Thanks Grumpy - my pleasure!
A write-up I did for several Adak groups on Facebook - for the folks whom said they didn't know about the Russian Aleut villages which were abundant on the island, identified by the dugout pits of the former Aleut homes known as Barabara, as well as the huge miden piles.
My final duty station in the service while in the Seabees was at Naval Air Station Adak, far out in the Aleutians in the Andeanof Islands. More then a few whom were stationed there, were ill-suited for the weather conditions at this remote base, and would self confine in their barracks or homes only venturing out for work activities, or inside sports and activities at the bases indoor facilities.
However those I hung with didn't want the weather or remoteness of the Naval Air Station, to limit our outside activities, choosing to hike, climb, snowshoe, cross-country ski, go boating, along with fishing and hunting, with our weekend home base being a small cabin Roland Sikorski and I rebuilt, and kept stocked with food stocks, beer and liquor. I still also keep in touch with Gary Hall, Tom Sheckels, Stewart Larsen, Thomas Flicek, Robert Mcdermott, Tom Jeys, John Grindeland, Carrol Sloan, Hans Vang, Rickey Sexton and others from those heady days, surprisingly all are still alive and still stay in touch with most.
One thing we all had in common was despite the remoteness, we enjoyed the outdoors, but knew we had to be prepared for changing weather conditions. If you didn't like the weather, just wait half an hour or so, because often the weather would change in one day from wind blown rain to overcast to sunny to overcast to windblown rain or windblown snow which developed into Whiteout blizzards.
Another thing that many who hiked around the island noticed were the large depressions, left from the dugout sod homes of pre-contact native Aleuts. Mostly these pre-contact native villages would be along shores, with escape portages to nearby bays if needed, and in hiking about the island it wasn't hard to stumble on these former villages, with archeological village finds at over 250 village locations around the island and her bays and inlets, with another 35+ in the uplands of the island. When I'd point them out to hiking mates, some agreed that they were ancient village sites, while others said, how come they weren't referenced in our indoctrination week when first arriving on the island.
So I set out to learn more about these ancient people, at our base library, the inter-library loan service and buying the few available books on the history.
As said above; In hiking about Adak, one notices large holes and depressions from half a dozen or more to many of these large holes and depressions left by their ancient dugout and sod abodes called "barabara". These were the locations of the Ancient Aleut villages, known by these people from that period before Russian conquest and occupation as Unangas and the Sugpiaq. The name Aleut derives from the Russian; the people refer to themselves as the Unangax̂ - Unangas and the Sugpiaq. Aleut: æli.uːt - Russian: Алеу́ты : Aleut'y or pronounced by the natives as "al-yoot" - who are usually known in the Aleut language as Unangax̂ - Унаңан : plural - "people" or Unangan : singular.
A little known fact was, the high number of Aleut Villages located on Adak. Adak and Atka were basically the center of the Aleut culture, with Aleuts spread out east and west up and down the Aleutian Chain. At the bottom of this post is a PDF with a list of the historic sites on all the islands of the Aleutians. Adak had far more villages then any other island or even a combination of Islands. Adak Island had been the center of Aleut culture and the home to Aleut peoples since ancient times.
There were approx. 16,000 Aleuts before the Russians arrived, though some historical accounts say the population was upwards of 25,000. By 1820 less then 3000 survived, by the end of the 19th century they numbered only about 2,000.
Ancient Aleut villages were situated on the seashore near fresh water, with a good landing for boats and in a position safe from surprise attack. Many of the camps also had an alternate escape route, usually in another cove, bay or across a spit of land. Village placement in such locations persisted over the long term, as did many other cultural characteristics.
Traditional Aleut villages were usually composed of related families that lived in extended family households in well-insulated, semisubterranean homes. Kinship was reckoned through the mother’s line. A chief, generally a seasoned and talented hunter, might govern several villages or an entire island. His rule, however, was based on his wisdom, experience, and ability to build consensus rather than on raw power.
The Aleut constructed partially underground houses called barabara. The barabaras keep occupants dry from the frequent rains, warm at all times, and snugly sheltered from the high winds common to the area. Aleuts traditionally built the houses by digging an oblong square pit in the ground, with the larger measuring 50 by 20 feet - with the largest shoreside long houses at over 300' - however most dwellings were relatively small, generally oval-shaped structures that measured about 20 to 26 feet long and 10 to 13 feet wide. Excavations several feet deep and sometimes lined with rocks on the walls were roofed over with beams made from driftwood and long whale bones, such as those from the lower jaws, or mandibles. Over this framework, smaller pieces of wood and bone, grass, and, finally, a layer of living sod completed the structure, so that from the outside a house appeared like a small grassy hill. Side windows were absent. Entry was made via a covered entryway and trench; though in some entries were made through an opening in the roof, from which a notched log ladder descended to the central floor area. Large houses could have had multiple openings in their roofs to provide additional light and air circulation.
