R 178/ { 443-444)
may indicate Simeon Nauia as the chief.

31

&

321 Right Reverend Tikhon ROCR Vol. 11,
p. 163, 1907;

322 Voronkovskii in George Davidson, Coast
Pilot of Alaska, First Part from Southern
Boundary to Cook's Inlet (Washington: US
Coast Survey, 1869). See also Donald J
Orth, Dictionary of Alaskan Place Names
Geological Survey Paper 567. (Washington:
Geological Survey, 1971)

323 Petroff, Ivan, Population and Resources
of Alaska, US Congress, House Executive
Document No. 40, 46th Congress, 3rd
session, (1884) pp28,

324 AC Co., Box 119/fldr1099, 1896.
325 AC Co., Box 119/fldr1099, 1896.
326 Aleksin, ROCR R136/f352, 1896.
327 Black, et al, 1999:326.

328 Aleksin, ROCR R136/1354, 1896.
329 ROCR R132/1766.

330 Aleksin, ROCR R132/ 747-748, 1897.
See Wrangell confessional list, ROCR
R198/f443-444, 1893. Aleksin says they
are Aleut and Aglurmiut, However, the
Aglurmiut seem to be originally from
Ugashik and, few, if any Aglurmiut lived in
Ugashik (e.g., ROCR R147/(327-330, 1888)
They probably speak Yupik dialects, but not
that of Aglurmiut. Later, the confessional
lists call all Chignik residents Aglurmiut
The Aglurmiut Aleksin refers to are probably
Sugtestun speakers originally from Ugashik

33.

Aleksin writes that this boy is from “Little
Ugashik” which is in at least one document
said to be in the Nushagak Parish and seerns
to be Agishik, or, more likely, Unangashak.
It appears along with Mitrofania and
Wrangell in a list of villages near Chignik
(Aleksin, ROCR R136 fr. 352, 1896). The
boy Nikolai Ashvignak seems to be from the
family elsewhere referred to as Muguviknak
They lived in Wrangell in 1893.

332 Aleksin, ROCR R136/1409, 1899.


Scotty Iron’ house on Scotty’ Island
in the Meshik River, taken in the
1970s. Irons lived here with his wife,
Mable, and their children during the
1920s. Iron’ nickname was “One-
hundred Fox Scotty” because during
the 1920s he caught at least 100 red
foxes each winter. John Branson
photo, courtesy of John Branson.

124 CHAPTER SEVEN

at Scotty's Island.*” The year before his son Henry's
birth in 1917, Olaf took his family up Tunangapuk
(Birthday) Creek where he built a cabin near the
mountains and where Henry, delivered solely by his
mother, was born. The location of the cabin or the
trapline is not presently documented.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Sam Supsook, one of

the many Inupiat who had moved his family to the
Peninsula from the Seward Peninsula, had a cabin on
North River, which flows from the northwest side of

Aniakchak Crater. Supsook trapped North River.
Other Port Heiden residents may well have trapped
the slopes of Aniakchak. Several trails go up toward
the crater rim but trapping use has yet to be explored.

Families often moved around before settling in one
place. The Matson family lived at Unangashak where
Olaf ran the store for one year, and at Tunangapuk,
but they finally made their home at Tangonok on the
west shore of Port Heiden Bay. The family lived in a
“duplex barabara” for many years before building a
frame house. Over the years several families lived
next door to the Matsons. Olaf’s brother-in-law stayed
there as did Nick Christensen. In the 19305, the
Zunganuk family, originally from Teller, lived there
Olaf and William Zunganuk trapped the creeks
around Tangonok and on the eastern edge of Port
Heiden. One summer, Olaf found a horse wandering
the flats near Tanganok. He brought it home, adding
it to the family’s small menagerie of sled dogs and
cats. That was probably in 1925 when a large
geological party brought 18 horses to the Chignik
area.*" Olaf built a small shed for “Brownie” and each
year cut grass and bought bags of oats. When they
went fishing, Brownie roamed loose, grazing on the
succulent grasses the Peninsula is known for. For
nearly fifteen years Brownie returned each fall when
they came back from fishing. One year he failed to
show up and Olaf went searching for him. His big
carcass was found, bogged down in a marshy tundra
and half eaten by a bear.

Relatively few stories have been collected about
activities in Aniakchak during the early part of the
century when it was extensively used. Many families
relied on trapping to provide a source of income.


Appendix one

National Park Service Responsibility to
Cultural Resources—Ethnographic

The acts and proclamations establishing individual
parks contain primary guidelines for cultural resource
management by stating the congressional or
presidential intent for including a park in the National
Park system. A presidential proclamation in December
1978 established Aniakchak National Monument as a
unit of the national park system. Two years later the
Monument and Preserve were established by Congress
by section 201(1) of the Alaska National Interest
Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA; PL. 96-487);
section 601 designated the Aniakchak River as a

wild river. Previous acts and regulations which govern
each park’s management goals include the 1916
“Organic Act” establishing the National Park Service,
the 1964 Wilderness Act, the 1966 National Historic
Preservation Act, and the 1968 Wild and Scenic rivers
Act. In addition, ANILCA provided the opportunity
for rural residents engaged in a subsistence way of life
to continue hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering
on federal lands.

ANILCA established Aniakchak in order to preserve
the land’s natural and cultural resources. Explicit
provisions were made to allow traditional subsistence
hunting, fishing, and trapping in both the monument
and preserve so that the opportunity for traditional
uses can be maintained while at the same time
natural and cultural resources are preserved.

The 1988 Management Policies of the National

Park Service recognize that “Certain contemporary
Native American and other communities are permitted
by law, regulation, or policy to pursue customary
religious, subsistence, and other cultural uses of park
resources with which they are traditionally associated.”
Some of these laws and regulations are mentioned
below. The Management Policy states that the National
Park Service “will plan and execute programs in ways
that safeguard cultural and natural resources while
reflecting informed concern for the contemporary
peoples and cultures traditionally associated with them.”

Subsistence

The legislative history of ANILCA states:

The National Park Service recognizes, and the
Committee [on Energy and Natural Resources}
agrees, that subsistence uses by local rural residents
have been, and are now, a natural part of the
ecosystem serving as a primary consumer in the
natural food chain. The Committee expects the
National Park Service to take appropriate steps
when necessary to insure that consumptive uses of
fish and wildlife populations within National Park
Service units not be allowed to adversely disrupt the
natural balance which has been maintained for

Opposite:

Tamamta Katurlluta, A Gathering of
Native Tradition, 1997. Traditional
song and dance preserve cultural
identity in Homer, Alaska.
Presented by the villages

of Nanwalek, Port Graham

and Seldovia and co-sponsored

by the Pratt museum, Homer.
Photograph by Michele Morseth.
Courtesy National Park Service.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 165


46

CHAPTER THREE

remote areas to hunt; many were separated from their
families for three to four years; others never returned.
Women and children were left without their hunters
and without the resources to gather, hunt, or fish
effectively; starvation was a major destructive force.
Hunters were treated inhumanely and forced to go
out hunting in stormy weather—up to 300 hunters at
a time were lost from baidarkas capsizing during long
crossings between islands. Many more men were lost
when forced to go into the territories of their traditional
enemies who were still independent tribes determined
to drive the Russians from their lands and waters.

In 1792 Baranov completed the first census, counting
5,696 people on Kodiak, likely a count that included
only adults, and 884 on the Alaska Peninsula—probably
most near Katmai,'* The population on Kodiak, as in
the Aleutians, had already been greatly diminished, in
part from direct attacks, but also from disease and sea
accidents. The decline of the indigenous population
was to continue for many years. Khlebnikov’ list of
“unfortunate events” during Baranov’s administration
included men lost during the battles with the Tlingit
over Sitka, hunting parties dying from paralytic shellfish
poisoning, and 350 “Aleut” hunters lost in storms
during ocean crossings. He also mentions sickness

and a large epidemic in 1799 that killed many people.
Rezanov estimated that the Native population had
decreased by half between 1795 and 1805.'7

The at-contact Sugpiat population of the Alaska
Peninsula, especially in areas other than Katmai, is
unknown. 119 men and 90 women were recorded on
the Peninsula in 1800. Between 1817 and 1822, the
population fluctuated between 837 and 887 Alutiigs.
The figures probably describe the area of Katmai and

possibly Sutkhum. Population figures omit details about
migrations and the people who were probably moved
into the area prior to 1817. In 1818 Katmai was a large
settlement with a shop, barns, and over 20 cattle.
Colonial accounts in early January of 1819 report that
three male Russians and one male Creole were under
Company control at Sutkhum Artel, and 869 Alaska
Peninsula Natives were at Katmai.’ In 1825, the
population had decreased to 190 on the Peninsula, the
same year Alutiiq populations increased on Kodiak and
at Sitka. The population at Sutkhum, under the Kad’iak
office, shows 41 people: 17 men, 13 women, and 11
minors. Also recorded are 18 “free Aleuts” “of Aliaska
coast.” At Katmai, 89 adults and 42 minors resided, and
at Ukamok 70 adults and 28 minors resided.”

The first population count considered accurate

by the Committee on Organization of the Russian
American Colonies was not taken until 1822, when

it was estimated that there were 8,286 people in the
Company’ territory; of these, 488 were Russians.'”
Wrangell reported that the 1833 census identified 1,711
adults and 899 children on Kodiak and surrounding
islands. Numbers of Sugpiat were also at Sitka, Katmai,
Kenai Bay, Prince William Sound, and Fort Ross in
California.’ Population figures for the Peninsula were
not given although the Sutkhum artel was operating.

Mission Activity: The Russian
Orthodox Church in 1800s

The religious conversion of peoples of Russian America
began a decade after Shelikhov’s victory when, in 1794,
Archimandrite loasaf, Russian Orthodox brothers from


Inupiat men and women on the
cannery dock in Pilot Point, circa
1950. John Orock is on the far left
and Jane Orock, his sister, is seated
in the middle. John Carlson photo,
courtesy of Carol Carlson.

100 CHAPTER SIX

from Kodiak and Afognak parishes in hopes

to find jobs in the fish canneries (there are two
canneries here). The canneries are doing very well
so that even in the distant future there will be
nothing to stop jobs and income for the residents.

T visited the cannery and the shop [at Anchorage
Bay]. My parishioners and the Chinese often have
to work on the second floor of this factory where the
air is made deadly by the acid vapors coming from
below (this acid is used to seal cans). There were
cases of death from air poisoning among the
Chinese. Natives who work on the upper floor

often get sick (poisoned) as well.

Conditions in canneries slowly improved as workers
filed complaints about low wages, dangerous and
unhealthy conditions, and unfair practices. A federal
child labor law took effect in 1917 prohibiting children
under the age of 14 to work in canneries and limiting
working hours for those between 14 and 16 to eight
hours a day, six days a week. For most cannery
workers though, the long hours that came at the peak
of each fishing season could not be avoided. Women
today remember lying about their age and working
from early in the morning until late at night.

Fishing, while providing some income and a

seasonal rhythm, was not particularly lucrative in

the early years. Employees hired out of San Francisco
worked long seasons from the time their boats left
port in San Francisco in April until September when
they reached home. Most local workers, however, had
summertime employment only. They relied instead

on the luxuriously coated wild and semi-domesticated
fur-bearing animals whose pelts could be sold on the
world market.

The 1950s brought big changes to the fisheries at
Chignik and Ugashik. The Chignik fishery changed

as more and more people acquired their own purse-
seiners, and fish-traps were outlawed. In Bristol Bay, sail
boats were converted to motor boats which allowed less
skilled people into the fisheries, opening up Bristol Bay
to more outsiders. People were more concentrated in
the fishery villages when Kanatak and IInik were finally
abandoned. By the mid-1950s Chignik Bay, Chignik
Lagoon, Pilot Point, Ugashik, and Port Heiden were the
remaining year-round villages. Trapping was still an
important part of life but fishing was the mainstay of
the economy—whether the season was good or bad.


64

CHAPTER FOUR

qimaruat. They came here in the spring. When we
were here in the spring they’d dip the fish with a net
right off the beach.... They are not very big... when
we were here, we'd dry some of them. They didn't
swim up the river

People in the Kanatak and Wide Bay area harvested
fish up at the Ugashik river “narrows” in the fall. This
included chum salmon for themselves and the dogs
and “redfish” which are sockeye that have either just
spawned or are about to spawn. These fish were easy
to dry because of their low fat content.

Waterfowl eggs

Waterfowl eggs provided a rich source of protein and
a welcome diet change for Alutiiqs. People with access
to the Bristol Bay flats could collect duck and geese
eggs in the grasses around the shallow lakes that dot
the terrain. On the Pacific numerous rock cliffs and
islands jut out of the ocean, providing havens for sea
bird colonies. These could be exploited by local
residents. It is not known how heavily people relied
on this food source, but it probably played an
important role, especially where eggs were easily
obtained. Eggs keep well if stored properly and
Ugaassarmiut had viable storage methods:

People [from Kanatak] would save and cover the
water fowl eggs along the river. They say they
would put them underground and when they
returned in the fall they would open them. They
would be fresh. They would still be fresh after two
months. They say they would cover them with
earth. They would keep cool.... They would call
them maniit [plural].?°

Marine Mammal Hunting

In May, both at Ugashek and everywhere in our
settlements, we will not find anyone at home; the
men go to sea to hunt seals and bearded seals and
in part belugas and the women leave to hunt ground
squirrels in their burrows and to get roots, etc."

Depending on ice conditions, May and June was the
time to hunt seals and belugas in Bristol Bay villages.
Preparations were extensive as equipment and kayaks
had to be readied. Nick Ablama remembers hearing
about the clay that camouflaged the kayaks:

White Fish creek is Urasqam Kuiga.... They say
[the clay] is down at the bottom of the lake. They say
people would undress and use their feet to dig up the
clay. Then in the spring they would mix the clay with
seal oil and paint the kayaks. When the clay dries up
it turns white. In the spring when they hunt seal their
kayaks would be camouflaged....you add seal oil to
the powder and paint your kayaks. They had no
paint brush, but would use their hands. When the
paint dries it would turn white. The kayaks would
turn while. They used to hunt seal down there in the
ocean. They would hunt... the bearded seal, the skin
used for kayaks. The bearded seal were used for
making kayaks.*®

People also hunted walrus in Bristol Bay. They traded
the tusks to the priests for candles and icons and to
people living on the Pacific coast.?”

Caribou

Caribou remain today an important and cherished
food resource for people throughout the Aniakchak
atea. The animals are numerous and hunting is


16

CHAPTER TWO

into the household. However, after the birth of the
first child, the couple moved to the husband’ village.

Winter villages and communities of closely grouped
settlements could have up to 200 residents.** Summer
encampments, often no larger than family or kin units,
were located where the desired resource was concen-
trated, for example, at the mouth of a salmon stream,
or at a narrow outlet of a lake.

Communities had several mechanisms for maintaining
social order. Societies were stratified; composed of a
leader and an associated elite, commoners, and slaves.
Each settlement had a chief or anayugak who had
proven himself as a strong, intelligent leader.*
Councils of elders, skillful and experienced hunters,
shamans, and the anayugak all had influence in
community affairs. Elders and wisemen provided
guidance, organized ceremonies, and kept knowledge
through stories that were passed down. Village leaders
organized and led communal hunts and war parties

While the leader held a prestigious and powerful
position in the village and was shown deference, his
ability to force compliance with his wishes was limited
to his family. No one had the power to command or
punish an individual in his personal affairs; only a slave
would submit to another's authority. Instead, “they lead
by maintaining good order, a show of concern and care
for their fellows’ well being, by favors, and various
political means.” The anayugak had to be a master of
persuasion but he had several other means at his
disposal. He ruled through maintaining respect, evoked
by his skill in hunting and war, his ability to give sound
advice; and his ability to amass and then redistribute
wealth through gifts and rewards.

The position of anayugak was inherited by sons or
close kin. While the anayugak might designate his
heir, the new leader assumed the position gradually
and had to show leadership qualities in order to fulfill
the role. Maintaining the position was not guaranteed,
as an anayugak had to earn and keep the high regard
of the men in the community. A strong anayugak
apparently could become powerful enough to
command several settlements in times of war when
large numbers of warriors were needed.**

The anayugak had a kashim in which village
assemblies, festivities, and ceremonies took place.*’
The kashim, although often attached to the anayugak’s
residence, was communal.” It was a place to gather
the community, not only to organize community
affairs but to honor ancestors, tell stories, sing songs,
dance, joke, and work. Other men could use the
kashim to honor another person by giving a feast or
qasqiluteng.”” This was a formalized occasion, held to
give thanks to someone one was indebted to, celebrate
a marriage, or establish friendship. A person feasted
was expected to reciprocate at some future time.”

The role of women in community affairs is

not well-documented but it is known that through
several avenues they had access to considerable power.
Women were excluded when the men assembled to
discuss war and other community affairs but for other
events they were invited to the kashim.* However,
Davydov observed that Sugpiat women sometimes
wielded great power. A girl might be raised as a boy
which entitled her to participate in councils of men
and discussions of community affairs. A girl's father
could pay for her entry into the warrier society.”
These children were often trained as shamans.


Sod and frame house in the Native
village of Kanatak, circa 1920.
After the Katmai eruption, people
from Katmai, Puale Bay, and other

small settlements moved to Kanatak

and new frame houses were built
next to the old barabaras. The two
men are unidentified. Courtesy of
University of Alaska Fairbanks,
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, Alaska
and Polar Regions Department,
Mather Collection 82-149-2240.

Opposite:

The main street of New Kanatak.
An oil boom brought hundreds

of people to Kanatak, including
Charles Madsen whose store can be
seen in the photo. A new town grew
up across the creek from the old
village. Boarding houses, bars,
general stores, a post office served
both communities. A road to
Becharof Lake, and horse drawn
wagons, provided easy access to the
lake and thus the fishery at Egegik.
The boom lasted only from 1920

to 1926 when most of the oil
exploration was over. Courtesy of
University of Alaska Fairbanks,
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, Alaska
and Polar Regions Department,
Mather Collection 82-178-69.

82 CHAPTER FIVE

literate Aleut Ruf, who speaks a little Russian. ... The
general impression of [Kanatak Bay] I had was quite
good, but still on the return trip I found out, that here
is a nest of drunkenness and every disgrace....

On the third day from my arrival...Toward evening
we got to Shirokaia [Wide] Bay. Here several years
ago there was a small settlement. But when otter
hunting ceased, the inhabitants, abandoning their
barabaras and the chapel, headed north. The icons
and books from this chapel I gave to Wrangell and
Kanatnaia Bukhta [Kanatak Bay], but the money in
the treasury, $5.00, I used for the building of the
Afognak church.

The first wave of oil exploration kept the Wide Bay
store and post office operating during the summers, but
Kanatak became the main Alutiiq village. People from
Wrangell moved there. Chief Reuff was born in
Ugashik, Peraskevia (in Russian Paraskeva or
Praskoviia), his wife, was from Wrangell. As fish
processing plants were built in Bristol Bay and at
Chignik Bay, Kanatak residents added a new element

to their seasonal round. From Kanatak, the lake systems
of Ugashik and Becharof provided access to Naknek,
Egegik, and Ugashik canneries. A few people traveled
down the Pacific coast to Chignik Bay.** Katmai
residents moved in around 1912 and new frame houses


sea otter hunt. With this era began an increased

use of the Pacific coast of Aniakchak as Sutkhum was
re-opened and Chiginagak Bay was settled. Chapter
five, “Village Journey,” provides short vignettes and
historic photographs of villages and settlements that
began springing up in the late 1800s. Chapter six
outlines the industrialization of the Peninsula in the
decades after the turn of the 19th century. Examined
are the growth of the salmon industry, the development
of a seasonal economy around fishing and fur trapping,
and the impacts of these developments on traditional
settlement patterns, language, and identity. The seventh
chapter focuses on the recent history of Aniakchak.

It describes the trapping period during which families
spent over half of each year trapping the shores and
creeks of lands Aniakchak now comprises. This period
experienced the most extensive use of the coast of the
Alaska Peninsula in over a century. Chapter eight
provides a general overview of recent subsistence
resource use in and near Aniakchak. A chapter follows
about the Inupiat migration to Bristol Bay and the
Inupiat communities that formed while immigrants
pursued reindeer herding, fishing, and trapping. The
report concludes with a section on ethnicity issues
followed by conclusions about the present state of
knowledge and documentation about ethnographic
resources in Aniakchak and recommendations for
research. Two appendices follow. An overview of the
National Park Service responsibility to peoples affiliated
with Aniakchak today should assist the Park manager in
identifying appropriate laws and regulations that
address cultural resources. A second appendix provides
the text of “Conduct for Research in the Arctic.”

An annotated bibliography focuses on written, tape

recorded, and photographic documentation of the
Alaska Peninsula peoples.

A Note About Sources of
Sugpiat and Alutiiq Culture on
the Alaska Peninsula

Little was written about the area of the Alaska
Peninsula south of Katmai until the late 1800s,
although we know the Pacific coast near present day
Aniakchak was repeatedly but infrequently occupied
throughout the historical period. Early written sources
include brief mention of Russian fur traders fighting
with Alaska Peninsula peoples and the establishment
of the Sutkhum artel which served as a base to sea
otter hunts at Sutwik Island and sea lion hunts off the
coast of Cape Kumlik. Aniakchak and Amber bays
were likely used for hunting and fishing during this
lime period. Less has been uncovered about the mid-
1800s. In the later two decades of the 1800s written
documents, including privately translated Russian
Orthodox Church records, give a clearer picture of
people's lifeways, the areas they used, and resources
they sought. These documents provide details about
the settlement of Wrangell and mention the Sutkhum
outpost of the Alaska Commercial Company,
indicating extensive use of the area comprising Sutwik
Island and capes Kumliun and Kumlik prior to the
turn of the century,

Most of the early information on the Sugpiaq people
derives from a few sources with scant mention of the
Alaska Peninsula and the Ugaassarmiut and Sugpiat

who lived there. After conquering and colonizing

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!



possible on both sides of the Peninsula, although

the Bristol Bay side, with its open tundra, rolling hills,
and shallow lake valleys is ideal caribou terrain, The
caribou herds have not always been large, and while
they represent a stable resource in the short term,
they can quickly decline and leave people without

a reliable food source. Veniaminov reported that the
caribou numbers were down in the 1800s because
volcanic eruptions had destroyed the vegetation.

Ugashik people were reported to have traveled

north and inland to get to caribou herds in August of
1866.” In 1889 a large group of people from Ugashik
moved south to Unangashak where they could hunt
caribou herds on the open tundra between the foot

of Mt. Veniaminov and Bristol Bay and sell the pelts to
the fur buyers.’* The Alaska Game Act would have put
an end to this trade in 1902. The status of the herds
around the turn of the 19th century is unclear, but by

A typical village of the early
1900s on Uganak, Kodiak Island.
Courtesy of University of Alaska

Fairbanks, Elmer E, Rasmuson
Library, Alaska and Polar Regions
Department, 74-175-72.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 65,



Clerical-historical Description of Nushagak Mission, Aleut Diocese

~Father Modestov. 1898
In every village my main goal was to provide

teligious-moral lessons to the parishioners for
their enlightenment in the faith and Christian way
of life. This goal was pursued in addition to the
administration of the treby’* and regular church
services such as morning and evening prayers,
liturgies, public prayers, blessings with holy water,
confession, holy communion, funeral services,
services for the dead, baptisms and weddings.

To fulfill the main goal during and after

church services and the treby, I talked about

various concepts of Christian teachings trying to
convey the essence of the faith in a form most
accessible to the parishioners. Similar teachings were
given after services in the church in the fall. During
these sessions parishioners were taught prayers in

are church service books... The residents gave me

a cordial welcome. They...were spruced up in holiday
attire rather becomingly, cleanly, and in the Russian
style: women in red sarafans and dresses, men in
waistcoats and some in jackets; neither at this
reception nor at church was anyone dressed in

a parka seen. ... After donning a chasuble, I began
to hold a prayer service of the Holy Trinity; all the
worshippers sang, and rather well. Evfim Orlov, the
nephew of deacon Orlov, is a permanent resident

Slavonic and In their own Aglemiut-Kuskokwim -—
dialect. The meaning of Russian Orthodox rituals and
church services was also explained to the parishioners.

After-service teaching sessions served as a

means to fight the sin of drinking and debauchery,
More than once I had to talk, beg and condemn
my parishioners for not observing the sactedness of
Sunday. Such vice is present in those villages where
there are fishermen in the summer... White people
and Chinese. ... Of course, there are only a few of
such individuals indifferent to religion but even these
few can be a temptation to the majority. In such
cases in every village toyons and their sukashiqs
[second chief] go to every barabara on Sundays and
remind everybody to go to church.

| established a special kind of brotherhood in almost

every village. Such fraternities usually consist of
toyons of the village, their sukashiqs, a churchwarden
or a chapelwarden, a reader and 2-3 elders. Their
responsibility is mainly to persuade those who are
subject to drinking or other sins to lead a sober and
moral life, to remind them at every occasion about
theit Christian duties, and to condemn publicly in
a chapel or in a communal kazhim those who do
not listen to the fraternity in private. Young people
who are subject to drinking, card playing, and
debauchery are to be admonished first and then if
they do not obey, they are to be punished by public
condemnation: they are made to kneel in the chapel
during some services. ... Due to such and similar
measures, these fraternities have been able to save
many people from vices and to return them to

a moral and religious life.”

in Ugashek [sic]. He is a rather literate man who
knows church regulations and church reading and
singing very well. Through his efforts, the children
[and] teenagers know the prayers and are
acquainted with the alphabet, and only his own
work hinders him from engaging in teaching.”

Ugashik became a source village for settlements that
sprang up during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
When Ugaassarmiut began to relocate, some residents

left permanently and others returned after a short stay PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!



Appendix one
National Park Service

Responsibility to Cultural

Resources—Ethnographic 165

Appendix two
Social Science Research
Considerations 171

Endnotes 175

Alaska Peninsula Alutiiq
Bibliography 187

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! VII



At Chignik the pile traps, in violation of the law,
appear to have so completely blocked off the stream
that Agent Kutchin, who was in Alaska to determine
the condition of the fishery, was moved to write:

I most emphatically pronounce the use of these
traps an odious exhibition of lawlessness, and do
not hesitate to declare that if the Government is
powerless to suppress the practice it is equally
powerless to enforce any part of the salmon law,
and would consult its own dignity by foregoing any
further effort in that direction.”

The Alaska agent for the salmon fisheries mentioned
that the canneries’ traps sometimes crowded out local
Natives from the streams they traditionally fished so
that they could not get enough fish for the winter.
However, the commercial fishing season was only
about four to five weeks long in the late 1890s and

early 1900s, and in some areas local people who chose

to work for the canneries, as increasing numbers did,
could get fish for household use from the traps during
the fishing season. Locals dispersed after the season
and put up fish at their fish camps during the rest of
the fish run which on the Pacific coast lasted into
November. In the fall, well after the commercial
fishing season, Natives also netted “redfish” or salmon
which was near spawning and thus had a low fat
content and was good for drying and storing.

The canneries in Chignik Bay had an uneasy
relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church.
The manager of one cannery demanded that the
Belkofski parish priest, Father Kedrovskii, visit only
in August, after the fishing season was over because
Orthodox believers would stop working in order to

come to services. The priest refused to change his
schedule, arguing that he preached for the parishioners
to work hard. In one report Kedrovskii also mentioned
that the factory manager teased people about being
devout believers.

Cannery work was hard. Conditions inside the
canneries were poor and often young girls would
begin working at age 12 or 13 and work 12 to 16
hours a day. In June of 1908 Kedrovskii reported on
the canneries at Chignik Lagoon and Anchorage Bay:

There are more and more people in Chignik with
each year. Many move from Nushagak mission and

Bristol Bay fishermen picking
nets in Pilot Point, circa 1950.
Most Columbia River
sailboats were converted to
gasoline engines by 1955.
John Carlson photo,

courtesy of Carol Carlson.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! 99


Chapter five

A Village Journey 1880-1920

Bristol Bay Villages

Ugashik/ Ugaassaq

The Ugashik River system cuts through a vast area
of swampy tundra, connecting a large area of salmon
rivers, streams, and lakes. It is rich in fish, large
mammals, birds, and a variety of edible plants.

Little detailed documentation about the Ugashik
River has been found in early Russian sources, but
records from the mid-1800s reveal a large, mobile
population. Archaeological evidence indicates the
river was densely populated long before the Russians
arrived.” Stories tell of recent battles in which, after
fleeing the Nushagak area, the people who became
the Ugaassarmiut finally fought off Yup'ik-speaking
Aglurmiut invaders from the north. In 1844 the village
was assigned to the Nushagak parish. In 1855 the
priest recorded 79 “Aleuts” and indicated that they
had strong connections to the fur trade and the
Russian Orthodox Church. By 1867, 161 Orthodox
residents were recorded at Ugashik, and ten years
later the Orthodox population had increased to 266
(131 male, 135 female) in 35 households. By then
the village was substantial and boasted an Alaska
Commercial Company store and the only prayer
house, built with the help of the Company, in the
Nushagak parish." In 1888 an Aglurmiut woman

with three children moved to Ugashik. Creoles

were not recorded until 1894 when Modestov was the
parish priest. The first Euroamericans, two Lutherans,
married into the village in 1894, and the next year a
household of “Kuskokvimtsy” moved in. Efvim Orlov
(Orloff), church reader, teacher, and translator, started
a school with 15 male students.””

Evidence suggests that Ugaassarmiut, like Severnovskie
people, were Yup'ik speakers, or that they spoke a
dialect on the language continuum between Central
Yup’ik and Sugtestun.*” They were people on the
borderland and many people along the north coast

of the Peninsula remember their parents’ ability to
converse with both Yup’ik speakers and Alutiiq
speakers. Since the early 1800s, the Ugaassarmiut
were known to travel to the Pacific to hunt sea otter
and to trade caribou and walrus for amber and other
Pacific Rim items.”' By the late 1800s the village had
long-established ties to both Katmai and Nushagak as
Ugaassarmiut traded furs and walrus tusks at both
Nushagak and Katmai trading posts which had been
started by the Russian-American Company.”! At
Nushagak they attended church services, even bringing
their children to be baptized and their fiancées to wed.
They apparently acted as middlemen in the trade
between the Nushagak and Kodiak, and they served as
translators in early Russian explorations of Bristol Bay.”
Ugashik and Katmai people traveled both winter and

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

69



176

ENDNOTES

15
16

1

g

20

21

22

K.W Killian, eds. (Washington: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1994), p. 23.

While Aleut was a generic term the Russians
used for indigenous peoples, they also used
variations of indigenous terms, like Kad'iak
Aleut for the indigenous people of Kodiak
Island and Aliaskans (in Russian Aliaskintsy)
for those of the Alaska Peninsula.

Michael Krauss, Alaska Native Languages.
(Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center,
1980.)

Clark, 1984:185; Krauss, 1980.

Heinrich J. Holmherg, Holmberg’ Ethno-
graphic Sketches, 1855-1863, translated by
Fritz Jaensch, edited by Marvin W. Falk
(Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press,
1985 [1856]).

Gordon Pullar, “Aleut,” Encyclopedia of North
American Indians, edited by Frederick Hoxie
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996), pp. 19-21.

Nick Ablama interview, part 3, BIA Reports
of Investigation for BLM AAI1774-A-R,
(Anchorage AK: ANCSA Office, 1990), p. 9.

See Clark, 1984:195-196 for an explanation
of the synonymy of Sugpiat/Alutiig

lydia Black, “The Konyag (The Inhabitants of
the Island of Kodiak) hy loasaf [Bolotov]
(1794-1799) and by Gideon (1804-1807),” in
Arctic Anthropology 14(2):79-108, 1977: 98

Black, 1977:98. The island is called both
Qikertaq and Qirtag.

The Russians called the people north of the
Katmai artel, on the Naknek River drainage,
Severnovskoe (“Northerners"). Through time
the term became Savonoski and was applied
to the village of Ikak on Lake Naknek. After
the Katmai eruption, these people moved
downstream and established New Savonoski
See Don Dumond and James VanStone,
“Paugvik: a Nineteenth-Century Native
Village on Bristol Bay, Alaska,” Fieldiana,
‘Anthropology new series #24 (Chicago: Field
Museum of Natural History, 1995).pp. 2-3.

23

24

25
26

Wendall H. Oswalt, Alaskan Eskimos (San
Francisco: Chandler Publishing, 1967).

Hieromonk Gideon, Round the World Voyage
of Hieromonk Gideon 1803-1809 (Kingston,
Ontario: The Limestone Press, 1989); Ioasaf
in Black, 1977.; Davydoy, 1977; Holmberg,
1985; Georg H. von Langsdorlf, Voyages and
Travels in Various Parts of the World during the
Years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806 & 1807. 2 vols.,
(New York: De Capo Press, 1968 [1813-14]);
Unii F Lisianskii, A Voyage Round the World in
the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, & 1806;
Performed by Order of His Imperial Majesty
Alexander the First, Emperor of Russia, in the
Ship Neva, (London: Printed for J. Booth,
1968 [1814]); Fedor P Litke, Puteshestvie
vokrug sveta, sovershennoe po poveleniiu
imperatora Nikolaia 1, na voennom shliupe
“Seniavine,” v 1826, 1827, 1828 i 1829 godakh.
Otdelenie morekhodnoe, s atlasom [Voyage
around the world...aboard the sloop “Seniavin”
in 1826, 1827, 1828, and 1829. Navigational
section, with atlas} (St. Petersburg: Kh. Gintse,
1835). See also Black op. cit.; Svetlana G.
Fedorova, The Russian Population in Alaska
and California: Late 18th Century-1867,
(Kingston, Ontario: Limestone Press, 1973)

VanStone, 1988,

For prehistoric settlements see Don E.
Dumond, et. al., “Archaeology and Prehistory
on the Alaska Peninsula,” Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska, 18(1):
17-29.1976; Don E. Dumond, “Prehistoric
Ethnic Boundaries on the Alaska Peninsula’
in Anthropological Papers of the University
of Alaska, 16(1): 1-7, 1974; Don E
Dumond, “Prehistoric Human Occupation

in Southwestern Alaska: A Study of Resource
Distribution and Site Location,” University

of Oregon Anthropological Papers 36,
1987; Richard VanderHoek, Aniakchak
Archaeological Surveys, National Park
Service, 1998; Winfield Henn, Archaeology
on the Alaska Peninsula: The Ugashik
Drainage, 1973-1975, University of Oregon
Anthropological Papers No. 14, Eugene,
1978. For historical information about

2

28

29

30

32

settlements many records have not survived.
Korsakovskii and Vasiliev both had Ugashik
men on their crew (in VanStone 1988).

See also Kiril T. Khlebnikov, Notes on Russian
America Parts II-V: Kad’iak, Unalaska, Atha,
The Pribylovs, (Kingston, Ontario: The
Limestone Press, 1994), and Davydov, 1977.

Lydia Black, personal communication;
for further information see Pierce, 1990,
Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary,
p. 204 for a brief synopsis of Ivanov’s
exploits

Langsdorff, 1968. Aniakchak archaeologists
have found evidence of sizable settlements
along the Pacific coast and surveys indicate
that it holds many areas suitable for
settlement.

