The Alutiiq
Museum's staff conducts research on many aspects of Alutiiq heritage.
We study Alutiiq collections in museum's around the world,
lead archaeological field work, conduct oral history interviews, and
document the Alutiiq language. Here are some examples of recent and
on-going research projects.
AlitakPetroglyphSurvey
Despite their enormous popularity, Kodiak's petroglyphs have never
been systematically documented. Alutiiq Museum Executive Director
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is working to accomplish this massive task. For the past seven years, he
has enlisted the help of Akhiok residents to locate and document
petroglyphs around Cape Alitak. The Alitak glyphs are the largest
cluster of stationary rock art in the Kodiak region, with over 700
images pecked into shoreline bolders. This is critical work, as the
glyphs are fading with time.
Alutiiq Collections Surveys
In the ninetenth century, American and European traders collected
Alutiiq objects, sending items to
museums around the world. There are pieces of Alutiiq heritage stored
in places like New England, California, Russia, France, Great Brittian, Finland,
and Germany. Alutiiq Museum Executive Director
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is working to reunite Alutiiq people with these pieces. By
traveling to distant museums and documenting Alutiiq objects, he is
bringing information home and forming friendships so that items can one
day travel to Kodiak. His photos and notes provide information for
museum exhibits and programs, inspiration for artists, and a sense of
pride for all Alutiiqs.
LEARN MORE: You can visit Alutiiq masks from France's Pinart collection at the Giinaquq - Like A Face on line exhibition.
Site Stewardship Program
Archaeological sites are a non-renewable resource. Once disturbed, the information they hold is lost forever. Since 1998,
museum archaeologists have partnered with the US Fish & Wildlife
Service to document the condition of archaeological sites in the Kodiak
National Wildlife Refuge. With the help of 46 volunteer families, our
team has evaluated 407 sites through 805 individual site visits. This
represents nearly 47% of all the known sites in the archipelago! More
importantly, monitoring by stewards and public education by the museum
have slowed the rate of destrictive, illegal site vandalism.
Contact curator
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, 907-486-7004, x23, to volunteer with the stewardhip team.
Quyanaa to our 2009 Site Stewards Suzanne Abraham, Bill Barker, Eva Holm, Betsey Myrick, Adelia Myrick, Susan Payne & Don Dumm, Sid Omlid, Richard Saltonstall, Leigh Thomet, Mark Withrow, and Jack Withrow.
Womens Bay Archaeological Project
Archaeological sites are like books, each one has a unique story to
tell. By studying many sites in the same region, Alutiiq Museum
archaeologists
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and
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are gaining a fuller picture of prehistoric life. They are building a
library of information for one area. Their research focuses on Womens
Bay, and arm of larger Chiniak Bay. Here they have been excavating
sites that span Kodiak's 7,500 year's of human history to better
understand the development of settlement village life. When did
Alutiiqs begin to live in permanent houses? When did they begin to
store great quantities of food for the winter?
Since 1997, the archaeologists have excavated samples
from six sites in different environments within the bay - working at
the Blisky site on Near Island, the Outlet and Array sites on the Buskin River, Zaimka Mound and
Mikt’sqaaq Angayuk
at the bay mouth, and Salonie Mound and Bruhn Point in the inner bay.
Volunteers, students and interns participate in the resarch as part of the museum's Community Archaeology Program.
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