Play — Wamluni, Salirluni Wamqutartut. – They are going to play. Education in Alutiiq communities focused on training children the essential skills of adult life. Young people learned these skills by listening to stories and legends, helping their Elders, and imitating adult activities with toys. Archaeological sites in the Kodiak Archipelago have produced many miniature […]
Little Afognak — Igwiq Igwiq ar’ursulengq’rtaallria. — There used to be whalers at Little Afognak Little Afognak began as a cluster of small hamlets in Duck Bay on southern Afognak Island. The area had seasonal Alutiiq camps and a Russian settlement that coalesced into a village. There was a Russian workstation in the community until […]
Alphabet — Aapit, Aapitniiq Nutaan Alutiit aapit liitapet. – Now we are learning the Alutiiq alphabet. An alphabet is a system of characters used to represent the sounds in a language. By seeing a character, a reader can reproduce a sound without hearing it. In essence, alphabets store sounds. There are different kinds of alphabets. […]
Snail — Ipuk Iput yaamat acaatni etaartut. – Snails are always under the rocks. Snails, particularly the periwinkle (Littorina sitkana), are common residents of Kodiak’s intertidal waters. These slow-creeping marine invertebrates are members of the gastropod family, a group that includes both snails and slugs. Periwinkles inhabit the rocky beaches of the North American Pacific […]