Ayaquq – Harpoon Ayaqut egtaakait arwanun cuumi. – They used to throw a harpoon at a whale before. For thousands of years Alutiiq people used harpoons to hunt sea mammals in Kodiak’s rich marine waters. Harpoon points were carved from bone and fitted into a wooden shaft equipped with an air-filled float. Alutiiq people used […]
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Alutiiq Word of the Week, the Museum’s lessons on all things Alutiiq. From aakanaq (old fish) to yataaq (poison), the word of the week pairs an Alutiiq word and sentence with a short lesson on Alutiiq traditions. Since its debut on July 6, 1998, the museum has […]
In 1869, a US Army officer left Alaska with a piece of Alutiiq culture, a skin covered kayak. Now, almost 150 years later, the boat has returned to Kodiak to share its story. The watercraft is a one-man, Alutiiq kayak with an intact, decorated skin cover. Culture bearers Ronnie Lind and Sven Haakanson Jr. recognized […]
Maqineq – Week; Saturday, Holiday EveMaqineq nangkan, tang’rciqamci. – After the week is over, I’ll see you guys. All human societies have systems of reckoning time, ways of accounting for the sequence and duration of events. However, concepts of time vary greatly with cultural and environmental factors. The places people live, the technologies they use, […]