Inside these precontact houses, families had their personal use areas around the immediate inside of the walls. These were separated from each other with woven grass mats. The central floor area was a communal activity area; in some houses, small sub-floor pits were dug for storage of food and other materials. Inside benches were placed along the sides, with a hearth in the middle. The bedrooms were at the back of the lodge, opposite the entrance.
With the primary focus of their subsistence economy on resources of the sea and coastline, it is obvious why Unangax̂ placed the vast majority of their villages and seasonal camps as close to the ocean as was feasible. Favorable locations were those that afforded safe access to the sea, a fresh water stream, and nearby dependable food resources. Additional consideration was given to the proximity of defensive locales, such as steep-sided offshore islets, which served as refuges in times of warfare.
In optimal places Unangax̂ villages were sometimes quite large and probably occupied year-round, at least by some of their residents. In addition to such large communities, Unangax̂ also maintained smaller, resource-specific camps where individuals, families, or work groups would go at those times of year when resources there were available. For example, Unangax̂ might travel to a locale having a rich salmon stream, but few other food resources, during the summer months that salmon are running. Also, over thousands of years of use by Unangax̂, a single settlement location might have been at certain times a seasonal camp and at other times a year-round community, its changing use depending on Unangax̂ adaptations to fluctuations in food resources.
As in all Alaska Native cultures, two essential features of the Unangax̂ subsistence economy were cooperation and sharing. Obtaining certain resources required that people work together. Netting fish along the shore, for example, could not be done alone, nor could halibut fishing, where hauling in a large fish from a skin boat could only be done when men in two kayak-style baidarkas stabilized themselves with their paddles. Many other hunting, fishing, and gathering pursuits were undoubtedly undertaken in groups for a variety of reasons, including safety, learning, and friendship.
Sharing of resources was also absolutely indispensable for Unangax̂ survival. Beyond the obvious reasons for giving food to certain people (infants, the sick, and the elderly), Unangax shared with one another for food security. For example, because there were no guarantees that a particular hunter would be successful, it would be to his and his family’s benefit if a successful hunter shared his catch with him. The successful hunter, in turn, knew that he, too, would be taken care of someday when (not if) he came home empty-handed. In short, Unangax̂ shared to reduce the uncertainties that are associated with many subsistence endeavors. Sharing of food also was a means of dividing the often substantial work required to process fish and game. In some cases, if food were not shared, it would spoil before it could be eaten or properly stored for future use. It was in the context of multi-family households that most food sharing likely took place.
The Aleut survived by hunting and gathering. They fished for salmon, crabs, shellfish, and cod, as well as harvesting sea mammals such as seal, walrus and whales. The fish and sea animals were processed in a variety of ways: dried, smoked or roasted. Berries were dried. They were also processed as alutiqqutigaq - a mixture of berries, fat and fish. The boiled skin and blubber of a whale was a delicacy, as was walrus.
The Aleut people developed in one of the harshest climates in the world, and learned to create and protect warmth. Both men and women wore parkas that extended below the knees. The women wore the skin of seal or sea-otter, and the men wore bird skin parkas, the feathers turned in or out depending on the weather. When the men were hunting on the water, they wore waterproof parkas made from seal or sea-lion guts, or the entrails of bear, walrus, or whales. Parkas had a hood that could be cinched, as could the wrist openings, so water could not get in. Men wore breeches made from the esophageal skin of seals. Children wore parkas made of downy eagle skin with tanned bird skin caps. They called these parkas, kameikas.
Sea-lions, harbor seals, and the sea otters are the most abundant marine mammals. The men brought home the skins and prepared them by soaking them in urine and stretching them. The women undertook the sewing. Preparation of the gut for clothing involved several steps. The prepared intestines were turned inside out. A bone knife was used to remove the muscle tissue and fat from the walls of the intestine. The gut was cut and stretched, and fastened to stakes to dry. It was then cut and sewn to make waterproof parkas, bags, and other receptacles. On some hunting trips, the men would take several women with them. They would catch birds and prepare the carcasses and feathers for future use. They caught Puffins, Lunda Cirrhata, Fratercula Corniculata, Guillemots, and Cephus & Murres.
It took 40 skins of tufted puffin and 60 skins of horned puffin to make one parka. A woman would need a year for all the labor to make one parka. Each lasted two years with proper care. All parkas were decorated with bird feathers, beard bristles of seal and sea-lion, beaks of sea parrots, bird claws, sea otter fur, dyed leather, and caribou hair sewn in the seams.
Women made needles from the wingbones of seabirds. They made thread from the sinews of different animals and fish guts. A thin strip of seal intestine could also be used, twisted to form a thread. The women grew their thumbnail extra long and sharpened it. They could split threads to make them as fine as a hair. They used vermilion paint, hematite, the ink bag of the octopus, and the root of grass to color the threads.