Pinart, Alphonse L. Voyage a a la cote
nord-ouest d’Ameérique d’Ounalashka a Kadiak
(iles Algoutiennees et péninsula d’Aliaska)
Paris: Bulletin de la “Sociéte de Geographie,
series 6:561-580, Translated title “A Voyage
on the North-West Coast of America from
Unalaska to Kodiak”.

Jon Erlandson et al., “Spatial and Temporal
Patterns in Alutiiq Paleodemography.” Arctic
Anthropology vol. 29(2):42-62, 1992

Ivan Veniaminoy, Notes on the Islands of the
Unalashka District, translated by L.T. Black
and R.H. Geoghegan, edited by R.A. Pierce
(Kingston, Ontario: Limestone Press, 1984).

Vladimir Modestov, ROCR, R145/[241
See Veniaminov, 1984 on earlier caribou
decline.

loasaf in Black, 1977,
Pinart, 1873.
Davydov, 1977:173

Considerable debate has surrounded the
question of whether Sugpiat hunted whales
prior to Russian occupation or not. What is
clear is that they were proficient at it carly
on in the Russian period and, at the
insistence of the Russian America Company


harvest the middle stream of Chignik Lagoon.”
Fishermen with purse seines slowly began to dominate
the fishery, but traps were not outlawed until 1959.

At Ugashik, IInik, and a few places along the Bristol
Bay coast fish traps were driven, but drift gill nets
predominated. Fishermen fished in teams of two
from shallow-draft Columbia River sailboats and
skiffs.*° The sailboats were brought north on the
cannery ships. Each cannery painted their fleet with
a different color, and each boat had a number on it
so boats and crew were easily identified. Beach seines
were used by independent local fishermen, many of
whom were Native. Federal regulations prohibited
drift gill netters on Bristol Bay from using power
until the law was repealed in 1951. The sailboat era
effectively ended by 1955 when many of the old
sailboats had been converted into motorboats and
larger boats were introduced.

Unlike southcentral and southeastern districts where
over one-third of the fishermen were Alaska Natives,
there were no Native fishermen in Bristol Bay or at
Chignik in the early years. Instead, the packing houses
brought outside workers, mainly Euroamericans—
Scandinavians, Germans, and Italians—to work the
traps, fish, and run the tenders and crews of Chinese
laborers to work in the canneries. The canneries sent
ships to nearby villages to hire local workers, but many
sea otter hunters were not interested in cannery work,
and they were not offered the higher paying work as
fishermen,” The lack of Alutiiq workers early on in
Chignik may in part be explained by the ongoing sea
otter hunting and trapping near Wrangell, Sutkhum,
Wide Bay, and Mitrofania. Also, the Karluk fishery had
actively looked for recruits from the Peninsula coast

as far south as Wrangell and sea otter hunters from
Katmai had gone there to work as early as 1888.°*
Kutchin noted that the industry’ attitude toward the
work habits of the Natives was negative:

The companies [on the Nushagak] and all over
Alaska would be very glad to employ enough of
them [Natives] to man their canneries, but have
found them utterly unreliable. They can not be
brought to steady work, and the companies are
forced to import their help at a very considerable

“Andersonville”

in Chignik Bay, circa 1909.
Courtesy of Alaska State
Library, PCA 24-104.

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

95



Afognak Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos
(historical and statistical. ciples ) External Sketch [Parish]

~Nikolai P. Kashevarov, 1898

The Afognak parish [includes] ... also several settlements on the Alaska Peninsula, The furthest

of them, Wrangell, has a distance from the parish church of 180 miles. It was founded in 1882, and
two years later the inhabitants built a chapel there named for the Transfiguration of the Lord. Next,
resettled people from the Interior of Alaska [Peninsula], namely from Nushagak parish, foreigners,
brought into being in 1890 two settlements...at Shirokala [Wide] Bay and at Kanatnyi [Kanatak]
Bay; the distance from the parish church 1s 160 mites. Even nearer to the parish church, at a distance
of 127 miles, is located the settlement of Katmai. Here the first chapel was built by the manager
Joana [Ivan] Kostylev. It was he who disposed the first Aleuts to adopt the Orthodox faith. ...

Communication with all of these settlements located on the Alaska Peninsula is extremely
difficult, inasmuch as one must cross by baidarkas extremely large bays along the very rough
Shelikhoy Strait. The climate in this part of the Afognak parish is harsher than on the actual
Island, and the soil is completely useless for vegetation. On the island last named is possible.
It is all covered with spruce woods. ...”””

boards two tables, which we sprinkled with holy
water, and on the holy cross we supplied the form
of the Savior. At 5 o'clock we anointed the children,
and at 6 o'clock we conducted a vespers vigil. The
place of the service was on a peninsula; on two sides
the sea and all around snow-covered mountains.
During the blessing all kneeled. The sun set in the
mountains, the sunset turning crimson. It was
completely quiet.”

Kanatak was first reported in the U.S. census in
1890 when 26 residents were counted; five years

80 CHAPTER FIVE later, Shalamov counted 43 residents of Wide Bay

and Kanatak combined. In contrast, confessional
records for Wide Bay in 1895 indicate 31 males and
20 females, while Kanatnaia (Kanatak) had 20 males
and 24 females.*” The Russian Orthodox Church was
granted land at both sites in 1867.’ Kanatak and
Wide Bay were both affiliated with Ugashik and the
late summer/autumn fish camp at Marraatuq. From
Wide Bay the walk and kayak over to the Ugashik
area is relatively easy, as Nick Ablama explained a
century later:

They would carry [their gayags] over land.

They say they would begin bringing their qayaqs
up at break of dawn. They would come to this river
[Quqtarvik/King Salmon] and travel down the river.
They would go down the river and by the time they
reach the mouth of the river the cannery’ noon bell
would sound off. They would begin [near the
headwaters} perhaps 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning
and arrive here at noon. They were hunting and
looking for food. The reindeer and bear meat was
the food source for these [Ugaassarmiut] people.*”

By 1895, a chapel had been built and the Alaska
Commercial Company was operating a station in Wide
Bay—its schooner Lettie was taking the hunters out to
an unnamed destination. Few records for the trading
store have survived, but for 1897, 24 hunters are listed
with outstanding debts. A few are identified as Katmai
residents; one is from Kodiak. Further research might
reveal where others were from. The hunt that year was
poor and only two hunters caught each a single sea
otter. In May of 1900, the Wide Bay chief, Constantine
Ugvak (Yougvak), wrote a letter in Russian to the local
agent. A translated version was forwarded to the Kodiak
office as:



168

APPENDIX ONE

reasonably be traced historically between
members of a present-day [Alaska Native village or
corporation as defined in ANCSA]” (section 10.2).

Objects covered under this act include: 1) human
remains, 2) associated and un-associated funerary
objects, 3) sacred objects, and 4) objects of cultural
patrimony. Objects of cultural patrimony are items
having ongoing historical, traditional or cultural
importance central to the indigenous group (rather
than an individual) (section 10.2).

Section 10.5 stipulates that the Federal agency
which intentionally or inadvertently discovered

or excavates objects covered under the Act must
consult with known lineal descendants and the
culturally affiliated Alaska Native corporation, village
or other established group. The Federal agency must
also provide a written plan of action to affiliated
groups and according to section 10.5(f) “Whenever
possible, Federal agencies should enter into
comprehensive agreements with [Native Alaskan
groups] that are affiliated with specific human
remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects
of cultural patrimony and have claimed or are likely
to claim, those human remains or [objects].”

Historic Structures and Objects

The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
(NHPA) requires that Federal agencies survey,
document, and evaluate all cultural resources for
eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places. In
1992 NHPA was amended to recognize the importance
of traditional religious and cultural areas and provide

for the inclusion of such areas on the National Register
of Historic Places. The 1992 amendments also serve

to protect cultural sites by withholding information
about location or character of sites from the public

if disclosure may “impede the use of a traditional
religious site by practitioners” (section 304).

National Environmental Policy Act

(NEPA)

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969

(PL. 91-190; 83 Stat. 852) establishes the federal
goal to “preserve important historic, cultural, and
natural aspects of our national heritage.” Subsequent
acts more clearly define the meaning of cultural
aspects and the role contemporary indigenous and
traditionally affiliated groups have in preservation.

Sites with Cultural, Religious, or
Sacred Significance

The Archaeological Resources Protection Act
(ARPA) of 1979 (RL. 96-95; 93 Stat. 712) defines
archaeological resources and provides for their
protection, preservation and confidentiality. It also
mandates agencies to notify tribal groups when
archaeological projects may affect a site of religious
or cultural significance.

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA)
of 1978 (RL. 95-341; 92 Stat. 469) protects and
preserves the right to believe, express, and exercise
traditional religions of Native Americans, “including,


Appendix two

Social Science Research Considerations

Chapter 5 of the NPS Management Policies of 1988
states that:

To ensure that NPS plans and actions reflect
contemporary knowledge about the cultural context
of sites, structures, certain natural areas, and other
ethnographic resources, the National Park Service
will conduct appropriate cultural anthropological
research in cooperation with park-associated groups.

Among other things such research will meet
management needs for information, define traditional
and contemporary relationships to the park resources,
and assess the affects of NPS activities on affiliated
groups. As part of the responsibility in fulfilling its
mandate Aniakchak Monument and Preserve
recognizes that:

A comprehensive program of natural and cultural
resource research is necessary in order to manage
the permitted consumptive uses as well as to
recognize and analyze impacts associated with
non-consumptive uses and regional influences
(Aniakchak GMP 21)

Guidance for accomplishing the research comes from
NPS Management Policy. Local organizations such as
the Alaska Native Science Commission can also
provide research.

Indigenous people often consider cultural resources
private, or at least not for public exhibition. The
Management Policy states that “identities of community
consultants and information about sacred and other
culturally sensitive places and practices will be kept
confidential” additionally, “Information regarding the
location, nature, and cultural context of archaeological,
historic, and ethnographic resources may be exempted
from public disclosure.”

The responsibility to conduct cultural resource
research implies an ethical responsibility toward

the affiliated people, their culture and their
environment. Biological, physical, economic,
historical, archaeological, and anthropological
researchers conducting research in Aniakchak should
observe standard ethical principles. The National Park
Service and the Federal government has addressed the
need to strive toward mutual communication,
cooperation and respect between scientists and
northern peoples. Additionally:

“All scientific investigations in the Arctic should be
assessed in terms of potential human impact and
interest. Social Science research, particularly studies
of human subjects, requires special consideration, as
do studies of resources of economic, cultural, and
social value to Native people” (Principles for the
Conduct of Research in the Arctic 1990, IARPC).

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

171


48

CHAPTER THREE

In several villages, there were outright dissenters.'”
The Nushagak parish priest Feofil indicates the
difficulty and frustration in the logistics of reaching
his parishioners:

Knowing from experience that the appearance of

the fish that periodically come here is a whole month
later than in previous years, namely now in mid-
June...in order for us not to stay home waiting for
them I asked the toyon of Paugvik settlement, Vasilii
Kolmakoy, by letter as early as March, before Easter,
to send paddlers for the clergy for a trip to Ugashek
as early as possible, namely, either at the beginning
or at least in mid May. My proposal to go to Ugashek
without fail now was based not only on the fact that I
had not been there in a long time and that there were
more than 25 infants unbaptized there, but on the
fact that...the free-lance interpreter had agreed to go
only at that time, i.e., before the time to put up fish.'”

Decades later the priests were still expressing their
frustrations at getting to the settlements and
parishioners’ lack of understanding about Orthodox

teachings and the meaning of the rituals." On Kodiak,

however, among the Creole population great strides
had been made as one observer wrote: “Creoles all
belong to the Greek or Orthodox Church, dissent and
skepticism alike unknown. The Creoles of Alaska are
the most devout people at church I have ever seen.”
At least a few of these Kodiak Creoles brought their
knowledge and faith to the Peninsula where they were
to further the church’s efforts in the late 1800s.

Throughout the 1800s the Alutiiq and Creole
population played an important role in the
administration of the Russian colony and as the period

ended, Creoles took an increasingly active role in the
administration of the colony. The Alutiiq population of
Kodiak was halved during the early administration of
the Russian-American Company. The impressment of
Natives into service, tragic accidents, epidemics, forced
emigration, and Alutiigs marrying into the Creole class
all accounted for the loss. During the last 40 years of the
Company’ presence, conditions improved for Natives
and Creoles alike. At the same time, the population on
the Alaska Peninsula grew at Ugashik, Katmai, and
possibly Sutkhum. Presently few documents with
information about settlements between circa 1840 and
1880 on the Alaska Peninsula have been translated. Sea
otter conservation measures had been put into place,
and while sea otter hunting was still supporting the
colonies, other fur-bearers had risen in their importance
in the mid-1800s—this may have meant increased
hunting and trapping around Sutkhum which would
have included the area along the Aniakchak coast.

By the 1860s, four generations of Alutiiqs had grown
up under Russian domination, and had experienced
nearly a century of contact with a new culture, new
religion, and new language. The Russian influence,
however, was about to end, for several reasons. The
Russian military was spread thin, and without sea
power in the Pacific they could not protect their
Alaskan interests. Russia was unable to meet the high
cost of maintaining an infrastructure and a military
presence. Russia offered the colony to a friendly
nation—the United States. This transfer would have
deleterious effects on both the Native and Creole
populations as hoards of newcomers came to Alaska
and the indigenous peoples would be forced to confront
yet another suite of beliefs, attitudes, and policies.


44

CHAPTER THREE

to settle on Elovoi [Spruce], Afognak, Bering,

and Morzhovyi islands and on Kenai Peninsula in
Ninilchik.'® In their role as a bridge between cultures,
Creoles were recognized as a valued asset in the
colony.'* However, educated and identifying at least
to some extent with their Russian fathers and
grandfathers, and well aware of their privileged status,
many rejected association with the Natives and refused
to join fur-hunting parties. At the same time, it was
observed that “the Russians and the Aleuts remember
the descent of the Creoles from illegal unions with
the natives, and at every step show them disrespect
and even contempt.”'”

As a social estate, Creoles were in a somewhat
ambiguous position near the end of the Russian
period. They constituted a privileged class and many
had not earned such privilege through any special
contribution to the Company; worse, while some
individuals held high positions, others were
indistinguishable from “Aleuts,” a condition that was
often used to criticize the whole group.'* The rapid
increase in the Creole estate led Councilor Kostlivtsey,
in Russian America with Captain Golovin to inspect
the colony, to encourage most Creoles to live a
traditional Native lifestyle, in effect reverting to the
estateless aboriginal class. Most Russian-born men
who had come to work in America returned home.
Membership in the Russian Creole estate grew from
553 in 1822 to 1,989 in 1863.’” Others of mixed
ancestry had never been entered, for example, those
who were born out of wedlock or the many who
resided in the ancestral communities of their mothers,
A few of purely aboriginal descent entered the Creole
class through their own accomplishments.'**

In 1870, under United States rule, 1,421 people who
had been recognized by Russia as Creole (of mixed
Russian and Aleut descent) remained in Alaska; they
were Creoles who chose not to return to Russia in 1867.
This did not account for all of those of mixed Russian
and Native descent, but only those recognized as part
Russian. In the Kodiak district (Kodiak, the Alaska
Peninsula, and Lower Kenai Peninsula) in 1860, there
were only 67 Russians and 3,019 Creoles and Aleuts.’”
Soon after the transfer, Dall would refer to the Creoles as
“half breeds,” saying that “In their present condition the
Creoles are unfit to exercise franchise as American
citizens.”* Dall failed to realize that many Creoles had,
in fact, constituted an important educated stratum and
work force in the colony—operating a tannery, lumber
yard, blacksmith, school, and farms on Kodiak. Many
outposts of the Russian-American Company and Russian
Orthodox Church positions were filled by bilingual and
biliterate Creoles. Creoles who helped to repopulate the
Alaska Peninsula after the 1867 purchase filled
important roles in the new settlements.

The 1838 Smallpox Epidemic

Smallpox ravaged Alaska from 1835 to 1840. It erupted
on Kodiak in July of 1837 and soon began spreading,
reaching the Alaska Peninsula by 1838. The aboriginal
population of Alaska, from Prince William Sound to
Norton Sound, was reduced by as much as one-third.
Many who survived were physically scarred, disabled,
or blind; few could escape the emotional scarring from
the deaths.'"' The impact for many was insurmountable
as family groups and communities were destroyed.

The Russian-American Company took precautions,


Denai'ina ¥

Tuyuryarmiut

~

Aniakchak Caldera
Mount Veniaminof: “a
gy
é ‘ Indigenous Groups
.
oo poe B of the Alaska Peninsula

PP. We

ai “
RS ; é& ;

"Ss,

30 0 30 Miles
Map 2.A (ae | Cartographic Mlustration: Wm. J. Lee



unions) was becoming more of a force as they
entered into skilled labor and even managerial
positions. A number of Creoles had been educated
in Russia and had returned to make important
contributions to the colony. Marriage had become
more common, largely due to encouragement by the
Russian Orthodox priests. In general, at least for the
Unangan and Sugpiat, people were treated less like
savages and had more freedom. In the 1840s
however, after the smallpox epidemic the Russian-
American Company proposed restricting free
movement of people on Kodiak and probably in the
Katmai area too. This was never implemented except
when the Company provided employee transport to
and from its outposts.'”” Because of the changes in
settlement, trade, and warfare and because of the
control the Russian-American Company had over
their subjects’ lives, contact with Tlingit and

Eskimo neighbors declined.

A half century after Shelikhov’s small army

overcame the Sugpiat, Wrangell—chief manager
Russian America from 1830 to 1835—wrote:
“because of their long standing ties with the Russians,
the Chugach, Kadiak and inhabitants of the Aleutians
have neglected their customs and have lost their
traditions.”"”” Wrangell assessed the state of the
Kodiak District Alutiiq under the Company's
influence, determining that, because they were
underpaid for the pelts they delivered and prices

for even basic necessities were exorbitant, hunters
were far too indebted to the Company. The question
Wrangell asks is why, given the government's
instructions and the church mission, have the lives
of the inhabitants worsened? He calculated that,

Internecine warfare, which was always accompanied by cruelty, ceased with the coming of the
Russians, but with it has died the originality of the people, ..Speaking of the people as a whole,
one must confess that the conditions of the Kad’iaks has not improved in the least. They are
considered baptized, but have absolutely no understanding of faith and do not even observe the
outward ritvals of religion and do not even know them. Wives have several husbands, husbands
change wives exactly as was their custom in former times, and the sanctity of marriage is not
observed. Their former games and shaman rituals and their old beliefs have not been replaced by
other ones, ... The same semi-subterranean dwellings occupied by several families each, the same
slovenliness and lack of foresight in storage and consumption of food, while there are fewer means
to satisfy the essential needs of life. From spring to autumn all the men able to work ate sent off
by the company to hunt sea otters and birds. From the autumn until spring they ate occupied in
land hunting fox and otter, and although this measure is essential for the survival of the company,
the islanders gain little through this.

By excessively low prices paid them for their produce and fairly high prices for the goods
in which they are paid, they are unable to clothe themselves and their families with what is

absolutely necessary, ...Formerly, they did not lack their native clothing. °°

~ Wrangell, N.D.

on average, each “Kad’iak Aleut” adult received

14 rubles, 25 kopek a year from the Company and
had to purchase clothing that cost four rubles for a
birdskin parka, five rubles for a kamleika (waterproof
gut parka), and 10 to 15 rubles for a ground squirrel
parka, so “it quickly becomes apparent how small is
the amount of money expended on the Aleuts and the
amazing disproportion of this sum in comparison to
the benefits derived from them.”'* The mission had
struggled and, in part due to lack of clergy, fell short
in the Kodiak District as had attempts to run schools.
In addition, the population had never recovered

from the excesses of Baranov’s administration. PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!



from Kodiak to the Alaska Peninsula by baidara and
baidarka to spring and summer crossings of Shelikhov
Strait. Later, small sailing ships were used which could
safely make the crossing year round.

The Alaska Peninsula hunt of the 1820s began
at Kodiak:

The number of baidarkas for the Kad’iak hunt
varies from 50 to 70. Having received their
supplies, the group sets off along the Island of
Kad’iak, crossing thence to Tugidok toward Semidi
and along the Aliaska [Peninsula] to the west side,
where they sometimes meet with hunters of the
Unalaska district. If they are unsuccessful on this
coast, they turn eastward up to Voskresenskaia
Harbor [Resurrection Bay] in Kenai Bay.

In August and September the groups return to
Kad’iak, and as soon as they hand over the skins,
the Aleuts receive payment from the office and
return to their settlements.'”

Only the best hunters with well-built baidarkas made
the long and dangerous crossing from Tugidak to
Chirikof Island and across to Sutkhum.

Bird-hunting parties were also sent toward Sutkhum
in May, not to return until the fall. Under Baranov,
bird hunters were forced to hunt, but in the 1820s
bird-hunting parties were selected from “free Aleuts”
of Karluk and Three Saints artels. They were well-
supplied by the Company with tobacco, guns,
gunpowder, lead, axes, and kettles. Khlebnikov noted
that a contingent of 20 to 24 hunters was sent from
Karluk artel to hunt birds along the Alaska Peninsula
in the 1820s. A skilled hunter would get from 300 to
500 birds, which the women of the artel would sew

into parkas. A reward of two parkas was given to each
hunter who delivered a dozen parkas to the company,
in addition to payment for the skins.'”

In 1834, during a low period for sea otter hunting,
the Katmai artel sent a sea otter party of 15 baidarkas
of Aliaskans and two baidarkas south along the coast
of the Alaska Peninsula from Sutkhum odinochka.
They hunted from Kamishak Bay to Cape Kumliun
and got eight adult sea otters, five immature, and two
pups." Ukamok hunters obtained only 13 adults,
five young, and two pups that same year.

The impact of sea otter hunting artels on the local
environment is not well-documented. At Sutkhum,
besides the commercial hunt for sea birds, sea otters,
seals, and sea lions, the hunters must have been
hunting and fishing for food on the capes and in
Kujulik, Aniakchak, and Amber bays. Trapping for
red fox and other terrestrial fur-bearers and hunting
caribou would likely have taken them all along the
coast and up the small streams running into the bays.
Information about the Alaska Peninsula has not been
located for the period after 1842 when the Alaska
sea otter take increased nearly fifteen-fold.

Travel and Surveys

Bocharov surveyed the north side of the Peninsula,
and traversed it via Becharof Lake in 1791. During
Baranovs administration several explorations took
place. In 1818, with the hopes of establishing
trading relationships, thus extending commercial
interests into the interior, the new general manager,
Hagemeiester, of the Russian-American Company

Other Russian travelers

that are known Include the
Lebedev-Lastochkin Company,
and Ivanov who traveled out of
the Peninsula possibly ending
up in the lower Yukon.
Explorations that occurred
after Baranoy took over as
Chief Manager of Kodiak

in 1792 include Vasilii
Medvednikov who traveled
extensively through the Alaskan
Peninsula in the 1790s, and
Filip Kashevarov who traveled
via several routes from
Kamyshak Bay to-Iliamna

and Lake Clark and back to
Cook Inlet. In 1818 and

1819 Korsakovskii visited
Kuskokwim Bay.'*

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 39



68

CHAPTER FOUR

General Manager Erskine of the Alaska Commercial
Company wrote to the Alaska Game Commission
suggesting that hunting by foreign schooners had

lead to the final demise of sea otter populations in the
area south of Kodiak and off the shore of the Alaska
Peninsula. Citing the hardships Natives might undergo
if not allowed to hunt, he also advocated for the rights
of Natives to sell scavenged sea otter pelts and sea otters
hunted from shore. The government took a firm
stance and prohibited trade in sea otter pelts for the
next 20 years. Natives, long participants in an economy
based on sea otter hunting, had to find a new means

to engage with the global market.

The period of increased independence in the early years
of the U.S. takeover, compared to the Russian period,
went together with not only a change in government
and an increasingly capitalistic economic system, but
also an increased number of outsiders coming to the
area with a new set of ideas about Native peoples, Few
Russians settled in Russian America, but by 1890 the

number of newcomers seemed unfathomable as the
canneries and salteries became more of a presence

on the land and in people’ lives. A new form of group
distinction developed. Creole and Alutiiq descendants
who had been under Russian dominance for a century,
and who had become Christians and members of the
Russian Orthodox Church, and many of whom were
literate and bi- or multi-lingual, became “half-breeds”
and “Indians.” Many Creoles were successful at aligning
themselves with the Euroamericans. Others were
lumped into a racial class of “injun” by people who
viewed the locals, dressed in a mix of traditional and
modern clothing and living in unfamiliar ways, as
savages. Many of the descriptors had been used by the
Russians before—dirty, impoverished, lazy, unable to
care for themselves—but with the new era they were
outnumbered. The U.S. government, unlike the Russian
government, believed that only through assimilation
would the indigenous people of the northern frontier
be able to participate in their new nation.


130

CHAPTER EIGHT

Like all human groups, the Alutiiq have adopted
new technologies and incorporated fresh ideas into
their pursuits so that their means of getting food from
the land around them are contemporary; but the past
provides culturally and historically generated beliefs
about the environment and the food sources in it,
ideas about strategies of the hunt, instructions about
behaviors and speech, and conduits to ancestors and
the spiritual world. Subsistence activities, when
carried out in the context of Alutiiq tradition,
contribute to the physical, mental, and spiritual
well-being of the Native community. Subsistence,
then, is about connection and relationship, about

respect and care, and also about position and prestige.

Among traditional Alutiiq families, hunting skills

and customs are passed from one generation to the
next through fathers, uncles, or grandfathers. For
those who continue to subscribe to their elders’
teachings, the young hunter has the responsibility to
learn the necessary skills and to respect and carry on
the traditions. Hunting in disrespectful ways by
members of the Alutiiq community are seen as
damaging to life, spirit, and history. For no hunt is
this more important than the bear hunt. Because of
the similarity between bears and humans, the special
relationship of women to bears, and the palpable
tension inherent in the bear hunt, social ideals are
reflected in the bear hunt. One's behavior toward self,
family, or community can influence the relationship
between man and bear, and the hunt. The hunt can
be said to mirror social relationships in the village.
Social precepts to work hard and never brag about
accomplishments, respect others’ strengths and know
their weaknesses, treat family with care, and attend to

the spiritual world are all intrinsic to the hunt. Neglect
of the behaviors that accompany these values can lead
to serious consequences for the bear hunter. Men who
bragged about their abilities are known to have been
crippled by bears, others who talk too much about
bears are unsuccessful in the hunt, while men who do
not have a clear conscience about their home life may
be uneasy about entering the bear's realm and seeking
a fresh bear trail. On the other hand, a hunter who is
successful in all aspects of the hunt may well be
looked up to.

At present, many Alutiiq subsistence beliefs and
methods are not being passed down and young
people who hunt in non-traditional, resource-
threatening ways are a concern to the elders and
their peers. Elders recognize that many young hunters
are not listening to the stories or learning the lessons
of their parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents
and this is often blamed on school, easy access to
economic resources, television, and the allure of pop
culture.“ Some traditional pursuits like trapping
fur-bearers, are infrequently passed on because,
although a few men continue to trap, fur-bearers are
no longer used for subsistence or essential to the cash
economy. Still, in most households people find the
time to engage in some subsistence activities and this
engagement is seen as a vital part of life, community,
and connection

Feeding the Ties that Bind:
Networks of Sharing and Trading

Almost every time a visitor to the Peninsula takes
an inter-village flight, some local resident is sending a
relative or friend berries, fish, or, meat. When people


Trapping on Bristol Bay Side

The north and west sides of Aniakchak caldera flow
smoothly down tundra-covered slopes to Bristol Bay.

The wet tundra is cut by many small and large streams.

Ash dunes are visible from the air. Two large rivers
originate near Aniakchak Crater. Cinder River courses
out of the mountains due west of the crater. A major
tributary, Lava Creek, gives access to the Aniakchak
River over a shallow pass. The many tributaries flow
together in a flat marshy plain before reaching Bristol
Bay. Meshik River curves around the south side of
Aniakchak crater in its slow descent from Meshik Lake
on the southeast side and into Port Heiden Bay on the
west. The entire river runs through marshy tundra and
tall willows, providing a corridor across the Peninsula
for an assortment of wildlife, and the men who hunt
and trap them. For these people who inhabited the
open tundra, dog teams provided swift winter travel
between villages and settlements and along traplines.
Dogs enabled trappers to go to distant fur traders to
sell their furs. Scant information has been collected
about trapping on this side of Aniakchak.

In 1906, two of the men who would later trap the
Meshik River arrived in Port Heiden aboard George
Albert's schooner—one was George “Scotty” Irons
and the other was Olaf Matson. Olaf, born Olaf
Mathieson in Larvik Norway, married Annie Abyo.
She was from Chignik.”

During his years of trapping, Olaf Matson had
several trapping cabins. One was on the Meshik
River at a place called Ameguduk. This cabin was
above river from Scotty and Mable Irons’ large cabin

Olaf Matson holding
his granddaughter,
Virginia. The little

boy is not identified.

They are at their
house at Tangonok,
on the south side of
Port Heiden Bay.
John Carlson
photo, courtesy of
Carol Carlson.

123



Chapter one
Introduction

If you look at your right hand, palm facing away and
hold back the fingers at the second knuckle, and then
reach out with your thumb—you get an approximation
of Alaska. Now if the end of your thumb is at Unalaska,
Aniakchak Caldera is just distal to your second
knuckle. This is the area of the subject of this report—
the mid-section of the Alaska Peninsula which has
been described as one of the most topographically and
climatically varied areas in Alaska. The Peninsula,

in this section, is at most 50 miles across.

The Alaska Peninsula forms part of the Ring of Fire,
an active volcanic zone caused by the subduction of
the Pacific tectonic plate beneath the continental plate.
The volcanoes formed by tectonic plate subduction are
very explosive and produce large quantities of ash.
When Aniakchak the 7,000 foot mountain exploded
about 3,500 years ago it buried vegetation under many
feet of ash. Ash dunes remain from this eruption.
Animals and human inhabitants were either buried or
left in a wasteland. It was only one of many eruptions
from half a dozen immediate volcanoes and many
distant volcanoes that have spewed ash over the
mountains, tundra, and lakes of the Peninsula. The
caldera that formed filled with water creating a large,
deep lake. Five hundred years ago a weak spot in the
walls gave way and water flooded the Aniakchak River
valley, washing huge boulders and sediment down
steam. In 1931, a year after Father Bernard Hubbard

had explored the caldera, ash from a new explosion
filled the skies near Aniakchak.’ Villages went dark at
mid-day, ash fell like snow—three inches deep in some
villages. Aniakchak caldera is often described as a world
within itself. It comprises its own physiographic zone—
six miles across, a world bordered by precipitous cliffs,
tilted rock strata, ash flows, vents and craters—it creates
its own weather and shelters a unique assemblage of
vegetation. However, it is the area of Aniakchak outside
of the caldera that has been home to humans, through
many hundreds of years.

The one feature that ties the Peninsula together is

the ash that has blanketed it over and over again.

Ash provides subtle and coalescing underlying layers
to the Peninsula, and it creates stark landscapes of
dunes, deeply cut creeks, and barren outwash plains.
Underneath the ash, the Peninsula is remarkable in its
variety of climate, topography, vegetation, and coastal
regions. Over a century ago, Baer observed that

Nowhere else on earth is there so great a difference in
climate within such a short distance as exists on both
sides of Aliaska...this peninsula separates the wooded
shores from the treeless... [it] fixes a sharp and
striking boundary line for the animal world since one
can see walrus, dwellers on polar ice, on one side of
this tongue of land, while on the other one can see
humming-birds, this brilliant herald of the south...

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!


Frank Grunert homesite on North Fork River, Kujulik Bay. His son-in-law George “Bobbin” Anderson built a winter

home to the left of the Grunerts and the Brandals had their home further up river The Grunert and Brandal families

lived at Kujulik Bay for many years. Trails connected this area to their neighbors at Aniakchak Lagoon. In good

traveling conditions it was a three hour walk away. Ross Smith photo, NPS 1998. ULEK PU'IRTUO!



Alaska Peninsula

Russian-American Surveys
1791 to 1837

(after Fedorova 1973)

Russian - American Survey Routes
—— _Bocharev 1791
——— = Korsakovskii 1818
& ——— —-Vasilev 1829

Vasiley 1831

A Voronkovskii 1837

* f oa Asichak Monument and Preserve

Cartographic Mlustration: Wm. J. Lee

Map 3.C





162

CHAPTER TEN

are culturally significant or sacred may be known but
not explicitly recognized as “sacred” by local people.
This could be considered a problem in definition and
communication. Sites may go unidentified as well
because it may be inappropriate or embarrassing for
people to talk about certain beliefs and associated sites.

Recommendation

Interviews with knowledgeable elders may reveal
sacred sites. Sites that are known to exist although
the location is unknown, and forgotten sites, may
be identified through archaeological surveys.

Document traditional butchering, transport, and
processing of subsistence resources

Assessment

The details of traditional methods of butchering and
processing birds, mammals, and fish has scarcely been
documented among Alutiiq people of the Aniakchak
area. Studies that have been conducted in this and
other areas yield data that are applicable to many
aspects of the management and research of both natural
and cultural resources. For example, Alaska Department
of Fish and Game has gathered information on beliefs
about and practices of use of brown bears that provides
1) a written record of traditional cultural practices,

2) information to help develop culturally appropriate
subsistence regulations, and 3) data that can aid in

the analysis of archaeological sites.

However, we have yet to document detailed
descriptions of butchering and processing key
subsistence resources by Aniakchak affiliated people

Many traditional practices continued to be followed
by Alutiiq peoples. Other traditional practices are no
longer followed by Aniakchak area residents, but
many elders know the details about traditional
processing methods.

Recommendation

Conduct detailed studies of methods of transporting,
processing, and sharing subsistence resources.
Document the details of field butchering, use and
preparation of the many different parts of animals,
food storage techniques, and sharing patterns. Collect
traditional stories and recent and historical accounts
about hunting activities, practices, and beliefs.

Identify dual residency patterns
Assessment

Many people on the Alaska Peninsula are summer
residents only. They live in Kodiak, Anchorage, or
other cities for much of the year. This dual residency
pattern remains unexplored. Some summer residents
have long term, multi-generation connections to the
villages, others have connections through marriage, or
commercial fishing. The levels of integration into the
villages vary. Many dual residents hunt and fish coastal
areas of the Peninsula, including Aniakchak, but only
anecdotal information has been collected on this.

Recommendation

Examination of the dual residency phenomenon,

in particular its impacts on village dynamics, culture
change, and subsistence activities, might illuminate
long term processes in use of Aniakchak area lands.


186

ENDNOTES

446 Internet site: http: Avww.census.gov/prod/
1/90dec/eph4/tables/cph4tbo3/table-06.pdl.

447 Michael Moerman, ‘Who are the Lue:
Ethnic identification in a Complex
Civilization,’ American Anthropologist 67
1215-1229, (1965), p. 1219.

448 Partnow, 1993:30.

449 Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ethnicity and
Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives,
(London: Pluto Press, 1993), p. 62

450 Eriksen, 1993:65.

451 1am indebted to Dr. Lydia Black for
helping to develop this argument.

