Amutat—Things to Pull
As a young man, Peter Paul Naumoff used this paddle to travel from Kodiak to Fort Ross, California in search of an education. He was put to work making bricks for the fort. Three years later he paddled back and settled in Afognak. Gift of Olga Rowland and Alisha Drabek—descendants of Peter Paul Naumoff, AM668.
The Amutat database helps people connect to Alutiiq cultural treasures. Amutat is the Alutiiq word for cod and it means “things to pull”. We chose this name because the database pulls together items from many collections. It creates a central place to view Alutiiq objects. The database will continue to grow as we locate and document ancestral items.
To learn more about the Amutat project, or to share information about an Alutiiq object or collection, please contact Amanda Lancaster, 844-425-8844. Produced with support from the Suna’q Tribe of Kodiak, Tangirnaq Native Village, and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Chelsea Dallal and Leona Haakanson-Crow study a nineteenth-century beaded headdress loaned to the Alutiiq Museum by the Musée Bolougne-Sur-Mer, France.
Alutiiq Objects in Museums
For more than two centuries, visitors to Kodiak collected our ancestors’ tools, clothing, and artwork and took them to distant places. People from Russia, Finland, England, France, and many parts of the United States bought, commissioned, and collected Alutiiq objects. For some, the objects were curios—souvenirs of an exotic place and culture. Others collected objects to document Alutiiq lifeways and preserve pieces of what they saw as a threatened culture. Many of these objects ended up in museums. Today, our ancestors’ tools offer a chance to learn about Alutiiq history and traditions. They support cultural education, provide inspiration for contemporary artwork, and promote cultural pride.
Wooden kayak prow. Gift of Gene and Phyllis Sundberg, AM51.
What is Included
The database highlights Alutiiq traditions of design, manufacture, materials use, and decoration. All objects included in the database are:
- from the Alutiiq world – geographically, or by direct association with an Alutiiq person;
- an example of Alutiiq manufacture;
- made by an Alutiiq person; and
- ethnographic—collected from people. The database does not include archaeological materials or contemporary art.