The interior regions of the Aleutian Islands provided little in terms of natural resources for the Aleutian people. They collected stones for weapons, tools, stoves or lamps. They collected and dried grasses for their woven baskets. For everything else, the Aleuts had learned to use the fish and mammals they caught and processed to satisfy their needs.
In order to hunt sea mammals and to travel between islands, the Aleuts became experts of sailing and navigation. While hunting, they used small watercraft called baidarkas. For regular travel, they used their large baidaras.
The baidara was a large, open, walrus-skin-covered boat. Aleut families used it when traveling among the islands. It was also used to transport goods for trade, and warriors took them to battle.
The baidarka (small skin boat) was a small boat covered in sea lion skin. It was developed and used for hunting because of its sturdiness and maneuverability. The Aleut baidarka resembles that of a Yup'ik kayak, but it is hydro-dynamically sleeker and faster. They made the baidarka for one or two persons only. The deck was made with a sturdy chamber, the sides of the craft were nearly vertical and the bottom was rounded. Most one-man baidarkas were about 16 feet feet long and 20 inches wide, whereas a two-man was on average about 20 feet long and 24 inches wide. It was from the baidarka that Aleut men would stand on the water to hunt from the sea.
Cruising between the islands, the Aleuts learned to catch the seventh wave once in the ocean, which is the largest wave in a wave set, and by fore and back paddling would ride the large wave for miles over great distances. If they let this wave get away from them, all they had to do was wait for the next seventh wave, while paddling at brisk enough pace to catch the next seventh wave.
The Aleutian Islands by Alaska Geographic has a truthfully frank and candid chapter on the Russian occupation and later American occupation of the Aleutians. In one of the chapters is the story of Aleut young men racing a supply steamer from one island to the next port stop. They challenged the Captain to a race, betting $50, the Captain declined the bet, saying he couldn't take their money - so they pulled out another $50 and bet $100. The Captain realizing how serious the young men were, accepted the bet and asked his purser to hold the bet monies.
The coal fired tramp steamer was capable of cruising at about 8 knots and could top out a little over 9 knots, and departing the harbor quickly pulled ahead of the baidarkas. However once the race was offshore and upon the sea, the baidarkas caught the seventh wave and started to reel in the tramp steamer and eventually passed the steamer, arriving at the next port well ahead of the steamer. The young men waited on the dock for the steamer to arrive, and then collected their winnings from the surprised Captain and purser. As a side note, Aleut seal hunters, yearly paddled from the Aleutians to Prince William Sound to Fort Ross north of San Francisco, to hunt seal. At Fort Ross are displays, documenting this annual seal hunt back in the day, and the voyages of the Aleuts to Fort Ross.
In all of Alaska, it was the Unangax region that experienced the earliest contact with foreigners. In 1741, Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov ventured eastward in two ships from Kamchatka, eager to establish the geographic relationship between Asia and North America. Following the return of their crews to Russia, fur hunters began sailing to the Aleutian Islands in pursuit of sea otters, foxes, fur seals, and other valuable fur-bearers. Over second half of the eighteenth century, Russian crews sailed ever farther eastward, expanding their colonial reach to the central Aleutian Islands by around 1750 and to the eastern Aleutians by the 1760s.
The early Russian period was a devastating time for Unangax. By 1800, little more than 50 years after first Russian contact, the Unangax population had been reduced, to about 2,500 people. Battles between Unangax and Russians, Russian atrocities, forced Unangax labor, and introduced diseases all took their toll, and no part of traditional Unangax culture was left unchanged. In the realm of subsistence, many traditional activities continued through this time, but some important shifts took place. Because many men were forced to work for fur-hunting companies in the region, women and children took on increasing responsibilities for providing their families with foods and resources.
With population loss came far fewer occupied settlements and the consolidation and relocation of many villages. By the end of the Russian era in 1867, only approximately 17 Unangax communities remained, a number that, with some fluctuation, declined until today. At the same time, social and religious changes were also imposed. The earlier matrilineal kinship system fell apart. Traditional leadership structures were used by Russian colonizers for their own purposes, with Unangax leaders soon finding themselves serving in the often difficult role of middlemen between their own people and the dominant Russian economic interests. Hand in hand with these changes came a new religion, Russian Orthodoxy. By the later eighteenth century, even before the first Russian Orthodox priests had arrived from Russia, Unangax were being baptized into the church by Russian laymen, and Russian Orthodoxy quickly became the sole religion of the region.
Achievements and accomplishments made during the Russian era were sometimes positive. For example, some Unangax became literate in both Russian and Unangax; doctors brought smallpox vaccines and other medicines; schools were opened; and some Unangax became shipbuilders, navigators, and priests.
Nevertheless, after thousands of years of successful adaptation to their region, Unangax experienced all of these changes in a very short time. Further, the changes occurred in a context of overwhelming Unangax population loss and of Russian exploitation both of Unangax themselves and of the natural resources of their region. Within just a few decades of the first Russian arrival, Unangax were a subjugated population with essentially no real control over the main direction of their lives.
