Ulik – Blanket Una ulik aturnirtuq. – This blanket is comfortable. Before the introduction of western mattresses and blankets, Alutiiq people slept on piles of soft, dry grass and covered themselves with bear hides. These warm, insulating materials provided bedding both at home and while traveling. A person who had to camp unexpectedly simply collected […]
PiRaq; Alliqaruaq – Grass Mat PiRani qawartaartua. – I (habitually) sleep on a grass mat. If you were to enter a typical Alutiiq household of the seventeenth century, fine weaving would surround you. Woven mats would lie on sleeping benches, cover the walls, and hang in doorways. Woven containers for collecting, storing, and cooking food […]
-taar- – Always; Habitually Englaryumataartuq. – He is always smiling. A suffix is a letter or group of letters that can be added to the end of a word to create a new word. For example, if you add the suffix -able to the word excite, you get excitable! Alutiiq speakers build words with a […]
In 2003, Alaska’s Rasmuson Foundation launched its Art Acquisition Fund, providing grants to museums to collect the current works of Alaskan artists. In its first decade, the fund distributed nearly $2 million and helped 33 museums purchase more than 1,000 works by 436 artists. A new exhibit, “Living Alaska: A Decade of Collecting Contemporary Art […]