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Indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands

Ethnic group
Aleuts
унаӈан (unangan)
унаӈас (unangas)
Attu Aleut mother and child, 1941
Regions with significant populations
United States
Alaska		6,752[1]
Russia
Kamchatka Krai		482[2]
Languages
English, Russian, Aleut[3]
Religion
Eastern Orthodoxy
(Russian Orthodox Church), Animism
Related ethnic groups
Inuit, Yupik, Sirenik, Sadlermiut, Alaskan Creoles
PersonUnangax̂
PeopleUnangan (east)
Unangas (west)
LanguageUnangam Tunuu
CountryUnangam Tanangin

Aleuts ( ⓘ AL-ee-OOT;[4] Aleut: Unangan (west) or Unangas (east) Russian: Алеуты, romanized: Aleuty) are the Indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleuts and the islands are politically divided between the U.S. state of Alaska and the Russian administrative division of Kamchatka Krai. This group is also known as the Unangax̂[5] in Unangam Tunuu, the Aleut language.[6] There are 13 federally recognized Aleut tribes in the Aleut Region of Alaska.[7] In 2000, Aleuts in Russia were recognized by government decree as a small-numbered Indigenous people.[8]

Etymology

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In the Aleut language, they are known by the endonyms Unangan (eastern dialect) and Unangas (western dialect); both terms mean "people".[a] The Russian term "Aleut" was a general term used for both the Native population of the Aleutian Islands and their neighbors to the east in the Kodiak Archipelago, who were also referred to as "Pacific Eskimos" or Sugpiat/Alutiit.[10]

Language

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Aleut people traditionally speak Unangam Tunuu, the Aleut language, although nowadays most speak English and Russian in their respective countries as a result of colonization. An estimated 150 people in the United States and five people in Russia speak Aleut,[3] although there are ongoing revitalization efforts.[11] The language belongs to the Eskaleut language family and includes three dialects: Eastern Aleut, spoken on the Eastern Aleutian, Shumagin, Fox and Pribilof Islands; Atkan, spoken on Atka and Bering islands; and the now extinct Attuan dialect.

The Pribilof Islands has the highest number of active speakers of Unangam Tunuu. Most Native elders speak Aleut, but it is rare for common people to speak the language fluently.

Beginning in 1829, Aleut was written in the Cyrillic script. From 1870, the language has been written in the Latin script. An Aleut dictionary and grammar have been published, and portions of the Bible were translated into Aleut.[3]

Tribes

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Customary Aleut dress

Aleut (Unangan) dialects and tribes:[12]

Population and distribution

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Map of Aleut tribes and dialects
Settlement of Aleuts in the Far Eastern Federal District by urban and rural settlements in%, 2010 census

Aleuts historically lived throughout the Aleutian Islands, the Shumagin Islands, and the far western part of the Alaska Peninsula, with an estimated population of around 25,000 prior to European contact.[13] In the 1820s, the Russian-American Company administered a large portion of the North Pacific during a Russian-led expansion of the fur trade. They resettled many Aleut families to the Commander Islands (within the Aleutsky District of the Kamchatka Krai in Russia)[14] and to the Pribilof Islands (in Alaska). These continue to have majority-Aleut communities.[15][16]

According to the 2000 census, 11,941 people identified as being Aleut, while 17,000 identified as having partial Aleut ancestry. Prior to sustained European contact, approximately 25,000 Aleut lived in the archipelago.[17] The Encyclopædia Britannica Online states that more than 15,000 people have Aleut ancestry in the early 21st century.[13] Aleuts suffered high fatalities in the 19th and early 20th centuries from Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity. In addition, the population suffered as their customary lifestyles were disrupted. Russian traders, and later Europeans, married Aleut women and had families with them.[13]

History

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After contact with Russia

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Aleut in Festival Dress in Alaska, watercolor by Mikhail Tikhanov, 1818