During the time I was there, between 1/10/73-5/10/76, the total list of identified permanent or seasonal camps identified had grown to 87 different camp sites or villages, and the list grew to over 125 locations in the 1980s, and grew again with more sites identified in the '90s and the '00s and has doubled to over 250 sites on Adak alone. About 35 of the later finds were upland - most the previous villages found were located close to the seashore. A few burial caves were also discovered in the most early assessments in the 1870s, one at Camel Cove and the other West Island in the Bay of Islands. The village at Unalga Bight was typical of the Aleut Villages at the time - BTW, there is another small camp or village NW of the Unalga Bight site on the small peninsula, about a mile away with nine depressions that have been identified as former underground houses (barabaras).
The first thing one notes in Volume #2 Chapter listings, of this PDF of historical Aleut sites from 1976, is how many more sites Adak had then any other island in the Aleutians, including Atka (only Amchitka had as many sites as Adak in 1976 - but only because every inch of Amchitka was assessed by the Atomic Energy Commision before the underground nuclear tests - but Adak has far surpassed that today, for the most identified sites of any island in the Aleutians). It would appear that Adak was indeed the center of the Aleut culture, or more Aleuts came and lived on Adak then any other island. Scroll down to PDF Volume #2 - page #216 or copy page #305 to begin reading the audits from each of the Adak sites..
Volume #2 - https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/aleu/aleutian_cr2.pdf
Volume #1 - https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/aleu/aleutian_cr1.pdf
Map showing the locations of some of the larger ancient villages, but not all the villages on Adak and in the Aleutians and up the Kenai Peninsula and the Alaska mainland. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?fbclid=IwAR3LDAyWXaN5DRHC5uutXl28iugTWn5f1o3L-96Tl0UTbx10jsuVh8JPDls&mid=1hCQuDnObAsZ5MeY6Rf42WpTwsoUGN4g_&ll=51.690869006457994,-176.76511978216183&z=7
Interactive map showing most modern as well as WW II historical locations that many of us are familiar with. If switching to satellite imagery, the Bing Satellite imagery works better then the Google Satellite in this interactive map. http://wikimapia.org/?fbclid=IwAR0U...176.652260&z=12&m=w&show=/6378327/Adak-Alaska
US Geological Survey Map of Kanaga, Adak, Kagalaska, Little Tanaga and Great Sitkin Islands - https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/250k/txu-pclmaps-topo-us-adak-1983.jpg
The Adak Island Map on Winterbear uses the USFWS Map as a jumping-off point and improves it as much as possible - Addition of relief shading to better illustrate topography. Adjustments to color to improve legibility. https://winterbear.com/wp-content/uploads/adak-island-map-1-1.png
NOAA Chart 16471 - Online Chart Viewer -Atka Pass to Adak Strait https://charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/16471.shtml
The following is a condensed version of “Unangax̂: Coastal People of Far Southwestern Alaska. https://www.apiai.org/departments/cultural-heritage-department/culture-history/history/
Epilogue - It should be noted that after the US acquired Alaska, the native tribes were rarely treated better. The Alaskan native policy was to build schools and educate the native children 180° away from their heritage, coined "Kill the Indian, save the man". Consequently the native tribes under US rule didn't fair much better, till about 1971 when Alaska natives won there case and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was established and US had to repay back $20 million in exchange for requested lands.
They also asked for 10% of federal mineral lease revenue, including oil. With major petroleum dollars on the line, pressure mounted to achieve a definitive legislative resolution at the federal level. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law by President Nixon. It abrogated Native claims to aboriginal lands except those that are the subject of the law. In return, Natives retained up to 44 million acres of land and were paid $963 million. The land and money were to be divided among regional, urban, and village tribal corporations established under the law, often recognizing existing leadership.
In 1971, barely one million acres of land in Alaska were in private hands. ANCSA, together with section 6 of Alaska Statehood Act, which the new act allowed to come to fruition, affected ownership to about 148.5 million acres of land in Alaska once wholly controlled by the federal government. That is larger by 6 million acres than the combined areas of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
When the bill passed in 1971, it included provisions that had never before been attempted in previous United States settlements with Native Americans. The newly passed Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act created twelve Native regional economic development corporations. Each corporation was associated with a specific region of Alaska and the Natives who had traditionally lived there. This innovative approach to native settlements engaged the tribes in corporate capitalism.
The idea originated with the AFN, who believed that the Natives would have to become a part of the capitalist system in order to survive. As stockholders in these corporations, the Natives could earn some income and stay in their traditional villages. If the corporations were managed properly, they could make profits that would enable individuals to stay, rather than having to leave Native villages to find better work. This was intended to help preserve Native culture. https://www.c-span.org/video/?447934-1/colonization-alaska
A write-up I did for several Adak groups on Facebook - for the folks whom said they didn't know about the Russian Aleut villages which were abundant on the island, identified by the dugout pits of the former Aleut homes known as Barabara, as well as the huge miden piles.
