Looking Both Ways : Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq People

by Crowell, Aron L.

• ISBN13: 9781889963310
• ISBN10: 1889963313
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Alaska Pr

Summary

Looking Both Ways is an extraordinary introduction to the indigenous people and vital culture of Alaska's south central coast. Combining archaeology, history, and oral tradition, it traces the Alutiiq path through ancestral generations to contemporary life, including today's compelling issues of cultural identity and autonomy. The Alutiiq art, objects, and images featured are signposts along the way.Diversity is one of the signal points of the text: no one voice could tell the whole story, and no single approach defines what it truly means to be Alutiiq. The many contributors range over Alutiiq relations with neighbouring Alaska Native peoples and with non-Native colonisers, with the sea and land, with place and time, with animals and spirits. Alutiiq writers, elders, and storytellers convey a many-sided sense of cultural values and beliefs, even as they recall the struggle to survive more than two centuries of Russian and Euro American domination. From anthropologists and historians come insights into the great originality of Alutiiq culture as well as its debt to formative influences from around the North Pacific. Seen from these many perspectives, Alutiiq identity emerges as a rich mosaic of people, location, and experience.This volume was created by the shared efforts of Alutiiq communities, scholars, and museums, led by the Smithsonian Institution and the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository in Kodiak, Alaska. This is a story in itself, reflecting national trends toward greater Native American participation in cultural research and self-representation in the museum world. The book accompanies an exhibit opening at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, in June 2001 and travelling to Kodiak, Homer, Anchorage, Juneau, and Seattle.

Table of Contents

Orthography	p. x
List of Elders	p. xi
Looking Both Ways	p. 3
Heritage and Identity	p. 4
External Perspectives	p. 8
Creating the Exhibition	p. 9
Quyanasinaq--Many Thanks	p. 14
Chapter 1 Notes	p. 19
Alutiiq Culture: Views from Archaeology, Anthropology, and History	p. 21
The Origins of Alutiiq Culture	p. 25
Classical Alutiiq Society	p. 30
Cultural Geography of the Alutiiq World	p. 30
Essay: The Alutiiq Language	p. 31
Essay: Chugach Teachers	p. 34
Houses and Domestic Life	p. 36
Society and Family	p. 41
Essay: Alutiiq Midwives	p. 44
Clothing, Jewelry, and Tattoos	p. 46
War and Trade	p. 52
Essay: War Between the Chugach and the Koniag: How the Men of Qilangalik Avenged Their Wives	p. 52
Russian Conquest and Colonial Rule	p. 54
Essay: Forgotten Literacy	p. 60
United States Rule After 1867	p. 62
Essay: Alutiiq Identity	p. 68
Chapter 2 Notes	p. 70
Contemporary Alutiiq Identity	p. 73
Essay: Tides and Ties of Our Culture	p. 75
The Impact of Traumatic Events on Alutiiq Identity	p. 76
Anthropologists and Alutiit	p. 78
Essay: Can There Be Such a Thing as a Native Anthropologist?	p. 79
Language and Identity	p. 80
Alutiiq Land, Land Claims, and Identity	p. 82
Essay: The Spirits are Still There: Memories of Katmai Country	p. 84
Essay: Kanatak Tribal Council	p. 86
Alutiiq Cultural Reawakening	p. 87
Essay: Bridging Traditions and Science	p. 89
Repatriation	p. 91
Essay: Repatriation and the Chugach Alaska People	p. 92
Who is an Alutiiq?	p. 94
Conclusion--The Mosaic of Identity	p. 95
Essay: Kinship	p. 96
Chapter 3 Notes	p. 97
Cumilalhet--"Our Ancestors"	p. 99
Time and Tradition	p. 100
Deep History: An Archaeological Perspective	p. 103
First Arrivals--The Paleoarctic Period (8000-5500 B.C.)	p. 103
Early Coastal Life (5500-1500 B.C.)	p. 106
Essay: Ocean Bay--The Luck of Science	p. 106
Coastal Villages of the Middle Era (1500 B.C.-A.D. 1100)	p. 111
Essay: Back To Uyak	p. 113
Essay: Alutiit on the Alaska Peninsula	p. 118
Alutiiq Societies: The Late Precontact Era (A.D. 1100-ca. 1760)	p. 121
Partnerships in Archaeology	p. 129
Essay: Historical Archaeology at the Afognak Artel	p. 130
Essay: Community Archaeology, Old Harbor Style	p. 132
Essay: The Karluk Archaeological Project and the Changing Cultural Landscape of Kodiak Island	p. 134
Chapter 4 Notes	p. 135
Sugucihpet--"Our Way of Living"	p. 137
Essay: Sugucihpet--Our Way of Living	p. 140
Subsistence and the Spiritual Universe	p. 142
The Heritage of Skin Boats	p. 144
Kayak Design and Construction	p. 145
Kayaks at Sea	p. 149
Essay: Kodiak Alutiiq Weather Lore	p. 150
The Angyaq	p. 152
Angyaq Design and Construction	p. 154
Hunting Hats	p. 155
Sea Mammals	p. 159
Harbor Seal and Sea Lion	p. 160
Essay: "Big Ed" Gregorieff	p. 162
Sea Otter	p. 163
Whales	p. 166
Land Animals	p. 170
Caribou	p. 170
Bears	p. 172
Fish	p. 176
Essay: Subsistence Fishing	p. 178
Birds	p. 179
Intertidal Life	p. 181
Plants	p. 182
Wild Vegetables	p. 184
Berries	p. 184
Seaweeds	p. 185
Chapter 5 Notes	p. 186
Ukgwepet--"Our Beliefs": Alutiiq Spiritual Life and Traditions	p. 189
The Spirit World	p. 191
Suk (Person)	p. 191
The Cycles of the Soul (Sugunha)	p. 194
Human Souls	p. 194
Helping Spirits	p. 195
Other Mask-Spirits	p. 196
Raven and Creatures of Myth	p. 196
The Alutiiq Cosmos	p. 197
Traditional Ceremonies	p. 199
Bladder Festival	p. 199
Hunting Festival	p. 199
Essay: An Alutiiq Mask Maker	p. 201
Doll Festival	p. 205
Feast of the Dead	p. 205
Rites of Passage	p. 206
Shamans	p. 208
Alutiiq Russian Orthodoxy	p. 213
Essay: The Dance Continues	p. 219
Chapter 6 Notes	p. 220
Alutiiq Paths	p. 223
Martha Demientieff	p. 224
Olga Sam	p. 227
Lucille Antowak Davis	p. 229
Jennie Zeedar	p. 232
Rena Peterson	p. 234
Ignatius Kosbruk	p. 235
Ed Gregorieff	p. 237
Larry Matfay	p. 239
Roy Skonberg	p. 241
Glossary	p. 243
References	p. 247
Index	p. 255
About the editors	p. 265
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