452 Eriksen, 1993:62.
453 Eriksen, 1993:161.
454 Leer, personal communication, 1998,

455 Historic place names of the area often refer
to resource use such as those who trapped
(Rudy Creek, Albert Johnson Creek),
specific animals or fish (Wolverine Creek,
Mink Creek), or a desirable or undesirable
natural feature (Snug Harbor, Misery
Creek), Names often long outlive their
original intent such as those that locate
historical buildings like reindeer corrals
(Reindeer Creek) and other commercial
operations (The Clam Cannery)

Other names refer to some memorable
event (Dead Man’ Island and Dead Man's
Cove), or a family joke (Edwin's Creek
named ‘because Edwin always liked that
creek’), Many names commonly used in
and near Aniakchak are different from the
USGS maps and these are at risk of being
forgotten as people use the land less

or rely more and more on maps and
charts, satellites, and computer programs
for navigation

456 Gideon, 1989:51-53




reported near Eskimo Village. The same year there was
a disputed sighting of 4,000 caribou. In any event, it
did not take long for the caribou to mix in and “steal”
the free-ranging reindeer, because by then the reindeer
were not even corralled every year. A letter in 1950
explained that the reindeer had gone feral and a herd
of 4,000-5,000 mixed caribou and reindeer then
occupied the Peninsula, migrating south in the

winter and north to the Ugashik River in the summer.
This marked the end of reindeer herding on the
Peninsula, although for years after the last corralling
people would continue to see ear-marked reindeer.

In 1950, 30 Inupiat resided at Pilot Point out of a
population of 78, which included “Eskimos, Aleuts
and Euroamericans.” Despite their large proportion
of the population, Hanson, who continued to work
for the reindeer program, wrote to his superiors
complaining about the exploitation of the Inupiat

which he attributed to having three different races

in the village.*? Pauline Supsook remembers that
tuberculosis was particularly devastating to the Inupiat
population. The Inupiat continued to live in Eskimo
Village, and, although their children went to school
with the rest of the children, they continued to be
ostracized. Distrust of their lack of Orthodoxy, fear
of shamanic powers, and Inupiaq customs, which
seemed peculiar, continued to create a barrier.
Alutiiqs, many of whom identified with their Russian
past, preferred to associate with Euroamericans for
the social and economic benefits it afforded. While
marriages between Inupiat and Alutiigs occurred,

it was unacceptable to marry “Eskimos” with their
different language, culture, and religion. Few Inupiat
descendants still live in the study area. Fewer still
remember the early days of their stay.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

151



Post Russian-American
Resettlement
1890s

Map 4.B Cartographic Mustration: Wm. J. Lee

As environmental and economic conditions
changed, people continued to move about,
Canneries and priests drew people to Chigntk Bay.
‘The population of Ugashik relocated to Agishik or
Pilot Point. A temporary move by 2 families from
Koggiung may reflect a resource shortage.

10 01020 Miles

Migration Routes

Agishik to Unangashak

Kanatak and Wide Bay to Wrangell
Katmai to Kanatak and Wide Bay
Koggiung to Meshik Bay
Mitrofania to Chignik (Seasonal)
Ugashik to Pilot Point

Ugashik to Wrangell

‘Unangashak to Chignik (Seasonal)
Wrangell to Chignik (Seasonal)

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve

Russian Orthodox Chapel



Because of the methods used by the Sugpiat, the
sea otter was hunted by groups of men hunting
from two-hatch baidarkas:

The first man who sights a sea otter signals the
others by lifting his paddle. The others try to
encircle the place at a distance within range of their
spears. Only those who occupy the forward hatches
throw the spears, everyone at will, before each
other, while those in the rear hatches maneuver the
baidarkas. The sea otter belongs to the hunter who
was first to hit it. Sometimes the sea otter is hit by
two spears and in such a case the carcass belongs to
the hunter whose spear struck the animal closer to
the head or above the other spear. If the spears are
placed evenly, then that hunter receives the sea otter
who, before commencing to shoot, uttered the cry:
“Ku-ko-ko!”.”

The seal was hunted both from the shore with a spear
and taken in nets. Davydov specifically mentions that
stuffed seal decoys were used by the Sugpiat.” After
placing an inflated seal skin as a decoy the hunter:

sitting behind the decoy and wearing a wooden hat
made in the form of a seal head, shouts, imitating
the animal’s hoarse call: “uva!” As the seal
approaches the decoy, the hunter casts a spear on

a line which is about ten sazhen’ [70 feet] long. The
animal is dragged out on shore and finished with a
club, the pikkhudak [piqrutaq]. Seals are also taken
by means of nets made of sinew cords, about 50
sazhen’ long and five sazhen’ wide, with floats tied
to the upper edge and small rocks to the bottom
one. The hunter, sailing in his baidarka, attempts

to spread this net as quietly as possible almost

across the entire bight or cove when the animals
are sleeping either on the shore itself or on high off
shore rocks. Then he yells with all his might, the
frightened animals rush into the water and are
caught in the net.”

The whale hunter used a single-hatch baidarka and
specialized whaling equipment. The whale was struck
ona flipper or tail fluke by long, slate blades coated
with aconite poison. These broke off in the whale
causing death within a few days. The whale was then
retrieved when it washed up on a nearby beach.”

Once the hunter notices [a yearling] whale, he
approaches to the distance not more than three
sazhen’ and tries to aim his spear below the side fin
called locally last. If the hunter misses the side fin,
he aims at the back fin or tail [fluke]. The wounded
whale dives for the sea bottom. If the spear hit
accurately, the whale will be dead and come to the
surface on the third day."

Social Organization

The village was the basic political unit among the
Sugpiat. Winter settlements tended to be large,
permanent villages placed in somewhat sheltered
embayments or on the lee side of islands. Existing
documentation tells us that on Kodiak, several families
of unspecified relationship lived in each house, so that
up to 20 people—elders, children, mothers, fathers
and single relatives—might be under one roof. The
practice of newly joined couples initially living with
the woman’ parents temporarily brought new hunters

other; visitors are spl
with fish, which is left in the.
foreroom, in the middle, when
all the locals go to work...

In their social intercourse,

politeness is observed and they:
censure those who fail to meet

arriving or escort departing
persons... Insults were met
with admonitions.

Ifa visitor engaged in
unseemly behavior, he was
driven out, not by force but
mostly by shaming him.**

~ Hieromonk Gideon, 1804

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!



CHAPTER FOUR

remove the Sutkhum store. Also from Wrangell all the
Aleuts left for Katmai, they may come back now."

The Russian-America Company had hired bilingual
Creoles to run the trading posts. In contrast, many
agents hired by the Alaska Commercial Company

were English-speaking Euroamericans, although many
Russian-Aleuts and Natives worked at the trading posts
as well. Attitudes of the agents and traders toward the
Native hunters varied and were better among those
who, like Frank Lowell of Wrangell and Frank Kruger
of Ugashik, had married local Alutiiq women and had
invested in the local area.

Agent Fisher who ran the Wrangell post seemed to have
had little respect for the hunters. He thought, correctly,
that the fur hunt would never amount to anything and
that the indebtedness of the Natives was going to
continue to increase. In a letter to the Kodiak office, he
gave his perception of the people and the situation:

The Katmai Baidarka leaves here today for home
and I embrace the opportunity to inform you...short
two boxes of soap... very likely have been purloined
by some of my pagans here if not overlooked on
board... I find that instead of reducing the
indebtedness of the natives here, the inverse is the
case; (up $244.70 for recent trip) G am convinced
that this Station will never amount to anything.
1am disgusted with the pagans & should like to be
relieved as soon as possible... The natives here are
without [a doubt?] the laziest, drunken, worthless set
on this coast being the hoodlum outcasts from
Katmai and Bristol Bay Settlements.”

These are the same people who, according to the
traveling priest, were doing well for themselves since

they had moved to escape the oppressive practices
of the Company store in the Ugashik area.’”?

The Alaska Commercial Company was not without
competitors, and independent dealers could and did
offer the hunters another way to profit from the sea
otter trade. One of these was Nikolai Olgin, a church
elder, who built the Mitrofania chapel in 1881 and
owned a schooner which he used to transport the
priest from Belkofski to Mitrofania and Chignik.?”

He was also able to use his schooner as a trading post.
Petroff saw this as a detriment to the hunters:

Rivalry in the business of purchasing sea otter skins
has induced the various firms to send agents with
small assortments of goods to all the hunting
grounds, as an inducement to the members of parties
to squander some of their earnings in advance.**

What from Petroff’s point of view was a mishandling
of finances was, for the hopelessly indebted hunters, a
way to get something for their catch. Olgin was able to
undermine the Company's control—and the Sutkhum
hunters were not adverse to selling to the outfit that
brought the greatest personal benefit despite their
indebtedness to the Company. Agent Fisher explained
his problems with the situation in a letter to Kodiak:

July 5, 1888: May 13. I fitted out seven bidarkas for
the summer sea otter hunt on Suthwik Isld, which
disposed of every man and boy in the settlement.
The native rec’d 2 mos provisions and [illegible] to
hunt for that period. June 25th five Bidarka returned
bringing four sea otters. The other bidarkas returned
yesterday unsuccessful but reporting of otter all
around the isle. Reed & Olgin were also on the Isld.
My party reported Olgin bought from Ugashik party


Chignik Lake, 1997.
Michele Morseth, courtesy
National Park Service.

Opposite:

Tarnag, Angelica lucida, is used

in the steambath or banya. Its long
leafy branches are used as a switch
to stimulate circulation, while the
roots can be broken open and put on
top of the rocks as an aromatic.
1997. Michele Morseth, courtesy
National Park Service.

134 CHAPTER EIGHT

both villages. For example, residents of Pilot Point
who grew up in the Chigniks will travel to the
Chigniks to get berries and ocean resources not
available to them near Pilot Point. Chignik residents
may travel to the IInik and Port Heiden area to hunt
caribou. These patterns are not a result of easy air
transport but can be found in the historic period, and
probably much earlier. Ugashik River men walked and
kayaked to Portage, Wide, and Chiginagak bays to
have access to Pacific resources; later they took their
families in skiffs and sailboats to Lake Becharov and
overland to Kanatak. Travel between the settlements

of IInik, Unangashak, and Meshik and the Chigniks
was commonly done through the Unangashak/Chignik
River portage where people portaged baidarkas and
later small skiffs across the Peninsula.

Port Heiden is the closest village to Aniakchak and
subsistence use of Aniakchak areas is quite extensive.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game studies from
1963 to 1983 show that the Port Heiden use area
covered the Bristol Bay watershed north and south

of the village, from Cinder River to south of IInik.
Aniakchak lands included in the subsistence use areas


Post Russian-American
Resettlement
1870s to 1880s

Map 4,4

After the 1867 purchase by the United States,

people were free to resettle old village sites.

‘They moved from Kodiak Island, Katmai, and Ugashik
farther down the Alaska Peninsula,

Cartographic IMlustration: Wm. J. Lee

20

20 Miles

+0)

Migration Routes,

Katmai to Wrangell

Kodiak to Mitrofania

‘Sutkhum Sea Otter Hunt (Seasonal)
Sutkhum to Sutwik Island (Seasonal)
Ugashik to Wrangell

Ugashik to Unangashak

Wrangell to Sutwik (Seasonal)
‘Aniakchak Monument and Preserve

Russian Orthodox Chapels

Oo


CHAPTER TWO

ancestors, as well as the historical changes since the
Russians arrived. The culture of the people that the
Russians first encountered is relevant to understanding
contemporary Alutiiq. The long process of assimilation
was not a wholesale adoption of the Russian and then
American culture; it was a long process of adaptation
and change—change of the old and incorporation,
often modification, of the new—so that much of the
thought and actions of Alutiigs today cannot be
explained without a knowledge of both the
pre-contact and Russian past.

To varying degrees, individuals with Sugpiaq

ancestry know of their ties to the people the Russians
first met on Kodiak Island, along the Alaska Peninsula
and lower Cook Inlet. For many, this connection to
the past provides a sense of continuity and a link to
their social and natural environment, others feel that
they have missed out on the “Native” part of their past
and they yearn to know more. For some, the degree
to which they feel themselves to be Sugpiaq and know
their culture involves an individual choice about
whom to emulate, what values to embrace, what
activities to pursue, and how to raise one’s children.
Today these Sugpiaq/Russian/Euroamerican
descendants are scattered widely, engaged in today’s
world. Whatever the level of engagement with their
Sugpiaq past, they are descendants of a people whose
lively, viable culture was supremely adapted to their
coastal environment.

In the last decades of the nineteenth century both
Ugaassarmiut and Qikertarmiut resettled the Alaska
Peninsula, including lands near and in Aniakchak.
Most of the new settlements were mixed, although
descendants of these people refer to themselves as

Russian-Aleuts or Alutiiq. Following an explanation
of the term Aleut, this chapter provides a sketch of the
traditional Alutiiq settlement patterns and pre-contact
culture, based on early 1800s descriptions from the
Kodiak Island Archipelago. The final section discusses
the relationships of Sugpiat with Ugaassarmiut and
Aglurmiut of Bristol Bay, and the Unangan of the
western Peninsula and Aleutian Islands

The Aleut

The name Kaniag is applied to the inhabitants
of Kodiak and the surrounding islands, whom the
Russians call Kad’iak Aleuts...originally neither the
island nor the people held these labels. The name
Kad’iak is obviously a twisting of Kikhtak, which, in
Kaniag dialect, means “large island.” ... Whatever
tempted the Russians to call the Kaniags Aleuts, a
name which they earlier gave to the inhabitants of
the Fox Islands...although these people differ
greatly, ...one can hardly explain... With the
passage of time the name Kad’iak found general
acceptance...so almost all the Natives use it; also,
the younger generation have started to call them-
selves Aleuts (in their dialect, Aliutik). Only the
aged still report that in their days of freedom and
independence they called themselves Kaniags.’°

~ Holmberg, 1855-1863

Kaniag is a Russian adaptation of the Unangan name
for their neighbors—the Kaanagin. While Holmberg,
as quoted above, was mistaken about the term Kaniag,
he understood the ambiguity and confusion wrought
by the term Aleut. Nearly a century and a half later a
present-day Alutiiq explained the continued misuse:


people who speak Chignik Lake Sugtestun and
Katmai/Perryville Sugtestun.

Since before 1920, Yup'ik and Sugtestun-speaking
people have lived in Naknek, Egegik, and Ugashik, and
many residents continue to be at least passively, if not
fluently, bilingual.°° While it is difficult to place a
distinct boundary between the two language/culture
groups, people who are alive today say that their
parents and grandparents from the Ugashik or Port
Heiden area spoke both Sugtestun and Yup’ik or they
understood Yup'ik and could converse with Yupik
speakers. An interview with two Alutiiq from Ugashik
illustrates local perceptions and abilities. In this
interview Nick and Virginia Ablama are speaking to a
Central Yup'ik speaker. Nick refers to Sugpiat as Yupiat
but he makes clear the language differences between
Central Yup’ik and Sugtestun languages:

The people in Kodiak...the Yupiat call it Qikertaq
(island). It’s an island. When you see someone from
Kodiak and you ask, ‘where do you come from?”
They'd respond by saying ‘Qikertamak’ [from
Qikertaq]. And those in Kanatak are referred to

as those from over there [amkumiut].”

the people in Egegik were Tarupiat or Yupiat.
And those people that came from Kanatak we
called amkumiut [people from over there].
They were Yupiaq people, yes yupiat.

There’ a slight difference in the way we
speak... they call fish iqalluk [Sugtestun] and
we call it sayak.... We call [eggs] kayangut....
These people [in Pilot Point] call them maniit
[Sugtestun]...the people in Kanatak call {foxes}
uuquciit [Sugtestun-Perryville] and the people in

Pilot Point call them kangilngat (Sugtestun] and
down there [in Egegik] they call them kaviat....
My father called bears unguvalriit. And these guys
lin Ugashik] called them taqukat [Sugtestun]....

Virginia: I understand what they say here, and
over there, also over there, down there, and over
yonder [chuckle].TM

Like many people of their generation who lived on
the south coast of Bristol Bay, both Nick and Virginia
are able to converse with both Yup’ik and Sugtestun
speakers and several different dialects within

those languages.

Unangan

The Tayarut, as the Alutiigs call the Unangan,

were also feared as they came north and fought along
Bristol Bay. It is thought that the Unangan ventured
north of Port Moller and Kupreanof Point only to
fight and trade with eastern neighbors.

Some stories attribute the Unangan with destroying an
Aglurmiut village from the Nushagak and they were
fierce enemies of the Sugpiat. In the Pacific Ocean, the
Aleuts ventured not far east of Kupreanof Peninsula to
establish villages or in their subsistence activities but
they penetrated deeply into Sugpiat territory to raid
villages.’ Stories of battles on this southem border
survive today. The Unangan, a group of able warriors,
were effectively crushed by the Russians and many
were forcibly moved east into Russian settlements in
Sugpiat territory. A century later, Unangan and Sugpiat
descendants met in cannery towns at Chignik and
Sand Point. Some of them eventually intermarried and
many Chignik Alutiiqs are part Unangan.

to talk about them.., The
they couldn't go further in one
of the mountains. They stopped
in one of the mountains there,
They say there were those who
couldn't go any further and
were all killed by the enemy
warriors. The fighting down
there ended there.”

~Nick Ablama, 1990

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! §=.25



five languages: Inupiat, Norwegian, Sugtestun, English,
and probably Russian. The Zunganuks had come from
Nome. Olaf Matson, from Larvik, Norway, had married
a “Russian-Aleut” woman from Chignik. Olaf learned
Sugtestun well enough to understand and speak a
little; his wife Annie, whose first language was
Sugtestun, also learned some Inupiat from the
Zunganuks. Willie spoke Inupiat at home with his
wife, Nellie, but they both learned enough Sugtestun
to get by. Nearly everyone spoke at least some English.

Many residents of the Bristol Bay coast were multi-
lingual. While most did not understand Inupiat, there
were those who did. Aleck Constantine, an Alutiiq
whose family was from the IInik area, remembers
hearing his father speaking Inupiat as well as English
and Sugtestun,*”

The Inupiat retained not only their language, but
also their culture. Orthodox looked upon them with
suspicion—they did not attend the Russian Orthodox
Church, they danced their traditional dances, and
some of them were believed to be shamans or have
shamanic powers, They were ostracized by both the
Euroamerican and Native communities and, although
there were some marriages between Inupiat and
Alutiiq, the Inupiat tended to marry other Inupiat.
Not everyone however was suspicious. An elder
originally from Pilot Point remembers that

the Eskimos, because they came from out there,
T used to see some of them dance. They used to
dance [their own style]. Yes, in Pilot Point. The
Eskimos danced very well. Perhaps they learned
their dances out there.... It was great to watch
them dance.*”

By the late 1800s, the Russian Orthodox Church
dominated Alutiiq communities. By the time they

had moved south, the Inupiat migrants had been
exposed to Protestantism up north and they did not
join the Russian Orthodox Church. The extent to which
the Inupiat community participated in established
churches is unknown. However, the Seventh-Day
Adventists had a church on Swimming Lake in Pilot
Point as well as a mission across Bristol Bay at Lake
Alegnagik. Pauline Supsook remembers that many of
the peninsular Inupiat were Seventh-Day Adventists,
and they attended church during summers in Pilot
Point. She recalls being baptized at age ten or eleven—
"I was too young, I didn’t want to be baptized—| was
too young.”"® After marrying her first husband, Charles
Acheyok, in 1939, she sent her daughter to the
Seventh-Day Adventist mission school in Alegnagik.

Reindeer

The history of the early days of the reindeer herds
on the Alaska Peninsula is sketchy. The old herders
are long gone and those who remember the early
herding were born in the second decade of the
reindeer period. Few written documents remain and
the original records may have burned in a school fire
in the 1930s.*” The first Ugashik reindeer herd was
established about 1910. The animals were brought by
a U.S. Revenue Cutter to Naknek or Pilot Point, then
moved down the Peninsula. In 1910, 131 of the 380
deer in the Ugashik herd were government deer and
249 were owned by Natives.** Four herders had the
majority of the deer; 67 herders each had one deer.

Every owner had an ear mark to identify his deer. PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

145



attempting to educate people about how to slow

or stop the spread of the disease. Chief manager
Kupreianov issued orders that ships were to vaccinate
all crew members and prohibit contact with people on
shore. Vaccine and medical staff were sent to Kodiak
and the Alaska Peninsula, but many people were afraid
of the vaccine and refused it. The small houses, lack
of sanitation, close living quarters, and frequent inter-
village visiting and travel hastened spread of the disease.
On the Alaska Peninsula (probably Katmai), Kostylev,
the baidarchshik (crew chief), vaccinated 243 Natives.
Only 27 died in the area; all had refused the vaccine
and ignored precautions."

On Kodiak, communities had lost their hunters,
children and elders. A company history explained:

The sixty-five places in which the Aleuts had been
living, or, rather, from which they had been leading a
nomadic life over all of Kad’iak and the surrounding
islands, were consolidated into seven settlements
located at Three Saints Bay, Orlov, Karluk, and
Afognak odinochkas, and on Woody Island. The total
population of the settlements was 1,375 Aleuts. In
addition one hundred Aleuts lived at the permanent
artel’ [trading post] on Ukamok [Chirikof] Island .'°

The Sugpiat world had shrunk drastically within very
few years. Due to vaccinations, the Russians had been
little affected by the disease and the survival rates were
high among Creoles as well. Where populations were
decimated, the epidemic left a demoralized people
who had witnessed the failure of traditional healers’
shamanic powers to heal and maintain the natural
balance of life. They were forced to question and
confront their beliefs in traditional powers held by

shamans, healers, elders, and the lifeway that

was quickly disappearing. Many children were left
orphaned, many aged were left with no one to care
for them, and starvation threatened survivors because
many families lacked providers. They were forced to
depend on the Russians who once again instituted
vegetable gardening, brought cattle from Sitka,
distributed clothing, consolidated people, and rebuilt
houses. Despite the loss of so many people, the
Company now found it

easier for the local administration to ascertain at
all times whether the natives had received from the
baidarshchiks and toions full payment for the furs
they sold to the company.... Moreover, the
consolidation of the Aleuts made possible more
frequent visits to the settlements by priests, both to
administer sacraments and to teach the law of God,
which was particularly necessary for the Kad’iak
Section because of the character of its inhabitants."

Although Kodiak area
specialists do not consider the
65 places valid, Etolin counted
every fish camp and summer
place. “Village consolidation,”
implemented by Etolin, did
not last, especially among the
Alutiiq on Kodiak Island, By
1848, people were returning to
their traditional places, or were
establishing new communities
in order to find sufficient
tesources to survive as their
population increased.'*

Despite the great loss of people and the concentration
of those left in a few settlements, the population soon
began to increase and by the end of the next decade,
people began returning to their old subsistence camps
and settlements or forming new settlements.

Population

The population of the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak
suffered during the first years of fur trading—not
only from disease but from harsh treatment by the
promyshlenniki as they attempted to gain a hold on
the islands. Under Baranovs administration, Unangan
and Sugpiat were forced to resettle in far away or

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

45



land, but few places that would accommodate

the draft of a sailing ship. Undulating tundra plains,
pocked by large and small lakes, are cut by
meandering streams and braided rivers. These are the
travel corridors for indigenous people traveling in
lightweight skin-covered kayaks. The larger rivers cut
channels of deeper water into the bay and provide
corridors to spawning grounds for salmon—they also
provided access to the coast for larger sailing ships.
In the winter, however, the Bering Sea freezes and
ice fills the bay, inhibiting boat traffic, But this is the
time the marshy ground freezes hard, allowing travel
over its smooth surface. The resources available to
humans vary from those available on the Pacific side,
importantly to subsistence strategies; Bering Sea
marine mammals include beluga whales, walrus,
bearded seals and spotted seals—all ice-tolerant
species. Habitat for caribou is ideal on the Bristol
Bay plain and caribou dot the tundra in small herds.
Huge runs of salmon once glutted many of the rivers,
and varieties of smelt seasonally amass on the shores
or in the lakes; herring, too, come in large numbers.
Importantly, sea otter do not inhabit Bristol Bay so
that area received scant attention by Russian
promyshlenniki pursuing sea otters although trade

in terrestrial fur-bearers occurred. The pre-contact
Ugaassarmiut seasonal round and subsistence area
has gone undocumented. It is probable that, in
contrast to Pacific coast dwellers, they were more
reliant on land mammals because of their access

to herds of caribou.

Early records indicate that settlement was sparse on
the Bristol Bay coast southwest of the Ugashik River.
In 1818 when the Russian-American Company began

its concerted effort to expand its area of control on
the Peninsula, in Bristol Bay and the interior, it was
already aware of settlements on the Ugashik, Egegik,
and Naknek rivers.” Explorations revealed more
settlements along the north side of Bristol Bay, but
southeast of the Ugashik River on the Bering Sea coast
there are no records of permanent settlements in late
prehistory or early historical times.’*

The Pacific Coast

The Pacific coast is as rugged as the Bristol Bay coast
is gentle. Glaciated volcanoes periodically smoke,
never allowing residents to forget that the volcanoes
can and will eventually explode, adding another
layer of thick ash to the land. Waves crash the walls
of capes that jut out into the ocean; rocks, islets, and
islands disrupt the currents that flow swiftly along
the convoluted coast. Many of the sheltered bays are
shallow. Few places allow safe landing for either a
kayak or a sailboat or, once on shore, passage
beyond the mountains. However, the Pacific Ocean
is ice free and sea otter thrive in the relatively warm
waters. Weather permitting, the open ocean allows
for year-round exploitation of sea-mammals, fish,
and shellfish.

When the first Russian promyshlenniki sailed along
the Pacific coast of the Alaska Peninsula, they found
few inhabitants north of the Shumagin Islands and
the adjacent mainland. North of Kupreanof Point,

the Russians found few places to safely land a ship
and the coast seemed only sparsely or seasonally
populated. To the northeast lay Katmai, a Sugpiaq
settlement on the mainland of Shelikof Strait, and the
heavily populated Kodiak Island. Once established on

the Alasks Peninsula i in the late
1700s, Shelikov's men, under
the direction of Delatov,
Investigated the Pacific shore
of the Peninsula, eventually
establishing an outpost

there in 1786, Independent
merchants, such as Panov and
later the Lebedev-Lastochkin
Company, first penetrated the
Peninsula. By the 1790s, the
Iiliamna and Lake Clark areas
and portages to the Bristol Bay
side were under Lebedev-
Lastochkin control. Based out
of an outpost at IIliamna,
Ivanov explored the Nushagak,
Kuskokwim and lower Yukon
River areas.””

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! ~—sII



Pilot Point, 1997.
Michele Morseth, courtesy
National Park Service.

132

CHAPTER EIGHT

demonstrate the extent of land use to twentieth-
century managers and politicians; such analyses do
not divulge the patterns of movement across the land
over the course of one year or a lifetime, the depth of
knowledge necessary to harvest and process a rich
variety of resources throughout the year, or the

economic choices people must constantly make—
within the subsistence economy or between it and
the mainstream, wage labor economy or other aspects
of life. That any part of the subsistence economy has
survived a century of increasing government transfer
payments and grocery store access attests to its


78

CHAPTER FIVE

due to its distance from Nushagak and the
difficulty of the trip. In the wintertime it is four

to five days’ travel from Ugashek to Inangashak,
but there is no forest on the way and without
firewood it is impossible on the winter trail.

In the summertime constant south and southeast
winds delay you and sometimes force you to sit by
the sea and wait out the weather for seven or eight
days. Only in the spring, and early spring at that,
is it convenient to go from Ugashek to Inangashak,
since then the ice in the sea holds back the waves,
but al that time the ice does not allow you to go
from Nushagak to Ugashek, since there is a mass
of ice at the mouth of the Nushagak River until
20 or 25 May.

Modestov visited in June of 1898, reporting that:

The residents are all Aleuts who have moved

here from Ugashek due to an abundance of caribou.
Their religious/moral life is the same as that of the
Ugashek residents, they are good Christians.

They live not badly, but they do not have cash in
hand. From Ugashek a merchant will send them
provisions and other goods, and receives furs from
them. Therefore their chapel is very poor, but is
kept clean.”

By 1902 a trading post had been established for the
purpose of dealing in caribou skins. Natives were paid
one dollar per skin which the trader sold for between
two and five dollars, During the winter of 1902-1903
five hundred skins were sold at Unangashak. This did
not prove to be a long lasting industry—the Alaska
Game Act, which restricted sale of game animal pelts,
was passed in 1902,*°

The 1900 U.S. census mistakenly reported that the
population was “Aglegmiut” even though it is clear
that residents had moved down from Ugashik

The 1900 U.S. census mistakenly reported that the
population was “Aglegmiut” even though it is clear
that residents had moved down from Ugashik

Canneries were being built on the Ugashik River,

and while some families moved to the cannery areas
to work, others avoided the activity that canneries
precipitated and the low wages they offered. By 1910
a number of Europeans and Americans had moved to
Unangashak. Charles Johnson, his wife Katarina, and
a family from California are recorded in the census.
George Albert opened a store there also. Unangashak
is included in a list of chapels still in existence in
1919.” The post-epidemic population of 20 is mainly
from Ugashik but includes people born in Chignik,
Katmai, Unangashak, and Port Heiden as well.

Inik

IInik was established prior to 1920 southeast of

the Seal Islands at the mouth of the Inik River and
was part of the Bel’kofski parish. The river supported
a red salmon run and at one time Port Heiden Packing
Company drove a pile trap near the mouth of the
river. The fish were taken to Port Heiden for
processing. Two families, Aleck and Mary Artemie
and “Nickoli and Mary” were enumerated in the
1920 census. The Artemie’s roots were in Kodiak and
Ugashik, and their two oldest children were born in
Katmai. The Artemie family had ties to Perryville and
Chignik through Aleck’s brother Willie and sister
Dora. At some point, two Orloff brothers moved
down from Pilot Point; Matt stayed in Inik while his


160

CHAPTER TEN

and hunted the Ugashik drainage. Their children
attended local schools. Despite their engagement
in the local economy and educational institutions,
they formed their own communities. Why did this
population not persist in an area rich in natural
and economic resources? How did the Inupiat
population manage to retain language and culture,
“better than we [Alutiiqs] did”? What was their
engagement in the institutions that were formed in
the twentieth century? In an ethnically mixed
community what were the alliances between
groups? How was power brokered between ethnic
groups? Was their population too small to be self
sustaining? Tuberculosis is mentioned as being
particularly devastating to the Inupiat population
in that area. What effect did tuberculosis have

on the community? Was it a major factor in the
inability of the community to grow or did people
move out of the area to larger population centers?

Reindeer herds inhabited the Alaska Peninsula from
about 1910 through the 1940s. In the beginning of
the “reindeer era,” small herds were closely tracked
by their Inupiat owners. Oral history tells that
corrallings took place on Reindeer Creek just north
of Aniakchak. Neither documentary nor
archaeological evidence has been found to
substantiate this. Location of the corral is unknown,
but stories place it on the north side of the creek.
Archival records in Anchorage were searched in
1998; further search of reindeer herding records
housed in the National Archives, Washington D.C.,
and other places might uncover additional
information such as grazing range and corrals in
and near Aniakchak. Oral history interviews with

Inupiaq descendants might also disclose important
details about this time period. Archaeological
investigations of Reindeer Creek might unveil sites
of corrals and cabins used by reindeer herders.

3. Cinder or Shegong River was home to many
Inupiat families. They trapped the rivers and
creeks south of Cinder River but few details of
trapping areas have been documented. North
River or Reindeer Creek was occupied by at least
one Inupiat family, but the extent of their trapline
up the river on the flanks of Aniakchak is not
known. Interviews with Supsook and others
might provide that information

Document traditional place names
Assessment

Traditional place names and accompanying

narratives offer information about history and
traditional beliefs and practices on park lands. Place
names provide a context for understanding resources
and their contributions to people’ cultural identity.
The relationship of people to the land and to their
environmental ethics and values are often revealed
through place name and accompanying stories. Cultural
change and cultural differences may be highlighted by
the juxtaposition of names on a landscape. Short-term
occupancy may yield large numbers of names over a
small area that quickly disappear after residents leave
but tell of the vivid relationship those people had
with the land. Place names may also provide clues

to prehistoric occupation as names often survive
beyond a specific group’ residency.


32

CHAPTER THREE

Instructions to the chief Konstantine Alekseevich
Samoiloy, to be in full charge of the three company ships
and all the Russians during my [Shelikhov's} journey to
Okhotsk on company business. May 4, 1786, Kyktaklsic]
{Kodiak} Island, Harbor of the Three Saints, St. Simeon
the God-receiver, and the Prophetess Anna.'"”

1) _...there are 113 Russians on the Island of Kytkak.
Thope to get...a total of 163. These men should be
kept in artels {crews}, 40 men in the harbor, or in
Herring Bay in the Strait, 1] men in Ugashet Bay,
30 men on Afognak and Shuiak Islands, 10 men at
Uganat Bay or...wherever there is greater need, Il at
Olitak, 30 at Karluk, 20 at Katmakand II between
Katmak and Kamyshak....

When the Tri Sviatitelia [Three Saints} arrives

from Okhotsk, the crews should be sent to Kinai and
to Shugach. Add as many of the local pacified natives
as possible to strengthen the Russians. In this manner
we can move faster along the shore of the American
mainland to the south toward California...the indepen-
dent Kinai and Shugach people must be subjugated.

3) With the strengthening of the Russian companies in

this land, try by giving them all possible favors to bring

into subjection to the Russian Imperial Throne the
Kykhtat, Aliaksa, Kinai and Shugach people. Always
take an accurate count of the population, both men and
women, according to clans. Appoint khaskaks and set
by their own free will the amount of iasak to be paid

4)

5)

I)

into the treasury so that it will not be a burden to
them. They should he made to understand that if they
ate good subjects and pay this tax, they will have the
protection of Her Imperial Majesty. The best of the
natives should be given presents from the company's
stock, according to their influence.

‘When the above mentioned natives are subjugated,
every one of them must be told that people who are
Joyal and reliable will prosper under the rule of our
Empress, but that all rebels will be totally exterminated
by Her strong hand. The purpose of our institutions,
whose aim is to bring good to all people, should be
made known to them. They must be told to stop

wars and robbery among themselves, murderous
plotting against the Russians.

...You must see that the inhabitants who become
subjugated do not lack food and clothing, as is apt to
happen due to their laziness and negligence. Before we
came they were living in poor conditions due to their
profligacy and laziness. After they know what good
housekeeping and order are they will acquire a taste for
a better life and will become ambitious and quit their
licentious and willful ways. When they know a better
way of living, they will understand and will take part

in the work that enlightened people are doing.

Nobody but the company has the right to trade with
the Aleuts.


away. Their reasons for leaving the Ugashik River

and its rich supply of fish, caribou, and ready access to
Bristol Bay are not entirely determined but apparently
stem from displacement by cannery activities, food
shortages, and practices of the local traders.

Ugashik became a source village for settlements that
sprang up during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
When Ugaassarmiut began to relocate, some residents
left permanently and others returned after a short stay
away. Their reasons for leaving the Ugashik River and
its rich supply of fish, caribou, and ready access to
Bristol Bay are not entirely determined but apparently
stem from displacement by cannery activities, food
shortages, and practices of the local traders.