My final duty station in the service while in the Seabees was at Naval Air Station Adak, far out in the Aleutians in the Andeanof Islands. More then a few whom were stationed there, were ill-suited for the weather conditions at this remote base, and would self confine in their barracks or homes only venturing out for work activities, or inside sports and activities at the bases indoor facilities.
However those I hung with didn't want the weather or remoteness of the Naval Air Station, to limit our outside activities, choosing to hike, climb, snowshoe, cross-country ski, go boating, along with fishing and hunting, with our weekend home base being a small cabin Roland Sikorski and I rebuilt, and kept stocked with food stocks, beer and liquor. I still also keep in touch with Gary Hall, Tom Sheckels, Stewart Larsen, Thomas Flicek, Robert Mcdermott, Tom Jeys, John Grindeland, Carrol Sloan, Hans Vang, Rickey Sexton and others from those heady days, surprisingly all are still alive and still stay in touch with most.
One thing we all had in common was despite the remoteness, we enjoyed the outdoors, but knew we had to be prepared for changing weather conditions. If you didn't like the weather, just wait half an hour or so, because often the weather would change in one day from wind blown rain to overcast to sunny to overcast to windblown rain or windblown snow which developed into Whiteout blizzards.
Another thing that many who hiked around the island noticed were the large depressions, left from the dugout sod homes of pre-contact native Aleuts. Mostly these pre-contact native villages would be along shores, with escape portages to nearby bays if needed, and in hiking about the island it wasn't hard to stumble on these former villages, with archeological village finds at over 250 village locations around the island and her bays and inlets, with another 35+ in the uplands of the island. When I'd point them out to hiking mates, some agreed that they were ancient village sites, while others said, how come they weren't referenced in our indoctrination week when first arriving on the island.
So I set out to learn more about these ancient people, at our base library, the inter-library loan service and buying the few available books on the history.
As said above; In hiking about Adak, one notices large holes and depressions from half a dozen or more to many of these large holes and depressions left by their ancient dugout and sod abodes called "barabara". These were the locations of the Ancient Aleut villages, known by these people from that period before Russian conquest and occupation as Unangas and the Sugpiaq. The name Aleut derives from the Russian; the people refer to themselves as the Unangax̂ - Unangas and the Sugpiaq. Aleut: æli.uːt - Russian: Алеу́ты : Aleut'y or pronounced by the natives as "al-yoot" - who are usually known in the Aleut language as Unangax̂ - Унаңан : plural - "people" or Unangan : singular.
A little known fact was, the high number of Aleut Villages located on Adak. Adak and Atka were basically the center of the Aleut culture, with Aleuts spread out east and west up and down the Aleutian Chain. At the bottom of this post is a PDF with a list of the historic sites on all the islands of the Aleutians. Adak had far more villages then any other island or even a combination of Islands. Adak Island had been the center of Aleut culture and the home to Aleut peoples since ancient times.
There were approx. 16,000 Aleuts before the Russians arrived, though some historical accounts say the population was upwards of 25,000. By 1820 less then 3000 survived, by the end of the 19th century they numbered only about 2,000.
Ancient Aleut villages were situated on the seashore near fresh water, with a good landing for boats and in a position safe from surprise attack. Many of the camps also had an alternate escape route, usually in another cove, bay or across a spit of land. Village placement in such locations persisted over the long term, as did many other cultural characteristics.
Traditional Aleut villages were usually composed of related families that lived in extended family households in well-insulated, semisubterranean homes. Kinship was reckoned through the mother’s line. A chief, generally a seasoned and talented hunter, might govern several villages or an entire island. His rule, however, was based on his wisdom, experience, and ability to build consensus rather than on raw power.
The Aleut constructed partially underground houses called barabara. The barabaras keep occupants dry from the frequent rains, warm at all times, and snugly sheltered from the high winds common to the area. Aleuts traditionally built the houses by digging an oblong square pit in the ground, with the larger measuring 50 by 20 feet - with the largest shoreside long houses at over 300' - however most dwellings were relatively small, generally oval-shaped structures that measured about 20 to 26 feet long and 10 to 13 feet wide. Excavations several feet deep and sometimes lined with rocks on the walls were roofed over with beams made from driftwood and long whale bones, such as those from the lower jaws, or mandibles. Over this framework, smaller pieces of wood and bone, grass, and, finally, a layer of living sod completed the structure, so that from the outside a house appeared like a small grassy hill. Side windows were absent. Entry was made via a covered entryway and trench; though in some entries were made through an opening in the roof, from which a notched log ladder descended to the central floor area. Large houses could have had multiple openings in their roofs to provide additional light and air circulation.
