Sungcarwik—Hospital TuugtaRaq sungarwigmen ag’uq.—The doctor is going to the hospital. Medical care in Alutiiq communities was once provided by two types of specialists: healers who treated the sick with heat, herbal medicine, and bloodletting, and shamans who realigning the ill with the spirit world. When new diseases arrived in Alaska with Russian traders, medical care […]
Taquka’angcuk—Bear Cub Taquka’angcum maamani malirqatuu’uraa.—The little bear is following its mama. The Kodiak Archipelago is home to an unusually dense population of brown bears (Ursus arctos middendorffi). Biologists believe that there are as many as 3,500 bears in the region, with the highest densities in southwest Kodiak Island. This large number of bears reflects both the […]
Puyulek—Volcano Puyulek yakguani et’aartut, ingrini.—The volcanoes are far away, in the mountains. Although there are no volcanoes in the Kodiak Archipelago, the mountainous Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Island chain are formed largely by volcanic activity. Along this expanse of Alaska’s coast there are at least eighty volcanoes that have been active in the past […]
Uyaq—Uyak Bay Kugyasigtaallriit Uyarmi.—They used to seine in Uyak Bay. Uyak Bay is the largest fjord in the Kodiak Archipelago. Carved by Pleistocene glaciers, this 40 km waterway stretches from its wide month on Shelikof Strait far into the interior of Kodiak Island, narrowing towards its head. Uyaq is so long it nearly cuts Kodiak in half. […]