In the 1880s a group of people moved south near the
Seal Islands where Unangashak had been established
sometime prior to 1880. Then, in 1889, at least 100
Ugaassarmiut moved to join those already settled.
Their stay south was short, and by 1895 the
population of Ugashik was higher than it had been

in 20 years. Many of these people, however, did not
return to the original Ugashik site. After the turn of
the century, people moved to Bear River, Nelson
Lagoon, the Chignik area, and Meshik.

On the Pacific Ocean side, Ugaassarmiut and Katmai
Alutiigs settled at Wrangell in Chiginagak Bay in the
early 1880s. Other Ugaassarmiut regularly traveled to
the Pacific to trade and participate in the sea otter
hunting through Wrangell and the summer settlement
at Sutwik Island.”

The salteries and canneries began operating at the
Ugashik river in the 1880s but for the first decade
Natives did not work in the industry. However, by

1895 Father Modestov found that 60 people had
moved to the mouth of the river where salmon packing
houses had started. Initially the Native village at Pilot
Point was known as “New Ugashik” or Agishik.

After the 1919 flu epidemic struck the Ugashik River
only orphans and a few adults remained. Ugashik was
included in a list of chapels still in existence in 1919
but the 1920 census lists only one Native woman.’*
Many children were taken to distant orphanages.
Ugashik River people appear in the 1920 U.S. Census
at Bear River, Meshik, and Unangashak.

Agishik (Pilot Point)/Agissaq

The first Ugaassarmiut families to move to Agishik
built four barabaras up on the hill at the mouth of the
Ugashik River in 1895. The same year, Ugashik Fishing
Station at the mouth of the river hired 22 Natives to
work in the cannery.’® The next year Father Modestov
recorded 57 Aleuts in nine households at Agishik.*”
He arrived at the mouth of the Ugashik aboard the
steamer President and “With the incoming tide all

the settlement’s residents and I set out from here to
Ugashek settlement; on arrival a prayer service to the
Holy Trinity was held.”’*' Summer travel to Ugashik
was easy but in winter it was often difficult to take
elders and children upriver, and since the population
was growing Agishik was soon in need of its own
chapel. In 1896 providence conveyed the materials.
Modestov explained:

Last fall high water from the sea washed many
boards from shore at the cannery. The residents
at Agishek recaptured part of them and used them
to build a small house on the site where last year

I celebrated the liturgy in a church tent and where PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

73



164 APPENDIX ONE


Petterson, J.W, L.A. Palinkas and B.M. Harris

1982

Alaska OCS Socio-economic Studies Program.
North Aleutian Shelf. Non-OCS Forecast
Analysis. Technical Report #75, Vol. 1 & II.
Impact Assessment, Inc.

Overview of Chignik Lake in 1980.

Pierce, Richard A.

1990

Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary.
Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press.

Pierce, Richard A., editor

1976

1978

1984

Documents on the History of the Russian-
American Company. Materials for the Study of
Alaska History #7. Translated by Marina Ramsey.
Kingston Ontario: The Limestone Press.

Letters and reports from the early days of the Russian
American Company including harsh conditions for
Russian and Native workers.

The Russian Orthodox Religious Mission
in America, 1794-1837. Colin Bearne, trans.
Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press.

The Russian-American Company:
Correspondence of the Governors
Communications Sent: 1818.

RA. Pierce trans, and ed., Kingston Ontario:
The Limestone Press.

A variety of documents containing information about
the Russian American Company dealings in America.
A few documents address Alutiiq people.

Pinart, Louis Alphonse

1873

200 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Voyage a a la cote nord-ouest d’Amérique
dOunalashka a Kadiak (iles Aléoutiennees
et péninsula d’Aliaska). Paris: Bulletin

de la “Sociéte de Geographie, series 6:
561-580. Translated title “A Voyage on
the North-West Coast of America from
Unalaska to Kodiak”

Porter, Robert P.

1893

Report of Population and Resources of Alaska
at the Eleventh Census: 1890. Washington
Government Printing Office.

Census report including text about Peninsula
census area and map of village locations.

Pullar, Gordon

1992

1994

1996

Ethnic Identity, Cultural Pride and
Generations of Baggage: A Personal Experience.
Arctic Anthropology 29(2): 198-209.

Alutiiq ethnic identity and the cultural
revitalization movement are put in the context

of generations of catastrophes such as epidemics,
placement of children in institutions, and alcohol/
substance abuse. The Alutiiq author is the former
president of the Kodiak Area Native Association.

The Qikertarmiut and the Scientist: Fifty Years

of Clashing World Views. In Reckoning with the
Dead: The Larsen Bay Repatriation and the
Smithsonian Institution, ed. by T.-L. Bray and
K.W Killian, pp.15-20, Washington: Smithsonian
Institution Press.

Aleut. An Encyclopedia of North American

Indians, Frederick Hoxie, ed. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company.

Roderick, Jack

1997

Crude Dreams: A Personal History of Oil
& Politics in Alaska. Fairbanks: Epicenter Press.

Kanatak area oil exploration and Earl Grammer.
References Grammer’ notes from 1920-26 including
list of deaths and their causes.

Rollins, Alden M.

1965

Census Alaska: Numbers of Inhabitants,
1792-1970. University of Alaska, Anchorage
Library, Anchorage.

Lists census reports by village.


1988a

1988b

Goddard). List of Alutiiq sources at end—original,
pre-contact information and secondary sources.

Pacific Eskimo Encoded Precontact History.

In The Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska’s
Native People. Robert Shaw, Roger K. Harritt, and
Don E. Dumond, eds. Alaska Anthropological
Association Monograph Series #4. Anchorage
Alaska Anthropological Association. Pp. 311-323

Race, Language, and Culture as the triumvirate of
ethnography and the potential to bias interpretation.
Alutiiq linguistically Eskimoan, physiognomy more
Indian (Clark 1988:213, Hrdlicka 1944:3546375,
Neumann 1952, Turner 1983a, 1988) or just
confusing (see Clark 1988 for discussion 213-214).
Culture as encoded messages and circumstantial
contexts. Koniag archaeological phase started
900-1200AD.

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

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

‘A work in progress, unpublished update by Rachel
Mason for Kodiak Area Native Association.

Coxe, William

1787

1780 Account of the Russian Discoveries between
Asia and America. London: J. Nichols for T. Cadell.

Crowell, Aron

1988

1992

190 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Prehistory of Alaska’s Pacific Coast. In Crossroads
of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Pp. 130-140.

General prehistory of Pacific coastal peoples,
development of progressive cultural phases, cultural
diffusion, and similarities and differences between
Pacific coast groups.

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 by naturalists
William J. Fisher between 1879 and 1885. The
presence of dance masks, headdresses, and shaman’s:-"
articles shows that traditional religious activities
continued well after Russian contact.

Crowell, Aron, Amy E Steffian and Gordon Pullar, editors

2001

Looking Both Ways, Heritage and Identity
of the Alutiiq People. Fairbanks: University of
Alaska Press.

Dall, William H

1870

Alaska and its Resources. Boston: Lee and
Shepard, p. 241.

Davidson, George

1869

Coast Pilot of Alaska, First Part from Southern,
Boundary to Cook's Inlet. Washington: U.S. Coast
Survey.

Davis, Nancy Y.

1984

1986

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

Brief overview of contemporary Pacific Eskimo—
three groups: Koniag [Qikertarmiut], Chugach and
Unegkurmiut. Includes present villages. Affiliations
with each other and Corporation affiliation, new
organization/separation. Historical influences of
Church, Canneries and influence on settlements,
earthquakes, volcanoes, ANCSA.

A Sociocultural Description of Small Communities
in the Kodiak/Shumagin Region. OCS Technical
Report No. 121, Minerals Management Service.
Anchorage: Cultural Dynamics Ltd.

Includes descriptions of the three Chignik villages,
Perryville and Ivanof Bay. Village descriptions
include history, social organization, kinship, political


‘From (the transfer of the
colony in 1867] the dying vt
of Russians and the influx of all
sorts of nationalities, chiefly
Swedes and Finns, began.

Displaced from their places of
birth, cheated in the States,
unemployed, hungry, they, these
knights of sad mien, found and
up to now find a warm and
hospitable corner in cold
Alaska; having set aside all
sorts of dreams about family
life, they unexpectedly find a
warm family hearth, by
marrying local Creoles or
Aleuts...and start with their
progeny a new generation of
Orthodox Creoles while they
themselves remain heterodox:
Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic
and other erring Christians.
However, they are for the most
part indifferent in the matters
of belief and therefore don’t

185

have their own temples.

50 CHAPTER FOUR

The fact that the territory is now owned by the
United States cuts no figure and many of the native
members of the church are not even aware of that
fact. The natives of the north [Alaska] peninsula
villages divide mankind into two classes, Russians
and non-Russians, and to all of the latter class they
apply the generic term Amerikanskie, no matter
whether the individual specimen be a German,

a Scandinavian, a Finlander, or a Kanaka
[Hawaiian]. One unable to speak any Russian
whatever is looked upon as pitifully ignorant

and is treated with contempt."

While people may not have been aware of the shift
in government, they were certainly quickly aware of
the shift in policy and business practices, behavior,
attitudes, and language. For a few years, on the
Alaska Peninsula, the Alutiiq and Creole population
experienced the continued primacy of what had
become traditional languages, Sugtestun and Russian,
and the traditional economy of the fur trade and
fishing, hunting, and gathering. Groups of people
moved away from the old fur-trading centers and
newly burgeoning fishing centers to old village sites
where they lived off their own resourcefulness. The
new sites were rich in wild sources of food from the
land and sea, and suitable for building homes and a
chapel and pursuing a traditional lifestyle. This is not
to say that people discontinued bartering and buying
“modern” goods—they were not immune to the new
technology and luxury items that the Russians and
“Amerikanskie” had brought—and they were a
generation that had grown up with these new tools,
personal adornments, and cotton and wool clothing.
But by either choice or necessity they apparently

increased their dependence on the traditional
subsistence economy alter the Russian-American
Company left. Many families moved away from the
tyranny of the traders and were able to choose when
to hunt for trade and when to hunt for themselves.'”

Late 1800s Sources of Information

The priests’ journals and reports and the surviving
Alaska Commercial Company records provide some
insight into the late 1800s. The small, Native
settlements had infrequent contact with the Russian
Orthodox Church, but much of what we know today
comes from the journals and reports priests wrote at
the time. A few records, including lists of people who
owed money to the company, survive from the Alaska
Commercial Company, which ultimately bought out
the Russian-American Company. These scanty records
convey little about the perspective of the local
inhabitants—there is little indication of the economic
reasons for their movements, their thoughts about the
fishing industry, and their feelings about what must
have seemed like an overwhelming influx of men and
infrastructure, sickness, and famine. Their responses
to change are only hinted at in the historical records

The New Settlements

During Pinarts voyage along the Pacific coast of

the Alaska Peninsula in 1871, he described a desolate
coastline with little sign of current human habitation.
Sutkhum, long abandoned by the Russian-American
Company as an outpost, had a few residents, and there
was evidence of a village near Chignik or Kuiukta Bay
although it is not clear if the village was occupied. The



74

CHAPTER FIVE

the cross stood. The residents of Agishek asked

me to petition for permission to open a chapel here.
At 5 o'clock I celebrated the all night vigil and

a prayer service to Church Teacher Nikolai with

a blessing of the water and administered confession
to 30 people.”

By the summer of 1897, 24 Natives and 102 Chinese
worked in the Alaska Packers Association (APA)
cannery at “Pilot Station” as it was then called.

The 59 fishermen working for APA were all
Euroamerican.”” As word spread about the volume
of fish in the Ugashik drainage more packing houses
started. The village was taking on its own character
when the prayerhouse was finished and consecrated
in 1899—Agishik was well on its way to becoming
the primary residence for Ugaassarmiut who wished
to engage in the fishing industry. By 1900,

130 Ugaassarmiut had moved to Agishik, which
became the main Ugashik River settlement.

The Agishik prayerhouse became the main chapel

in the area and people still living in Ugashik traveled
downriver to participate in church activities.” After the
turn of the century, Euroamerican men began marrying
into the village and settling there. Living at Agishik
meant that locals could participate in the booming
fishing industry and continue to trap, hunt, and fish up
the Ugashik River and at Ugashik Lakes, at Fish Village
and other small settlements. The influx of cannery
workers also meant that alcohol became a problem in
spite of the priest’ efforts to curb its use. Agishek, like
Ugashik, was hard hit by the 1919 influenza pandemic.
The APA records and correspondence portray a bleak
picture of events during the epidemic. The first cases

were reported at Naknek on May 26 after the arrival
of the APA steamer Kvichak.***

On May 30, I made a trip [from Naknek] to the
Alaska Packers Association's Ugashik cannery,
arriving there the same evening. It was found that
the influenza had attacked the Ugashik natives, that
practically the entire native population was
stricken, also six of the white wintermen, and that
one native had died the previous evening, Orders
were issued to treat the natives at Ugashik with the
same care and attention as those at Naknek; also to
forbid anyone to leave or enter the Ugashik village.

On June 1, the chief nurse was sent to Ugashik with
an additional supply of medicines, etc. While there,
the chief nurse performed most excellent work in
assisting the natives and the whites affected.

On June 4, report of twelve native deaths at
Ugashik was received.”

The APA reports from Naknek and other Bristol Bay
stations tell of calls to U.S. Navy ships in the area that
went unanswered, U.S. Navy doctors refusing to help,
and officers misrepresenting the situation to their
superiors. Meanwhile, the APA superintendents took
the initiative to supply food, clothing, and medical
supplies to those who had contracted the disease.
They set up hospitals for cannery employees and
helped Natives in their homes. Superintendent
Heinbockel sent the following aerogram to the

U.S. Commissioner at Dillingham:

About eighty known died at Naknek. Adult
population practically wiped out. Ugashik twenty-



of foxes after they grew—they increased fast. ... We
didn’t keep the foxes in pens or anything, they would
run wild on the island. It wasn’t very hard caring for
foxes. We did a lot of walking, but it was okay.

The foxes weren't real tame, but they were planted

and fed by us; you couldn’t go out and pet them or
anything though. Some of the foxes were tame on other
islands, but ours never got that tame. ... We never kept
any as pets. ... We had other pets, like chickens, pigs,
and cats—no dogs, but lots of cats and chickens. ...

While my brothers and I went to summer school in
Chignik, my mama and papa stayed on the island
and cared for the foxes. In the winter, they would
come and get us and bring us back to the island. ...

We had no one helping us raise and care for the
foxes, just my brothers, me, and my papa, that’s all.
While [we] cared for the foxes, my mama cared for
the family, like cooking and caring for the younger
children. ... Every day we'd go around the island to
every feeding place and feed them. I'd say there
were about a dozen different places ... We'd feed
the foxes bran mixed with fish or sometimes meat,
like seal meat, sea lion, and fish; mix it with bran
and cook it. We'd go seal and sea lion hunting also.
The foxes ate anything wild. ... Once a year, in the
fall, we had to go into Chignik and load up with
bran and stuff, and take it back to the island.

When it came time to kill them, we'd set the box
traps where we regularly fed them before...1 think
my papa killed about 50 foxes each time, once a
year. We sent the furs in and would get a check
back from the company who bought ‘em. We got
[$40 to $50] a fur. We got a good price, I know!

...Before we sent the furs out, we had to clean them,
stretch them, and dry them perfectly dry. Then we
turned them fur side out, folded them up nice, put
them in burlap bags, and sent them out.”

By 1920, many of the islands near Chignik were
stocked with fox by Euroamerican men married to
local Native or Creole women. Frank Lowell stocked
Ugaiushak Island with blue fox in 1915, and in the
1920s Ben Benson took it over and it became known
as Benny Benson’ Island.” George Anderson, with his
wife, Ocelena, started raising foxes on Chankliut Island
near Castle Cape as early as 1910. His son-in-law,
Lars Hanson, had the lease in 1920 when Anderson,
five children and two grandchildren and Hanson were
living on the Island. Charles W. “Charlie” Olsen,

a Norwegian, and two Germans, Adolf Von Himmel
and Charles Weideman, were living on Unavikshak

in 1920, where Charlie Olsen had begun farming
foxes.” This Island is locally known as “Fat Charlie
Olsen's Island.” Olsen had good access to salmon.
streams on Cape Kumliun where his barabara stood.
Axel Carlson, Sr. stocked Kumlik Island in the 1920s.
He lived in a large frame house on the island every fall
and spring and had a barabara on shore from which
he and his sons trapped in the winter.

The expense of keeping the animals fed, combined
with the risk of leaving them for months at a time,
was difficult enough. Reliance on one type of fur when
ultimately the distant market fluctuated at the whim of
European fashion, however, proved to be unprofitable.
Fur prices fell 75% at the outbreak of World War I but
afterwards rose to new heights. Over the next decades,
prices fluctuated, sometimes wildly. Then in 1929 the
price fell rapidly and the period of fox farming was

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

109



333 Aleksin, ROCR R136/[408-409, 1897.

334 Aleksin, ROCR R133/1724, 1903

335 Kedrovskii, ROCR R139/1198, 1908.

336 Aleksin, ROCR R135/1286-288, 1906;
Kedrovskii, ROCR R139/1144, 1907.

When Aleksin first visited Chignik he called
people Creoles and Aleui/ Aglurmiuts. Because
of this the cultural affiliation of Chignik
Lagoon area residents is confusing. By 1904
he called them Agurmiuts and Creoles but
clearly states that they speak the Kodiak
dialect. Kedrovskii wrote that they spoke a
“Kuskokwimsky/Aglegmiut” language. This
may reflect Kedrovskiis association with
Unangan and lack of familiarity with the
subtleties of Central Yupik and Sugtestun.

337 Black, et al, 1999-325.

338 Christine Martin interview, University of
Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson
Library, Alaska and Polar Regions
Department, H95-35-10.

339 ROCR R 139/1246 June 1909]
“Vvedenski"; Alaskan Russian Church
Archives (mf 139), Belkofski, -
Reports/Records, Apollinarii Kedrovskii
(reel 134), Irina Dubinina, translator

340 Kedrovskii, ROCR R139/f98, 1906.
341 Kedrovskii, ROCR R139/f98, 1906.
342 Aleksin, ROCR R133/328-329, 1895.
343 Petroff, 1900; Porter, 1893.

344 Aleksin, ROCR R136/333-334, 1895.
345 Aleksin, ROCR R136/333-336, 1895.
346 Aleksin, ROCR R139/126-27, 1904,
347 AC Co., Box 129/Mdr1203,

348 AC Co., Box 155/fldr1894, 1892.
349 AC Co., Box 155/fldr1894, 1892.
350 Aleksin ROCR R139/f 96, 1906.

Chapter six
351 Kutchin, 1906:22-28; Murray, 1898,
352 Kutchin, 1906:22-28; Murray, 1898,

353 Merry A. Tuten, A preliminary study of
subsistence activities on the Pacific coast of
the proposed Aniakchak Caldera National
Monument, Cooperative Park Studies Unit
Occasional Paper No.4, (Fairbanks:
University of Alaska, 1977

354 J. F Moser, “Alaska Salinon Investigations
in 1900 and 1901,” The Salmon and Salmon
Fisheries of Alaska, Report of the Alaskan
Salmon Investigations of the US Fish
Commission Steamer Albatross in 1900 and
1901, extracted from US Fish Commission
Bulletin for 1901, (Washington
Government Printing Office, 1902)
pp 173-398.

355 Moser, 1902

356 Freeburn, The Silver Years: An album of
historical photos of the Alaska Canned Salmon
Industry, Alaska Geographic 3 (4), 2nd
edition, (1996)

357 AC Co., Box 155/fldr1634, 1888.

358 AC Co, Records Box 155, Folder 1634
Wrangel Station, Sundry Accts Book, Agent
Fisher. August 18th 1888 letter to M.L.
Washburn, Kodiak.

359 Kutchin, 1906: 48.
360 Murray, 1898
361 Moser, 1899:23.
362 Moser, 1899.

363 Moser, 1902.

364 AC Co. Records Box 155, Folder 1634
Wrangel Station, Sundry Acts Book, Agent
Fisher. August 18th 1888 letter to MLL.
Washburn, Kodiak.

365 Ablama 1990.
366 Kutchin, 1900.

367 Kutchin, 1900:30.

368 Kedrovskii, 1908; ROCR R139/1198-202,
1907.

369 William W. Atwood, Geological and Mineral
resources of parts of the Alaska Peninsula,
USGS Bulletin #467 (Washirigton:
Government Printing Office, 1911)

370 W. R. Smith and A.A. Baker, The Cold Bay-
Chignik District, Alaska, USGS Bulletin
#755-D (Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1924).

371 Smith and Baker, 1924.

372 Jack Roderick, Crude Dreams: A Personal
History of Oil and Politics in Alaska
(Fairbanks: Epicenter Press, 1997), p. 46.

373 Carol Barnhardt, Historical Status of
Elementary Schools in Rural Alaskan
Communities 1867-1979 (Fairbanks:
University of Alaska, 1980) 31pp

374 Earl Grammar in Roderick, 1997.

375 Marlane Shanigan, personal
communication, 2002.

376 Roderick, 1997.

377 Between 6 April and 28 September
1924, a flight of specially designed
Douglas aircraft operated by the US
‘Army Air Service completed the first
aerial circumnavigation of the globe.
‘Two of the four Douglas World Cruisers
completed the 27,000 mile trip (371
hours, 11 minutes flying time).
hup:/Awww.nasm.si.edu/nasnvarch/
ARCH_REPOS/GUIDE.PT8.htmi.,
Smithsonian National Air and Space
Museum, Archives Division, CORPORATE,
ORGANIZATIONAL AND INTERRELATED
COLLECTIONS. United States Army
Around the World Flight (1924) Collection,
Acc, XXXX-0152

378 AC Co., Box 155, Wrangell Station folders,
1888,

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

379 Atwood, 1911

183


George and Ocelena Anderson with their daughter and son-in-law, Victor and Natalia Erickson, children and grandchildren, circa 1915.
Back row: Alice, John, Nancy “Nin”, and Clara Anderson. Middle row: George Anderson holding Minnie and Jim, Ocelena Anderson

holding baby Rosa, Victor Erickson holding Lena and Henry, and Natalia Erickson (holding unidentified baby.)
Henry Erickson grew up to marry and trap in Aniakchak and Kujulik bays. Courtesy of Debbie Daugherty, Chignik Bay.

12 CHAPTER SIX


As a mediator between worlds, the shaman,
accompanied by physical manifestations of spirits,
entered the spirit world through a trance-like state and
sought solutions to problems the community faced.
He or she told fantastic stories about interactions with
spirit beings. As intermediaries with the spirit world,
the shaman could augur the success of upcoming
hunts or raids, or tell when they should be conducted,
forecast the weather, and cure or even induce illness.
Hunters would seek advice before undertaking
important hunting trips and the shaman’s prophecies
had great weight in determining where and when
hunting and warfare took place. The winter festivals
had many songs and performances centered around
hunting and proper treatment of animals. Magical rites
and rituals secured hunting success for the coming
year. The shaman could control an individual's
activities by predicting dire consequence for certain
actions. Shamans warned people of evil spirits and
during certain festivals “they imitate how the evil
spirits tempt people or harm them.””

An array of people helped keep the community,
physical health, and the spirit world in balance.
Shamans were a powerful force, and they and others
helped keep people healthy and the world in balance.
Healers used medicinal roots and herbs, animal parts,
massage, bloodletting, and other methods to assist in
healing various ills. Everyone had the responsibility
to respect the spirit world by showing deference to
the spirits that inhabited all beings and influenced
natural events, like animal population cycles, weather,
and volcanic activity. Animals had to be treated with
respect, even after death, so that the spirits would

return in a physical form and once again provide
sustenance for the people.

Clothing

Sugpiat clothing was highly specialized to function

in a coastal environment. Just as Inupiat had clothing
that functioned well in extreme cold, Sugpiat clothing
functioned well in extreme rain, wind, and drizzle
common to the coast. It was also expertly sewn and
constructed. Bird skin parkas, typically constructed
of cormorant, murres, and puffins, were warm and
highly water resistant. For special garments they
sewed parkas and other items out of neck skins,
which had small, tightly-spaced, soft feathers,
resulting in a garment that was soft and pliable but
still water resistant and warm.” Fur parkas were made
from ground squirrels, sea otter, marmot, beaver, and
caribou. The warm and comfortable ground squirrel
parkas were most prestigous and most highly valued
even in Russian times. Caribou skins, ready-made
parkas, and probably other clothing were valued trade
items since the Kodiak Archipelago did not have
caribou herds. Spun sinew for sewing parkas and
other clothing was often from caribou but could also
be garnered from whales and other sea mammals.

Waterproof clothing was made with specially
prepared sea lion or bear intestine and sewn with a
waterproof stitch. Kamleika were lightweight garments
that allowed kayakers to travel long distances in the
typically damp coastal weather without suffering from
the wet and cold, In contrast to the hoodless fur
parkas, kamleika had hoods. They also formed

a spray skirt to keep water out of the kayak. PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

19



144

CHAPTER NINE

Very few Inupiat are listed in the census taken in

the winter of 1920, a year after the flu pandemic.
Unangashak, IInik, and Bear River were all populated
solely by Alutiiq from Katmai, Kodiak, Ugashik and the
other Peninsula villages. Only Port Heiden was a mixed
village, with ten Alutiiq, seven Euroamericans and

13 Inupiat belonging to two families—Newport and
Aleatuck (Aletuk). The latter had taken in three orphan
children in addition to two of their own. The men in
these families were listed as trappers. All Native people
in Pilot Point are identified only as “Indian” for that
year, so ethnic identity is more difficult to ascertain.
The old Alutiiq names are gone however, and there are
many new Euroamerican names. By 1950 Pilot Point
had more Inupiat residents than Alutiiq. Other Inupiat
family names associated with the Peninsula include
Achayok, Awanuk, Kiglonok, Metigoruk, Nikavik,
Riley, Spoon, Supsook, and Zunganuk.

Like other Peninsula families in the 1920s and

1930s, Inupiat concentrated on trapping for their
winter occupation. They spent their winters on
traplines far away from the cannery villages. Some
families owned reindeer as well. Many families lived
in Eskimo Town during the summer when they fished
Bristol Bay, and in Autumn they packed up their gear
and supplies and moved to trap lines along Ugashik
and Salmon rivers in the Ugashik area and, near Port
Heiden, the Unangashak, Shegong, and North
(Reindeer Creek) rivers.** The extent of the traplines
is not known, nor is how they negotiated with the
local trappers for trapline and cabin locations. John
Kegluneq and others trapped around Blue Mountain.*”
William Zunganuk trapped the Unangashak area.
When prices were high, furs provided a good income.

Sam Supsook brought his father and mother, wife,

and children down to the Port Moller area in 1913.
They stayed in the Port Moller area for four years until
they moved north to Port Heiden where they had their
son, Valentine, in 1917. When Valentine was a child,
the Supsooks lived on North River, on the northwest
side of Aniakchak caldera, where Sam ran a trapline
up North River for several years. The family went to
the Zunganuks reindeer roundup on Reindeer Creek,
where the older boys helped with the corralling. In the
summer the family moved to Ugashik and those who
were old enough fished Bristol Bay on drift-gillnet
sailboats. When the children were still small Sam's wife
passed away and Valentine, the youngest child, was
sent to the orphanage at Dillingham. In the orphanage
he was surrounded by children who spoke Yup'ik and
Sugtestun, although there were a few orphans who
spoke Inupiat. When he was 16 he was released from
the orphanage and the next year he returned to his
family. At that time they and some other Inupiat
families were living at Shegong and trapping the
Cinder River area. Valentine had lived at Shegong as

a child, and later in life he returned with his common-
law wife. Valentine also spent winters wrapping near
Pike Lake, and near the upper Ugashik.

The Zunganuk family settled at the site of Unangashak
for many years where Willie ran the store owned by
George Albert." The families of Willie Zunganuk and
Olaf Matson also spent several winters in a “duplex
barabara” north of Unangashak where the men trapped
together. The site is called Tanganok in Alutiiq, which
means “lots of water.”

These families, who lived together for several years,
represented three very distinct cultures and four or



Section 816(b) specifically addresses subsistence uses
as it established that the National Park Service “may
temporarily close any public lands...or any portion
thereof, to subsistence uses of a particular fish or
wildlife population only if necessary for reasons of
public safety, administration, or to assure the
continued viability of such population.”

Water Issues

ANILCA

Sections 101 and 201 and 16 USC 1a-2(h) and lc
directs the National Park Service to manage all waters
within the boundaries of Aniakchak. The State of
Alaska also has authority to manage water, based on
the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, the Alaska
Statehood Act of 1958, and the Alaska State
Constitution which provide for state ownership of
the water, shore lands (beds of navigable waters),
tidelands (lands below mean high tide), and
submerged lands (lands seaward from tidelands).
Lands within Aniakchak that fall under these
categories are subject to both state and federal laws
governing cultural and subsistence resources.

The General Management Plan for Aniakchak
(1986:19) states that “The National Park Service will
oppose any uses of waterways that will adversely
affect water quality or the natural abundance and
diversity of fish and wildlife species in the unit.”

Aniakchak Wild River Corridor

Presently the Wild River corridor for the Aniakchak
Wild River has not been defined and management

policy is indistinguishable from Monument

and Preserve areas. The General Management Plan
addresses the Wild River in stating that: “because
the proposed management of Aniakchak National
Monument and Preserve meets and is compatible
with management standards established by the
Wild and Scenic rivers Act, there is no purpose

in designating river corridor boundaries. Similarly,
since river management proposals have been fully
integrated with other aspects of this plan, there is
no purpose in preparing a separate management
plan at this time” (1986:41)

Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act

The Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990 (PL. 101-601;
104 Stat. 3049) addresses the rights of Native
American tribes, including Alaska Native groups, to
certain human remains and cultural objects with
which they are affiliated. NAGPRA mandates federal
agencies to identify, consult with, and offer custody
to Indian tribes, including Alaska Native groups, that
have cultural affiliation or direct lineal descent from
human remains and certain cultural objects in
ethnographic collections or archaeological sites. The
final rule for carrying out the Act (43 CFR Part 10)
took effect in January 1996. The final rule established
the following definitions and procedures for affected
groups and agencies to carry out the Act:

Cultural affiliation “means that there is a
relationship of shared group identity which can

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 167


Foreword

This study sought to identify groups with cultural
affiliation and traditional associations to Aniakchak
National Monument and Preserve, a National Park
Service unit lying roughly between 56° and 57° N
latitude and 157° and 159° W longitude in a roadless
area of the Alaska Peninsula. The monument was
created in 1978 to preserve a large volcanic caldera
and the surrounding lands which have been a rich
source of terrestrial and marine mammals, fish, and
plants to human inhabitants for thousands of years.
With the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act of 1980, the monument became
Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve and

the Aniakchak River became a National Wild River.

The most recent aboriginal inhabitants of this

section of the Peninsula were the Sugpiat. They

and their descendants have had the longest tenure in
Aniakchak through over two centuries of seasonal and
year-round use and habitation. Archaeological evidence
suggests a connection between present day peoples and
prehistoric groups that may be further revealed in the
archaeological surveys currently underway.

Residents of the study area identify themselves as
Aleuts or Alutiigs though they speak different, yet
mutually intelligible dialects. Recently the term Sugpiat
{plural, Sugpiaq singular] has been used to designate
the people and the terms Sugtestun and Alutiiq to

designate the language. Under these latter terms dialects
of Alutiiq spoken by the Chugach of Prince William
Sound and Outer Cook Inlet and the inhabitants of the
Kodiak archipelago and of the Upper Alaska Peninsula
are subsumed. In my presentation, for the sake of
clarity I use the term Sugpiat to designate the people
the Russians came in contact with and the term Alutiiq
when referring to contemporary peoples. Following the
local dictionary, A Short Dictionary of Alaska Peninsula
Sugtestun, compiled by Jeff Leer of the Alaska Native
Language Center, | will use Sugtestun for the language.

In the last two centuries the people of the Alaska
Peninsula have withstood a tremendous assault on their
culture which was transformed in a brief span of time.
Since shortly after Russian contact in the 1760s, when
Alaska Peninsula Sugpiat fought off Russian fur traders
and their Unangan hunters, they have adapted to and
intermingled with foreigners in their land. Beginning
with establishment of Russian fur trading posts, Sugpiat
of Kodiak were called “Aleut” or, in the local language,
“Alutiiq.” With the establishment of Russian posts on
the Peninsula, at the latest by 1785, this designation
spread to the people there. Over time “Aleut” became

a term that distinguished many of the people under the
domination of Russia from neighbors who were not.
Sugpiat and Yup'ik descendants continue to use this
appellation today to align themselves with their Russian
past and the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as to

Opposite:

Meshik Lake,
looking toward the
Aniakchak River.
Mike Hilton photo,
courtesy of NPS.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! ~— IX



194

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Golovin, PN.

1979 The End of Russian America. Captain PN.
Golovin’s Last Report 1862. Translated with
Introduction and notes by Basil Dmytryshyn and
E.A.P. Crownhart-Vaughn. Portland, Oregon:
Oregon Historical Society.

Golovin, 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
Description of conditions at end of Russian period.

Hanson, Samuel

1937 Letter. General Correspondence: RG22, Reindeer

Records. National Archives, Anchorage.
Haycox, Stephen et al, editors

1997 Enlightenment and Exploration in the
North Pacific, 1741-1805. Seattle: University
of Washington Press.

Henn, Winfield

1978 Archaeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The
Ugashik Drainage, 1973-1975. University of
Oregon Anthropological Papers No. 14, Eugene.

Heinbockel [)?]

1919 Report of Superintendent Heinbockel, APA

Naknek Station.
Hillborn, John

1937 Chignik Trapper, Alaska Sportsman, vol. 3 (12),

p. 12-13.
Holmberg, Heinrich J

1985 (1856) Holmberg’ Ethnographic Sketches,
1855-1863. Marvin W. Falk, ed. Fritz Jaensch,
trans. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.

Ethnographic description of Koniag and Tlingits.

About 50 pages. Blend of original observations and
those of others, mostly Davydov. Kodiak trade with
Alaska Peninsula. Demise of winter feasts, games,
dances. Stories at end: 1) Elder mentions Russians
first coming; 2) Aglegmiuts from Nasigak Island;
3) Trade/Fight with Fox-Aleuts from Unalaska;
4) Escaped slave.

Hrdlicka, Ales

1930 Anthropological Survey in Alaska: Extract from
the Forty-Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of
American Ethnology. Washington: Government
Printing Office.

Pages 186-189 mentions villages existing around
the turn of the century.

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

Useful compendium of Koniag information.
Pages 9-92 provide excerpts about Koniag life
from Russian period documents.

Hubbard, Bernard R.

1932 Mush, You Malemutes! New York:
The America Press.

1935 Cradle of the Storms. New York: Dodd, Mead
& Company.

Father Hubbard includes chapters on his exploration
of Aniakchak crater:

Huston, J. R.