Inside these precontact houses, families had their personal use areas around the immediate inside of the walls. These were separated from each other with woven grass mats. The central floor area was a communal activity area; in some houses, small sub-floor pits were dug for storage of food and other materials. Inside benches were placed along the sides, with a hearth in the middle. The bedrooms were at the back of the lodge, opposite the entrance.
With the primary focus of their subsistence economy on resources of the sea and coastline, it is obvious why Unangax̂ placed the vast majority of their villages and seasonal camps as close to the ocean as was feasible. Favorable locations were those that afforded safe access to the sea, a fresh water stream, and nearby dependable food resources. Additional consideration was given to the proximity of defensive locales, such as steep-sided offshore islets, which served as refuges in times of warfare.
In optimal places Unangax̂ villages were sometimes quite large and probably occupied year-round, at least by some of their residents. In addition to such large communities, Unangax̂ also maintained smaller, resource-specific camps where individuals, families, or work groups would go at those times of year when resources there were available. For example, Unangax̂ might travel to a locale having a rich salmon stream, but few other food resources, during the summer months that salmon are running. Also, over thousands of years of use by Unangax̂, a single settlement location might have been at certain times a seasonal camp and at other times a year-round community, its changing use depending on Unangax̂ adaptations to fluctuations in food resources.
As in all Alaska Native cultures, two essential features of the Unangax̂ subsistence economy were cooperation and sharing. Obtaining certain resources required that people work together. Netting fish along the shore, for example, could not be done alone, nor could halibut fishing, where hauling in a large fish from a skin boat could only be done when men in two kayak-style baidarkas stabilized themselves with their paddles. Many other hunting, fishing, and gathering pursuits were undoubtedly undertaken in groups for a variety of reasons, including safety, learning, and friendship.
Sharing of resources was also absolutely indispensable for Unangax̂ survival. Beyond the obvious reasons for giving food to certain people (infants, the sick, and the elderly), Unangax shared with one another for food security. For example, because there were no guarantees that a particular hunter would be successful, it would be to his and his family’s benefit if a successful hunter shared his catch with him. The successful hunter, in turn, knew that he, too, would be taken care of someday when (not if) he came home empty-handed. In short, Unangax̂ shared to reduce the uncertainties that are associated with many subsistence endeavors. Sharing of food also was a means of dividing the often substantial work required to process fish and game. In some cases, if food were not shared, it would spoil before it could be eaten or properly stored for future use. It was in the context of multi-family households that most food sharing likely took place.
The Aleut survived by hunting and gathering. They fished for salmon, crabs, shellfish, and cod, as well as harvesting sea mammals such as seal, walrus and whales. The fish and sea animals were processed in a variety of ways: dried, smoked or roasted. Berries were dried. They were also processed as alutiqqutigaq - a mixture of berries, fat and fish. The boiled skin and blubber of a whale was a delicacy, as was walrus.
The Aleut people developed in one of the harshest climates in the world, and learned to create and protect warmth. Both men and women wore parkas that extended below the knees. The women wore the skin of seal or sea-otter, and the men wore bird skin parkas, the feathers turned in or out depending on the weather. When the men were hunting on the water, they wore waterproof parkas made from seal or sea-lion guts, or the entrails of bear, walrus, or whales. Parkas had a hood that could be cinched, as could the wrist openings, so water could not get in. Men wore breeches made from the esophageal skin of seals. Children wore parkas made of downy eagle skin with tanned bird skin caps. They called these parkas, kameikas.
Sea-lions, harbor seals, and the sea otters are the most abundant marine mammals. The men brought home the skins and prepared them by soaking them in urine and stretching them. The women undertook the sewing. Preparation of the gut for clothing involved several steps. The prepared intestines were turned inside out. A bone knife was used to remove the muscle tissue and fat from the walls of the intestine. The gut was cut and stretched, and fastened to stakes to dry. It was then cut and sewn to make waterproof parkas, bags, and other receptacles. On some hunting trips, the men would take several women with them. They would catch birds and prepare the carcasses and feathers for future use. They caught Puffins, Lunda Cirrhata, Fratercula Corniculata, Guillemots, and Cephus & Murres.
It took 40 skins of tufted puffin and 60 skins of horned puffin to make one parka. A woman would need a year for all the labor to make one parka. Each lasted two years with proper care. All parkas were decorated with bird feathers, beard bristles of seal and sea-lion, beaks of sea parrots, bird claws, sea otter fur, dyed leather, and caribou hair sewn in the seams.
Women made needles from the wingbones of seabirds. They made thread from the sinews of different animals and fish guts. A thin strip of seal intestine could also be used, twisted to form a thread. The women grew their thumbnail extra long and sharpened it. They could split threads to make them as fine as a hair. They used vermilion paint, hematite, the ink bag of the octopus, and the root of grass to color the threads.
