Skauluq (N); Skuuluq (S) – School Naata guangkuta skaulurluta. – We should all go to school. Russian entrepreneur Gregorii Shelikhov established the first European-style school in the Kodiak region in the 1780s. Young boys taken hostage by Russian traders or enrolled in the school by their fathers learned to speak, read, and write in […]
Slaaparaq, Sliyaaparaq – Mushroom Suupalitaartut sliyaaparanek. – They make soup out of mushrooms. Cool temperatures, darkening days, and wet weather are all signs of fall in Alaska, and of mushroom season. Mushrooms are fungi, the fruit of plants that grow underground and obtain their nourishment from decomposing matter rather than sunlight. These delicate plants reproduce […]
Puyurniq – Nagoonberry Puyurnit piturnirtaartut. – Nagoonberries always taste good. Commonly known as the wild raspberry, or arctic raspberry, the nagoonberry (Rubus arcticus) is a low-growing plant that bears a sweet, dark red, segmented, raspberry-like fruit. On Kodiak, Alutiiq people use the same term for nagoonberry and raspberry, illustrating the similarity between this indigenous fruit […]
Qepel’ut – Maggots Qepel’ugaa iqalluk. – The fish is getting “maggoty.” Flies are part of summer in Alaska, and where there are flies, there are maggots. Biologists break the life cycle of the fly (Diptera) into four stages. The life of a fly begins when a female lays an egg. Within 24 hours the egg […]