We reexplore the historical development, culture, and facts about the Aleut Tribe.
As they are traditionally called, the Aleuts (Unangan, Unangax, or Unangax) are the native people of the Aleutian islands of Alaska, Kamchatka Oblast, Russia, and the United States.
The Aleut people are kindred to the Inuit and Yupik people.
The homeland of this tribe extends from the Aleutian Islands, the Pribilof Islands, and the Shumagin Islands to the far western part of the Alaskan Peninsula.
Aleut Tribe History
Before Russian Contact
The Aleut (pronounced al-ee-oot) tribe got their name from the Russian fur traders during the Russian fur trade era in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Their first name was Unangan, meaning “coaster people.”
The Unangan trace their permanent settlement to about 8 millenniums ago in the Aleutian archipelago, which stretches over 1,300 miles between Alaska and Siberia.
However, their exact origins (Siberia or Subarctic) are not certain, but it is mostly believed that they arrived later than the more southern tribes, around 4,000 years ago.
Two cultures evolved: the Kodiak (circa 2,500 B.C.E) and the Aleutian (circa 2,000 B.C.E).
The Aleut people were skilled at hunting and living in harsh environments, making them valuable and later exploited by Russian fur traders after they arrived in 1750.
The Russian Orthodox missionaries named the austere environment “the place that God forgot.”
After Russian Contact – Present day
Less than fifty years after Russian contact, the population of the Aleut tribe was about 12,000 to 15,000 people.
Towards the end of the twentieth century, it was about 2,000. Eighty percent of the Aleut population died through revolt and European diseases, against which they had no protection.
There was, however, a counteractive force that came from the missionary work of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The clergies, who were educated men, took great care in preserving the lifestyle and language of the indigenous people of Alaska.
Amongst the earliest Christian martyrs in North America was Saint Peter of Aleut
The fur trade first eradicated the sea otter and then concentrated on the massive exploitation of fur seals. Aleutian men were moved to locations where they were needed periodically.
The Pribilof Islands became the main place where seals were harvested en masse.
The Aleut tribe lived well during this period as Russian citizens but immediately lost status after the American leverage of Alaska in 1867.
Sadly, the Aleuts lost their rights and suffered injustices.
In 1942, Japanese forces preoccupied Attu and Kiska Islands in the western Aleutians and later moved captive Attu Islanders to Hokkaidō, where they were kept as POWs.
A hundred more Aleuts from the western circle and the Pribilofs were vacated by the United States government during the second world war and positioned in internment camps in southeast Alaska, where multiple died.
The Aleut were not American citizens, not until the mid-1960s.
The United States government, in 1983, eliminated all financial allocations to the inhabitants of the Pribilofs. Congress approved a trust fund of 20 million dollars to initiate alternative sources of income such as fishing.
They attested very successfully as the Pribilofs became a major point for international fishing vessels and processing plants.
The Aleut Restitution Act of 1988 was a move by Congress to compensate survivors of internment camps.
However, the impact of environmental changes by the late 1990s began to cast shadows over the economy of the North Sea region.
Aleut Tribe Culture
Settlement
The Aleut Tribe was located by the coast, usually at the bays with fresh water around to ensure a good salmon stream.
They also prefer locations with an aerial lookout and an escape route for contingency.
They constructed “barabaras” or ulax, partially underground houses which keep them from unfavorable weather.
The roof of the house was generally fabricated from sod layered over a frame of whalebone or wood and contained a roof doorway for entry.
The entrance usually had a small wind envelope to stop the cold wind, snow, or wind from entering the main room and cooling it off.
There was usually a little hole in the ceiling from which the smoke from the fire weaseled out.
Food
The Aleut got their food from fishing, hunting, and gathering.
Walrus, seals, salmon, whale, crabs, shellfish, crabs, and cod were all captured and dried, smoked, or roasted.
Moose, deer, caribou, and other game types were preserved or eaten roasted. Alutiqqutigaq, a mixture of berries, fat, and fish, were made, or the berries were dried.
The Aleut made use of skin-covered kayaks to hunt down marine mammals.
They also used available materials, such as driftwood and stone, to craft tools and weapons.
Social structure
Before Russian contact, the Aleut society was a ranked system of heredity groups.
There were positions comparable to commoners, nobles, and enslaved people in the western world.
The highest position was allocated distinctive places in the longhouse and burial sites.
The east was exceptional as where the creator, Agugux, dwelled, and this was the preferred place to be located.
Religion
The Aleut men extolled creatures of the sea and honored them through the ornamentation on their hunting costumes.
Hunting was the backbone of the Aleut people.
Animals were revered and considered to have souls. Rituals were often performed to release the hunted animal’s soul.
Infants were named after someone who had died so the deceased could live on in the child.
They also believed in the soul going to a and in the sky or sea.
Wooden masks of animals were usually used in ritual dances and storytelling.
The Aleut tribe had shamans that could go into a trance and receive messages from spirits to help with healing or hunting.
These shamans could also perpetrate evil actions against others.
Sea Woman (Sedna), in charge of sea animals; Aningaaq, in charge of the sun; and Sila, in charge of the air, were important deities.
Clothing
The Aleut Tribe dwells in one of the harshest parts of the world.
Both men and women wore kamleika, which came down below the knees to provide proper protection.
The kamleika worn by the women were made from the skin of sea otters or seals, while those worn by the men had bird skin that had feathers inside and out, depending on the weather.
When hunting on the water, they wore waterproof hooded kamleika made from seal guts or the entrails of walruses, bears, and whales.
On the other hand, children wore kamleika made of downy eagle skin with tanned bird skin caps.
A kamleika took a year to make and would remain for two years with proper care.
All kamleikas were laced with bird feathers, beard bristles of sea lion and seal, beaks of sea parrots, bird claws, sea otter fur, dyed leather, and caribouhair sewn in the seams.
Colored thread made from the spines of different animals and fish guts was also used for decoration.
The threads were speckled with different colors using vermilion paint, hematite, the octopus’s ink bag, and grasses’ roots.
Aleut Tribe Facts
1. Aleut tribe in the United States do not have reservations.
Like many Alaskan Natives, they live in Native villages instead.
These villages are independent of one another, but they have formed a coalition called the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association which handles tribal government and management in the interest of all Aleut villages.
2. Nearly all Aleutians speak English today, but some, especially elders, also speak their native Aleut language.
The Aleut language is a complicated language with many sounds that do not exist in English.
3. Aleutians did not build igloos like their relatives, the Inuit.
They lived in earth houses called barabaras or ulax.
An Aleut barabaras is made by digging an underground pit, erecting a frame of wood and whalebone over it, covering the frame with grass mats, and then packing the entire structure in layers of earth to insulate it. The
Aleut barabaras were partially underground and were larger than they appeared.
Some were more than 150 feet long.
Typically, these barabaras had multiple rooms, and each one provided shelter to many families from the same clan.
Conclusion
As of today, most Aleuts Unangan people live a subsistence lifestyle. These include fishing, gathering berries, and hunting.
In the summer, many Aleut families harvest traditional foods and preserve them for the winter.
A revival of interest in the Aleut tribe way of life has been initiated.
Leaders have contributed to helping the Aleut youth understand their historical connection with the environment and seek ways to work on behalf of the environment for the future.
