Koniag, Inc. has received a $49,672.78 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to support collections care at the Alutiiq Museum. The grant will fund “Cuumi Kal’uni – Before, in Karluk” a project designed to improve the care and interpretation of more than 10,000 artifacts from the Old
Karluk site.

Owned by Koniag, Inc., Old Karluk was excavated from 1983 to 1985 by archaeologists working in collaboration with the Kodiak Area Native Association. The site’s 12 layers document repeated settlement over 6,000 years. Artifacts from the site include a small but rare assemblage of wooden objects more than 1000 years old.

Over two years, museum staff members will complete a full inventory of the collection, improve its storage, and develop resources to support its study. Site maps will be drafted from field notes.

Alutiiq terms, determined with the help of Alutiiq speakers, will be used to describe the ancient artifacts. Museum staff will write a paper summarizing the site and its contents. This project is part of the museum’s ongoing efforts to update the care of collections made long ago. Project leader Marnie Leist explains:

“We have been working systematically through some of the museum’s large founding collections to bring their care up to modern standards. This project focuses on an assemblage from Karluk Lagoon that needs a new computer inventory. When it was originally cataloged, researchers used Fortran codes – substituting numbers for artifact and raw materials names. This led to many mistakes and a catalog that is difficult to use. We also have materials from the site that were never catalogued. Our first steps will be to translate the catalog into English and check every artifact against it. Ultimately, this work will make a large and valuable collection of artifacts more easily used by the public.”

The Alutiiq Museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the cultural traditions of the Alutiiq, an Alaska Native tribal people. Representatives of Kodiak Alutiiq organizations govern the museum with funding from charitable contributions, memberships, grants, contracts, and sales.