The interior regions of the Aleutian Islands provided little in terms of natural resources for the Aleutian people. They collected stones for weapons, tools, stoves or lamps. They collected and dried grasses for their woven baskets. For everything else, the Aleuts had learned to use the fish and mammals they caught and processed to satisfy their needs.
In order to hunt sea mammals and to travel between islands, the Aleuts became experts of sailing and navigation. While hunting, they used small watercraft called baidarkas. For regular travel, they used their large baidaras.
The baidara was a large, open, walrus-skin-covered boat. Aleut families used it when traveling among the islands. It was also used to transport goods for trade, and warriors took them to battle.
The baidarka (small skin boat) was a small boat covered in sea lion skin. It was developed and used for hunting because of its sturdiness and maneuverability. The Aleut baidarka resembles that of a Yup'ik kayak, but it is hydro-dynamically sleeker and faster. They made the baidarka for one or two persons only. The deck was made with a sturdy chamber, the sides of the craft were nearly vertical and the bottom was rounded. Most one-man baidarkas were about 16 feet feet long and 20 inches wide, whereas a two-man was on average about 20 feet long and 24 inches wide. It was from the baidarka that Aleut men would stand on the water to hunt from the sea.
Cruising between the islands, the Aleuts learned to catch the seventh wave once in the ocean, which is the largest wave in a wave set, and by fore and back paddling would ride the large wave for miles over great distances. If they let this wave get away from them, all they had to do was wait for the next seventh wave, while paddling at brisk enough pace to catch the next seventh wave.
The Aleutian Islands by Alaska Geographic has a truthfully frank and candid chapter on the Russian occupation and later American occupation of the Aleutians. In one of the chapters is the story of Aleut young men racing a supply steamer from one island to the next port stop. They challenged the Captain to a race, betting $50, the Captain declined the bet, saying he couldn't take their money - so they pulled out another $50 and bet $100. The Captain realizing how serious the young men were, accepted the bet and asked his purser to hold the bet monies.
The coal fired tramp steamer was capable of cruising at about 8 knots and could top out a little over 9 knots, and departing the harbor quickly pulled ahead of the baidarkas. However once the race was offshore and upon the sea, the baidarkas caught the seventh wave and started to reel in the tramp steamer and eventually passed the steamer, arriving at the next port well ahead of the steamer. The young men waited on the dock for the steamer to arrive, and then collected their winnings from the surprised Captain and purser. As a side note, Aleut seal hunters, yearly paddled from the Aleutians to Prince William Sound to Fort Ross north of San Francisco, to hunt seal. At Fort Ross are displays, documenting this annual seal hunt back in the day, and the voyages of the Aleuts to Fort Ross.
In all of Alaska, it was the Unangax region that experienced the earliest contact with foreigners. In 1741, Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov ventured eastward in two ships from Kamchatka, eager to establish the geographic relationship between Asia and North America. Following the return of their crews to Russia, fur hunters began sailing to the Aleutian Islands in pursuit of sea otters, foxes, fur seals, and other valuable fur-bearers. Over second half of the eighteenth century, Russian crews sailed ever farther eastward, expanding their colonial reach to the central Aleutian Islands by around 1750 and to the eastern Aleutians by the 1760s.
The early Russian period was a devastating time for Unangax. By 1800, little more than 50 years after first Russian contact, the Unangax population had been reduced, to about 2,500 people. Battles between Unangax and Russians, Russian atrocities, forced Unangax labor, and introduced diseases all took their toll, and no part of traditional Unangax culture was left unchanged. In the realm of subsistence, many traditional activities continued through this time, but some important shifts took place. Because many men were forced to work for fur-hunting companies in the region, women and children took on increasing responsibilities for providing their families with foods and resources.
With population loss came far fewer occupied settlements and the consolidation and relocation of many villages. By the end of the Russian era in 1867, only approximately 17 Unangax communities remained, a number that, with some fluctuation, declined until today. At the same time, social and religious changes were also imposed. The earlier matrilineal kinship system fell apart. Traditional leadership structures were used by Russian colonizers for their own purposes, with Unangax leaders soon finding themselves serving in the often difficult role of middlemen between their own people and the dominant Russian economic interests. Hand in hand with these changes came a new religion, Russian Orthodoxy. By the later eighteenth century, even before the first Russian Orthodox priests had arrived from Russia, Unangax were being baptized into the church by Russian laymen, and Russian Orthodoxy quickly became the sole religion of the region.
Achievements and accomplishments made during the Russian era were sometimes positive. For example, some Unangax became literate in both Russian and Unangax; doctors brought smallpox vaccines and other medicines; schools were opened; and some Unangax became shipbuilders, navigators, and priests.
Nevertheless, after thousands of years of successful adaptation to their region, Unangax experienced all of these changes in a very short time. Further, the changes occurred in a context of overwhelming Unangax population loss and of Russian exploitation both of Unangax themselves and of the natural resources of their region. Within just a few decades of the first Russian arrival, Unangax were a subjugated population with essentially no real control over the main direction of their lives.
