The Alutiiq Museum extends its best wishes to Elder
John Pestrikoff in honor of his 100th Fondly known as JP, Mr. Pestrikoff was
born in 1910. He grew up in Afognak village, living there until 1964
when tsunamis generated by the Great Alaska Earthquake severely damaged the
town. Pestrikoff and his late wife
Julia moved to Port Lions, where he has lived since. Birthday.
John is best known for his expansive knowledge of Alutiiq traditions,
living off the land, and languages.
He speaks three languages fluently. Russian was his first language. As a young person he spoke Russian at home and in
church. He learned to speak English
in school, before completing the third grade. He learned Alutiiq from the children he played with and the
adults he listened to during hunting trips. As an Elder, John has been a valuable participant in the
Alutiiq Museum’s language program, teaching Alutiiq to the next
generation. We thank John for his
generosity in sharing the Alutiiq language and culture and wish him a very
happy birthday.
Cultural
knowledge keeps us strong. This is
one message that Alutiiq artist Lena Amason-Berns shares in a new short film
created by Kodiak High School students.
The film, “Behind the Scenes, The Girl Who Married the Moon,” explores
the Alutiiq Museum’s PatRiitat P’tasqat - Motion Pictures project.
Created
with support from the First Nations Development Institute and the Kodiak Island
Borough School District, the PatRiitat
P’tasqat project revolves around a
Kodiak Alutiiq legend collected and published in 1903 by F.A. Golder. The legend tells of a girl who falls in
love with he moon, but experiences loneliness when she marries him and moves to
his home in the sky-world.
Sven Haakanson and Mark Rusk make a petroglyph rubbing.
How old are the Cape Alitak
petroglyphs? How many images did Alutiiq people peck into stone?
What messages do these images hold? These are a few of the
questions that Alutiiq Museum archaeologists set out to explore during a
two-week survey of Cape Alitak last May.
With a grant from the National Park Service Tribal Historic Preservation
program Sven Haakanson, Patrick Saltonstall, Mark Rusk, and Jill Lipka teamed
up to complete the first comprehensive review of the Cape. For a century,
people have been writing about the remarkable images carved in Alitak’s
bedrock, yet documentation of the glyphs is scant.
“I’ve had the opportunity to visit the glyph sites a number of times,” said
Haakanson, “but not to do the formal mapping needed to record them. With
this grant, I was able to take a team of archaeologists to Alitak to
systematically document each site.”
Isaiah Simeonoff with a Tlingit box for cooking fish.
Cultural information can be preserved in some of
the most unexpected places. That’s
what a group of Kodiak Alutiiq Elders, adults, and youth discovered on a recent
trip to Sitka. Centuries of
cultural suppression interrupted the creation and transmission of traditional
Alutiiq music. Like clothing or
dances, Alutiiq songs are rare.
Yet for decades the Kiks.ádi Tlingit clan has been singing in
Alutiiq! In an act of great
generosity, the clan decided to return these songs as part of a local historic
celebration. An America’s
Best Ideas grant from the National Park Foundation helped them do it.
Sven Haakanson in Poison Cove wearing a ravenstail robe by Tlingit weaver Teri Rofkar.
You might guess that Southeast Alaska’s Peril
Strait is named for local hazards, that boat gouging reefs or dangerous tides
earned this misty fjord its forbidding name. Places are often titled for their remarkable
characteristics. In this case,
however, Peril refers to a long remembered historic event, a tragedy tied to
Alutiiq history.
In the fall of 1799, a large group of Alutiiq
hunters paddling home from Sitka stopped along the shores of Peril Strait to
rest. With food stores low in
Sitka, Russian traders sent the men back to Kodiak for the winter. Hungry, they gathered and ate mussels
from the beach. Hours later more
than half of the men died, killed by paralytic shellfish poisoning. More than 150 people perished.
Last June, Sven Haakanson, Melissa Berns, and a
group of Kodiak Elders and youth returned to Peril Strait to pay their
respects. Guest of the
Tlingit people, they went to remember the Alutiiqs who lost their lives so far
from home and to better understand this somber event in the Alutiiq past. Over the years, misunderstandings
crept into the Peril Strait story, with some suggesting that Tlingits poisoned
the Alutiiq party. Alutiiqs
had been forced to serve Russian commander Alexander Baranov in establishing
Old Sitka, on Tlingit territory.
Both Native societies were under stress, and relations between them were
strained.
Have you ever wondered how to make an ulu? Did you know that Kodiak's Alutiiq people once herded reindeer? Would you like to learn the rules to some Alutiiq games? The information is all in the Alutiiq Traditions booklet, a set of the Alutiiq Museum's most popular educational handouts and exhibit brochures.
This second edition of the museum's lesson series is revised, reformatted, and updated. There are new and expanded lessons that reflect recent archaeological finds, current cultural research, and changes in the spelling of the Alutiiq language
Written for a general audience and designed for use in Kodiak's schools, this publication was produced with support from the Kodiak Island Borough School District and the Alutiiq Heritage Foundation. It is a 48 page paperback featuring lessons on everything from petroglyphs and sod houses to the Alutiiq language, hunting practices, clothing and spiritual life.
The Kodiak Island Borough School District will distribute 500 copies of Alutiiq Traditions to local schools. The public may purchase copies for $10 at the Alutiiq Museum or through the museum's online store. Quyanaa to Qik'rtarmiut Alutiit Regional Advisory Committee and the Native Education Curriculum Committee who reviewed the publication and provided helpful comments.
For more information please contact Museum Store Manager
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, 907-486-7004, x21.
Latest News 
Have you ever wondered how to make an ulu? Did you know that Kodiak's Alutiiq people once herded reindeer? Would you like to learn the rules to some Alutiiq games? The information is all in the Alutiiq Traditions booklet, a set of the Alutiiq Museum's most popular educational handouts and exhibit brochures.