Russian Orthodox missionaries arrived in Kodiak in 1794.[18] Many Aleuts became Christian. Of the numerous Russian Orthodox congregations in Alaska, most are majority Alaska Native or Native Alaskan in ethnicity. One of the earliest Christian martyrs in North America was Saint Peter the Aleut.[19][20]

Russian traders "took Aleut women and children hostage" to force Aleut men to hunt foxes and sea otters so the Russians could have their pelts, and often additionally enslaved Aleut men.[21]

Aleuts. Ethnographic description of the peoples of the Russian Empire by Gustav-Fyodor Khristianovich Pauli (1862)

Contact with Japanese and uprising against Russians

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In the 18th century, Russian promyshlenniki traders established settlements on the islands. There was high demand for the furs that the Aleuts provided from hunting. In 1783, Japanese sailor Daikokuya Kōdayū came into contact with these Russians and the native Aleuts, after getting shipwrecked on Amchitka Island with his crew.[22] This occurred during Japan's Sakoku period of 1635 and 1854, when Japanese citizens were banned from leaving their homeland. Kōdayū lived among Russians until 1792,[23] and when he returned home to Japan, he bought with him a Russian map which depicted the true shape of Australia, with prior Japanese maps depicting Australia as double its size and with New Guinea still attached.[22] Kōdayū's encounter with the Aleuts was depicted in the 1992 Japanese film Dreams of Russia, which was based on his story.[24][25]

While Kōdayū was living on Amchitka in May 1784, the local Aleuts there revolted against the Russian traders. (The Russians had a small trading post there.) According to the Aleuts, in an account recorded by the Japanese castaways and published in 2004, otters were decreasing year by year. The Russians paid the Aleuts less and less in goods in return for the furs they made. The Japanese learned that the Aleuts felt the situation was at crisis. The leading Aleuts negotiated with the Russians, saying they had failed to deliver enough supplies in return for furs. Nezimov, leader of the Russians, ordered two of his men, Stephanov (ステッパノ Suteppano) and Kazhimov (カジモフ Kazimofu) to kill his mistress Oniishin (オニイシン Oniishin), who was the Aleut chief's daughter, because he doubted that Oniishin had tried to dissuade her father and other leaders from pushing for more goods.[citation needed]

After the four leaders had been killed, the Aleuts began to move from Amchitka to neighboring islands. Nezimov, leader of the Russian group, was jailed after the whole incident was reported to Russian officials.[26] (According to Hokusa bunryaku (Japanese: 北槎聞略), written by Katsuragawa Hoshū after interviewing Daikokuya Kōdayū.)[citation needed]

Aleut massacre against the Nicoleño Tribe in California

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According to Russian American Company (RAC) records which were translated and published in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, a 200-ton otter hunting ship named Il’mena with a mixed-nationality crew, including a majority Aleut contingent, was involved in conflict resulting in a massacre of the Indigenous people of San Nicolas Island.[27]

In 1814, to obtain more of the commercially valuable otter pelts, a Russian company brought a party of conscripted Aleut hunters to the coastal island of San Nicolas, near the Alta California-Baja California border. The locally resident Nicoleño nation sought a payment from the Aleut hunters for the large number of otters being killed in the area. Disagreement arose, turning violent; an Aleut was killed, and in retaliation Aleuts killed a number of Nicoleño (the exact amount is unknown). In 1835, the remaining Nicoleños were removed from the island, except for one woman and possibly her child, who were left behind. In 1853 that woman, later christened Juana Maria, was found and taken to Santa Barbara. She may have been the last living Nicoleñan, as what happened to the others after they were brought to the mainland is unknown (Juana Maria, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas).[27][28]