During the time I was there, between 1/10/73-5/10/76, the total list of identified permanent or seasonal camps identified had grown to 87 different camp sites or villages, and the list grew to over 125 locations in the 1980s, and grew again with more sites identified in the '90s and the '00s and has doubled to over 250 sites on Adak alone. About 35 of the later finds were upland - most the previous villages found were located close to the seashore. A few burial caves were also discovered in the most early assessments in the 1870s, one at Camel Cove and the other West Island in the Bay of Islands. The village at Unalga Bight was typical of the Aleut Villages at the time - BTW, there is another small camp or village NW of the Unalga Bight site on the small peninsula, about a mile away with nine depressions that have been identified as former underground houses (barabaras).
The first thing one notes in Volume #2 Chapter listings, of this PDF of historical Aleut sites from 1976, is how many more sites Adak had then any other island in the Aleutians, including Atka (only Amchitka had as many sites as Adak in 1976 - but only because every inch of Amchitka was assessed by the Atomic Energy Commision before the underground nuclear tests - but Adak has far surpassed that today, for the most identified sites of any island in the Aleutians). It would appear that Adak was indeed the center of the Aleut culture, or more Aleuts came and lived on Adak then any other island. Scroll down to PDF Volume #2 - page #216 or copy page #305 to begin reading the audits from each of the Adak sites..
Volume #2 - https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/aleu/aleutian_cr2.pdf
Volume #1 - https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/aleu/aleutian_cr1.pdf
Map showing the locations of some of the larger ancient villages, but not all the villages on Adak and in the Aleutians and up the Kenai Peninsula and the Alaska mainland. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?fbclid=IwAR3LDAyWXaN5DRHC5uutXl28iugTWn5f1o3L-96Tl0UTbx10jsuVh8JPDls&mid=1hCQuDnObAsZ5MeY6Rf42WpTwsoUGN4g_&ll=51.690869006457994,-176.76511978216183&z=7
Interactive map showing most modern as well as WW II historical locations that many of us are familiar with. If switching to satellite imagery, the Bing Satellite imagery works better then the Google Satellite in this interactive map. http://wikimapia.org/?fbclid=IwAR0U...176.652260&z=12&m=w&show=/6378327/Adak-Alaska
US Geological Survey Map of Kanaga, Adak, Kagalaska, Little Tanaga and Great Sitkin Islands - https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/250k/txu-pclmaps-topo-us-adak-1983.jpg
The Adak Island Map on Winterbear uses the USFWS Map as a jumping-off point and improves it as much as possible - Addition of relief shading to better illustrate topography. Adjustments to color to improve legibility. https://winterbear.com/wp-content/uploads/adak-island-map-1-1.png
NOAA Chart 16471 - Online Chart Viewer -Atka Pass to Adak Strait https://charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/16471.shtml
The following is a condensed version of “Unangax̂: Coastal People of Far Southwestern Alaska. https://www.apiai.org/departments/cultural-heritage-department/culture-history/history/
Epilogue - It should be noted that after the US acquired Alaska, the native tribes were rarely treated better. The Alaskan native policy was to build schools and educate the native children 180° away from their heritage, coined "Kill the Indian, save the man". Consequently the native tribes under US rule didn't fair much better, till about 1971 when Alaska natives won there case and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was established and US had to repay back $20 million in exchange for requested lands.
They also asked for 10% of federal mineral lease revenue, including oil. With major petroleum dollars on the line, pressure mounted to achieve a definitive legislative resolution at the federal level. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law by President Nixon. It abrogated Native claims to aboriginal lands except those that are the subject of the law. In return, Natives retained up to 44 million acres of land and were paid $963 million. The land and money were to be divided among regional, urban, and village tribal corporations established under the law, often recognizing existing leadership.
In 1971, barely one million acres of land in Alaska were in private hands. ANCSA, together with section 6 of Alaska Statehood Act, which the new act allowed to come to fruition, affected ownership to about 148.5 million acres of land in Alaska once wholly controlled by the federal government. That is larger by 6 million acres than the combined areas of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
When the bill passed in 1971, it included provisions that had never before been attempted in previous United States settlements with Native Americans. The newly passed Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act created twelve Native regional economic development corporations. Each corporation was associated with a specific region of Alaska and the Natives who had traditionally lived there. This innovative approach to native settlements engaged the tribes in corporate capitalism.
The idea originated with the AFN, who believed that the Natives would have to become a part of the capitalist system in order to survive. As stockholders in these corporations, the Natives could earn some income and stay in their traditional villages. If the corporations were managed properly, they could make profits that would enable individuals to stay, rather than having to leave Native villages to find better work. This was intended to help preserve Native culture. https://www.c-span.org/video/?447934-1/colonization-alaska
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