Looking Both Ways: Alutiiq Villages

LOOKING BOTH WAYS: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq People of Southern Alaska

Introduction
About the People
Alutiiq Villages
About this Project
Supplemental Reading

Object Categories
Ancestors
Our History
Our Way of Living
Our Beliefs
Our Family

Uganik (Uganút)

One of the earliest Russian maps of Kodiak Island, drawn in 1805 by Iurii Lisianskii, shows a village at the head of Uganik Bay on the west side of Kodiak Island. In 1838, 81 survivors of the smallpox epidemic at Uganik village moved to Karluk, leaving their homes behind.

In 1896, the Alaska Packers Association built a salmon cannery near the mouth of Uganik Bay, and families returned there from Karluk to build a new settlement. By 1901, Uganik had a Russian Orthodox church, an Alaska Commercial Company store, a U. S. government school, and 18 Alutiiq barabaras. The village closed down sometime between 1914 and 1920.

Alutiiq chief and his sons at Uganik, circa 1914. Courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum, McCubrey Collection, AM260:4.

Man standing outside his home at Uganik, circa 1906-1918. Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Cobb Collection, UW7559.

Man sitting with pet eagles at Uganik, circa 1914. The custom of taming eagles goes back at least 200 years in Kodiak Island villages. In 1805, Russian naval officer Lisianskii remarked that Alutiiq people had eagles in their houses as pets and used their feathers on hunting arrows. Courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum, McCubrey Collection, AM260:37.

Anton Charliaga and family at Uganik, circa 1914. Courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum, McCubrey Collection, AM260:5.

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