World War II

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Japanese occupation

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When World War II broke out, the Aleutian Islands were under the control of the United States as they had been since March 1867, when they were included in the U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia.[29] In June 1942, Japanese forces occupied Kiska and Attu Islands in the western Aleutians, with this representing their northernmost region of operation in the Pacific War, which covered an area extending as far south as Australia.[30] They later transported 41 captive Attu Islanders to Otaru, Hokkaido, where they were held as prisoners of war in harsh conditions.[31] Roughly half of them died while they were imprisoned.[32] The deaths were caused by the spread of tuberculosis among the imprisoned Aleuts, and starvation/malnutrition, as the Japanese primarily fed them small portions of rice.[33][34][35] Aleut chief Mike Hodikoff and his son George died after eating poisoned food from a garbage bin, since they were starving in the prison.[35] The Japanese also forced the imprisoned Aleut children to learn the Japanese language, threatening to kill them if they did not.[35] Alex Prossoff, a survivor of the prison camp, later said in 1988, "as long as Americans are fight for my country I'll be on their side. I told them Japs destroy our homes, make us prisoners and put us on a land where we cannot talk his language. So I cannot say Japs are good people."[35]

The World War II campaign by the United States to retake Attu and Kiska was a significant component of the operations in the American and Pacific theaters.[citation needed]

Internment

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Fearing a Japanese attack on other Aleutian Islands and mainland Alaska, the U.S. government evacuated 800 more Aleuts from the western chain and the Pribilofs, placing them in internment camps in southeast Alaska, where many died of measles, influenza and other infectious diseases which spread quickly in the overcrowded dormitories.[36] In total, about 75 died in American internment and 22 died while prisoners of the Japanese.[31][37][38] The Aleut Restitution Act of 1988 was an attempt by Congress to compensate the survivors. On June 17, 2017, the U.S. government formally apologized for the internment of the Unangan people and their treatment in the camps.[39]

