BiblioVault - Books about Pacific Gulf Yupik Eskimos

Alutiiq Villages under Russian and U.S. Rule

Sonja Luehrmann

University of Alaska Press, 2009

Sonja Luehrmann’s volume examines Alutiiq history within the larger context of Russian and American expansionism. The author uses source material in both English and Russian in order to create a work focused on the intersection of the two colonial perspectives—throwing light on our understanding of the differences in the way each society incorporated the Alutiiq community, both as a labor force and a social entity. In a series of map essays, Luehrmann examines the changing patterns of settlement and demography among the Alutiiq as the population responded to the conditions they encountered: economic exploitation, new cultural influences, intermarriage, disease, and the eruption of Novarupta. The addition of Russian source material fills an important blank in this unique history and makes Alutiiq Villages Under Russian and U.S. Rule a major resource for anyone working on Alutiiq history or the region’s history in the Russian colonial period.

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The Alutiit/Sugpiat

A Catalog of the Collections of the Kunstkamera

Edited by Yuri E. Berezkin

University of Alaska Press, 2012

This beautifully photographed book catalogs the collection of nearly five hundred Alutiiq cultural items held by the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, or the Kunstkamera, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Gathered between 1780 and 1867, many of the artifacts are composed of fur, feathers, gut, hair, and other delicate materials, which prevent their transport for display or study.

To document these artifacts for the public, the Kunstkamera collaborated with the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska. Together, anthropologists and members of the Alutiiq community combined the collection records with cultural knowledge and high-resolution digital imagery and worked to name objects, describe their uses, and detail the materials used in their construction. As a result, this book will provide the Alutiit, Alaskans, Russians, and the global community with lasting access to one of the oldest, most extensive ethnographic collections from the central Gulf of Alaska.

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Giinaquq Like a Face

Suqpiaq Masks of the Kodiak Archipelago

Edited by Sven D. Haakanson, Jr. and Amy F. Steffian

University of Alaska Press, 2009

Masks are an ancient tradition of the Alutiiq people on the southern coast of Alaska. Alutiiq artists carved the masks from wood or bark into images of ancestors, animal spirits, and other mythological forces; these extraordinary creations have been an essential tool for communicating with the spirit world and have played an important role in dances and hunting festivities for centuries. Giinaquq—Like a Face presents thirty-three full-color images of these fantastic and eye-catching masks, which have been preserved for more than a century as part of the Pinart Collection in a small French museum.

These masks, collected in 1871 by a young French scholar of indigenous cultures, are presented for the first time in their complete cultural context, celebrating the rich history of the Alutiiq people and their artistic traditions. In addition to the stunning photographs, Giinaquq—Like a Face includes an informative text in three languages—English, Alutiiq, and French—in order to provide a cross-cultural understanding of the masks’ traditional meaning and use.

This captivating and revealing book will be an essential resource for anyone interested in indigenous art and culture.

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