AIMQAQ – PORTAGE KANGIYAMEK PORTAGE BAY-MEN AIMQARTAALLRIIT. – THEY USED TO PORTAGE FROM KAGUYAK TO PORTAGE BAY. Traveling overland can be difficult on Kodiak. Thick brush, swampy lowlands, and steep slopes can make walking slow and frustrating. Fittingly, the Alutiiq verb for portage, aimqaq, literally means ‘vegetation broken off here and there’. However, there are […]
MANGAQ – PORPOISE AIWIAKAUT PARAGAUTAKUN MANGAT TAITAAARTUT, WAAMENGUARLUTENG. – WHEN YOU ARE GOING BY BOAT, PORPOISES COME AND KIND OF PLAY. Two varieties of porpoise frequent Kodiak’s coastal waters: the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and the Dahl porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli). These swift, muscular animals are members of the cetacean family, a group of marine mammals […]
With a $49,301 Tribal Heritage Grant from the National Park Service, the Alutiiq Museum will study the history of Native settlement on Sitkinak Island. The grant, awarded to Koniag, Inc., will support a comprehensive archaeological survey of Sitkinak’s state lands. Research will focus on the coast of the island to locate and document ancestral villages. […]
UQGWIK – ALDER UQGWIT KUA’AKAMENG CILLKATAARTUT. – WHEN ALDERS BURN, THEY MAKE A CRACKLING SOUND. Sitka alder (Alnus crispa) is a large shrub that grows up to twenty feet tall. Found commonly across the Kodiak Archipelago, this plant thrives in a wide range of environments, from mountain slopes to coastal meadows and the banks of […]