Aleuts - Orientation

Identification. Until the end of the eighteenth century the Aleuts inhabited the western tip of the Alaska Peninsula and the islands of the Aleutian Archipelago, a chain of volcanic treeless islands that extends in an arc from the Alaska Peninsula westward and separates the Bering Sea from the Pacific Ocean. At the end of the eighteenth century, when Russians penetrated their homeland, Aleuts settled the Pribylov (Pribilof) Islands in the Bering Sea and, between 1812 and 1829, the Commander Islands. The latter, now within the political boundaries of Russia, form a continuation of the arc of the Aleutian Archipelago. The island of Attu, the westernmost island of the Aleutian chain, is about 480 kilometers east of the Commander Islands and about 800 kilometers off Kamchatka Peninsula in Northeast Asia. Today, in the United States, the westernmost village is that of Atka (formerly Nikolskoe) on the island of Atka in the Central (Andreanov) Islands.

As an ethnonym, the term "Aleut" applies in modern literature to the inhabitants of the Aleutian Archipelago and their descendants elsewhere. In addition, the term is used for the inhabitants of the Aleutian Archipelago and their descendants and the inhabitants of the Commander Islands in Russia and their descendants by several socially, politically, and linguistically distinct populations: Kodiak Islanders, groups of Alutiig-language speakers of Prince William Sound and the Alaska Peninsula, and several groups of Central Yupik speakers of the Alaska Peninsula (Bristol Bay area).

Location. The waters surrounding the islands are among the most dangerous in the world. The Pacific shores are rugged, cliffy, and inhospitable. For this reason, in precontact times, Aleut habitations were located, with very few exceptions, on the shores of the Bering Sea. The interior is mountainous, not suitable for human habitation. Much of it remains unexplored to this day. There are no fewer than forty-six active volcanoes from the Alaska Peninsula to the Rat Islands in the west. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis are frequent. The climate may be characterized as maritime. Although the average temperatures are mild (ranging from —4° C to 13° C, depending on the location along the chain), the constant winds and sea moisture make it feel much colder. The Aleutian Islands are known for their fog, rains, and frequent storms. Precipitation ranges from 73.2 to 84.9 centimeters annually. Sunny days are rare. In winter snowfall is moderate, but on occasion snowstorms may bring a snowfall of 2 meters or more with even deeper drifts. At higher elevations, the snows do not melt.

Terrestrial animals are few, and several species, among them polar foxes, ground squirrels, and reindeer, were imported into the archipelago within historic times. In the eighteenth century, when the Russians entered the area, only some species of mice and lemmings were present on most islands, though at the eastern end of the chain there were several subspecies of fox, and, on Unimak Island, bears, caribou, wolves, land otters, and porcupines.

Demography. Under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1972, 3,249 persons were enrolled as shareholders in the Aleut Corporation. According to the latest data supplied by the Aleut Corporation, approximately 39 percent of shareholders reside in the Aleut region, another 20 percent within the state of Alaska, and 41 percent elsewhere in the United States, the majority in the Pacific Northwest. In Russia, according to the census data of 1979, there were 546 Aleuts in the Commander Islands, residing in Nikolskoe, a semiurban center on Bering Island.

Today most of the Aleut population is located in semiurban centers such as the city of Unalaska on Unalaska Island, and participates in the modern cash economy. Under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1972, the Aleuts formed thirteen village corporations in addition to the regional Aleut Corporation. The Aleut Corporation received entitlement to 26,400 hectares of surface lands in their ancestral region and 628,800 hectares of subsurface estate. Most of the Aleut Corporation land selections are located along the Aleutian chain from Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula to the island of Atka, in the Shumagin Archipelago on the Pacific side of the Alaska Peninsula, in the Pribylov Islands, on the site of the former village of Attu in the west, and at several historical and cemetery sites westward from Atka. The village corporations are Akutan; Atka; Belkofskii Corporation at King Cove, Alaska Peninsula; Chalika at Nikolskii on Umnak Island; Issanotskii Corporation at False Pass, Unimak Island; King Cove Corporation at King Cove, Nelson Lagoon; Sanak Corporation, Unga Corporation, and Shumagin Corporation, all at Sand Point, Popov Island (Shumagin Archipelago); and St. George Tanaq Corporation on St. George Island and Tnagusix Corporation on St. Paul Island, the two main islands of the Pribylov island group. (The villages of Sanak on Sanak Island and Unga in the Shumagin Archipelago are now abandoned, although their populations have resettled; only three persons remain in the village of Belkofski, the majority having moved to King Cove.)

Linguistic Affiliation. The Aleut speak a language of the Eskimo-Aleut (Eskaleut) Phylum. Today two dialects, the Eastern (or Fox Island) Aleut and the Atkan (or Central), survive in the United States. On Bering Island, Atkan is spoken by the descendants of the settlers from the Central (Andreanov) Islands, and a dialect derived from Attuan (or Western, of which only three speakers survive in the United States) is spoken by the descendants of the Aleut settlers on Mednoi (Copper) Island. In pre-contact times, the Qakhun, (inhabitants of the Rat islands) spoke a dialect of their own, of which nothing is known. It is hypothesized that the inhabitants of the Four Mountain Islands spoke Atkan or another, unknown dialect.