Notable Aleuts

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In Snow Crash, a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, a central character named Raven is portrayed as an Aleut with incredible toughness and hunting skill.[58] The story is about revenge due in part to perceived mistreatment of the Aleuts. In the book Island of the Blue Dolphins by American writer Scott O'Dell, Aleuts attack a tribe of Native Americans that live on a small island off the coast of California.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ The singular form is Unangax̂. The Cyrillic spelling of Unangan and Unangas are Унаӈан and Унаӈас, respectively.[9]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Aleut alone". factfinder.census.gov. US Census Bureau. Retrieved February 20, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  2. ↑ "ВПН-2010". gks.ru. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 "Aleut." Archived June 20, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Ethnologue. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  4. ↑ Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
  5. ↑ We Are Unangax, October 17, 2016, archived from the original on May 10, 2023, retrieved May 10, 2023
  6. ↑ "Unangax̂ (Aleut) & Alutiiq/Sugpiaq". Anchorage Public Library. Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  7. ↑ "List of Federally Recognized Tribes in the Aleut Region". www.ancsaregional.com. Archived from the original on January 11, 2024. Retrieved February 22, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Aleuts". Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North. June 20, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Unangam Tunuu/Aleut," Archived February 9, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Alaska Native Language Center.
  10. ↑ Marcus Lepola (2010). "The Aleuts and the Pacific Eskimo in the colonial economy of Russian Alaska in the mid 19th century" (PDF). Arctic & Antarctic International Journal of Circumpolar Socio-Cultural. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 14, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Unangam Tunuu Program |". Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. Retrieved May 29, 2026.
  12. ↑ Unangam Language Pre-contact Tribes and Dialects Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine by Knut Bergland and Moses L. Dirks
  13. 1 2 3 "Aleut People". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2011. Archived from the original on April 30, 2015. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  14. ↑ Lyapunova, R.G. (1987) Aleuts: Noted on their ethnological history (in Russian)
  15. ↑ Corbett, H.D.; Swibold, S. M (2000). "Endangered people of the Arctic. Struggle to Survive". The Aleuts of the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Milton M.R. Freeman. Archived from the original on May 14, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
  16. ↑ Bonner, W. N. (1982) Seals and Man: A Study of Interactions, Seattle: University of Washington Press
  17. ↑ "Alaskan People: Aleut Native Tribe". alaskannature.com. Archived from the original on February 1, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Alaska Web". Alaska Web. Retrieved May 26, 2026.
  19. ↑ Text of Yanofsky's account of the martyrdom of Peter the Aleut, contained in his letter to Abbot Damascene (at Orthodox Church in America website)
  20. ↑ For a translation of the letter, see The Russian Orthodox Religious Mission in America, 1794-1837, pp. 80-89.
  21. ↑ Chandonnet, Ann (2013). Alaska's Native Peoples. Anchorage: Arctic Circle Enterprises. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-933837-14-7.
  22. 1 2 Koichiro, M. (2006). Japan and the Pacific, 1540–1920: Threat and Opportunity. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
  23. ↑ "Building bridges to Japan". August 26, 2022.
  24. ↑ Egorov, Boris (June 28, 2018). "You need to watch these Russian-Asian blockbusters".
  25. ↑ "Lost in Transmission. Maps of Japan by Daikokuya Kōdayū (1751-1828)" (PDF). www.shs.hal.science. Retrieved February 22, 2026.
  26. ↑ Yamashita, Tsuneo. Daikokuya Kodayu(Japanese), 2004. Iwanami, Japan ISBN 4-00-430879-8
  27. 1 2 {{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  28. ↑ "Life in the Village": Chapter 7, National Park Service, Island of the Blue Dolphins" (PDF). www.nps.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 25, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2025.
  29. ↑ "The US island that once belonged to Russia". www.bbc.com. March 20, 2025.
  30. ↑ "Pacific War | Summary, Battles, Maps, & Casualties | Britannica".
  31. 1 2 "Descendant of last native leader of Alaska island demands Japanese reparations for 1942 invasion". www.msn.com. Retrieved November 21, 2025.
  32. ↑ Chloe, John Haile (2017). Attu: The Forgotten Battle. National Park Service. pp. 32–33. ISBN 978-0996583732.
  33. ↑ Poyer, L. (2022). War at the Margins: Indigenous Experiences in World War II, page 105. United States: University of Hawaii Press.
  34. ↑ Civil Liberties Act of 1985 and the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands Restitution Act: hearings before the Subcommittee on Administrative Law and Governmental Relations of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-ninth Congress, second session, on H.R. 442 and H.R. 2415 ... April 28 and July 23, 1986. (1987). (n.p.): U.S. Government Printing Office.
  35. 1 2 3 4 Golodoff, N. (2012). Attu Boy. United States: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Alaska Regional Office.
