Supported by grants to Koniag from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
The Alutiiq Museum is home to the Koniag Cultural Library, a tribal library with resources documenting the Alutiiq world. Our collections include books, articles, photos, maps, archives, and more. Many of these materials are gifts from the personal libraries of Dr. Lydia Black and Dr. Donald Clark. Curator of Collections Amanda Lancaster, 844-425-8844, serves as our librarian and can assist with access to reference materials.
Lori Walker in the Koniag Cultural Library.
Visit the Library
The Koniag Cultural Library is open to the public by appointment during the museum’s regular business hours. To request an appointment, please complete the digital form linked below or request assistance finding a reference from Amanda Lancaster.
Medical ledger, ca. 1900. Gift of Donald Clark.
Library Materials
The library collection includes over 3,800 books, journals, article reprints, catalogs, conference papers, magazines, maps, newsletters, speeches, pamphlets, presentations, recordings, technical reports, transcripts, and unpublished manuscripts—both original and copied. We care for more than 200 linear feet of reference materials.
Ouzinkie boys on bikes, ca. 1940. Courtesy of Tim and Norman Smith.
Photographs
There are over 11,000 photographs in the library. We do not hold the copyright for these images. Some are pictures given to the museum or the library for reference purposes. Others are images of copyrighted or privately owned works, like pictures of artifacts in another museum. Library users can study these images, but they are not available for duplication. Many of these collections have finding aids to help users explore their contents.
Produced with support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Imaken Ima’ut
From the Past to the Future
SEVEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF ALUTIIQ HISTORY
More than seven thousand years ago, daring paddlers in skin-covered boats left the Alaska mainland to explore a cloud-shrouded island on the horizon. Braving windswept seas, they settled the Kodiak Archipelago and established the region’s Alutiiq/Sugpiaq culture. Imaken Ima’ut—From the Past to the Future tells their story.
This five-chapter book explores Kodiak Alutiiq history from the shaping of the Alutiiq homeland by glaciers to the growth of ancestral villages, the suppression of cultural traditions by Western settlers, and the cultural renaissance. Learn about the roots of Alutiiq culture, the forces that shaped Kodiak’s communities, and how an Alutiiq way of life continues.
Written by Alutiiq historians and Kodiak archaeologists with over two hundred images from the Alutiiq Museum’s collections.
Produced with support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Iqsani’s Trout Hook
Qanitiisa and her brother Iqsani are young, but they have important jobs at fish camp. There are salmon to carry, a fire to feed, plants to collect, and trash to dump. Follow these Alutiiq children as they help their parents with fall fishing and have lots of fun along the way.
While Qanitiisa and Iqsani are imagined, their world is real. Their story is set in an old Alutiiq fish camp on Kodiak’s Karluk River. Archaeologists studied the camp, and their finds provided clues about Alutiiq life three hundred years ago. Enjoy the story and then learn about the sod houses, artifacts, and animal remains that inspired it.