An Astra rocket launch from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak island ended sooner than expected on Friday night when the vehicle suffered oscillations and safety systems shut down the engines and it crashed back to the ground in a spectacular explosion. The launch at 11:19 pm was a test of the company’s first […]
PELLUQUQ – BOLA SAQULLKANANEK PISURYARTUKUT PELLUQUMEK ATURLUTA. – WE ARE HUNTING BIRDS WITH SLINGSHOTS. The word bola comes from Spanish and means ball. People around the word use this term to describe a hunting tool tossed in the air, across the water, or on land to immobilize animals. A bola typically has several narrow lengths […]
WEG’ET – GRASS WEG’ET KIAGMI ANGLITAARTUT. – THE GRASS GROWS TALL IN THE SUMMERTIME. More than sixty-five varieties of grasses grow in the Kodiak Archipelago, as well as many types of sedges and rushes. The most widely harvested grass is beach rye grass (Elymus arenarius), a plant common across the northern hemisphere. This tall, […]
NUNA – VILLAGE GUANGKUTA NUNARPET. – THIS IS OUR LAND. When Russian traders arrived in the Kodiak Archipelago, there were more than sixty Alutiiq villages. Rows of sod houses formed coastal communities that were home to as many as three hundred people. Chiefs governed villages, acting as political and economic leaders. Russian accounts suggest […]