KIAK – SUMMER KIAKUTARTUKUT. – WE ARE GOING TO HAVE SUMMER PRETTY SOON. Summer in the Kodiak Archipelago comes slowly. In April and May, low pressure systems generated in the Aleutian Islands shift westward into the Bering Sea and Kodiak’s weather begins to moderate. Warm, foggy conditions replace cold winter winds as the days […]
WIINAQ – SEA LION WIINAT CARLIANGUT. – THE SEA LIONS ARE HAVING BABIES. The Gulf of Alaska is home to the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus), the largest pinniped in the North Pacific. Bulls average 1,150 pounds, cows 580 pounds, and both are nearly ten feet long. Sea lions are opportunistic feeders that range […]
PAAPUSKAAQ – MIDWIFE UKALUTEN, PAAPUSKAAQ IWA’ARU! CARLIANGQUTARTUQ. – HURRY, GET THE MIDWIFE! SHE’S GOING TO HAVE A BABY. Each Alutiq community had at least one midwife, a healer versed in herbal medicines and the arts of bloodletting, surgery, and childbirth. Appointed by her community at a young age and apprenticed to an older midwife, […]
TAQUKA’AQ – BEAR TAQUKA’AT YUGNITAARAAT, “SUK”. – BEARS ALWAYS SAY, “PERSON.” The brown or grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) is the largest terrestrial mammal in North America. The Kodiak Archipelago is home to more than three thousand of these enormous creatures, which have long been a source of food and raw materials for Alutiiq people. […]