Alutiiq Word of the Week

Some of Kodiak’s most beautiful features are its rugged mountains. Carved by glacial ice over the past hundred thousand years, these mountains are a continuation of the Kenai Peninsula’s Chugach Range and part of the dramatic belt of coastal peaks that curve southward to Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. Kodiak’s mountains rise to altitudes of more than four thousand feet. They create a dramatic landscape. Throughout the archipelago, steep-sided valleys rise directly out of the ocean at the back of narrow coastal fjords.

Although Alutiiq people have always built their villages along the coast, Kodiak’s mountainous interior is economically, socially, and spiritually important. The mountains contain valuable resources. Here, people hunt bears and ptarmigan, pick plant foods, fill baskets with alpine berries, and even harvest wood. In the hills surrounding some communities, people cut alder branches, tie them in bundles, and roll the bundles downhill. The mountains are also avenues for travel. People once hiked up to ridge tops to follow trails across the island. Large cairns, stacks of stones piled along these ridges, may have been used as route markers.