1956 A Geographical Analysis of the Fur Farming
Industry in Alaska. M.S. Thesis, Berkeley:
University of California

Hutchinson-Scarbrough, Lisa, and James A. Fall

1996 An Overview of Subsistence Salmon and Other
Subsistence Fisheries of the Chignik Management
Area, Alaska Peninsula, Southwest Alaska.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division
of Subsistence Technical Paper No. 230. Juneau:


Chapter eight

Subsistence and Resource Use

Subsistence activities are profoundly important

to local residents of the Alaska Peninsula. In every
village, the land, sea, and fresh waters supply foods to
most households. Residents tend to use a wide variety
of fish, shellfish, land and sea mammals, birds, and
plant foods. According to Alaska Department of Fish
and Game technical reports, resources harvested by
the communities near Aniakchak include five salmon
species, 13 species of other fresh and salt water fish,
11 species of marine invertebrates, three species of
marine mammals, eight species of terrestrial mammals,
more than a dozen species of grouse and waterfowl,
bird eggs, and several types of plants and berries. Of
course, not every community nor every household has
access to or harvests every subsistence resource, but
the high preference items tend to be sent to villages
where they are not locally available. Thus, the range of
wild foods and plants used per household are among
the highest in Alaska. In the Chignik villages, the
mean number of subsistence resources used per
household ranges from approximately 16 in Chignik
Bay to 21 in Chignik Lake.*” Levels of harvest also
vary. Chignik Lake tends to have the highest per capita
subsistence harvest in “mean pounds of food’—

in 1990 it was 453 pounds per person.

The main subsistence foods harvested in the area
are fish, caribou, moose, and berries. Moose slowly
migrated down the Peninsula, in the 1940s reaching

Aniakchak Bay where one of the first moose was
shot. On the Pacific coast villages, the main resources
harvested are salmon and other fish species, while
caribou amounts to over 50% of total resources
harvested on the Bristol Bay side.*”* Chignik Lake
residents have ready access to winter caribou in the
Chignik/Black Lake drainage and can also get an
array of Pacific resources. Their resource focus lies
somewhere between, with a relatively high harvest
of caribou but a heavy reliance on salmon and other
marine resources."

Alaska Department of Fish and Game studies

show that patterns and amounts of subsistence vary
between communities and between households.
However, in the study area little analysis has been
published on ethnic or cultural differences in patterns
of subsistence harvest, seasonal round, or use areas."””
Patterns of subsistence, social organization of the hunt
and food production, and beliefs about human/animal
relationships likely vary with ethnic identity, among
other things. Nevertheless, for generations having
fresh meat, fish, and berries has been an important
part of every household’s economy, nutrition, and
well-being. This remains true today as well
Engagement in subsistence activities requires
knowledge about various animal species’ natural
distribution across the landscape and seasonal patterns

of movement. In addition, the hunter must contend PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

127


were the Meshik River, its tributaries, and Aniakchak
Bay, where people dug clams." Pilot Point inhabitants
are not shown to use Aniakchak areas nor the Pacific
beaches, but more recent data show that they use
Yantarni and other bays along the coast to dig clams
and hunt.

The Chignik villages harvest areas from 1962 to 1982
were concentrated in the Chignik River corridor and
along the Pacific coast to the east and south. Harvest
areas differed from village to village, but these
distinctions are not included here. Subsistence harvest
areas within the Preserve include Kujulik, Aniakchak,
and Amber bays, and the adjacent lowlands and capes
and, near Port Heiden, the flanks of the caldera.
Inland areas include the Aniakchak and Meshik river
corridors. The main subsistence resources were moose
and caribou. The Pacific coastline is accessed by
fishing boats and occasionally small airplanes. Moose
and caribou hunters travel from the beaches inland by
three- and four-wheelers or on foot, carrying the meat
back to their skiffs. In previous decades traplines
covered much of the coastal terrain, but most of this
use was discontinued by the 1950s. Waterfowl and
invertebrates are also taken along the coast. The open
coastal tundra, such as that on Cape Kumlik, contains
many traditional berry-picking areas as well. On the
Bristol Bay side, moose and caribou harvest areas
include the flanks of the caldera, upper Birthday
Creek, and upper Meshik River. Today these areas

are accessed by four-wheelers.

Because of the large salmon runs on Alaska Peninsula
rivers, fish has been the mainstay of Alaska Peninsula
Alutiiq economy, both as a subsistence resource and,
for much of the last century, as a commercial endeavor.

In addition to salmon, locals fish for halibut, cod,
smelt, herring, trout, and a variety of other fish and
shellfish. Aniakchak Bay was previously known for its
clam beds and the marine mammals that use the reefs
and islands off shore.

A user group that has not been investigated are the
fishermen who travel between Kodiak and Chignik for
commercial fishing, Chignik residents are concerned
about Kodiak-based fishermen hunting caribou along
the Pacific coast, including the coast of Aniakchak
They contend that these are not traditional users.

Plant Use

A high percentage of households use wild berries.
Favorite and most commonly used berries are salmon
berries, lowbush cranberries, blueberries, and black
or crowberries.*”? Wine berries, cloudberries, and
strawberries are also used, but in smaller quantities.
The high, grassy bluffs of Cape Kumlik in Aniakchak
Bay have long been used for berry picking.

Leafy plants are taken in the spring when leaves

are tender and sweet. “Petrushkies” (lovage or wild
celery, Ligusticum scoticum) are stored either dried or
frozen and used as a flavoring for fish. Cow parsnip
(Heracleum lanatum), locally called “putshki,” is eaten
raw or cooked or preserved when taken in the spring.
Besides the commonly known berries and leafy
greens, about ten locally gathered or regionally
available (through subsistence trade networks) plants
are used for tea, food, steam baths, or internal and
external maladies.

A line of inquiry grazed the surface of the traditional
use of plants for food and medicine. Often, common

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

135



Chapter nine
Inupiat Inmigration

The Inupiat migration to the Peninsula and how
Inupiat families carved out a life in the new country is
a sparsely documented, even neglected aspect of the
area's history. According to local residents, the Inupiat
initially moved to the Peninsula with the reindeer
herds that were introduced to the Pilot Point area in
1910. The majority came, however, in 1913, when a
large group from the Nome area (Sledge Island, Little
Diomede, Mary’s Igloo, Teller, and Nome) arrived by
Revenue Cutter in Nelson Lagoon (map 9.A). They
were joined the next year by family members arriving
on Charlie Madsen’s schooner.*” Inupiaq families came
primarily to find work in the canneries. When
speaking of the past, local Peninsula residents often
refer to “Natives” (local people of mixed Alutiiq or
Yup’ik, Russian, and Euroamerican descent) and
“Eskimos” (Inupiat who came from the Nome area).
Today, few Inupiat remember the time families moved
south from Northwest Alaska—few can say exactly
what drove some people to stay and others to return
north after the move. But for those who stayed,
maintenance of the Inupiat language and culture as
well as engagement in the local socioeconomic system
became a reality. Despite being hundreds of miles from
home and dispersed over a large area, they maintained
a strong community feeling.

Cultural preservation for Inupiat living among
the mixed Alutiiq/Euroamerican population in part

came from their physical separation and ostracism
by the Alutiiq and other long term residents. They
lived much of the year in isolated settlements, spoke
Inupiat, and worked and socialized within their
community. Still, many of them learned the local
Sugtestun and English. Their children went to school
with the Alutiiq and Euroamerican children. As one
local Alutiiq elder remarked, “they kept their language
and culture better than we did.””° And indeed, they
did: the few remaining Inupiaq households continue
to speak Inupiaq in the home

In Nome, many Inupiat who had moved to town to
participate in the market economy could no longer
find ways to earn cash. One man explained: “my father
didn’t carve ivory and we didn't know how to dig gold
them days.”*" Trappers and fur-traders, faced with
declining fur prices, were compelled to find new ways
to make a living. The gold rush was over, the miners,
the entrepreneurs, and the cash were gone. Nome
languished and the many Inupiat initially drawn to the
city at the height of its prosperity were without work.
Meanwhile, enterprising entrepreneurs were figuring
out how best to exploit the schools of salmon that
swam into Bristol Bay every summer. As the fishing
industry expanded, canneries needed workers.

Although Inupiaq trappers on the Seward Peninsula

relied only partially on winter trapping, it had been PUYULEK PU'IRTUO!

I41



34

CHAPTER THREE

Kodiak, and distributed supplies to hunting parties.
Artels were large establishments; odinochkas were
small posts, operated by one or two men. Samoilov
was instructed to place 31 Russians in two locations
on the Alaska Peninsula, near Katmai. At least one
early attempt to establish a Company outpost on the
Peninsula was repelled by the mainland Sugpiat.

By 1787 it was reported that baidarshchik Maksimov
and the men stationed at the artel near the Native
settlement of Katmai had been killed.'?' A few years
later, Baranov continued efforts to establish outposts,
forcing kaiurs and hunters to live at and defend them.
On the Alaska Peninsula he established two artels in
1793, Katmai artel would become the center of trade
on the northeastern end of the Alaska Peninsula and
was a well-established village until the 1912 eruption
of Novarupta buried it in ash. The other, Sutkhum,
was a supply post established on or near Sutwik
Island, a rich source of sea otters and sea lions

A representative of the Russian Orthodox Church,
Hieromonk Gideon, wrote scathing reports of Baranov’s
treatment of people and of his conduct in general. He
reported that every able person under Company
control in the Aleutians, the Alaska Peninsula, and
Kodiak was forced to work for the Company in some
capacity—hunting, putting up fish and other foods,
preparing and sewing skins—in exchange for which
they got little more than the same food and clothing.
Artels of bird hunters were sent out and the women
were forced to sew bird-skin parkas and kamleikas'”
for almost nothing. The men were forced to hunt

sea otter away from their homes, wives, children, and
elders for months, and in some cases years, at a time.
Baranov sent Kodiak hunters, kaiurs, and kaiurkas to

populate artels as remote as California and Sitka,
thus depopulating Kodiak

The promyshlenniki, Shelikhov, and then Baranov
can justifiably be said to have been cruel, inhumane,
oppressive, and irrevocably destructive to the Native
lifeway. But to say that “The Russians” (i.e., the
Imperial government) was cruel and oppressive is
unfair. Beginning in the late 1700s the government
encouraged promyshlenniki and the Company to
treat the new subjects well. In the times of Imperial
domination and competition to gain control over the
world’s resources, Russia, like America and other
European countries, believed it had a right to take
any land occupied by non-Europeans—it was at the
level of individual to individual and government
representative (the Russian-American Company) to
Native that goodwill toward Natives was encouraged
or even demanded. It was not until after Baranov’s
reign, however, that conditions would improve.

Treatment of Natives after 1818

In 1818 Baranov left the Company and a

new management, with policies dictated by the
government, instituted changes in the treatment

of Natives.’ A new charter was granted the Company
just a few years later that explicitly addressed the
Company’ relationship with Natives. The class of
kaiurs and kaiurkas was eliminated and, although
they were required to sell their furs to the Company,
many hunters were employed rather than forced to
work, Those who chose to work as “free Aleuts” were
required to sell their furs to the Company.’ The
Creole class (mainly descendants of Russian-Native


Krauss, Michael E.

1980 Alaska Native Languages. Fairbanks:
Alaska Native Language Center.

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. Alutiiq language is shown
variously as Pacific Eskimo, Suqpiag, or Alutiiq

Krusenstern, A. J. von
1827 Atlas de l’ocean Pacifique. St. Petersburg.

Kutchin, Howard M.

1906 Report on the Inspection of the Salmon Fisheries.
Department of Commerce and Labor. Document
#618. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Langsdorff, Georg H. von

1968 Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World
(1813 during the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806
& 1814) 1807. 2 vols. New York: De Capo Press.

Naturalist in Alaska for brief time, skirted the
Alaska Peninsula. Mentions immense amount of

sea mammals and birds near Semidi Islands and all

islands south of Peninsula. Pp. 30-80 on Unalaska
and Kodiak in 1805; includes inhabitants, food,
clothing, ornaments, religion, gender issues, etc.

Discusses population, Russian mistreatment of Aleuts.

Lantis, Margaret

1938. The Alaskan Whale Cult and its Affinities.
American Anthropologist 40:438-464.

A study of ceremonialism surrounding whaling and
similarities between groups. Based on historical and
ethnographic accounts and includes the Alutiiq
culture area.

1947 Alaskan Eskimo Ceremonialism. American

196 BIBLIOGRAPHY Ethnological Society Monograph 11. New York

Based on historical and ethnographic accounts.
Discusses location of Koniag and concludes Koniaq
were similar to Eskimo intrusive on the Pacific coast.

Leer, Jelf
1985. Prosody in Alutiiq. In Yup'ik Eskimo Prosodic
Systems: Descriptive and Comparative Studies.

Michael Krauss, ed. Paper No. 7. Pp. 77-133.
Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center Research.

1996 A Short Dictionary of Alaska Peninsula Sugtestun.
Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

Liapunova, Rosa G.

1990 The Aleuts before Contact with the Russians:
some demographic and cultural aspects.
Katherine Arndt, translator. Pacifica 2(2):8-23

Some on relations with Koniag and Aglurmiut-
warfare and slavery.

1994 Eskimo Masks from Kodiak Island in the
Collections of the Peter the Great Museum of
Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg.
In Anthropology of the North Pacific Rim,
Crossroads of Continents—Cultures of Siberia
and Alaska Symposium. W.W. Fitzhugh and
V, Chaussonnet, eds., Pp.175-203
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Examines artifacts collected in the 1840s by
Voznesenskii. Connects masks to festivals and
ceremonies described by various observers. Includes
descriptions of a wide variety of performances, details
and Koniag names of masks.
Lisianskii, Urii F

1814 A Voyage Round the World in the Years 1803, 1804,
1805, & 1806; Performed by Order of His Imperial
Majesty Alexander the First, Emperor of Russia, in
the Ship Neva. London: Printed for J. Booth.
Description of Koniag and Russian settlers. Disagrees
with Langsdorff’s portrayal of Russian treatment of
Natives. Koniag origin story pp. 196-7.




aa r
Q f* ays
0 Ye ie Det
‘ y/ e by ‘Afognak Island (Uncertain)

Russian American Company

Island 1} Settlements in Southwest
Alaska ~1804
h (after Gideon 1989)

Cartographic Mustration: Wm. J. Lee

Map 3.A



foxes were then a ingeal in the
winter when their pelts were

the most luxurious. In Russian
times people were supplied

with steel traps during hunting
season. The other method
involved raising foxes in pens.”

108 CHAPTER SIX

to start the business with, it is true, much less to pay
$100 per year for a term of years to secure the right of
occupancy of an island.”* But he seems to have had
little faith in Native ability since fox farms often
amounted to “places where a few pairs of foxes have
been turned loose, and a solitary native or half-breed
more or less perfunctorily catches and scatters fish for
their food. The chances are he doesn’t know much
about the results of his venture, though he may have
been engaged in it for several years ... I found more than
one case where neglect and slovenly, shiftless ways had
resulted in the decimation of the original number.”*”

One of the first large concerns to enter the fox business,
the Alaska Commercial Company, started the Semidi
Propagating Company which released arctic, or blue,
foxes in the Semidi Islands in 1885.* The company
stocked numerous islands off the Alaska Peninsula
coast, including Chirikof and several islands of the
Kodiak Archipelago. As the numbers of sea otters fell,
fox farming gained in economic importance in the area.
The Alaska Commercial Company encouraged the
change and hired Euroamericans to manage and
supervise the operations. Natives were hired as hands
on the islands. Between 1890 and 1914, the Alaska
Commercial Company harvested over 5,000 foxes.*”
The foxes were fed corn meal mush mixed with fish,
dried fish, fresh or half-rotten fish, and canned salmon.

Many of the small islands around Kodiak, along the
Alaska Peninsula, and in the Aleutians were leased to
corporations and individuals, and many other islands
were stocked illegally. Fox farming could be lucrative
but not all of the islands were ideal; some had a food
source for the foxes but others needed to be stocked
frequently with food—primarily fish, but also seals and

sea lions. Mainland streams with fish runs provided

a good source of fish and it was advantageous for the
islands to be close enough to on-shore salmon streams
to row back and forth. The mainland fishing stream
often became the site of a second dwelling place. It was
a risky business, though, because unattended islands
were vulnerable to theft. More than one fox owner
came to harvest their furs only to find skinned-out
carcasses and empty stretching boards littering their
island. But before the fox-farming enterprises declined,
many families enjoyed their lives on the many small
islands which dot the coast of the Peninsula. Pete
Pedersen married Charles Brandal’s daughter, Anne.
He and his family started a fox farm on Nakchamik
Island in the 1920s. Their daughter, Helen Neilsen,
remembers the years her family farmed foxes:

Our fox farm was located on Nakchamik, or

Fox Island as we called it. We lived on the island
for many years; I'd say we were out there about ten
years and we fox-farmed all that time. There wasn’t
anything else to do [at] that time in Chignik. People
didn’t fish for a living, you know, so we had to trap
or fox-farm, either wild animals or fox.

Papa started building the fox farm around 1925,
but as the years passed, the prices dropped so low
that we couldn't keep the fox farm going. Everybody
had foxes, raised them on their own islands, but we
had Nakchamik. Living on the island was nice,

I liked it. We had some fun on the island, not just
caring for foxes. Wintertime we would go skating,
sliding. That was fun.

When we started, we bought a pair of foxes from
another island, and they increased. There was a lot


Washington: Government Printing Office.

Includes information on geography, vegetation,
animal life of Peninsula as well as population, routes
and trails, and commercial development at and near
Kanatak Village. Mentions Fish Village and Chignik
and canneries.

Spurr, Josiah E.

1900 A Reconnaissance in Southwestern Alaska in
1898. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Stafeev, Vladimir

In Press Diary. M. Ramsay, translator. Kingston, Ontario:
The Limestone Press.

Tanner, Z. L.
1881 Explorations of the Fishing Grounds of Alaska,
Washington and Oregon During 1880. Bulletin
of the U.S. Fish Commission, Vol. 8
(Washington. Pp. 36.)
Teben’koy, M.D.
1981 (1852) Atlas of the Northwest Coasts of America.
Alaska History, No. 21, Maps of Russian America
I. Translated and Edited by Richard A. Pierce.
Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press
Includes Notes. The Alaska Peninsula [chart XXIV}
and Bristol Bay area from Goodnews Bay to Naknek
and Ugashik on chart IV. Reports seeing only 500
people on coast from Goodnews Bay to Ugashik.
Tikhmeney, Petr A.

1978 A History of the Russian-American Company.
(1861-3) R.A. Pierce & A. S. Donnelly trans. and
eds. Seattle: University of Washington Press

1979 A History of the Russian American Company,
(1863) vol.2. Dmitri Krenoy, Trans. R.A. Pierce
and A.S. Donnelly eds. Materials for the Study of
Alaska History, No. 13. Kingston, Ontario: The
Limestone Press.

202 BIBLIOGRAPHY Tikhmenev was the historian of the Russian

American Company. Works include details on
natural history, ethnography, disease, and mission
and company activities. Ethnographic information
based on materials from Khlebnikov, Litke, Wrangell,
Veniaminoy, Vasil’ev, Glazunov, and Tebenkov.
Histories of settlements including Sutkoum Artel

in 1793.

Townsend, Joan
1980 Ranked Societies of the Alaskan 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.

Tuten, Merry A.

1977

A preliminary study of subsistence activities

on the Pacific coast of the proposed Aniakchak
Caldera National Monument. Cooperative Park
Studies Unit Occasional Paper No.4, University
of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Preliminary subsistence study of Pacific coast of
Aniakchak. Includes trapping activities in early
1900s, subsistence resource used, etc.

USS. Bureau of Indian Affairs
1990 Reports of Investigation for BLM AA-11774 -

1991

1926

1996, parcels A-R

Series of reports on Koniag Inc., ANCSA Office,
Anchorage AK. Much varied information about
settlements, resource use, ethnographic resources,
epidemics, etc. Reports from 14(h)1 sites on the
Alaska Peninsula includes Wrangell Bay Village,
Surf Beach, Kanatak.

Report of Investigation for BLM AA-10620,
Mitrofania

Report incorporates comments from several Chignik
and Perryville residents.

Historical Record. Historical Album 1925,
1929-31. US DOI, Office of Education,



area or territory. The area southwest of Port Moller,
Kupreanof Point, and the Shumagin Islands was
inhabited by the Unangan (Aleut), of the same
language group and culture as those inhabiting the
Aleutian Islands. The northeastern end of the
Peninsula on Bristol Bay was inhabited by the
southern-most Central Yup'ik speakers: the Kiatagmiut
and a more recent Yup’ik speaking arrival, the
Aglurmiut. Inland, around Lake Iliamna, were the
Dena’ina Athabaskans, called Kenaitsy by the Russians.
Alutiiqs lived along the mid-section of the Peninsula
from southwest of Cape Douglas along the Pacific
coast to somewhere north of Kupreanof Point. In
early historic times the closest permanent settlement
to Aniakchak was near Bristol Bay, along the Ugashik
River, where the Ugaassarmiut lived. Cultural
affiliation for nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
Ugaassarmiut has yet to be determined, although
evidence suggests they were Central Yup'ik, but,
because they were on the borderlands and had
established relationships with Alutiiq neighbors,
many spoke, or at least understood, both Yupik

and Sugtestun. Today they consider themselves

Aleut or Alutiiq.

Sugpiat spoke an Eskimoan language, Sugtestun

(also known as Pacific Yup’ik, Suk, Sugpiaq, and
Alutiiq), which linguists group as one of five Yup'ik
languages spoken along the coastline of Alaska from
Prince William Sound to Norton Sound and across
the Bering Sea to Siberia." The most closely related
language, Central Yup'ik, is spoken from Norton
Sound to Bristol Bay in the area that once adjoined
Alutiiq territory. Culturally, however, the Sugpiat are
distinct. Climate and non-Eskimo neighbors decisively

affected their culture. Many aspects of Sugpiaq
culture have been described as North Pacific, similar
to their Aleutian Archipelago-dwelling neighbors. The
political and ranking systems have been described as
akin to those of Tlingit neighbors to the southeast. In
other ways, Sugpiaq and Yup'ik culture share similar
characteristics. Despite their geographic location in
close proximity to Yup'ik, Dena’ina, Tlingit, and
Unangan peoples, they are heirs to a unique
language, culture, and history.'*

Sugpiat have a long history of contact with other
peoples but none as utterly transforming as contact
with Russian fur traders and missionaries and, later,
Euroamericans. After more than two centuries of
domination by outside forces and all the attendant
devastating effects on population, health, social order,
and culture, it is hard to determine today just who the
people were that the Russians encountered, how many
people there were, and what a detailed description of
their culture would reveal. These foreigners arrived

so long ago and were so effective in subjugating and
assimilating the indigenous peoples that, upon visiting
some Sugpiaq villages, an outsider may not realize that
there are any Sugpiat left—and in the traditional,
aboriginal sense there are not.

Yet the descendants of aboriginal Sugpiat have a
common history and their traditions link them to

the Sugpiaq culture. To understand the ways that
modern Sugpiat, or Alutiigs, perceive themselves as
participating in a unique, contemporary culture and to
understand who they are today requires examination
of the cultural values, social conventions, political
organization, styles of communication, and beliefs

about the natural and spiritual world of their PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!



Aniakchak National
Monument and Preserve

_ Aniakchak Ethnographic
Overview and Assessment
Area of Study

20 0 20 40 Miles
—_———— Cartographic Mlustration: Wm. J. Lee
Map LA The weather is as variable as the ash is stable. Winds while the gigantic Pacific ocean stretches southward to
hammer the Pacific coastline and swirl through the the hot sun of the equatorial region. In the winter, the
mountains; to the north they blast over the flat plains. southern extent of the Bering Sea ice pack reaches into
The Peninsula cleaves the oceans—the frigid Bering sea _ Bristol Bay, while the Pacific remains ice free. Stretching
2 CHAPTER ONE _ forms a large, relatively shallow bowl to the northwest down the south side of the Peninsula, the Aleutian



Table of Contents

Foreword 1x Clothing 19
Organi f thi x Watercraft 20
ee " is “ee ; Trade 20

‘ote About Sources of Sugpiat an Warfare 20

Alutiiq Culture on the Alaska Peninsula XI

Research outline and method XII Alaska Peninsula People-East and West 22

Chapter three

Chapter one Commercial Exploration 27

Introduction 1

Pilot Point & Ugashik 4
Port Heiden/Meshik 4
Chignik Lake, Chignik Lagoon, Chignik Bay 4

Introduction 27

First Contact: The Promyshlenniki
Reach the Alaska Peninsula 29

The Russian-American Company 31 Opposite:
Three brown bears at An’garsaq,

Treatment of Natives after 1818 34 or Aniakchak Bay, Cape Horn

Chapter two Sea Otter Hunting 36 in background.
The Sugpiaq 5 The Russian-American Company Mike Hilton photo,
on the Alaska Peninsula 38 courtesy of NPS.

The Aleut 8

Settlement Patterns and
Resource Use on the Peninsula 10

Travel and Surveys 39

The Creole Estate 41

The 1838 Smallpox Epidemic 44
Population 45

The Sugpiat 13

Sea Mammal Hunting 14
Mission Activity:

Social Organization 15 The Russian Orthodox Church in 1800s 46

TheSpint Word 18 PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! Vv



John Hillborn making
repairs on his boat,
Wayne, in 1937.

The back of the photo
reads, “Best regards,
from Gerald A. Estup,
Radio Operator,
Chignik.” Hillborn
used this boat to take
him and his family to
Amber Bay every fall
for the trapping
season. In 1938 John
and the sturdy boat
survived being hit by a
tidal wave that struck
while they were at the
ways in Main Creek.
Courtesy of Rubin and
Lorraine Hillborn.

Opposite:

The remains of Pete
and Annie Pedersen’s
house on Aniakchak
Lagoon, 1997. Richard
VanderHoek photo,
NPS 97:1:23:3.

120 CHAPTER SEVEN

two-room house up Main Creek from which Hillborn
ran his traps. In 1937, Hillborn wrote an article for
the Alaska Sportsman which describes the trapping
methods used in the Aniakchak area.

I have a young partner, Henry Erickson, who

helps me with my packing and such, although we
have our own lines and each of us string a couple of
hundred traps each winter. Last winter was a good
season for the fox trapper around here. Although
fox prices were not high, there were lots of reds and
@ good many crosses, with a scattering of mink,
ermine and wolverine...

E®-

We have no use for sleds here, and our country

isn’t suited to them, besides. The only dogs we need

is Chesapeakes and Spaniels—to retrieve the
ptarmigan, ducks and other birds we shoot in the fall.
I’ve not found it necessary to maintain a long
trapline, requiring more than one day to cover. I get
as many furs by laying several short lines in the form
of a fan, with my cabin as the apex, as I did on my
long line. This is probably because I can give my traps
closer attention, covering an entire wing each day.

Besides using two hundred Number Two and
Number Three double-spring traps on my trap line


Three men in front of the Alaska Packers Association Superintendent’ house in Pilot Point. The house was originally owned

by Tim Murphy. APA added on to it and it housed the watchman, Gus Greichen, and his family. The Russian Orthodox

Church stands to the left of the two tanks. To the right of the tanks is the old APA schoolhouse and the small houses below

comprise “Chinatown” where the cannery workers were housed during the season. Courtesy of University of Alaska

98 CHAPTER SIX Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, Alaska and Polar Regions Department, McAlister Collection, 89-084-239A.


Trappers would travel on foot and by dogteam in the
winter months. Natives were also allowed to take game
for their own use at any season.

Father Aleksin'’s words indicate that money was often
hard to come by: “The Mitrofania people hunt bears
and foxes—at present there are no sea otters in their
locality and therefore there is no money. The chapel
had $21.65 in cash, and there were also few candles
and crosses. Therefore I sold them all my church
materials at the Consistory price.”*” The priest wrote
elsewhere, “the residents cannot acquire those things
{church trappings] because there are almost no furs,
but they can collect a small payment by selling the
skins of bears and foxes.”

The 50 residents of Unangashak lived in about seven
barabaras and had built a small chapel, yet money was
scarce there too. Their priest noted, “They live not
badly, but they do not have cash in hand. From
Ugashek a merchant will send them provisions and
other goods, and receives furs from them.” At that
time, Natives did not have access to the large numbers
of steel traps that helped make the pursuit of a variety
of fur-bearers lucrative.

The Alaska Commercial Company
and its Effect on Natives

The sale of the Russian-American Company changed
the relationship between the Native hunters and the
fur-trading industry. The Russian-American Company
holdings were sold to Hutchinson, Kohl and Company
and, in 1872, taken over by the Alaska Commercial
Company which had been granted a 20 year lease on

the Pribilof Island fur-seal hunt.” The Alaska
Commercial Company established trading posts at
the old Russian-American Company outposts and
continued to send out hunting parties financed and
outfitted from the stations at Wrangell, Sutkhum,
and Wide Bay. They used Native leaders to organize
the hunting parties, but the company no longer
supplied families with fish and other essentials that
were necessary in order for the men to be away for
months at a time. Competition was the new order:

Apart from the seal islands [Pribilofs}, the
industries of the territory are open to the public,
and for the stations which the company has
established on the Aleutian Islands and on the
[Alaska] peninsula north and west of Kadiak,
no special privileges are claimed.”

Hunters were no longer hostage to the exclusive
rights the Russian-American Company enjoyed.
With no monopoly operating, hunters could chose

who to sell to and, according to the season when fur

was prime, when. If during the hunt they were
unwilling to leave their families or decided it was
more important to subsistence hunt, they could
refuse to join a hunting party”

Some of the problems came not so much from the

Company policy but from conflicts between the agent

and the hunters. Igor Panshin, who ran the Alaska

Commercial Company’s Sutkhum station in the 1880s,

wrote to the Kodiak office in May of 1882:

Excuse me that I bought furs at rather high prices,

I did not want to put the hunters into too much debt.
Hunger was severe [over the winter]. Now there is
nothing in reserve. V. Panfilov said that they will

The Alutiiq were allowed to

‘buy whatever they chose to at

the Russian Ametican Company —
stores. However, the choices
wee limited by a scant

inventory, and by the Russian
policy that encouraged Native
peoples to preserve their
traditional lifestyle and survival
skills by not accustoming them

to too many European goods.”

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 57



Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Subsistence harvest of Salmon, other finfish, and
marine invertebrates of the Chigniks in the 1980s
and 90s. Includes harvest quantities, areas and
timing. Levels of participation, fishing methods
and processing techniques.

Innokenti [Pustynskii], Bishop

1907 Annuai Report for 1906. Russian Orthodox
American Messenger, vol. 11, p.163.

Jordan, Richard, H.

1994 Qasiluteng: Feasting and Ceremonialism among
the Traditional Koniag of Kodiak Island, Alaska.
In Anthropology of the North Pacific Rim, WW.
Fitzhugh and V. Chaussonnet, eds. Pp.147-173.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press

Combines ethnohistorical observations with
archaeological data to describe ceremonial activities
and sociopolitical organization of Qikertarmiut.
Examines masks and carvings. Provides evidence of
transformation in Koniag life, including in feasting
cycle and social organization, around 1400 AD.

1988 Qasqiluteng: Feasting and Ceremonialism among
the Traditional Koniag of Kodiak Island, Alaska
In Crossroads of Continents. William Fitzhugh
and Aron Crowell. Washington: Smithsonian

Institution Press.
Jordan, Richard H. and Elizabeth Righter

1980 Report of a Comprehensive Archeological
Reconnaissance and National Register Eligibility
Tests at the Terror Lake Hydroelectric Project
Site, Kodiak Island. Submitted to Michael Morris
(International Engineering Co.)

Kashevarov, Nikolai P.

1896 Confessional records, trans. Ekaterina Ogan,
Afognak Village Corporation.

Kashevaroy, Vasilii
1908 Alaskan Russian Church Archives, Records of the

Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of
North America, Diocese of Alaska, Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Kedrovskii, Apollinarii

1908

Alaskan Russian Church Archives, Records
of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic
Church of North America, Diocese of Alaska,
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division,
Washington, D.C.

Khlebnikov Kiril T.

1994

1973

Notes on Russian America Parts II-V: Kad’iak,
Unalaska, Atkha, The Pribylovs. Introduction by
R.G. Liapunova and S.G. Fedorova. M. Ramsay
trans., R.A. Pierce ed. Kingston, Ontario:

The Limestone Press.

Khlebnikov was RA Co. manager and traveled
extensively. Notes include history, ethnography,
natural history, and company commercial activity,
company policy, etc. Part Il is on Kodiak District.
Settlements, treatment of Natives under company
control, methods of hunting, some ethnographic
information. Includes instructions to Vasil’ev for
1829 expedition and appendix of Kolmakov’s
1817 report on Aglurmiut.

(St. Petersberg, 1835). Baranov, Chief Manager
of the Russian Colonies in America. Colin Bearne,
trans. Richard A. Pierce, ed. Kingston, Ontario:
The Limestone Press.

Some mention of the Alaska Peninsula and conflicts
with Aleuts.

Khotovitski, Dmitrii

1945

Russian Orthodox American Messenger,
vol. 41 (7), p.112.

Knappen, Russell S.

1929

Geology and Mineral Resources of the Aniakchak
District, Alaska. USGS Bulletin 797-E
Washington: Government Printing Office.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

195


12

CHAPTER TWO

Kodiak, the Russians focused on gaining control over
the Sugpiat inhabitants and the large numbers of men
skilled at hunting sea otter, Explorers found evidence
and heard reports of prior villages and the islands off
the coast of the Peninsula showed visible signs of
seasonal hunting camps.” In the 1870s, Pinart’s Aleut
guides were aware that the territory north of
Kupreanof Point was Sugpiaq and they indicated that
there had been an “Eskimo” (Sugtestun) speaking
settlement near Mitrofania Bay; they also knew and
used the portage from Kuiukta Bay to Chignik Bay.”
Despite this activity, little conclusive evidence exists
of at-contact settlements southwest of Katmai

Both Unangan- and Sugtestun-speaking peoples
traveled along the Pacific coast to trade, hunt, and raid
other villages. Food resources over much of the Pacific
coast seem abundant. Chignik watershed is a rich
source of salmon; Aniakchak and Yantarni bays have
large shellfish beds; sea lions and sea otters were once
numerous in the outer islands all along the coast; and
the interior caribou herds are accessible from Wide
Bay, Aniakchak Bay, the Chignik River system, and
many other places along the coast. Travel across the
Peninsula to Bristol Bay was also relatively easy via the
Kejulik River/Becharof Lake, Wide Bay/Ugashik River,
Aniakchak/Meshik river, and Chignik/Unangashak
river portages.

The question of why the Peninsula was so sparsely
populated is presently unanswered, although theories
about warfare and about lack of food resources have
been postulated. The indigenous peoples were
engaged in intra- and inter-tribal wars, which the
Russians quickly tried to suppress. Wars between
Yup’ik groups had been particularly disruptive on the

northern shore of the Peninsula and north of Bristol
Bay and invaders had displaced whole communities.
Along the south side of the Peninsula, wars waged
between the Sugpiat and Unangan had destroyed
whole villages, allegedly in the recent past.