  36. ↑ "The Wartime Internment of Native Alaskans". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. June 30, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2025.
  37. ↑
  38. ↑ "Evacuation and Internment, 1942–1945 – Aleutian World War II National Historic Area (U.S. National Park Service)". nps.gov. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
  39. ↑ "US apologizes for WWII internment of Alaska's Unangan people". miamiherald. Archived from the original on June 17, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2025.
  40. ↑ Tyler, Charles Marion. The Island World of the Pacific Ocean. United States: S. Carson & Company, 1885.
  41. ↑ "The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2000 Table 5" (PDF). census.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
  42. ↑ "Aleut - Housing". sites.google.com. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  43. ↑ Cook, James (1999). The Voyages of Captain James Cook. Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions. p. 377 ISBN 978-1-84022-100-8.
  44. ↑ "BRIT – Native American Ethnobotany Database". naeb.brit.org. Archived from the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  45. 1 2 3 4 5 Black, Lydia (2003). Aleut Art Unangam Aguqaadangin. Anchorage, AK: Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association.
  46. 1 2 3 4 5 Turner, M. Lucien. (2008) An Aleutian Ethnography. Ed. L. Raymond Hudson. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 9781602230286
  47. ↑ Osborn, Kevin (1990). The Peoples of the Arctic. New York : Chelsea House Publishers. p. 52. ISBN 9780877548768
  48. ↑ "Kamleika". Google Arts & Culture. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  49. 1 2 3 4 Gross, J. Joseph and Khera, Sigrid (1980). Ethnohistory of the Aleuts. Fairbanks: Department of Anthropology University of Alaska. pp. 32–34
  50. ↑ "Home". Aleut Corporation. Archived from the original on December 18, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  51. ↑ Murray, Stephen O. (2002) Pacific Homosexualities. Writers Club Press. p. 206. ISBN 9780595227853
  52. 1 2 Antonson, Joan (1984). Alaska's Heritage. Anchorage: The Alaska Historical Commission. pp. 85–95.
  53. 1 2 Durham, Bill (1960). Canoes and Kayaks of Western America. Seattle: Copper Canoe Press. pp. 11–20.
  54. 1 2 3 4 5 Jochelson, Waldemar (1925). Archaeological Investigations in the Aleutian Islands. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. p. 145.
  55. 1 2 Veltre, Douglas W. (2001) "Korovinski: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigations of a Pre- and Post-Contact Aleut and Russian Settlement on Atka Island". In Archaeology of the Aleut Zone of Alaska, edited by D. Dumond, pp. 251–266. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers, no. 58. University of Oregon, Eugene.
  56. 1 2 Nelson, Willis H.; Barnett, Frank (1955). "A Burial Cave on Kanaga Island, Aleutian Islands". American Antiquity. 20 (4): 387–392. doi:10.2307/277079. JSTOR 277079. S2CID 162015286.
  57. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Corbett, Debra G. (2001) "Prehistoric Village Organization in the Western Aleutians". In Archaeology of the Aleut Zone of Alaska, edited by D. Dumond, pp. 251–266. University of Oregon Anthropological Papepers, no. 58. University of Oregon, Eugene.
  58. ↑ "Raven a.k.a. Dmitri Ravinoff in Snow Crash". shmoop.com. Archived from the original on January 15, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
[edit]
  • Black, Lydia T. Aleut Art: Unangam Aguqaadangin. Anchorage, Alaska: Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, 2005.
  • Jochelson, Waldemar. History, Ethnology, and Anthropology of the Aleut. Washington: Carnegie institution of Washington, 1933.
  • Jochelson, Waldemar, Bergsland, Knut (Editor) & Dirks, Moses (Editor). Unangam Ungiikangin Kayux Tunusangin = Unangam Uniikangis ama Tunuzangis = Aleut Tales and Narratives. Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 1990.ISBN 978-1-55500-036-3.
  • Kohlhoff, Dean. When the Wind Was a River Aleut Evacuation in World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press in association with Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, Anchorage, 1995. ISBN 0-295-97403-6
  • Krutak, Lars (April 24, 2011). "Tattooing and Piercing Among the Alaskan Aleut" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of the Association of Professional Piercers 44 (2008): 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 28, 2011.
  • Lee, Molly, Angela J. Linn, and Chase Hensel. Not Just a Pretty Face: Dolls and Human Figurines in Alaska Native Cultures. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska, 2006. Print.
  • Madden, Ryan Howard. "An enforced odyssey: The relocation and internment of Aleuts during World War II" (PhD thesis U of New Hampshire, Durham, 1993) online Archived May 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
  • Murray, Martha G., and Peter L. Corey. Aleut Weavers. Juneau, AK: Alaska State Museums, Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums, 1997.
  • National Park Service. "Aleutian World War II ."
  • Reedy-Maschner, Katherine. "Aleut Identities : Tradition and Modernity in an Indigenous Fishery". Montréal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0773537484
  • Veltre, Douglas W. Aleut Unangax̂ Ethnobotany An Annotated Bibliography. Akureyri, Iceland: CAFF International Secretariat, 2006. ISBN 9979-9778-0-9
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