Thunder — Kalliq Kallikan alingnartaartut. – When it is thundering it is scary. Thunder is the loud, booming noise created by the rapid expansion and contraction of air heated by a lightning strike. As electricity, in the form of lightning, travels through the air, it opens a channel. When the electricity dissipates, the channel collapses, […]
High Bush Cranberry, Sourberry, Kalina Berry— Amarsaq (N), Amaryaq (S) Amaryat quuhnartaartut. (S) – High bush cranberries are (always) sour. The high bush cranberry (Viburnum edule), known locally as the bog berry or sour berry, is a large flowering shrub that grows in Kodiak’s thickets and clearings, often in shady spots. This plant, found widely […]
Glove — Ariteq Aritenka tamartaanka. – I lose my gloves all the time. Gloves and mittens are essential pieces of clothing in northern environments. Like warm fur parkas and insulated sod houses, they are one of the cultural adaptations that protect people from frostbite and hypothermia. Yet references to Alutiiq gloves, and examples of such […]
Cross — KRistaaq Introduced to Kodiak by nineteenth-century Russian Orthodox clergy, the Christian cross is a symbol that appears widely in Alutiiq communities. Although kRistaaq sounds like the word Christ, it comes from the Russian word for cross, kRest, which may be related to the Latin word ‘crux.’ It is not derived from KRistuusaq, the Alutiiq word for […]