An alternate explanation is that seasonal resource
shortages caused the area to be virtually uninhabited.
Even though much of the coastline seems to have had
abundant natural resources, less diversity, productivity,
and accessibility of resources at any one location may
have rendered the Peninsula coast less desirable than
the Shelikof Strait shore of Kodiak to form larger
settlements.” Natural geologic or climatic events may
have reduced productivity on either land or in the
ocean. Volcanic activity represents an infrequent but
continuing threat to people and wildlife and may have
altered resource availability or settlement. Past fish
and wildlife populations are unknown, although in the
early 1800s caribou were either displaced or
populations were suffering from habitat destruction
due to volcanic activity." Bristol Bay inhabitants could
rely much more heavily on caribou than coastal Pacific
dwellers could, and a caribou shortage may have
caused people to concentrate on the Ugashik River
and north where large numbers of fish come every
year. The effects of resource shortage and shifts in this
area are yet to be examined. One account in the late
1800s tells of bad weather spoiling fish supplies,
causing people to move in search of food; another
account documents large numbers of people moving
to find caribou.” By all accounts, the mid-portion

of the Alaska Peninsula was sparsely populated or
uninhabited during early Russian expansion into

the area


go visiting, either inter- or intra-village, they bring
their hosts, who are often relatives, a fish, a big bowl
of chitons, a bucket of berries, or a bundle of roots for
scrubbing while in the steambath. These foods may be
used at the next meal, or put aside for an upcoming
event. Through the telephone and CB-radio, people
keep track of where the caribou are and which berries
are ripe and where—salmon berries from the Chigniks
are sent or brought to Pilot Point, and crow berries
and lowbush cranberries arrive at the Chigniks to be
used in akutaq (made from berries, sugar, and fat of
some kind whipped to form a creamy delicacy).
During summer, smokehouses are full of split red
salmon and in fall, the first silver salmon of the season
are admired and exclaimed over by those who receive
them. At name day (Orthodox celebration of the feast
day for the Saint after whom the person is named)
and birthday celebrations, it may be mentioned that
someone from a distant village sent the fish or meat
that goes into a stew or pie.

The exchange of subsistence foods between the
households of the Peninsula is obvious to even the
casual observer. Most sharing goes on within each
village, but on closer examination the subsistence net
casts wide as resources are exchanged with Alaskan
villages as far away as Barrow, Sitka, and Akutan, and
larger cities of Anchorage and Seattle."” Virtually every
household is involved in the exchange of wild foods
and plant materials. Because many people who grew
up on the Peninsula spend portions of their life in
Anchorage and other cities, they rely on relatives to
supply them with subsistence foods. The trade
networks also allow people to keep up on family
events, local news, traveling conditions, and hunting

and fishing activity. Significant differences in available
land and ocean resources sustain active travel and
trade across the Peninsula as well.

Elders hold a special place in Alutiiq communities
and this is particularly apparent by their place in the
subsistence food networks. The first catch of a young
hunter is given to his grandmother or “auntie” to
honor her. This also establishes a life-long pattern of
providing for the elders. Elders are the most frequent
recipients of subsistence foods and their freezers and
caches are often full.

Economy and Subsistence

The economy of the Peninsula villages is complicated,
and long-term fluctuations in sources and levels of
income are not well-studied.’ Today a mixture of
cash income, government transfer payments, and
subsistence resources supports nearly every
household. These various economic sources, as a
whole, constitute the economy of each village. All five
villages are fishing communities in which commercial
fishing or fishing-related jobs provide the main source
of income. Government jobs also provide a substantial
percentage of cash income for most villages. Despite
the large salmon runs, average per capita income is
well below the state average, and people rely to some
extent on subsistence foods and the flow of them
through the communities.

Although lists of subsistence resources used, calendars
of the seasonal round, and maps of use areas do not

begin to explain what subsistence is, these documents
chart its course in time and space, and perhaps ascribe
an economic niche. The spatial and temporal analyses

of subsistence, based on available natural resources, PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

131


Opposite:

Cinder River.
Mike Hilton photo,
courtesy of NPS.

XIl

FOREWORD

Kodiak in 1784, Shelikhov established a permanent
base and initiated rapid expansion to the surrounding
area. However, despite Kodiak’ proximity to the
Alaska Peninsula, little was written about it until

the late 1800s. Ugashik is known to have existed long
before the Russians arrived but early translated records
barely mention it.

The existing, translated nineteenth-century
documentation about the Aniakchak area shows
cultural use by sea otter and seabird hunters from
Kodiak, Ugashik, and Katmai.' In 1776 the ship

Sv. Mikhail reached Kodiak and crew member Bragin
briefly described it. The rocky coast of the Alaska
Peninsula was an easy place to bypass as ships sailed
between Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands to Kenai and
Kodiak. Captain James Cook, in 1778-1779, traveled
from Cook Inlet to Unalaska, bypassing Shelikof Strait
and Kodiak. Although he did not document the
people along the coast, Cook was the first to recognize
the coast of the Alaska Peninsula as a peninsula rather
than an island. Shelikhov reported on the people and
conditions of Kodiak but his reports are unreliable
and fraught with gross exaggerations.

In 1791, Bocharov explored the north coast of the
Peninsula and the portage up the Egegik River, over
Lake Becharof, and across the northern Peninsula on
his way to Kodiak.’ Captain Lisianski sailed along the
Peninsula coast in 1804, and in 1827, his superior,
Kruzenstern, published an atlas with the Native names
of geographical features.’ In 1818 Korsakovski
traveled overland from Katmai to Egegik and along
Bristol Bay to its northern shores. From his account
we glean information about language and early trading
activities near Naknek, Egegik, and Ugashik as well.’

Finally, in the 1830s two Russian explorations
mapped the Alaska Peninsula coast and included
the villages of Kaliak, Katmai, and Kukak on the
Pacific and the Severnovski villages of Ikak and
Alinnak along the upper Naknek river.®

None of these documents indicates that there were
any permanent settlements between Kupreanof Point
and Katmai, or south of the Ugashik River on the
Bristol Bay coast. Seasonal use is mentioned on the
islands off the Pacific coast of the Peninsula but not on
shore. It remains to be seen if evidence of at-contact
dwellers of Aniakchak surfaces as more and more
Russian documents are translated and archaeological
sites are surveyed and excavated.

Research Outline and Method

This study commenced in March of 1997 when
known documents about this relatively sparsely
studied area were compiled, along with a list of
possible archival sources of tapes, photographs, and
historical documents. Initially, the recent historical
use of Aniakchak was vaguely known; pre-1900 use
was hinted at. The objective of the project was not
only to provide an overview and assessment of current
knowledge on ethnographic resources of Aniakchak
but to uncover cultural affiliations. 1 began the process
of discovery by reading known documentation which
included works by Nancy Yaw Davis, Merry Tuten,
Patricia Partnow, and Lisa Scarborough, all of whom
had conducted field work in the area. Many hours of
taped interviews conducted by Partnow were obtained
through the Alaska and Polar Regions Department,
Elmer Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska


Traditional subsistence values and beliefs, knowledge,
and skills have been examined to some extent among
the Native community, but much less among

resident less traditional or non-Native households.

The following section, based on Fish and Game reports
and interviews, and National Park Service interviews,
describes some socio-cultural aspects of subsistence
among the Native community. The non-Native or less
traditional households have equally genuine,
historically based, cultural meanings of subsistence;
many of the same features might well apply to both
communities, although one might expect to find
frontier-based hunting ethics and behaviors, for
example, in families who identify mainly with their
Euroamerican past. One of the engaging characteristics
of the study area is the variations in degree each
household exhibits “Native” or “Euroamerican” cultural
heritage. How that spectrum plays out in the arena of
subsistence would be a compelling topic for research.

For families that have maintained strong attachments
to the teachings of their Sugpiaq ancestors, subsistence
activities and accompanying beliefs shape much of
what being Alutiiq is today. Holistic knowledge of
the environment and intimate knowledge of specific
plants, animals, and fish validate a commitment to
place, family, and community, and to their enduring
health. The fruits of subsistence activities support

an individual’ or a family’s obligations to extended
family, church, community, and other social
institutions—and even support and maintain

culture and identity. Through gifts and trade
networks, subsistence foods and materials preserve
inter-community relations and connect village
members to the larger Alutiiq world.

Wie. “ak

Alutiiqs entwine the past and the present through
the whole array of subsistence activities—gathering,
fishing, and hunting, sharing food with families and
friends, processing plants and game, cooking
traditional foods, and celebrating events with feasts.
Subsistence activities are not, however, routines in
which outmoded technologies are used or activities
reenacted. They are part of a lifestyle that provides
context and meaning to the quickly changing present

Peter Lind, an Alutiiq artist
originally from Chignik Lake,
wearing a bentwood hunting visor
decorated with carved ivory
figures and sea lion whiskers.
Homer, 1997.

Courtesy National Park Service.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUG! = 129



172

APPENDIX TWO

The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee
(IARPC), internet address www.nsf.gov/iarpc, includes
representatives of over a dozen Federal agencies or
offices, including the Department of the Interior.

At the direction of IARPC a set of “Principles for the
Conduct of Research in the Arctic” were prepared

by the Interagency Social Science Task Force.

The introduction and text follows:

Principles for the Conduct of
Research in the Arctic

Introduction

All researchers working in the North have an

ethical responsibility toward the people of the North,
their cultures, and the environment. The following
principles have been formulated to provide guidance
for researchers in the physical, biological, behavioral,
health, economic, political, and social sciences and in
the humanities. These principles are to be observed
when carrying out or sponsoring research in Arctic
and northern regions or when applying the results
of this research.

This statement addresses the need to promote mutual
respect and communication between scientists and
northern residents. Cooperation is needed at all stages
of research planning and implementation in projects
that directly affect northern people. Cooperation will
contribute to a better understanding of the potential
benefits of Arctic research for northern residents and
will contribute to the development of northern science
through traditional knowledge and experience.

These “Principles for the Conduct of Research in

the Arctic” were prepared by the Interagency Social
Science Task Force in response to a recommendation
by the Polar Research Board of the National Academy
of Sciences and at the direction of the Interagency
Arctic Research Policy Committee. This statement is
not intended to replace other existing Federal, State,
or professional guidelines, but rather to emphasize
their relevance for the whole scientific community.
Examples of similar guidelines used by professional
organizations and agencies in the United States and
in other countries are listed in the above publications.

All scientific investigations in the Arctic should be
assessed in terms of potential human impact and
interest. Social science research, particularly studies of
human subjects, requires special consideration, as do
studies of resources of economic, and social value to
Native people. In all instances. it is the responsibility
of the principal investigator on each project to
implement the following recommendations.

1. The researcher should inform appropriate
community authorities of planned research on
lands, waters, or territories used by or occupied
by them. Research directly involving northern
people should not proceed without their clear and
informed consent. When informing the
community and/or obtaining informed consent,
the researchers should identify:

a. all sponsors and sources of financial support;

b. the person in charge and all investigators
involved in the research, as well as any
anticipated need for consultants, guides,
or interpreters;


ooo

Women trained as healers and shamans were powerful
people in a community.

Winter dwellings were large multi-room semi-subter-
ranean sod-houses. A central room with a main hearth
served as a kitchen and common room. Several smaller
rooms, which served as sleeping quarters, branched
off the main room. One side room was heated with
hot rocks from the central hearth for steam baths or
maqiwik. In general, steam was used for cleansing and

relaxing but also for healing and ritual cleansing. The
composition of households is not well documented,
however, each household had a leader. Both polyandry
and polygyny were practiced by women and men with
sufficient wealth and rank. A second husband was often
treated much like a servant.”

Slaves, taken in war from Unangan, Dena’ina, Chugach,
and other Koniag groups, could be bought and sold,
given as gilts, or bartered back to their original villages.

Castle Cape, to the south of Chignik
Bay, is a prominent feature of the
Pacific coastline. The Alutiiq name,
Agayuwiguat, means “something
like churches.” Courtesy of
University of Alaska Fairbanks,
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, Alaska
and Polar Regions Department,
Elkington Collection, 74-175-610.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = «+17



peo}
was forbidden during the
Russian period. Indeed, because
supplies that could be harvested
from the land were imported
from Russian, they were a
valuable commodity, and
generally scarce. What alcohol
was available was primarily
found in Sitka, the center

of Russian activity. Home
brewing, considered illegal

by the Russians, was no doubt
attempted, but again prime
ingredients, such as sugar or
molasses, were difficult

to obtain.”

154 CHAPTER TEN

as for the cultural revitalization movement underway
today. Many themes emerged during the research
which have only been touched upon, for example,
deaths and village depopulation from the influenza
pandemic and tuberculosis, the repercussions of which
are neither discussed or analyzed in the text. It is not
too late to gather oral history about these relatively
recent events. Alcohol continues to cause hardship and
pain to many elders, adults, and children. Both
amusing and tragic tales are told about the effects of
and responses to alcohol—few of these were added to
this report. The role of the U.S. government in both
the treatment and lack of treatment of illness and
disease might be explored as well.

Perhaps of greatest relevance to people working in
the area is the central question of the project: who
are the peoples who occupied these lands and what
has been their fate? Given the influences of Russian
and U.S. occupations of the land, as well as those of
the trapping, hunting, and fishing economies, it
remains a difficult question to answer. Perhaps one of
the most salient findings of this study is—and this is
important for the National Park Service and other
government entities to be aware of in the dealings with
area's inhabitants—that ethnic boundaries are not
clear-cut, nor are neat reifying categories of “Native
Culture,” “Native,” “Euroamerican”, Culture is a
process and is constantly changing as a group's
physical and social environments change, For the
outsider looking for distinct groups of people, it is a
confusing place to work; for the local resident the
outsider’s attempts to define and categorize are
amusing, but met with twinkling eyes and friendly
attempts to clarify and explain.

The issue of who is Native is complex in areas
having experienced extensive acculturation and
admixture such as the Alaska Peninsula. After over two
centuries of cultural change, the old pre-contact Sugpiaq
culture is gone—eliminated by contact with the Russian
fur traders, conversion by Russian Orthodox
missionaries, marriage of young women to Russian

then Euroamerican men, forced assimilation by U.S.
institutions, and two centuries of debilitating and often
fatal illnesses, deprivation, and epidemics. While in
parts of Alaska Native people have physical features
similar to their ancestors who met the first explorers,
Alutiiq people today are as likely to “look” Russian,
Scandinavian, or Italian. Their present way of life is
contemporary, and for the last decade they have
experienced a cultural revitalization. Their present
condition is aptly described with the words of a noted
anthropologist: “Each people knows their own kind of
happiness: the culture that is the legacy of the ancestral
tradition, transmitted in the distinctive concepts of their
language, and adapted to their specific life conditions.

on

This project identified those people who are culturally
and traditionally affiliated with Aniakchak. Historically,
three cultural groups have been associated with the
Aniakchak lands, One group's connections originate in
the nineteenth century when men hunted sea otter
near Sutwik Island and lived on the nearby shore; this
group comprises descendants of the old Sugpiat and
Yup’ik populations on and near Kodiak Island
(Sugpiat) and the Ugashik River (Ugaassarmiut). The
second group comprises Euroamerican trappers, their
Native or part-Native wives, and their families who
lived along the Aniakchak coast in the twentieth
century. The third group comprises Seward Peninsula


ll

c. The rights of children must be respected
All research involving children must be fully
justified in terms of goals and objectives and
never undertaken without the consent of the
children and their parents or legal guardians.

d. Participation of subjects, including the use
of photography in research, should always be
based on informed consent.

e. The use and deposition of human tissue
samples should always be based on the
informed consent of the subjects or next of kin

The researcher is accountable for all project
decisions that affect the community, including
decisions made by subordinates.

All relevant federal, state and local regulations
and policies pertaining to cultural, environmental,
and health protection must be strictly observed.

. Sacred sites, cultural materials, and cultural

property cannot be disturbed or removed without
community and/or individual consent and in
accordance with federal and state laws and
regulations.

In implementing these principles, researchers may find

Nordic Statement of Principles and Priorities in Arctic
Research. Center for Arctic Cultural Research, Umea,
Sweden, 1989.

Policy on Research Ethics. Alaska Department of Fish
and Game, Juneau, 1984.

Principles of Professional Responsibility. Council of the
American Anthropological Association, Washington,
D.C., 1971, rev. 1989.

The Ethical Principles for the Conduct of Research
in the North. The Canadian Universities for Northern
Studies, Ottawa, 1982.

The National Arctic Health Science Policy. American
Public Health Association, Washington, D.C., 1984

Protocol for Centers for Disease Control/Indian Health
Service Serum Bank. Prepared by Arctic Investigations
Program (CDC) and Alaska Area Native Health
Service, 1990. Indian Health Manual. Indian Health
Service, US Public Health Service, Rockville,
Maryland, 1987

Human Experimentation. Code of Ethics of the
World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki).

additional guidance in the publications listed below. Published in British Medical Journal, 2:177, 1964.

Arctic Social Science: An Agenda for— Action. National
Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 1989.

Protection of Human Subjects. Code of Federal
Regulations 45 CFR 46, 1974, rev. 1983.

Draft Principles for an Arctic Policy. Inuit Circumpolar
Conference, Kotzebue, 1986.

Ethics. Social Sciences and Humanities Research

174 APPENDIX TWO Council of Canada, Ottawa, 1977


86

CHAPTER FIVE

remained. The population remained stable for the
next decade. In 1907, despite the small population,
a new chapel was built in Wrangell, “on the villagers’
donations and with their zeal.”

Later, people from Wrangell moved to Kanatak,
Chignik, and Ugashik. One family that moved to
Chignik was Vasilii and Stephanita Muguviknak

[Ashvignak]and their children, loann and Nikolai.
Nikolai, after being educated at Unalaska, became
church reader at Chignik. The village buildings were
collapsed and burned after remaining residents died
during the 1919 flu pandemic. Chignik residents
remember seeing the alter table standing at the

old village site into the 1970s.

Sutkhum

Sutwik Island, just off the coast of Cape Kumlik

and Aniakchak Bay, was the center of a century-long
sea otter hunting activity which ended in 1900.
Sutkhum was a Russian artel set up under Baranov’s
administration in the 1790s. Voronkovskii reported
that the artel was on the mainland in 1831 but it also
may have been on the island at times; it is likely that
the main artel and village were on the mainland and
the hunters were supplied at the islands during the sea
otter hunt.’ The outpost oversaw and supplied the
hunt near Sutwik Island. Baranov reported that there
were no Native people in the area when the Russian-
American Company set up its outpost; after it was
abandoned by the Company, apparently around 1840,
people continued to live in the area. Pinart found a
few remaining people on Cape Kumliun in 1871, and
Petroff reported that there were 25 “Eskimo” in 1880."*
These were certainly Alutiiq.

The Alaska Commercial Company ran a station
called “Sutkhum” in records from 1878-1884 and
“Sutwik Bay” (the western part of what present day
maps show as Kujulik Bay) in records remaining
from 1894-1897. By the time the Company set up

its trading post, Sutkhum appears to have been more
of a place where hunters seasonally went for the hunt


Dungeness Crabs harvested
from Chignik Bay, 1997.
Courtesy National Park Service.

128

CHAPTER EIGHT

with hunting regulations, the expense of hunting,
demands of commercial fishing and other income
generating pursuits, and a variety of other demands.

Subsistence research has been conducted in the area

of Aniakchak for more than 20 years. At Aniakchak’s
conception, the National Park Service sponsored a
comprehensive study of the Pacific coast.*° Alaska
Department of Fish and Game research on subsistence
use and its cultural dimensions encompasses fish and
wildlife, with particular attention to waterfowl,
caribou, and bear. The published reports contain little
ethnographic information, but through community

profiles they offer details on harvest amounts, harvest
areas, and local economies. Oral history interviews
conducted by various agencies, including Alaska
Department of Fish and Game, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, and National Park Service, also contain
information on subsistence.” Minerals Management
Service has funded comprehensive studies on
subsistence patterns, values, and attitudes in Chignik.
The National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service are presently conducting subsistence research
that should augment the Alaska Department of Fish
and Game studies. The following analysis uses taped
and written interviews and published reports to
discover, however superficially, meanings and
importance of the land and waters and the animals and
fish and plants to residents of the Peninsula.

Subsistence in a Social Context

Hunting, fishing, and collecting plants for household
sustenance locate a person spatially and temporally in
both the natural and social milieu. As these activities
maintain and strengthen lifelong connections to the
land, family, and the community, engagement in
subsistence activities also garners respect and grants
prestige. Subsistence activities can serve to place an
individual in the social hierarchy of the village

A successful hunter is seen as competent and
responsible and he is likely to be seen that way in
other endeavors. A woman knowledgeable about
locating, identifying, and using an array of subsistence
plants and who puts up various subsistence resources
is seen as a hard worker, a provider—traits that lead
others to her for advice and care.


brother, Charlie, moved to Bear River. The O’Dimon
family from Katmai, Maxie Willie, and Constantine
families lived in IInik as well. Pauline “Pauluki” Willie
delivered many babies at IInik.*

Ilnik was never a large village—only four houses and
a chapel were built there. The lake system and open
country between Ilnik and Chignik provided summer
and winter travel routes between the two settlements.
Aleck Artemie’s niece, Christine Martin, can remember
riding to Ilnik on a dog sled with her father when she
was a little girl. A cabin at Black Lake provided a place
to rest halfway across the portage. People also took
baidarkas and even small skiffs across the portage;

the marshy ground made it easy to either pole or drag
lightweight boats across. In the 1950s the remaining
population of IInik moved to Nelson Lagoon,*”

the Chignik area, and Port Heiden.*”

Bear River

Oral accounts relate that Bear River was occupied

as early as the turn-of-the-century, although census
reports for 1900 and 1910 do not mention the village.
By 1903 Rodionoff Artemie, born in Old Harbor, and
his wife, Natalia Abrom Artemie, born in Ugashik,
had moved from Chignik Lagoon area to Bear River.’
Their daughter Dora was born that year. The family
would return to the Chignik area by 1907. The
Peninsular Packing Company had opened a saltery,
although it did not operate in 1906. The coho salmon
fishery in Bristol Bay had begun and there was
reported to be a good coho run in Bear River in July
and August. Trout were also abundant. Apparently at
this time, residents had come from Ugashik and other
villages up the Peninsula. When the Peninsular

Packing Company closed, the superintendent of the
Nelson Lagoon saltery lured some Bear River residents
to move there by opening a store.” By 1920, the
village was occupied by 22 people, almost exclusively
Ugaassarmiut. “Chief Charlie Bear” Orloff, the church
reader, was half Ugaassarmiut and married to a
Ugaassarmiut. His family eventually moved to Nelson
Lagoon. Other families, such as that of Rodionoff
Artemie, moved to Chignik. In 1923 Bear River had
35 Orthodox residents.” Influenza apparently struck
the village in 1934 when 29 people may have died."
The Russian Orthodox Church was still standing in
the 1970s.

Pacific Villages

Kanatak/Kanataq and Wide Bay

28 August. In the morning there was still wind,

but it was weak. At 2 o'clock we arrived at the
village in Wide Bay. Here the Aleuts had resettled
not long ago, in the last two years, the majority
being arrivals from the Nushagak parish, the village
of Ugashik, fleeing from stewards of the trading
company nearer to the sea where valuable sea olters
can be found. They told me that the agents of the
company so underrated sales that without any
scales they give for a fox a cup of tea. ...Of all the
inhabitants in Wide Bay and the others of Kanatnoi
[Kanatak], which is also near to Wide Bay, there are
at the present time 43 people. There still being no
chapel, we asked permission to build one. Meetings
took place under the open sky; in the place of the
meetings stands two lecterns and a cross.... For
services the Aleuts put together from new clean

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

79



University of Washington Allen Library Special
Collections

Cobb Collection
J. E. Thwaites Collection, many photos 1906-1922

Anchorage Museum of History and Art

Henton Collection
A. Reyser Collection

National Park Service

Museum and Library Collections

Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, Denmark
HJ. Holmberg, described by Birket-Smith (1941)

University of Alaska Fairbanks,

Elmer E. Rasmuson Library

Bureau of Indian Affairs Collection

Alaska Commercial Company-records from the late
1800s from Wrangell, Wide Bay, Sutkhum

Russian Orthodox Church Records, synopses by
Katherine L. Arndt

Stephen Reid Capps Collection, AK Survey Expedition,
Mineral Resources of AK 1908-1924 Cold Bay
(Puale Bay/Kanatak) 1921-see USGS bulletin 857,
1934, p. 141-154

Smithsonian Institution, Washington

Fisher Collection-Alutiiq cultural objects collected circa
1898

Alaska Commercial Company Records

University of California-Berkeley, Bancroft Library

Pinart Collection-journals, manuscripts

University of California—Berkeley, Robert H. Lowie

Museum of Anthropology

Heizer (1955)

University of California-Santa Clara
Hubbard Collections

Collections possibly related to Alaska
Peninsula at Various Archives

Bureau of Indian Affairs, Alaska Division Correspondence
1908-1935, 54 reels microfilm, inventory

Bureau of Indian Affairs Reindeer Program Records
1909-1968; 8 reels, inventory

Bureau of Indian Affairs Corporate Charters of Alaska Native
Organizations, 1938-59, 1971; 3 reels

Bureau of Indian Affairs appointment papers—Alaska,
1871-1907; 6 reels, guide

National Marine Fisheries Service Alaska Map Collection;
1889-1928; 12 microfiche

U.S. Olfice of Education, Alaska Division, Historical Album,
1925, 1929-1931; 1 reel

U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Alaska matters case file, 1930-1959; folder list

USS. District Court. Territory of Alaska Court Journals,
1911-26; 2 reels, inventory

USS. District Court, Territory of Alaska Naturalization
Records—Alaska indexes, 1900-1929; 1 reel

US. Post Office, Alaska Record of Postmasters and
Site Locations, 1891-1971, 3 reels, guide

Bulletins of the Fish Commission

Reports of the Commissioner of Fisheries

U.S. Census Reports

Bulletins of the U.S. Geological Survey—see USGS Bulletins

Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Education

Annual Reports of the Governor of Alaska

Bureau of Indian Affairs~Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act 14(h)(1) Reports

Bureau of Indian Affairs School Reports,
teacher's journals, etc.

US. Fish and Wildlife Reports PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

207


240 Modestov, ROAM vol. 3, pp. 248-250,
1898, The fish he mentions is prepared and
stored in such a way that the fermentation
process preserves it for eating,

252 Shishkin, ROCR R144/(574-581, 1878;
Petroff 1900:83.

268 Report of Superintendent Heinbockel,
APA Naknek Station. 1919

253 Korsakovsky in VanStone, 1988 269 Report of Superintendent Heinbockel,

APA Naknek Station. 1919.
270 ROCR R139/{665.

254 Treby refers to the seven sacraments and

241 The 1900 fh C id
1900 flu epidemic was a pandemte any service on demand of a parishioner.

that rivaled the 1918-1919 world-wide
pandemic. Fortuine, 1992 255 Modestov, ROAM, vol. 3, pp.224-227,

ROCR R149/1263-265, 1901 1900, Irina Dubinina, translator.

243 Harold Napoleon, Yuuyarag: The Way of the 256 Modestov, ROCR, R145/f6, 1895.
Human Being, (Fairbanks: Alaska Native 257 Porter, 1893:73; AC Co., Box 155/f1634
Knowledge Network, 1996) 1888; Shalamov, 1899

271 Modestov, ROCR R145/1240, 1898.

272 Porter, 1893, University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library,
Alaska and Polar Regions Department,
Rare Map #G-4371-P54-1898 M5.

Shishkin, ROCR R149/663, 1891; see also
James VanStone, Eskimos of the Nushagale
River: an Ethnographic History, (Seattle:

24:

27.

3

24

£

Fortuine, 1992 258 ROCR R139/{665; US census, Alaska

245 US Department of Commerce and Labor, 259 Joseph Murray, “Salmon Fisheries of Alaska

Letter to John Sidney Webb, July 16, 1912
(Wickersham Collection, University of
Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson,
Library, Alaska and Polar Regions
Department.),

246 WJ. Erskine, Letter to Alaska Game
Commission 1910 (Wickersham Collection,
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E.
Rasmuson Library, Alaska and Polar
Regions Department).

Chapter five
247 Henn, 1978.
248 Feofil, ROCR R144/15, 1876.

249 Modestov, ROCR R147/f 612-615, 1895;
ROCR R146/1478-546; ROCR R144/159,
1898; ROAM vol. 1, 303-305.

250 Korsakovky in VanStone, 1988. Independent
Russian trading companies were trading
with Ugashik traders or middlemen by the
1780s. The RA Co. used them as translators.
on their journeys into Yupik areas of Bristol

8

3B

gz

Reports for 1892, 94, 95,” Seal and Salmon
Fisheries and General Resources of Alaska
in Four Volumes, 55th Congress House of
Representatives. Doc 92, (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1898)

Modestov, ROCR R145/146-47, 1896,
Modestov, ROCR R145/146-47, 1896,
Modestov, ROCR R145/120 1897

Jefferson F Moser, “The Salmon and
Salmon Fisheries of Alaska, Report of

the Operations of the United States Fish
Commission Steamer Albatross for the
Year Ending June 30, 1898,” US Fish
omission Bulletin for 1898, Plates 1-63
Charts A&B (Washington: Government
Printing Office, 1899), pp. 1-178

ROCR R 145/f 120; R 145/f 113-164,
1897; Russian Church Archives, Nushagak,
Parish Records, Church Service Registers
(UAF mf 139, reels 144 - 145). Kathy
Arndt, Translator. R 145/ {113-164

1 January - 31 December 1897

(Fr. Vladimir Modestov)

27
276 ROCR, R144/{298; ROCR R144/324, 1910.
277 Vasilii Kashevarov, ROCR R145/[336-337,

28:
28:

University of Washington Press, 1967),
Modestoy, ROCR R145/f48, 1896.

274 Modestov, ROCR R145/If47-48, 1896.

a

Modestov, ROAM vol. 3, pp. 248-250, 1898.

1908

278 Vasilii Kashevarov, ROCR R145/f337, 1908,
279 ROCR R137/{665, List of Chapels in the

Nushagak Mission after 1919 epidemic

280 Russell S. Knappen. Geology and Mineral

Resources of the Aniakchak District, Alaska.
USGS Bulletin 797-F (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1929).

281 Modestov, ROCR R145/[47, 1896

282 The historic record shows that Inangashek

was also spelled with an “a”: Inangashak
Shishkin R149/1636, 1890.
Modestov, ROCR R145/148, 1896.

2S

Bay in the early 1800s. 1.Black, personal 365 ROCR R144/1309. 1910 285 Modestov R145/I48, 1898
communication. But see Partnow 1993: > . 286 Osgood, 1904:28-29. Statutes at Large
88-91 for a discusion about ethnic and 266 Report of Superintendent Heinbockel, 32 (1902), p. 327 in Donald Craig

linguistic boundaries around Severnovskoe
and Ugashik.

Feofil ROCR R145/{602-603 and
R149/[760-761; Holmberg, 1985.

g

Alaska Packers Association, Naknek
Station. 1919,

Report of Superintendent Heinbockel,
APA Naknek Station. 1919

Mitchell, Sold American: the Story of Alaska
Natives 1867-1959 (Hanover: University
Press of New England, 1997)

287 ROCR R139/f665.

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!




Men wearing ground squirrel parkas
at Wrangell village in Chigninagak
Bay on the Alaska Peninsula. This
photo may be of the Wrangell
Station of the Alaska Commercial
Company, circa 1900. Wrangell was
settled in 1882 and was used as a
base for sea otter hunting operation
at Sutwik Island. Courtesy of the

buy supplies, yet the sea otter hunting was poor.
Wrangell residents began traveling to Chignik Lagoon
to salt fish.” Increasing numbers of white hunters
were bringing in and presumably getting prime prices
for what the agent describes as: “Sea Otter, large Spring
Bear, first class Fox Red, & Land Otter.” The Wrangell
hunters were being sent to winter on “Chenniklook [?]
Islands” and to hunt at Sutwik and Cold Harbor (Puale
Bay). Sea otter hunters from the Alaska Commercial
Company and Nikolai Olgin’s party drowned “from
severe storms” near Sutwik that winter.*” In the
summer of 1897, the hunters had no furs with

which to repay the Alaska Commercial Company and
that winter they had few furs from winter trapping to
offer in payment of more than $3000.00 they owed
collectively. Wrangell parishioners did, however, have
some cash, and the Company agent observed that the
heavily indebted “Wrangell People bought & paid to
the Priests last year $30.00 for a Holy Picture.” Their
chief was Simeon Hochikungack |Chigunykh].””

The Alaska Commercial Company finally closed the
store in 1900 when agent Frank Lowell went to Semidi
Islands to try his hand at fox farming. Nearly half of

the population left, and in 1902 only 32 people PUYULEK PU'IRTUO!

National Archives, RG22-B5350;
Dee Hunt researcher.

85


Endnotes

Abbreviations for
document collections

ROCR

ROAM

AC Co.

Russian Orthodox Church Records.
Documents for this project translated
primarily by Katherine L. Arndt
Some translations by Irina Dubinina
MF #132

Russian Orthodox American
Messenger. Articles translated for this
project by Irina Dubinina. Other
translated articles obtained from
Patricia Partnow and Richard Bland.

Alaska Commercial Company
Records.

Foreword

1

Russian-American Company (RAC) and
Russian Orthodox Church (ROCR) records
are voluminous. It is likely that many that
were either unavailable or untranslated
contain information about the study area
Records from both sources are on microfilm
at the Alaskan Russian Church Archives,
Records of the Russian Orthodox Greek
Catholic Church of North America, Diocese
of Alaska, Library of Congress Manuscript
Division, Washington, D.C. Katherine L.
Arndt and Irina Dubinina translated
microfilm church records pertaining to the
area. Russian-Aimerican Company,
Correspondence of Governors-General,
Records of the State Department, are
available in Microfilm Group LL, U.S
National Archives, Washington, D.C. In
addition, Records of the Orthodox Church

of Alaska, Diocesan Archive at St. Herman's
Theological Seminary, Kodiak, Alaska
housed at the seminary in Kodiak are being
organized by Lydia Black. Other Company
records are housed in Russian archives:

Bragin in Pallas (1781, p. 73), 1993. Pallas,
PS., ed. 1781 “Bericht von einer im Jahr
1772 angetretenen vierjahrigen Seereise 20
den zwischen Kamischatka and Amerika
gelegenen Inseln, unter Anfiihrung des
Peredovshchiks Dmitrei Bragin.” Neue
Nordische Beitrage 2(ch, 13):308 324

B'S, Pallas, ed & trans. St. Petersburg
Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Reprinted in Mesiatseslov for 1783 and in
Sobranie sochinenii vybrannykh iz
mesiatseslovov na raznye qody, 1790, part
5: 304-318, Based on the journals of
Dmitrii Bragin and navigator.

AN. Elimov, Atlas geograficheskikh
otkrytii v Sibiri i v Severo-Zapadnoi Amerilke,
XVII-XVIII vv (1964), p. 180,

AJ. von Krusenstern, Atlas de Pocean
Pacifique (St. Petersburg, 1827)

James W. VanStone, Russian Exploration
in Southwest Alaska: The Travel Journals
of Petr Korsakovsky (1818) and Ivan Ya.
Vasilev (1829) (Fairbanks: University
of Alaska, 1988).

Fedor P. Litke 1835 included Vasiliev
report from 1831-2 (in Partnow, 1993:103)
Partnow suggests that there may well have
been more villages prior to production of
Russian charts (p. 103, ff 19).

