WIINAQ – SEA LION WIINAT CARLIANGUT. – THE SEA LIONS ARE HAVING BABIES. The Gulf of Alaska is home to the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus), the largest pinniped in the North Pacific. Bulls average 1,150 pounds, cows 580 pounds, and both are nearly ten feet long. Sea lions are opportunistic feeders that range […]
PAAPUSKAAQ – MIDWIFE UKALUTEN, PAAPUSKAAQ IWA’ARU! CARLIANGQUTARTUQ. – HURRY, GET THE MIDWIFE! SHE’S GOING TO HAVE A BABY. Each Alutiq community had at least one midwife, a healer versed in herbal medicines and the arts of bloodletting, surgery, and childbirth. Appointed by her community at a young age and apprenticed to an older midwife, […]
TAQUKA’AQ – BEAR TAQUKA’AT YUGNITAARAAT, “SUK”. – BEARS ALWAYS SAY, “PERSON.” The brown or grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) is the largest terrestrial mammal in North America. The Kodiak Archipelago is home to more than three thousand of these enormous creatures, which have long been a source of food and raw materials for Alutiiq people. […]
SUARUAQ – DOLL NUTAAN SUARUALITAARTUT INEQSUNASQANEK. – NOWADAYS THEY MAKE BEAUTIFUL DOLLS. Dolls were once signs of spring in Alutiiq communities. Elders recall that most toys were stored through the dead of winter, beginning at Russian Christmas, and could only be removed from storage when signs of spring signaled the rebirth of the year. […]