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Storytelling

Lucille Davis and Valen Reft, 2006

Among societies without a written language, storytelling is an important way to record history and teach lessons. Events, accomplishments, values, spiritual beliefs, and even survival techniques are passed from generation to generation through people rather than books.

In the Alutiiq world, stories recount the pursuits of ancestors, explain unusual events, discuss the dangers of wandering far from home and provide examples of model behavior. Legends explain the cosmos–the origin of people, the stars, and the animals.

Unigkuat—Kodiak Alutiiq Legends

Produced with the support of the Munartet Project.

Action and mystery, long journeys and valuable lessons—these are the ingredients of Alutiiq legends. In a village terrified by an enormous octopus, people work together to kill the beast. A young man apprentices to a whaler and learns mysterious secrets about hunting the largest sea mammals. A community mistreats Raven and his grandmother, and the people die of starvation.

Unigkuat shares sixty-two traditional tales from Alaska’s Kodiak Archipelago, compiled from stories told by Alutiiq Elders over the past 150 years. In each legend, readers learn about the Alutiiq world—the origins of the moon and the sun, how animals can sometimes appear as people, the importance of respectful hunting, and most of all how generosity, bravery, and perseverance are essential to a happy and successful life.

Illustrated by thirty community artists.


Listen to Legends

Alutiiq community members share Alutiiq tales in this series of podcasts produced from the Unigkuat collection with support from the Kodiak Island Borough School District READ project.

Rainbow worm.  Drawing by Coral Klemzak, 2021.

The Girl Who Married the Moon

Once, long ago, when Alutiiq people lived in sod houses and paddled the world by kayak, a girl and her cousin fell in love with the moon.

This classic Alutiiq legend was the inspiration for a short film illustrated with artwork by Kodiak High School students, voice acting by Kodiak youth, Alutiiq vocabulary shared by Elders, narration by Sven Haakanson Jr., and animation by Alf Pryor.

Adapted from an Alutiiq story collected on Kodiak in 1903 by Frank Golder, with support from the First Nations Development Institute and the Kodiak Island Borough School District.