Introduction

7

Bernard R. Hubbard, Mush, You Malemutes!
(New York: The America Press, 1932), and
Cradle of the Storms (New York: Dodd, Mead
& Company, 1935)

Baer in Ferdinand P. Wrangell, Russian
‘America: Statistical and Ethnographic
Information, (Kingston, Ontario: ‘The
Limestone Press, 1980 |1839]), p. 178-179.

Chapter two

9

12

Davydov, Two Voyages to Russian America,
1802-1807, translated by Colin Bearne,
edited by Richard A. Pierce (Kingston,
Ontario: The Limestone Press, 1977), p.
147-148.

Sugpiaq (S'xpiaq) is singular, meaning “a
real person.” “Sugpiat is plural, meaning the
real people.” Aleut was pronounced Alutiiq
by the Koniag, Alutiiqs is an Anglicized
plural. Sugpiag and Alutiiq are the adjective
forms. The language is Sugtestun (S'x’stun)
See Donald Clark, “Pacific Eskimo
Historical Ethnography,” in Handbook of
North American Indians: Arctic, vol. 5 by D.
Damas, ed. (Washington: Smithsonian
Institution, 1984), p.185-197.

Variants of the name Koniag included
Kanagist (Glotov), Kaniag (Sachyrev),
Kaniaga (Davydov), and Kad'iak Aleuts.
See Clark 1984:185-197

Gordon Pullar, The Qikertamiut and the
Scientist: Fifty Years of Clashing World Views,
in The Larsen Bay Repatriation and the
Smithsonian Institution; T. L. Bray and

PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

175


Research in the Russian
Orthodox Church records
indicates that “Chignik Bay”
referred to Chignik, and
“Chignik” referred to
Chignik Lagoon.”

90

CHAPTER FIVE

the north side survived the 1919 epidemic.’* The

old village was abandoned, but southwest of it, near
the cannery, summer settlements were established by
families that wintered at trapline and hunting camps.
Later, sites along the northern side of Chignik Lagoon
became summer fish-camps for Chignik Lake residents.

Chignik Bay—Vvedenskoe—Andersonville

Uune 1909. We arrived in Chignik at 10am and
were met by the people on the shore. They took us
in a boat to Vvedenski village which is half an hour
away on the other side of the bay.] The village
consisting of 2-3 barabaras was founded about ten
years ago. In 1907/8 upon the priest's requests, the
inhabitants built a church in the name of the Entry
[vvedeniye] of Virgin Mary into the Temple. Since
then the village has grown. Orthodox from
Nushagak mission and Afognak parish moved here.
People from other villages are also settling down
here since there is a number of local conveniences
There is a lot of fuel in the area and it is close at
hand; there is an ample supply of salmon; there are
stores and a post office, and two fish canneries where
people can get jobs. There is a doctor and the priest
visits this settlement every year. Eskimos, Aglemiuts
and creoles do not have such conveniences in their
old places and, therefore, are settling down in
Chignik abandoning their old residences.”

In the 1890s, two canneries, Hume Brothers and Hume
Company and Pacific Steam Whaling Co., began
operating in Anchorage Bay. Ten Native employees
worked at these two canneries in 1900. By 1906, the
new settlement in Anchorage Bay had four barabaras
“laid out on the shore of the bay opposite the cannery”

near the steamship dock.*° Because the priest was now
traveling on the steamship Dora which docked at the
cannery, he advised the residents to build a chapel. The
priest had hopes that this area would become the
central village of the mid-Pacific coast of the Peninsula:

The idea [for the new chapel] was received with
delight. The people express the hope that with
construction of a chapel the local Orthodox, who
are scattered everywhere, will group to live

here permanently.

By 1907, Vasilii Nikiferof had built the new chapel;
in June it was consecrated in the name of the
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin [Vvedenie Bozhiei
Materi vo Khram], and the settlement came to be
called Vvedenskoe. Martin Knagan, was elected both
toion and church elder [starosta]. S. Mugavignak
was the new servitor and Creole Artemii Rodionov
(age 41), and his family agreed to move from the

St. Nicholas chapel in Chignik Lagoon to be church
reader. From the beginning, the settlement comprised
Native and Creole households. Later, when George
and Ocelena Anderson moved there with their
children, it became known as Andersonville.

Mitrofania

[9 August 1895 left Unga aboard Ol’gin’s schooner
for Mitrofania, arrived 11 August due to lack of
wind.] The Mitrofania residents are all Kodiak
Creoles, they live not badly. Their little houses are
covered with straw (like Russian yurts), they are
clean and warm. Almost all speak Russian well.

At the wish of the residents of Mitrofania settlement,
I took a 10-year-old boy [Vasilii Ivanov Stepanov}
to raise, whom the Unalaska Dean of Clergy


1991b_ The-lovtsov Atlas of the North Pacific Ocean.
(1782). Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press.

Vasilii F Lovtsov atlas of 1782 with notes by
L. T. Black. Chart 10 shows general outline of
Peninsula, Unimak, Shumagins, Kodiak.

1992 The Russian Conquest of Kodiak. Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska, vol. 24(1-2):

165-182.

Early years of contact between Russians and Koniag,
Shelikov’s conquest and the occupation of Kodiak and
Afognak islands. Analysis of early maps of area.

1994 Deciphering Aleut/Koniag Iconography.
In Anthropology of the North Pacific Rim, W.W.
Fitzhugh and V. Chaussonnet, eds. Pp.133-146

Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Analysis of dominant decorative motifs of Aleut and
Koniag hunting hats and whale hunting. Explores the
meaning of the hunting hats to the hunters who used
them—the visor-as-mask’s transformative qualities,
the associations to the cosmic and the personal realm,
and links to life, death, and procreation. Provides
evidence linking people of the Bering Sea littoral

Russians in Alaska 1732-1867. University of
Alaska Press.

Black, Lydia T., editor

1977 The Konyag (The Inhabitants of the Island
of Kodiak) by loasaf [Bolotov] (1794-1799) and
by Gideon (1804-1807), with an introduction by
L. Black. Arctic Anthropology 14(2):79-108.

Introduction about Archmandrate losaf and
Hieromonk Gideon and translated text of their
journals. Includes glossary of Russian and Sugtestun
words and list of plants and animals referred to. Later,
more complete works of Gideon in Gideon 1989.

Black, Lydia, Richard A. Pierce, Katherine L. Arndt, and
Sarah McGowen, editors

In Press

1999 History and Ethnohistory of the Aleutians East

Borough. Kingston, Ontario: Limestone Press

Bolotov, losaf

1794- The Konyag (The Inhabitants of the Island
1799 of Kodiak). With an introduction by L. Black.

Arctic Anthropology 14(2):79-108.

Bower, W. T. and H.D. Aller
1917 Alaska Fisheries and Fur Industries in 1915

i

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of
Fisheries. Pp. 108-140.

Capps, Stephen R

1923

The Cold Bay District. In Mineral Resources
of Alaska, Report on Progress in Investigations
in 1921, pp77-116. USGS Bulletin 739.
Washington.: Government Printing Office

Cold (Puale) Bay and Kanatak area mining

and oil exploration. Photos of Kanatak. See also
Capps Photo Collection, University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, Alaska and
Polar Regions Department.

Case, David ‘and David Avraham Voluck

2001

Alaska Natives and American Laws. 2nd ed.
Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.

Clark, Donald W.

1984a

1984b

Prehistory of the Pacific Eskimo Region.

In Handbook of North American Indians
Arctic vol. 5, D. Damas, ed. Washington:
Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp. 136-148.

Introduction to sources on Alutiiq prehistory.

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

Description of Alutiiq culture as observed by early
Russian and European visitors. Language, Territory,
Environment. External relations-raiding and trade,

history of Russian contact. Synonymy (Clark & PUYULEK PU’IRTUQ!

189


180

ENDNOTES

186 Robert P Porter, Report of Population and
Resources of Alaska at the Eleventh Census.
1890. (Washington: Government Printing,
Office, 1893), p. 96. The “Kanaka”
were Hawaiians brought in to work in
the canneries.

187 Shalamoy, Tikhon, “Travel of the Right
Reverend Tikhon, Bishop of Aleut and
Alaska: From the journal of 1895 of a
priest of the Kodiak Resurrection Church”,
translated by Richard Bland, ROAM vol. 1,
p. 23 (1896).

188 Modestov, ROAM vol. 3, pp. 224-227, 248-
250 (1895).

189 Shalamov, 1896.

190 Petroff, Ivan, Population and Resources
of Alaska, US Congress, House Executive
Document No. 40, 46th Congress, 3rd session,
(Washington: Government Printing Office,
1881), pp28

191 Basil Bensin, Russian Orthodox Church in
Alaska: 1794-1967, (Sitka: Russian Orthodox
Greek Church of North America).

192 Shalamov, 1907, described the region and
its many small setilements in 1895.

193 Bancrofi, 1886: 627.
194 Porter, 1893.

195 Aleksin, ROCR R133/f328, 1895
and ROCR R136/[523, 1897.

196 Kedrovskii, ROCR R139/1199, 1908.
197 Oleksa, 1992:176-183.

198 Richard Dauenhaver, Glacier Bay Concerto: A
Long Poem in Three Movements (Anchorage:
Alaska Pacific University Press, 1980).

199 Oleksa, 1992.

200 Petroff, Ivan, “Population, Industries
and Resources of Alaska,” U.S. Congress,
Senate, Committee on Military Affairs
(Washington: Government Printing Olfice,
1900), p. 116

201 Petroff, 1900: 121

202 Shishkin, ROCR R149/461 (1878)
1878 Fur prices, Nushagak Parish

beaver 10¢ - $1.20
marten 10¢ -$1.20
fox 20¢ - BO¢
land otter $1.00 - $2.00
mink 1o¢ - 50¢
cross fox $1.00 - $1.50

20¢ - 50¢
203 Aleksin, ROCR R136/f333-336, 1895.
204 Aleksin, ROCR R136/1524, 1897
205 Modestov, ROCR R145/[239, 1898.
206 Bancroft,1886: 636-7.

207 Bancroft,1886: 636-7.

208 AC Co., Box 119/fldr1097.

caribou skin

209 Lydia T. Black 2002, personal communication.
210 AC Co., Box 118/ldr 1082, 1882

211 AC Co., Box 155/fdr 634, Wrangell
Station, Agent Fisher 1888.

212 Shalamov, 1907

213 Aleksin, ROCR R136/f333 1895,
Kedrovskii, ROCR R1 36/1352, 1896;
Aleksin, ROCR R136/1375, 1897,

214 Petroff, 1900:117.

215 AC Co., Records, Box 155/flder 1634,
Wrangell Station, Agent Fisher, 1888.

216 AC Co., Box 155/Idr1634 1888.
217 AC Co., Box 155/ldr1632, Fisher 1888.

on
218 AC Co., Box 119/fdr1099, Frank Lowell,
1896.

219 AC Co., Box 119/lldr1099, Frank Lowell,
1896.

220 AC Co., Box 119/fldr1099, Frank Lovell,
1896.

221 ROCR R147/718 , 1897. Kruger is listed in
the Confessional Lists as a Lutheran.

222 AC Co., Box 155/fldr1633, Wrangell
Station, 1888,

223 Shalamov, ROAM vol. 3, p. 91, 1899.

224 Vasilii Martysh, Voyage Taken in 1901,
ROAM vol. 6, pp. 431-3, (1902), translated
by Patricia H. Partnow.

225 Vasilii Martysh, Voyage Taken in 1902 on the
Alaska Peninsula, ROAM vol. 8, pp. 13-15
(1904), translated by Patricia Partnow.

226 ACCo., Box 155/fldr1632, Fisher, 1888.

227 Sce archeological excavation report: Dave
McMahan, Castle Hill excavations, AK
Office of History and Archeology.

228 Mike Sam interview, BLA-ANCSA interview
91-akp001, 1991.

229 In the United States beluga and belukha are
interchangeable terms used for the small
white whale, Delphinapterus leucas. The
term beluga whale is perhaps more common
im Alaska. In Russia beluga refers to a fish in
the Sturgeon family while Belukha refers to
the whale, Lydia T. Black, 2002 personal
communication

230 Feofil, ROCR R149/1792.

231 Feolil, ROCR R149/1686.

232 Ablama, 1990b:14-15,

233 Ablama, 1990b:7.

234 Feofil, ROCR 1866 R149/1792
235 Ablama, 1990b:14-15.

236 Feofil, ROCR R149/[760, 1866.
237 Feolil, ROCR R149/1760, 1866.

238 Alaskan Russian Church Archives.
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C, (MF139 accession
number in collections of University of
Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E, Rasmuson
Library, Alaska and Polar Regions
Department.) Katherine Arndt, Translator.
R 149 item: Report, V. Shishkin, Nushagak,
to Alaska Consistory, 8/20 August 1890
£636

239 Influenza predated contact. Fortuine, 1992.


Opposite:

Chignik School, circa 1935.
Standing on porch: Minnie Wallin,
Stella Brun, Julia Stepanoff,
Helen Ozewan (in back), Alva
Skonberg, Mary Ann Sanguinetti,
Miss Doburns, Henry Sanguinetti
(leaning over rail), Charlie Wallin
(hiding in back) Walter Erickson,
Robert Anderson, Mervin Brun,
Bill “Rowdy” Skonberg, unknown,
James “Buster” Skonberg,
unknown. Seated back: Arthur
“Tuney” Skonberg, Johnny Wallin,
Annie Osbekoff, Tina Wallin,
Betty Harris, Karlene Brun,
Ozewan girl, Pauline Brun,

Polly Shangin, Caroline Anderson,
Sena Larson, May Brun.

Front: Robert Erickson, Billy
Anderson, George Wallin, Andrew
“Dutchy”Skonberg. Courtesy of
Alaska State Library, PCA 37-10.

106 CHAPTER SIX

the prohibition against selling breach-loading rifles and
ammunition to them. Agents of the Alaska Commercial
Company were authorized to sell rifles that were good
for killing big game. Restrictions were tightened again,
albeit in a different way, in 1902 with the passage of
the Alaska Game Act. The Game Act prohibited the
sale of “hides, skins, or heads” from animals that had
been killed for their meat and established hunting
seasons and limits, although it did exempt Native
subsistence hunting from regulation. This put an

end to the selling of caribou or bear hides.

In general, while still impoverished in the view of
Euroamericans and government agents,*' Natives had
access to more money than ever before through the
cannery work, fishing, and trapping. Even with the
expanded cash economy, reliance on traditional foods
and traditional lifeways remained strong, and money
was often used for small luxuries. At the same time,
many sailors and Euroamerican fishermen brought
north to work the fish-traps were settling in the area,
marrying local women, and learning how to live and
survive in the new country. They, too, began entering
the fur industry as fox farmers and trappers. These
frontiersmen, with access to cash and embodying a
Euroamerican work ethic, were able to amass numbers
of traps and run large, sometimes lucrative, traplines.

Although, by this time, the Alaska Commercial
Company had closed many remote stations, traders
continued to play an important role. Most settlements
had independent traders and some enterprising
entrepreneurs set up salteries and trading posts in the
same location. Traders in remote areas could set their
own prices, and trappers were often forced to travel
long distances to get what they thought was a fair price.

Fox Farming

The natives of Alaska also are beginning to realize

the possibilities of preserving at least a few fur bearing
animals and now four of the islands devoted to blue
foxes are owned wholly or in part by natives who have
become interested in industry through the reports of
their friends and relatives employed in caring for the
animals on their islands. The native by nature and
experience make first-class keepers and through these
positions can obtain a good living for them selves,
while rendering excellent service to their employers.

~Washburn, Manager of the
Alaska Commercial Company, Kodiak

When the manager of the Alaska Commercial

Company, M.L. Washburn wrote to Special Agent
Kutchin advocating that fox farming might help alleviate
the “conditions” of the Natives and prevent them from
becoming dependent on the government, Kutchin
responded positively because in his view “the semi-
domestication of fur-bearing animals affords the only
possible escape from the early extermination of all those
species which now provide the most costly and
luxurious of wearing apparel.”* Special Agent Kutchin,
sent to Alaska to investigate the salmon fisheries, was a
conservationist first and a benevolent visionary second.
Like many other Euroamericans of his time, he often
viewed the Native inhabitants as destitute, lazy, and
ignorant people who needed help. Kutchin seemed

to have mixed feelings about the potential for Native
success in the industry. He supported Native entry

and advocated easing the yearly fee to lease an island;
noting, “A very small proportion of the Natives can
accumulate cash enough to even buy the necessary foxes


As new industries gained in importance and the

sea otter industry finally failed, the hunters with their
families were pulled toward these economic centers
which focused on the pursuit and packing of salmon.
In the 1890s, new villages began to develop, first as
summer settlements connected to canneries and then as
the year-round villages, some of which have persevered
to this day. By the close of the century, the industry and
villages that would sustain through the twentieth
century had been established.

In the late 1800s the Orthodox Church became an
increasingly important part of people’ lives, and in
each settlement devout parishioners built a chapel and
bought or bartered for bells, icons, candles, and other
church articles. Many seasonal camps had prayer
houses or outside lecterns, and those who died while
in camp were given Orthodox burials. The Russian
Orthodox priests, funded by a meager sale of candles
and icons, did their best to make yearly visits to the
small prayer houses and chapels that parishioners built
in each settlement. When the priests were on their
yearly or twice-yearly travels, parishioners traveled to
distant churches and chapels to attend church services,
get married, or meet with a priest.

Signs of these old settlements and seasonal camps

are well-remembered by people today who have seen
old crosses, chapels, and barabaras on both shores of
the Peninsula. Oral history and archaeological
investigations will likely uncover more turn-of-the-
century encampments, In Aniakchak and Amber bays
Russian Orthodox crosses stood as late as the 1930s.

In 1911, when the sea otters were nearly gone, many
Alaska Commercial Company stores were closed, and

the salmon industry

was drawing Alutiiq and
Euroamericans alike to the
cannery towns. Canneries
were slow to bring in local
workers but when they
started to employ them,
they came from not only
the local area but from the
entire Peninsula, Kodiak
Island, and other parts of
Alaska. These joined the
cannery hands, fishermen,
and trap men from other
areas of the world—
Europe, America, China,
Japan, and the Philippines.
It was during this time,
too, that a few Americans
and European immigrants
decided that the Peninsula
was a place to stay and
create a lite

Turn-of-the-century
settlements included
Ugashik, Agishik, Meshik,
Unangashak, Kanatak, Wide Bay, Wrangell Bay,
Chignik Lagoon, Chignik, and Mitrofania. Commercial
fishing activity seemed to both repel and attract the
local inhabitants as some people migrated to the
cannery settlements. Others, at least in the beginning
of the cannery era, left the areas of new industry
where, during the fishing season, the locals were easily
outnumbered by the foreign men brought in to work

Married Russian Orthodox woman

and two children in front of a barabara
at the old village of Kanatak circa
1909. Their ground-squirrel parkas
are made in the Alutiiq style. Courtesy
of Alaska State Library, PCA 24-109.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 53



one sea otter paying $75.00 therefore. Olgin has

an assortment of Mdse thru his trades with other
parties. Although my party had no money when they
left for Suthwik, several of them brought Mdse and
money from there, the natural inference, that Olgin
has succeeded in buying also sea otters from my
party. Of course while you were here they all talked
very fair and made all kinds of promises but talk is
cheap and their promises can not be depended upon.
Both Olgin and Reed have told the natives the prices
rec'd by them for their sea otters, and are also
selling their Mdse at lower prices to them. The
Ugashik Store at Suthkom has been Paying $60.00
for sea otters right along.... Olgin & Reed are trying
to get the natives from this settlement to hunt for
them in the future. I don’t think it will pay to fit out
parties from here, so that Olgin & Reed may reap
the benefit without any risk whatever?”

The Company did, however, have various ways to
coerce or encourage payment of obligations incurred
through indebtedness to the station stores. The debt
lists from the 1880s Alaska Commercial Company
records show that it continued to outfit hunting
expeditions—and hunters continued to amass debt.
The Company also tried to garnish wages and intercept
hunters who were selling at other stations. A letter
from agent Fisher at the Wrangell Station reveals the
state of the hunt and the relationship between the
agent and the hunters:

...a vessel from Karluk called there in quest of
working men for Cannery. I understand that several
Katmai fellows indebted to this Station are now
working in Karluk Cannery [and] suggest that their
debts due here be deducted from their wages there.

...Sea otters are reported plenty around Sutwik

Isld since latter part of June, but with the extremely
[derogatory?} material [i.e., hunters} I don’t anticipate
arich harvest. In regard to fishing in Chignik Bay
Ihave been informed by Sutkhom [sic] natives that

a large three masted vessel has been engaged in salting
fish there during this season and probably is there yet.
.. Still thinking. ..you will discontinue this station.”"°

Fisher tried other tactics to extract money from
hunters such as bribing the hunters with things needed
for the church. He wrote to Kodiak: “In regard to the
Bell. 1 promised to refund the price of $20.00 and to
present the Bell gratis to the settlement provided the
sea otter catch for April Ist 1889 shall amount to
twenty full-grown skins. All small skins are not to
count, and the usual practice of cutting pieces from
each skin to be discontinued. In case of failure to
comply with request the Bell to be paid for.”"” This
was a hard bargain as cash was not readily available
and sea otter were hard to find but the skins would
have been worth over $2,000.00 to the Company.

Fisher left Wrangell in 1889, but the outpost continued
under a new agent despite the years of encouragement
to close it. Frank Lowell seems to have had a better
relationship with the locals, albeit no better luck with
the declining hunt.

Neither Company nor Church records give an adequate
picture of the hardship many families must have
suffered because of the declining sea otter population.
It was a hazardous occupation even for experienced
kayakers and under U.S. business practices, hunting

in wintertime and inclement weather began again—

practices that had been stopped in 1818 under the PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 59


1989b Fox Introductions on Alaska Islands:
History, Impacts on Avifauna and Eradication.
Unpublished manuscript, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Homer.

General information on fox farming era and
effects on islands. Includes mention of islands
off the Alaska Peninsula 7

Bancroft, Hubert H. 12

1886 History of Alaska 1730-1885. The Works
of Hubert Howe Bancroft vol. XXXIII
San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co.

History of Russian activities through the two decades
after the purchase. Must be read with caution
Bancroft used many sources to compile this work and
much of the information is inaccurate or misleading.

Barnhardt, Carol

1980 Historical Status of Elementary Schools in
Rural Alaskan Communities 1867-1979.
University of Alaska, Fairbanks. 31 pp.

Bean, Tarleton H.

1891 Report on the Salmon and Salinon Rivers
of Alaska. In Bulletin of the U.S. Fish
Commission vol. 9 (1889). Washington:
Government Printing Office. Pp. 165-208.

Report on early fisheries, people, and land.
Includes maps and plates of Chignik and Ugashik

Bensin, Basil M.

1967 Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska:
1794-1967: Special Publication for the
Centennial Celebration of the Purchase of Alaska
by the United States from the Russian Empire in
1867. Sitka: Russian Orthodox Greek Church of
North America, Diocese of Alaska.

Includes listing of RO churches and mission sites
granted to the church according to the treaty of 1867
(Metrofan, Kanatak, Wide Bay, Wrangell) and
188 BIBLIOGRAPHY Churches and Chapels built (Chignile Lake and

Lagoon, Pilot Point, Perryville, Kanatak, Ugashik,
Unangashik).

Berkh, Vasilii N.

1974

A Chronological History of the Discovery of
the (1823) Aleutian Islands or the Exploits of
Russian Merchants. R. H. Pierce, ed.; D. Vrenov,
uns. Kingston Ontario: The Limestone Press

Lists merchant ships traveling along the Aleutian
Islands and to Kodiak. Mentions Alaska Peninsula
Natives near Unga p. 24 June 1761 ship Sv. Gavriil
wintering and promyshlennikis causing trouble.

Black, Lydia T.

1981

1987

1988

1990

199la

Volcanism as a Factor in Human Ecology:
the Aleutian Case. Ethnohistory 28(4):313-339

Influences of volcanic activity on human
settlement. Especially relevant for the Aleutians and
the peninsula.

Whaling in the Aleutians. Etudes Inuit Studies
TL: 2: 7-50.

The Story of Russian America. In Crossroads to
Continents, Fitzhugh and Crowell, eds. Pp. 70-
82. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Concise history of Russian America, effects on
Koniags and others, orthodoxy and conversion,
sale of Alaska.

Creoles in Russian America. Pacifica 2(2).
142-155.

Explanation of legal meaning of “Creole” as a

social estate not a racial category. Membership in
the Creole class was not exclusive to people of mixed
Russian and Native heritage. Clarifies meaning of
“Creole” and subsequent use, first by Dall in 1870,
as racial category meaning “half-breed”.

Glory Remembered: Wooden Headgear of Alaska
Sea Hunters. Juneau: Friends of Alaska State
Museum; Seattle: distributed by University of
Washington Press.


CHAPTER ONE

study area, represent the core of Alutiiq culture and
language for people of the middle Peninsula, primarily
because they have the largest Alutiiq population.
Subsistence hunting, fishing and plant gathering
provide an important cultural link for people who are
active in more modern pursuits. They use lands in
much of Aniakchak, and Aniakchak, Amber, and
Kujulik bays continue to provide good access to
caribou, berries, fish, and shellfish

The five study villages are located within a 60 mile
radius of Aniakchak on the Alaska Peninsula. Chignik
Bay, Chignik Lagoon, and Chignik Lake are located on
the Pacific side of the Peninsula while Pilot Point and
Port Heiden are located on the Bristol Bay side. None of
these villages are accessible by road, but all are accessi-
ble by boat and are serviced by air out of King Salmon
During the summer Chignik Bay is visited once a month
by the Alaska Ferry System and Port Heiden, with the
largest airstrip, is serviced by jet out of Anchorage.

The majority of the study population is Alaska Native.

Pilot Point & Ugashik

Pilot Point is about 55 air miles from Aniakchak and
while itself distant from the Monument and Preserve,
many of its residents have ties to the upper Ugashik
and the abandoned village of Kanatak. Through
Kanatak, ties extend to the village of Wrangell in
Chiginagak Bay and other settlement areas between
the Chigniks and Kanatak. Most people from Ugashik,
ten air miles up the Ugashik river from Pilot Point,
relocated to Pilot Point a century ago.

Port Heiden/Meshik

This old military installation and DEW line site
incorporated the village of Meshik. It is the closest
village to Aniakchak, only 15 air miles from the
boundary. Access to Aniakchak is often via creeks that
have historically been used as trap lines. The Meshik
River also takes people into Aniakchak and up to
Meshik Lake on the southwest side of the Caldera
Today there is one person who was born in or very
near to Aniakchak boundary and others who spent
winters on the flanks of the crater. Reindeer Creek,
where reindeer used to be corralled, is just northeast
of the village

Chignik Lake, Chignik Lagoon,
Chignik Bay

This group of villages is about 40 air miles from
Aniakchak boundary and about a five hour fishing
boat ride from Aniakchak Bay. People have strong
historic ties to Aniakchak because of their recent
pattern of living out on the coast during the winter.
There are several people who were born along the
coast, remains of their cabins can still be found, and
they continue to use park areas and offshore areas for
hunting, fishing, and berry picking. Traditional Native
ties to Aniakchak are more obscure, in part because of
the lack of historic documentation from the Russian
period. However, residents consider Aniakchak an
important subsistence area.


. Dago Creek.
1920’s Reindeer Range Corral <
Pilot point % Puan
(Eskimo Tot le
a wn) Pual
é
4 ‘Kanatak
Wide Bay
e Reindeer Creek
Oy Corral s
PCy
av
% Pertei of
Wl
&
Z g
AE :
\ ‘Amber Bay
g
> “Aniakchak Bay
Black \ ‘Sutwik Island
wt LS
Mount Veniaminof F o Kujulik Bay
‘Chignik Bay a 1920's Inupiag Settlements
YS he <3 A Oo 1920's Reindeer Corral
G\ " ‘ > Approximate Reindeer Range
UE, 10 0 10 Miles Aniakchak Monument and Preserve
x Map 9.B

Cartographic Iustration: Wm. J. Lee



rather than a village where families resided

The Company had a large investment in Sutkhum
where it ran the seasonal store, outfitted hunters,
and bought or traded sea otter and other furs. In
1882, the trading post was clearly on Cape Kumliun.
The agent Grigorii Panshin, a Russian or Creole,
bought only a few furs in 1882 and wrote to Kodiak
that there are “no [resident] hunters,” he requested
that at least three families be sent to stay there.
Hunters from Wrangell, Afognak, Katmai, Kodiak,
and Ugashik traded at Sutkhum.

Kodiak hunters who were apparently not working

for the Company, were reported to be wintering on

the Island even though Company agents thought that
if people spent the winter on Sutwik Island the sea
otters would not come near the shore. In a letter from
Lowell to Washburn, the Alaska Commercial Company
manager in Kodiak, Kodiak hunters are directly
implicated in the failure of the company posts:

the Station this Year does not pay Expenses...the
small Stations not making anything, (all Accts)

& no catch to be got from Sutwik Island since the
Kodiak Parties have commenced to Winter there,
leaves this Station without any way to pay Exps.”

The Company encouraged hunters to winter on the
mainland at Sutkhum or Wrangell settlements. An
independent trader, Nikolai Olgin, was bringing his
schooner to Sutwik Bay and over-wintering with his
own group of hunters, probably from Unga where he
was then residing. They had built barabaras and also
used tents. Olgin offered much better trading deals to
the hunters—paying more for furs and selling goods
at lower prices.”

Katmai hunters and Olgin’s activities suggest
establishment of other encampments in the vicinity
of Sutkhum as well. The sites would have been
occupied around 1900. Trappers who lived in Amber
Bay in the 1930s remember seeing old house remains
and Russian Orthodox crosses at the mouth of one
of the rivers flowing into Amber Bay. Cape Kumlik
and Kujulik Bay are also likely places for historic

sea otter hunting camps.

Chignik Lagoon area—Nikolaevskoe

Next year [1897], if God grants, [Nikolai] Ol’gin
promises to take me on his schooner to Mitrofania
settlement and also to Chernik [Chignik].

Chernik is 150 miles from Unga Island and 50
miles from Mitrofania. The objective of acquiring a
prayerhouse in Chernik is that in the summertime
residents from various places—Mitrofania
settlement, Little Ugachek of the Nushagak parish,
Wrangell of the Kodiak parish, and other places—
gather here to salt fish (there are fish-salting
factories here—canneries).””

Aleksin, who was the parish priest for Belkofski
Parish between 1894-1905”’, had heard that the
hunters of Chignik and “Little Ugashik” had collected
20 bearskins to acquire a prayer house, and when he
visited in 1897 he found a group of “Koniag Aleut”
speakers who had not been visited by a priest since
1882. They lived in what he describes as driftwood
houses roofed with thatch in four or five settlements
on Chignik Lagoon and along the Chignik River.
Aleksin relied on Olgin, a Creole from Kodiak, to
translate into Sugtestun. By the time he arrived they
had built a chapel which he consecrated Sv. Nikolai

Opposite:

Chiginagak Bay. Wrangell village
was situated at the west end of the
bay. A portage went up the valley,
over the eastern flanks of the volcano,
to Ugashik. Courtesy of University
of Alaska Fairbanks, Elmer E.
Rasmuson Library, Alaska and

Polar Regions Department,

Capps Album 83-149-3086.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 87



Both the Unangan and the Sugpiat [Alutiiqs] have
conscious efforts underway to revitalize their
cultures... Both groups hope that these efforts will
result in the development and maintenance of strong
ethnic and cultural identities that will make it clear
to local residents and outsiders alike that the term
Aleut cannot describe the region’s varied people or
their traditions.”

~ Gordon Pullar, 1996

Aleut continues to be a term commonly used by

the people themselves and outsiders to describe
Natives variously from the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska
Peninsula, parts of Bristol Bay, Kodiak Island, and the
Kenai Peninsula. They represent over a dozen
subgroups within three cultures and languages. Many
explorers, scholars, and missionaries have recognized
over the years that these were participants in different
cultures, yet local residents have retained the name
Aleut. Like the word Indian for North American
indigenous peoples, Aleut obscures important cultural
differences and confuses cultural heritage. At the same
time, the word aligns people with their Russian past.

Who are these various groups of people who are
called and often call themselves Aleut? The people of
the Aleutian Islands, the outer Alaska Peninsula north
to Kupreanof Point, and the Shumagin Islands are
members of several subgroups belonging to the larger
group speaking the Aleut language, formerly spread
over the entire Aleutian Archipelago. Their language
belongs to a distinct linguistic group, separate from
other Eskimoan languages. While their culture may at
first glimpse seem like that of their historical enemies
to the east, it loo is quite distinct. Recently, these people
came to be considered the “real Aleut” since they came

from the Aleutian Islands, although the self-designation
of Aleut continues to prevail throughout much of the
former Russian America. The Sugpiat call these people
Taya’ut or Tayarut.

One local elder had the following to say about the
many different “Aleuts:”

Un’garmiut, Aleutian Islands. Tayarut... They

are those from down below [un’garmiut} Aleutian
Islands. We call them Tayarut. The Aleuts are
Tayarut. White people call us Aleut Indian, too.
They mix us together, even though we are Yupiat...
census, you know. We call ourselves Aleut, too...

When we fill out papers/forms they call

us Aleut... we say we are Alutiit, Yupiat,
Tarupiat...when the white people came and
started filling out forms they made us call
ourselves Aleuts."®

The second group of people who call themselves Aleut
are people who fell under the sphere of the Nushagak
trading post and mission in the 1800s—Yup’ik
speakers of the lower Nushagak, Kvichak, Naknek,
and Ugashik rivers. While anthropologists group these
people with the linguistic group of Yup’ik, many of
them have retained the self-designation of Aleut
which at the time of Russian influence would have
distinguished them from those people not yet brought
under colonial influence and Russian Orthodoxy. Like
others, these Yup'ik speakers and their descendants
have called themselves Aleut for nearly two centuries.

The Aleut of Kodiak Island and parts of the Alaska and
Kenai peninsulas belong to the pre-contact group of

Sugtestun speakers which includes Chugach of Prince PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!



A good situation, dependable
weather, succulent grass and
plenty of fish and land and
marine animals persuaded

Mr. Baranov to establish settle-

ments in two places on Allaska.

Cattle raising was established
successfully in the Katmai artel,
but it has been reduced due to
a shortage of men. There are
very many ted foxes of very
good quality on Aliaska.

As to marine animals, there

are sea lions, walrus and hair
seal everywhere. Whales are
washed ashore every year in
various places. The peninsula
has bountiful forests, and there
are many berries, sarana, and
different edible roots. Deer
[caribou] are hunted for food at
a certain time of the year when
they migrate from one place

to another. There are natives
only near Katmai artel."?

~Khlebnikov

38 CHAPTER THREE

Baranov’s abuses were directed not only to human
inhabitants; sea otter numbers had declined in the
early decades of the hunt. In the 1820s the fragility
of sea otter populations was recognized and
conservation measures instituted. These measures
included a system of quotas and rotating sea otter
grounds for each district. After a year of hunting an
area would be left fallow. Additionally, only adult
males were taken.”* No longer were hundreds of
baidarkas employed. In 1834, in Kodiak district, only
126 baidarkas departed from Kodiak and Katmai for
the sea otter hunt. Responding to the demands of the
fur market, the Russian-American Company increased
efforts to secure other furs. In addition to Pribilof
Island fur seal and sea otter, hunters scoured the land
for fur-bearers. They exported beaver, land otter, arctic
fox and sable as shown in Table 3.1. Red, silver and
cross fox, bear, lynx, wolverine, mink, muskrat, and
wolves were also exported. Fox was particularly
popular on the Russian market.

The Russian-American Company
on the Alaska Peninsula

Early in Baranov’s administration, the Alaska Peninsula
looked auspicious for expanding operations because the
Pacific coast supported numerous marine mammals and
the land was teeming with high quality red fox and
caribou. A mainland post would also provide a base for
making inroads into the interior. Of the two artels of
the Russian-American Company, Katmai was the largest,
having been located in a relatively densely populated
area. Upon establishing the artel, Baranov relocated
Sugpiat and Creole hunters, supplying the enlarged

settlement with sea lion and seal skins. Sutkhum was
said to be in an uninhabited location either on Cape
Kumliun, just south of Aniakchak Bay, or on Sutwik
Island, just off the coast. Its exact location is unknown,
but the artel may have been active at both places. The
artel at Sutkhum was originally, and remained, a supply
post during the seasonal sea otter and seabird hunts at
nearby islands. The quantity and quality of red fox was
reported to be excellent and large numbers of sea lion
and seals were taken from nearby haulout areas.
Caribou and bears were hunted on the mainland as
well. Initially, only hunters and kaiurs were taken there
from Kodiak. Later, families moved to Sutkhum where a
chapel may have stood at one time. By the mid-1800s,
the artel at Sutkum was abandoned, probably because
of a lack of both resident hunters and sea otters,
however, a small settlement remained.'*

By 1800, the sea otter population had declined in
the Sutwik Island area and in that same year Baranov
wrote “only a few men are sent to Sutkhum way to
hunt birds as there are not as many of them there as
formerly.””” Sutkhum was, however, a meeting place
for hunting parties from Unalaska and Kodiak who
scoured the Alaska Peninsula coast and islands.
Despite the said scarcity of furs and birds, the artel
grew. By the time Khlebnikov was company manager
in the 1820s, the company buildings at these artels
were dilapidated. Nevertheless, in 1825, 30 adults
and eleven children resided at Sutkhum. At the same
time 98 people resided at Ukamok (Chirikof) Island
to exploit the ground squirrels there, and 131 people
were tallied at the Katmai settlement, although the total
population was probably larger.'* In the early period,
strong winds and rough seas limited communication


were built next to the traditional site. The oil boom

hit in 1920 and a new town arose. The oil exploration
lasted a mere six years. Still, for almost 20 years
Kanatak had a school, post office, and store. Eventually,
without oil or fish the town could not sustain itself.

As Kanatak lost its school, post office, and employment
opportunities people began going back and forth
between Egegik, Ugashik, and the Chigniks in order

to commercially fish and work in the canneries. In
1952, the Russian Orthodox Church listed ten people
remaining who “counted themselves as the last.”

At least two families, that of Nick Shanigan and that

——$_———___ ———

of Pete Boskovski, stayed until 1954 or 1955. When
Nick and Mary Shanigan’s children became of school
age it became necessary for them to spend winters in
Egegik, where they had fished each summer. This was
about 1955. They did not, however, move all of their
household goods or prized possessions to Egegik as
they considered Kanatak as their home.

Wrangell

Wrangel Village is still young [in 1895]—having
endured only 13 summers, since barabaras had been
provided here first. The inhabitants are settlers from



known to intermarry with female captives from
neighboring Yup’ik-speaking (Sugtestun) groups.
It is unclear what role, if any, the Ugaassarmiut had
in such conflicts but it is likely they fought with
Dena’ina. Stories about warfare with Unangan are
told to this day.”

Davydov explained that attacks on other communities
may have been driven by desire for clothing, kayaks, or
other material items. They also may have been driven
by hunger. Grave insults were enough to start an attack
if the injured person could convince his fellows to join
in. The rewards could be great in terms of material
goods, food, and slaves. But, Davydov explained, “more
often than not the cause of their taking up arms was the
deep-seated hatred between tribe and tribe”.” These
intertribal wars may have affected settlement patterns,
discouraging establishment of semi-permanent
settlements or any concentration of people on much

of the Alaska Peninsula.

Some raids on the mainland were conducted through
the cooperation of entire settlements, including
women and children, who negotiated the Strait in
baidaras. Occasionally conflicts were so brutal that
no one returned.”

Warfare was highly organized as evidenced by the
ability of the Sugpiat to fight off the Russian invaders
for several decades. Warriors were well-outfitted with
bows, arrows, and spears, and protected by shields
and body armor of wood and sinew. Ideally, villages
were taken by surprise and the Sugpiat would:

need all the great patience with which they are
gifted, and they are capable of waiting several days
and nights in long grass or behind rocks until a

favorable opportunity occurs. When the attack
occurs they kill all the males and take only the
women and children as prisoners. The inhabitants
of Kad’iak have sometimes taken male prisoners as
slaves and sometimes, like other tribes, they torture
their prisoners on the way back to their village.”*

Most accounts of warfare emphasize the brutality
of these attacks and focus on the large numbers of
people killed and tortured, but Gideon wrote that
impending battles could be resolved through
negotiations, in which case another village would
mediate a solution.”

People in the Chigniks still tell of battles “to the
south, near Mitrofan.” One version was told by
Mike Sam in 1990:

Mitrofan Island, a little bit west of it, is a small
little island. There’s only one place you can go up
it, that’s on the west side of it where there's kind of
alittle valley with grass growing all the way up....
People were hunting around [Spitz] island and they
saw those Aleuts from the islands coming. ..so they
hid their kayaks and they landed there, went to the
top, hollered down to the Aleuts, ‘We're up here!
Come get us!’ There was a big log up there with big
spikes, like nails. They rolled it down the grassy
slope. There was no way the Aleuts could jump
aside because it was rocky on both sides of the
grassy valley. The log was about 12 feet long and
they’d roll it down and get every one of them.”

Little is known about the long term effects of the
battles between the Sugpiat and the Unangan although
there is speculation that the absence of people on the
Peninsula was a result of warfare.

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

2l



156

CHAPTER TEN

individual matter, a choice; with the current cultural
revitalization it may also be a commitment.

Only within the last 30 years has asserting Nativeness,
for many, been perceived as politically and economically
beneficial. The passage of the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act in 1971, and the U.S. governments
definition of minority status, it can be argued, created
“Alaska Natives’—along with the rights and privileges
that accompany that status in the U.S. Native in this
sense is a pan-Alaska Native designation, having
nothing to do with culture but with blood quantum,
political power and economic benefits.

For those who had grown up as members of the
Alutiiq community, the new designation in itself was
not a big change, although the fact that their enemies
to the north and west were suddenly also grouped with
them as “Alaska Native” was disconcerting.

One elder explained that when the different cultural
groups began meeting to discuss their future, the
biggest obstacle was to figure out how to think of
themselves as a group because they had all been
enemies before. Those who had not grown up in the
Alutiiq community, but had grown up identifying with
their Euroamerican ancestry and culture became
“Native” because they had Native blood. Everyone with
one-fourth “White” or Euroamerican ancestry could as
well be classified as “Caucasian.” The land claims
settlement, along with the organization of Native
corporations and tribal governments, created a group of
people who, under federal statutes, are politically
Alaska Native with all of its inherent rights and
economic benefits. This common Nativeness implies a
common culture and history. This is unfortunate
because it obscures the different histories and many

different rich cultural heritages of the indigenous people
in Alaska. Euroamericans constantly construct the
composite or a pan-Alaskan Native—an amalgam

of Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, Alutiiq, Athabaskan, and Tlingit
cultures—rather than the many individual cultural
groups with differing cosmological beliefs, social
structures, ecological ethics, child-rearing practices, etc.

Culture has nothing to do with this legal designation
of “Native”—one can be an “Alaska Native” with little
self-identification with or knowledge of Native culture.
Throughout this century being Native assigned
membership to a minority, underclass group and many
who were able to escaped that designation and raised
their children as “White.”

It has been proposed that the term ethnic anomalies

be used for people who are “betwixt and between,”

or “both-and” as are many individuals on the
Peninsula.*® Created by society “they become anomalies
by virtue of pre-existing classificatory categories which
they can do little to change.”*” These pre-existing
categories force people to choose either one or the
other—denying half or part of their heritage.

This creates new psychological and social pressures—
and, for some, over-acting.*”' Perhaps relevant to the
self-ascribed identity of Alaska Peninsula peoples,
anomalous groups “may consider themselves, and may
be considered by others, as members of the same ethnic
group as their [minority] parent; yet they may also
consider themselves as having ‘adapted’ to the majority
culture.”*” People considered racially mixed can be
placed with either the highest or lowest-ranking group.
On the Peninsula many who identify with the majority
culture as offspring of second generation immigrant
parents became “Native” under the Alaska Native




Chapter two

The Sugpiaq

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve
comprises land that archaeological and historical
evidence indicates was recently occupied by a branch
of the Sugpiag or Alutiiq’® cultural/linguistic group,
probably related to the Kodiak Islanders, an
indigenous people whose tenure on the coastal shores
and islands of the Kodiak Archipelago and Shelikof
Strait spans a millennium or more. These people have
been called Kaniaga (English: Koniag) or Kad’iak Aleut
for nearly two centuries, a name that derives from the
Unangan designation Kanagin."' In addition, Russians
used the term Aliaskentsy to refer to Sugpiaq
inhabitants of the Alaska Peninsula. More recently, the
terms Koniag Aleut, Pacific Eskimo, Pacific Yup'ik,
Alutiiq, and Sugpiat have been used to signify people
residing in the Kodiak Archipelago and the shores of
Shelikof Strait. The term Sugpiaq (plural, Sugpiat),
which people are familiar with and which has gained
in popularity in some areas, will be used as a general
term for peoples of the Peninsula and Kodiak who
speak Sugtestun. The traditional appellation
Qikertarmiut refers to Sugpiat affiliated with Kodiak
Island.” Ugaassarmiut designates people of the
Ugashik River drainage who speak a dialect mutually
intelligible to both Yup'ik and Sugtestun speakers.
While linguists have classified their language as
Central Yup'ik, they have aligned themselves with
Sugpiat or, in current usage, Alutiiq. Alutiiq, the

self-designation rising to the forefront today, will be
used for contemporary peoples.

Aleut was another term that the Russians commonly
applied to indigenous people throughout much of
Russian America. The Russian fur traders and mission-
aries often referred to many Alutiigs as Americans as
well, but soon the term Aleut prevailed and became a
generic term designating the indigenous peoples of the
Aleutian and Kodiak islands and the Kenai Peninsula
whom the Russians had brought under their control."
As Russian dominion spread, peoples bordering Bristol
Bay also began to identily themselves as Aleut. The
Russians recognized that these people spoke different
languages, had distinct cultural traits, and often were
enemies of one another; yet the term stuck and earlier
self-designations fell out of use. Because the term
Aleut may conceal cultural distinctions, it will be used
only when it occurs in the body of quotations.

On the Alaska Peninsula, ethnic boundaries

are especially obscure. Details of settlement and
subsistence patterns and of intra- and inter-tribal
relations are sparse although a few elders remember
detailed stories about the old battles and alliances.
Besides the resident Sugpiat, the Alaska Peninsula is
home to several other groups of indigenous people
(map 2.A). Each of these cultural groups spoke a
different language and each group had a settlement

Kad’iak speak the same language
with some small variations in
pronunciation which distinguish
those coming from the east, and
west of the group....

The inhabitants of Kad’iak and

of all the islands described above
[those around Kodiak] call
themselves. Kaniagas, but it would
seem that the term is often applied
to the Aliaskans as well.

~Davydov

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! 5



Chapter four

1867-1900 Resettlement of the

Alaska Peninsula

Introduction

The U.S. government’ purchase of Russian holdings
in America opened the entire area of Alaska for
exploration, exploitation, and settlement by a new
brand of entrepreneurs, adventurers, and missionaries;
this act had wide ranging effects for all of Alaska’s
indigenous peoples. Adventuresome men came in
ever-increasing numbers as new riches were
discovered and the word spread to entrepreneurs and
workers. Unlike the Russian government, which
limited numbers of people coming to Russian America
and discouraged settlement, the U.S. government
encouraged exploration and settlement of the territory.
On the Alaska Peninsula single men came to trap fur-
bearers and explore for minerals and fish stocks. By
the turn of the century, the Alutiiq population of the
Alaska Peninsula was overwhelmed by this influx of
people coming to exploit the rich salmon runs.

The Alutiiq culture, already so changed by the Russian
domination, once again suffered an assault of new
customs, new technologies, and new values—and was
confronted with a demand to modernize and
assimilate. The population suffered from an onslaught
of new diseases and epidemics and an increase in
available alcohol. The local people readjusted and as
the distinction between Creole and Alutiiq blurred,

the Native people found ways to assert their
emerging ethnicity, The Alutiiq culture remained
unique and identifiable just as the Euroamericans
who moved in adjusted to the new land and
created their own sub-culture and gained a

sense of a distinct Alaskan identity.

As American citizens gained the freedoms

to explore and settle the new territory, the
indigenous men and women regained freedoms
long hindered by the Russian-American Company.
By 1880 the Alaska Peninsula experienced a
resurgence of settlements as people tried to make
a living and create their own communities under
the new order." No longer Russian subjects,
native-born Alaskans, whether Creole

or Native, were also not considered American
citizens for many years.

Alutiiqs Confront “Amerikanskies”

The attitudes and beliefs of the Native people
about the change in government and policy are
difficult to discern from available documents."*

In the absence of the Russian-American
Company monopoly the economic and personal
freedom may have been a relief, but that did
not put the newcomers in high esteem. As one
visitor explained:

Pestchourof and General

On Friday, the 18th of October, ie i
1867, the Russian and United States

commissioners, Captain

Rousseau, ...landed at Novo-
Arkhangelsk, or Sitka... “Captain
Pestchourof ordered the Russian flag
hauled down, and thereby, with brief
declaration, transferred and delivered
the territory of Alaska to the United
States...’ Thus, without further
ceremony, without even banqueting or
speech-making, this vast area of land,
belonging by right to neither, was
transferred from one European race to
the offshoot of another...

‘Within a few weeks after the American
flag was raised over the fort at Sitka,
stores, drinking-saloons, and restau-
rants were opened, vacant lots were
staked out... To this new domain
flocked men in all conditions of life...
speculators, politicians, office-hunters,
tradesmen, even laborers. Nor were
there wanting loafers, harlots,
gamblers, and divers {sic} other classes
of free white Europeans never seea in
these parts before; for of such is our

superior civilization."

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! §=49



Chignik Lagoon

Alec Pedersen

Tony Gregorio and Rhonda Brandal Gregorio
Louise (Erickson) Anderson

Julius Anderson and Nina (Orloff) Anderson

Chignik Bay

Julia Boskovsky (University of Alaska Fairbanks
tape H98-04-04)

Roy Skonberg and Minnie (Anderson) Skonberg

Lars Anderson

Art Skonberg and Nancy (Brun) Skonberg

Axel Carlson and Alva (Skonberg) Carlson
(University of Alaska: Fairbanks tape H98-04-02)

Andy Stepanoff (NPS tape)

Billy Stepanoff and Clara (Anderson) Stepanoff

Don & Julia Kinsey Tapes

Recorded in 1969, transcribed by Patricia Partnow.

Spiridon Stepanof
Dora & John Andre, Bill Lind, Barbara Shangin

Alaska and Polar Regions Department,
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library,
University of Alaska Fairbanks

Tapes recorded by Patricia Partnow.

H95-35-01 6/2/90 Walter Stepanoff
H95-35-02 6/4/90 Walter Stepanoff
H95-35-03 6/5/90 Mike Sam

H95-35-04 = 1/11/92 Christine Martin
H95-35-05 1/24/97 Emil Artemie
H95-35-06 3/24/92 Ralph Phillips
H95-35-07

H95-35-08 4/2/92 Olga Kalmakolf
H95-35-09 4/3/92 Joe & Olga Kalmakolf
H95-35-10 10/19/92 Christine Martin

H95-35-11 10/22/92 Bill Lind

H95-35-12 10/20/92 Doris Lind
H95-35-13 11/10/92 Ralph Phillips
H95-35-14 11/11/92 Ignatius Kosbruk
H95-35-15 11/10/92 Ignatius Kosbruk
H95-35-16 11/13/92 Ignatius Kosbruk
H95-35-17 11/13/92 Elia and Mary Phillips
H95-35-18 1/9/93 Aleck Constantine

Bureau of Indian Affairs—Alaska Native Claim

Settlement Act Tapes recorded during investigations

for ANCSA Site AA-II774 Parcels A-L

75-BBN-05 Dora Andre and Lucy Amok (University

of Alaska: Fairbanks tape H83-188)

75-BBN-06 Lucy Amok (University of Alaska: Fairbanks
tape H83-189)

75-BBN-07 Andrew Krause (University of Alaska
Fairbanks tape H83-190, 191, 192, & 193)

75-BBN-08, Nick and Virginia Ablama

09, 10

75-BBN-O11 Harry Kaiakonok (University of Alaska:
Fairbanks tape H-88-183)

90-KON-03 Nica and Andrew Nelson (Ted Krieg
and Ron Kent, interviewers)

90-KON-04 Paul Boskovsky, Frank Tretikoll,
Charlie Kelly (Krieg and Kent)

90-KON-05 Paul Boskovsky, Frank Tretikoff,
Charlie Kelly (Krieg and Kent)

90-KON-06 Nida and Andrew Nelson (Krieg and Kent)

90-KON-08 Virginia White and Shirley Kelly
(Krieg and Kent)

90-KON-10, Nick Ablama, Sr. (Marie Meade, interviewer)

11, 12
91-AKPOO1 — Mike Sam (Matt O'Leary and Joe Bartolini,

interviewers)

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ!

205


Annie Hillborn

and her family.
From left to right
in the back row are
Annie’ husband
John Hillborn and
her children from
her first husband,
Louie Sanguinetti
and Mary Ann
Nikiferoff with her
baby, Donna. In the
middle, on Annie’
right and left are
Sena Larson and
Berg Larson, Jr,
her children from
her second husband.
Rubin Hillborn, age
three, stands in front.
Annie’ father was
George Anderson,
one of the first
Euroamericans to
settle in Chignik.

118 CHAPTER SEVEN

Spiridon Stepanoff. He also trapped the creeks of
Amber Bay in the 1920s and 30s. Hillborn moved to
Amber Bay when he bought out Adolph Von Himmel’s
cabin, boat, and traps for $500 in the 1930s when
Von Himmel returned to Germany.

In 1936, Hillborn’s nephew, Henry Erickson,

began trapping with him. Henry was the son of

one of the early Swedish immigrants, Victor Erickson
and George Anderson's daughter, Natalia. The Hillborn
and Erickson families lived in barabaras near the
Columbia River Packers Association bunkhouse

on the lower Aniakchak River. The area had been
inhabited for much of the past 300 years and probably
was used by sea otter hunters in the 1800s.” Fish
and furbearers were abundant and the capes offered
some protection from the wind. Hillborn had a
second barabara in Amber Bay where he and his
family moved in 1937. Erickson ran Hillborn’s
Aniakchak operation up the Aniakchak river and
along the coast near the cabin until 1943. He and his
wife, Lillian, and four children lived in a two room
barabara. Their son, Clarence, was born in Aniakchak
He was delivered by Lillian’s mother, Fedosha, who
was originally from Mitrofania and had married Olaf
“Sourdough” Anderson.

In many families, relatives often came to the winter
homesites to trap and help out. Erickson’s brother-in-
law, Julius Anderson, stayed with them sometimes.
Around 1945-1946, the Erickson family lived at North
River along with the Brandal and Grunert families.
Henry’s daughter, Louise Anderson, remembers that
winter well because of the many children at North
River that winter.

The years spent at Amber Bay by John and Annie
Hillborn and their children were years of excitement
and hard work. Annie, one of George Anderson's
daughters, had grown up at trapping camps and in
Chignik. Hillborn had spent his years in Alaska well,
learning to trap, hunt, and fish. They had a warm,


Kanatak circa 1922 from the west showing the storage area, tent camp and the old village. The portage to

Becharof Lake goes over the pass in the upper left. Horse drawn wagons took people to the lake where they

kept their Columbia River sailboats for the trip to Bristol Bay. Courtesy of University of Alaska Fairbanks,

CHAPTER S| Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, Alaska and Polar Regions Department, Seiffert Collection, 85-122-830.





VI

CONTENTS

Chapter four

1867-1900 Resettlement
of the Alaska Peninsula 49

Introduction 49

The New Settlements 50

The Russian Orthodox Church 54
The End of the Sea Ouer Hunt 56

The Alaska Commercial Company
and its Effect on Natives 57

Homes and Habitations 62
Subsistence 63

Famine and Sickness 66

Chapter five
A Village Journey 1880-1920 «60

Bristol Bay Villages 69
Pacific Villages 79

Chapter six
Industrialization—Fisheries,
Mining, 6 Oil Exploration 03

The Salmon Industry 94

Oil Exploration 101

Mining 105

Reindeer 105

Fur Farming and Trapping 105

Chapter seven

Aniakchak 113

Fox Farms 116
Settlement of Aniakchak and Amber Bay 116
Trapping on Bristol Bay Side 123

Chapter eight
Subsistence and Resource Use 127

Subsistence in a Social Context 128
Harvest and Harvest Areas-Aniakchak 133
Environmental Influences on Subsistence 138

Sport Hunting 139

Chapter nine
Inupiat Inmigration 141

Reindeer 145

Chapter ten
Conclusion and
Recommendations 153

Recommendations for Research 158


He is sorry to say that he was unable to make

his people to go hunting on the ‘Lettie’ should they
have known before hand that they were to go on the
schooner they might [have] got ready but at the
present are not in position to leave their families
alone, he also has been at the Ugashek to get the
people from there but couldn’t get them to come.”

In 1900, 27 people in six households were recorded
at Kanatak. The families were: Chief Ugvak’s, three
Kalmakoffs, one Agiak, and one Choaban. In 1902,
Father Martysh found only four barabaras at Kanatak:

The inhabitants number 23, of whom 13 are men
and 10 are women. All are related to each other.
Kananaja Bukhta [Kanatak Bay] was formerly
famous for the otters and even this year they
succeeded in catching three. Its inhabitants sell
their catch to the Americans [exploring for oil] at
Kholodnaia Bukhta [Puale Bay?]. The chapel was
built of driftwood, is small and quite poor. There was
$50.00 in the chapel treasury. With this entire sum
they bought from us candles, crosses, icons, and
incense, such that they had not a cent left of their
cash. The psalmist position here is occupied by the

Barabaras and a baidarka (kayak)
on a rack at the old village of
Kanatak, pre-1912. The village
was settled by Katmai and Ugashik
people and by 1901 they had a
small chapel. Seal skin covered
baidarkas were used into the
1930s. Kanatak underwent two
periods of growth which changed
its character. The first, when frame
houses were built for people who
left Katmai and Douglas after the
1912 eruption, and the second,
when hundreds of people moved in
to search for oil. Courtesy of
University of Alaska Fairbanks,
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, Alaska
and Polar Regions Department,
Capps Collection 83-148-2240.

PUYULEK pu'IRTUQ! = 8



26

CHAPTER TWO

The period of Russian domination, the subject

of Chapter 3, would last nearly 100 years for the
Sugpiat. Shortly after the first Russians were seen by
the aboriginal inhabitants of Alaska, the Unangan and
Sugpiat world was forever changed. The old cultures
could not withstand the onslaught of people, forced
labor, and disease and while people would continue
to be Sugpiat, confronted with the modern world and
large numbers of in-migrants, they would become
contemporary people, and part of the industrial

world, Their culture would change and much would
be forgotten. Skills, beliefs, values, the knowledge
gained in centuries of living on the Alaska Peninsula
and Kodiak would be replaced by new skills, a
Christian church would replace shamanism, and
knowledge of their environment would shrink. Only
after two centuries of domination and change would
the Sugpiat descendants begin to regain their cultural
pride as a revitalization movement, drawing on the
power of their ancestors, gathered strength.


146

CHAPTER NINE

The history of reindeer on the Peninsula and near
Aniakchak remains, to some extent, in the minds of
people who remember seeing the herds as children and
as young men and women. Oral accounts give some
indication of historic use of lands for reindeer herding
near Aniakchak. In the early years, herds were small
and controlled by chief herders who had individual
areas and corrals. One herd was corralled at Reindeer
Creek, west-northwest of Aniakchak caldera, where
there were corrals at least in the early 1920s. This herd
apparently grazed lands south of Cinder River and
down to Port Heiden. This may have been the furthest
southern extent of the Ugashik area herds (map 9.B).

William Zunganuk, from Mary’ Igloo, became chief
herder of the Port Heiden herd in the early 1920s.
The reindeer were corralled at Reindeer Creek, just
north of North River. Zunganuk’s daughter, Pauline,
who was born in Port Heiden, remembers the tickle
on her hand when she fed the tame reindeer sugar.
She also remembers that her father had sled deer and
deer tame enough to milk, although she was never
fond of reindeer milk. During corrallings, other
Inupiat families would come and help out. Valentine
Supsook, who is married to Pauline, remembers seeing
her as an infant at a corralling shortly after her birth.
The Zunganuks kept herding dogs as well as a team of
huskies. Most of the year, Zunganuk herded, trapped,
and hunted but, like nearly everyone else, he fished
during the commercial salmon season. The reindeer
were not watched during summertime, when the
family sailed to Pilot Point for fishing. When
Zunganuk’s wife, Nellie, passed away, Pauline, still

a young girl, had to quit school to take care of her
sisters, one of whom was still nursing.

Another reindeer herd was corralled near the Cinder
River where the chief herder, Nikavak, had a house
near the Supsook’s. Nikavak had married Sam
Supsook’s daughter. During the winter corralling, the
young men—five or six of them—would camp “back
of Cinder River” and move the herd toward the corral.
As the reindeer crossed it, “the whole lagoon would
be filled up with deer.”*”

The reindeer business did not always fit the seasonal
lifestyle of either Inupiat or Alutiiqs. In 1930 John
Kiglonok, the chief herder at Ugashik at the time,
could find no reliable apprentices. Kiglonok, who had
herded since he was a young man, apparently gave up
and quit herding that year; the herd, with 500 fawns,
scattered. Another chief herder reported that when he
went out to visit the herd he found a note from the
herders: “Good bye, we are gone. Good Luck!”

In the 1930s, an effort was made to revitalize the
industry, but, by that time few dedicated herders
could be found. By 1931 and 1932. new apprentices
were hired by the Reindeer Service, but it was difficult
to find apprentices who were willing to put in the
time necessary and make the lifestyle changes that
herding required. Young men who had grown up
trapping in the winter received good prices for their
furs. Fishing took precedence over herding because it
provided cash for the winter supplies. Unlike trapping
and fishing, the reindeer industry promised slow
returns on a large investment of time.

In 1937, the Zunganuk family went to Unangashak for
the last time. The previous year, the Eskimo reindeer
herds had been consolidated into the Peninsular
Eskimo Reindeer Company of which Zunganuk was
the chief herder. The idea was to join the herd and


Chapter seven

Aniakchak

This chapter describes the early years of the twentieth

century during the period of fox farming and trapping
on the Peninsula. It focuses on the use of the lands that

became Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve
From the 1890s up to 1943 the Pacific coast of the
Alaska Peninsula was used extensively for fox farms,
trapping, hunting, and fishing. When trapping was a
viable economic pursuit, winter-time homes were
established all along the Pacific and Bristol Bay coasts
and trapline cabins were built along the major rivers
of the Peninsula. The information in this chapter is
drawn primarily from tape-recorded and written
interviews done in 1997 and 1998 and Bureau of
Indian Affairs reports. This chapter does not begin to
describe the many settlements, individual homes, and
trap line cabins that dotted the coastline and interior
rivers of the Peninsula but rather looks at use during
the first four decades of the century of lands that
became part of the National Park Service system.

Independent trappers in the study area are first
mentioned in records from the Wrangell Station

of the Alaska Commercial Company in the 1880s.
During this time, Alutiiq people, including sea otter
hunters, were living in the small settlements and
camps described in Chapter 5. The Pacific coast had
long been an area used for hunting land and marine
mammals and birds, fishing, and gathering shellfish
and other resources. Adventurous frontiersmen began

moving to the area to pursue land otter, red fox,
mink, bear, sea otter, and seals in the 1870s. They
came to the Alaska Peninsula to seek their fortune in
fishing and furs, to find wives, and to form, or join,
communities. Sailors, too, recognized opportunities
for independence, land, and women, and some of
them, while docked at a northern port, jumped ship.

To the uninitiated eyes of the newcomers, the country
between Kanatak and Chignik looked uninhabited as
did the area south of Ugashik and most of the inland
Peninsula. Frontiersmen seeking land to stake their
claim looked for areas without signs of permanent
habitation: roads, towns, and log or frame houses.
Large areas of the country they came to were devoid of
permanent settlement, but not of human use—seasonal
fishing and hunting camps and trapping areas were
scattered about the landscape. Newcomers began

Cape Kumlik from the
southwest point looking east.
Mike Hilton photo,

courtesy of Mike Hilton

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 113



Two women and

two children in front

of a tent at Chignik,
circa 1909. These
Russian Orthodox
women’s caps indicate
they are married.

It is late summer when
salmon are hung to dry
on racks. Courtesy of
Alaska State Library,
Flamen Ball Collection,
PCA 24-103.

Opposite:
Chief Alexie Angukung

with two boys, Luka and
Andrew “Antlie” (last
name unknown). The
barabara is covered with
cotton trap webbing.
Luka, the boy on the
left, died of tuberculosis
at a young age. Chief
Alexie was attacked by
a bear circa 1941.

With his chest and arm
ripped open he was
cared for in the village
for a few days until a
ship could take him to
the hospital where he
recovered. Courtesy of
Alaska State Library,
Chisholm Collection,
PCA 105-3.

88 CHAPTER FIVE

Mirlikiiskii [St. Nicholas of Myra and Lycia} the
Miracleworker.”* They lacked the money to purchase
church supplies so Aleksin requested permission to
sell them items at cost. He reported that Chignik
people lived solely off trading bear and fox skins.
Other Alutiig, however, had begun to travel to
Chignik from Wrangell, Unangashak, and Mitrofania
to work at the salteries in Chignik Lagoon and at

Anchorage Bay. The church register recorded

a population of eight Creoles in one house, and

45 Aleuts and Aglurmiuts in nine houses.”® Church
services were led by Mikhail Nikolaev Tulutak, and
chapel trustees were Vasilii Ashvignak [Muguviknak],
Artemii Rodionov Ushagkak, and Simeon Martinov
llalishknakh.*” Aleksin asked to send a boy, Nikolai
Ashvignak, to the school in Unalaska.*!

The toion of Nikolaevskoe, as the new village was
named, was Konstantin Vasil’ev Kaechnev. Once
Aleksin started his yearly visits, Chignik parishioners
began sending runners to nearby villages to get
parishioners to come for church services. Residents
of the Peninsula villages, were highly mobile:

Nineteen people came from Mitrofania settlement
in baidarkas via the portage to fulfill their Christian
duty, and from Inagashek settlement of Nushagak
parish 32 people came, also in baidarkas via a
portage, who on the way suffered from a shortage
of food—bad weather detained them a whole six
days. Inagashek settlement is located 200 miles [sic]
from Chignik [Chignik Lagoon], so that via the
portage with a favorable wind they reach Chignik
in three days.”

By 1897, the steamship was making regular trips to
Anchorage Bay and Chignik Lagoon. Aleksin traveled
to Nikolaevskoe via the cannery. By then the number
of residents had grown from 49 to 92 people. Aleksin
wrote to Dean of Clergy Kedrovskii in Unalaska:

[I]n a general meeting they all declared that if the
batiushka [priest] will come to them every year and
teach them the word of God, they will give up their
itinerant life and remain until death in Chignik.


and the women, children, and elders left at home

were forced to fend for themselves. Their economic
base was shattered, their time was no longer their own,
and famine became part of life, not because they lacked
resources or hunting success, but because men were
sent off on long hunting trips to work for the Russians.
As the Russians moved eastward off the coast of the
Alaska Peninsula to the Kodiak Archipelago, they
encountered a formidable force, the indigenous Sugpiat.

The Sugpiat were subdued in 1784 when the
Russians established the first permanent settlement on
Kodiak Island, which served as the center for sea otter
hunting and a base for expansion to the mainland.
One of the most destructive consequences of this
period was the decline of the indigenous population
of Kodiak Island. At the same time, the number of
Creoles or Russian Aleuts increased. Beginning in
1818, by orders of the Russian government, conditions
improved, but the ancient Unangan and Sugpiaq way
of life and economic system were forever transformed
The native Sugpiat, called Aleuts by the Russians,
began calling themselves Russian Aleuts or Alutiiq,

a name that came both to connect them to and
distinguish them from their Suqpiaq ancestors.

First Contact: The Promyshlenniki
Reach the Alaska Peninsula

When Bering’s crew returned to Kamchatka with
sea otter skins—highly valued by the Chinese
merchants in Kiakhta—they alerted the independent
Russian fur traders, or promyshlenniki,'TM to a new
source of profit. The promyshlenniki headed out

along the Aleutian Islands in increasing numbers in
search of sea otter, fur seal, and Arctic foxes.

The first ships were built by small joint companies
to search for and hunt the sea otter in an uncharted
and largely unexplored ocean. They were manned by
the sons and grandsons of Northern Russian sea
mammal hunters and whalers as well as tradesmen
and a few merchants. Many promyshlenniki left their
bodies to the ocean waters or on the desolate islands
of the Aleutian chain. They met, and sometimes
fought with Unangan. But enough returned home,
laden with beautiful, luxurious furs to draw more to
the unfathomed new area—seeking not only furs but
any new resources that would bring rich rewards.

As the promyshlenniki navigated the waters of the
Aleutian chain, along the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak,
and beyond, they gave little thought to their impact
on the numbers of sea otters—the resource seemed to
be inexhaustible, the territory new and vast. The
length of the Aleutian chain and the Alaska coastline
gave them the sense that a new raft of otters must lie
beyond the one just decimated. A Russian-American
Company employee later wrote in 1865, “It is very
clear, that if there really had been a rush to those
places [in Alaska] it was certainly not to settle there,
but what happens everywhere in such places even
now...only to get rich as quickly as possible.”'”

From 1743 to 1784, the small ships of hunters and
traders continued to move eastward in search of new
sea otter grounds. The promyshlenniki explored the
Aleutian Islands, reaching the Alaskan Peninsula and
Kodiak by the 1760s. They cruelly exploited the
Unangan, irreparably disrupting their lifeway and

in 1741. When the merchants
learned that many of the
Aleutian Islands abounded with
fine furs, they turned avidly to
the new trade. From then on,
merchants in Kamchatka and
ones coming from Russia began
to build and dispatch vessels to
hunt animals in the Aleutian
Islands and to form companies
by pooling the capital of two or
three owners. On these vessels
from 50 to 60 promyshlenniki
were dispatched to operate the
vessels and to hunt animals...
for three to seven years. ... Some
met various misfortune while on
voyages and were wrecked.’

~ Anonymous, 1817

PUYULEK PU'IRTUQ! = 29