Dictionary:
A·leut (ə-lūt', ăl'ē-ūt')  |
[Russian.]
| 5min Related Video: Aleut |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Aleut |
For more information on Aleut, visit Britannica.com.
| US History Encyclopedia: Aleut |
The Aleuts (from the Russian word Aleuty) consist of Near Island Aleuts, Kodiak Island Alutiiq (or Sugpiak, the "real people"), and Unangan Inuit (including some Dillingham Yupik and Cook Island Athabascans). They are indigenous to southwest Alaska, from Prince William Sound in the east, across the Alaska Peninsula, and extending west through the Aleutian Islands. They traditionally speak the Aleutic language, which has common roots in Proto-Eskimo-Aleut with the Inuit languages spoken throughout arctic Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia. Historically their societies consisted of hereditary common, slave, and noble (from whom the leaders were chosen) classes. Men tended to hold positions of political power, while women retained power and influence as shamans and healers, and it is speculated that elite family lines were matriarchal. Living in partly subterranean sod houses, they built relatively populous settlements, and had an economy based on hunting sea mammals, including whales. They rarely ventured inland, but traded along the Alaskan coasts, and seem to have traveled regularly throughout the North Pacific, including coastal Siberia, possibly for more than ten millennia.
In 1741 the Aleuts came into contact with Europeans following the arrival of a Russian expedition led by the
Dane Vitus Bering, who estimated their population to be 20,000 to 25,000. Immediately the Russians enslaved them largely for their ability to hunt sea otters. The early Rus-sian fur hunters exhausted the resources of each place they landed, leaving after massacring villages and devastating wildlife populations; by 1825 the Aleut population was below 1,500. Many Aleuts were converted to the Russian Orthodox Church, which remained a dominant influence after the American purchase of Alaska in 1867.
In 1971 Congress passed the Alaska Native Settlement Claims Act (ANSCA) as a way of returning 40 million acres of land to Alaskan Natives and creating an infrastructure for economic development and the management of natural resources. While the political pursuit of ANSCA united Native people throughout Alaska, its passage caused the 23,797 Aleuts (according to the 1990 U.S. Census) and their traditional homelands to be divided among five Native corporations: Aleut Corporation, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, Chugach Alaska Corporation, Cook Inlet Region Incorporated, and Koniag Incorporated.
Bibliography
Crowell, Aron L., Amy F. Steffian, and Gordon L. Pullar, eds. Looking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Altuiiq People. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2001.
Fortescue, Michael, Steven Jacobson, and Lawrence Kaplan. Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates. Fair-banks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, 1994.
—Jefferson Faye Sina
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Aleut |
Bibliography
See V. I. Jochelson, The History, Ethnology and Anthropology of the Aleut (1933, repr. 1966); R. Ackerman, Ethnohistory in Southwestern Alaska and the Southern Yukon (1970); W. S. Laughlin, Aleuts (1981).
| Wikipedia: Aleut |
 Traditional Aleut dress |
||||||
| Total population | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17,000 to 18,000 | ||||||
| Regions with significant populations | ||||||
|
||||||
| Languages | ||||||
| Religion | ||||||
| Related ethnic groups | ||||||
The Aleuts (self-denomination from Aleut language allíthuh 'community'[2]; older or regional self-denomination Unangax̂, Unangan or Unanga 'coastal people') are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, United States and Kamchatka Krai, Russia.
The name Aleut was given to the Unangan by Russian fur traders in the mid 18th century.[3]
Contents |
The homeland of the Aleuts includes the Aleutian Islands, the Pribilof Islands, the Shumagin Islands, and the far western part of the Alaska Peninsula. During the 19th century, the Aleuts were deported from the Aleutian Islands to the Commander Islands (now part of Kamchatka Krai) by the Russian-American Company.
After the arrival of missionaries in the late 18th century, many Aleuts became Christian by joining the Russian Orthodox Church. One of the earliest Christian martyrs in North America was Saint Peter the Aleut.
In 18th century, Russian furriers established settlements on the islands and exploited the people. (See Early history)
There was a recorded revolt against Russian workers in Amchitka in 1784. It started from the exhaustion of necessities that the Russians provided to local people in return for furs they had made. (See: Aleuts' revolt)
In 1811, Aleuts went to San Nicolas to hunt seal. There was argument over paying the Nicoleño for being allowed to hunt on their island, a battle began, and almost all of the native men were killed. By 1853, only one native was left. (See Island of the Blue Dolphins.)
Prior to major influence from outside, there were approximately 25,000 Aleuts on the archipelago. Barbarities by outside corporations and foreign diseases soon reduced the population to less than one-tenth this number, The 1910 Census count showed 1,491 Aleuts. In the 2000 Census, 11,941 people reported they were of Aleut ancestry; nearly 17,000 said Aleuts were among their ancestors.[4] Alaskans generally recognize the Russian occupation left no full-blooded Aleuts. When Alaska Natives enrolled in their regional corporations under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971(ANCSA), the Aleut Corporation attracted only about 2,000 enrolees who could prove a blood quantum of 1/4 or more Alaska Native (including Aleut).
In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces occupied Attu and Kiska Islands in the western Aleutians, and later transported captive Attu Islanders to Hokkaidō, where they were held as prisoners of war. Hundreds more Aleuts from the western chain and the Pribilofs were evacuated by the United States government during WW2 and placed in internment camps in southeast Alaska, where many died. The Aleut Restitution Act of 1988 was an attempt by Congress to compensate the survivors.
The World War II campaign to retake Attu and Kiska was a significant component of the operations of the Asian theater.
Aleuts constructed partially underground houses called Barabara. According to Lillie McGarvey, a 20th-century Aleut leader, barabaras keep "occupants dry from the frequent rains, warm at all times, and snugly sheltered from the high winds common to the area". First a rectangular pit was dug. Then it was covered with logs and poles and then sealed by earth and moss. Inside there would be benches along the side with the hearth in the middle. The bedrooms were at the back of the lodge.
Traditional arts of the Aleuts include hunting, weapon-making, building of baidarkas (special hunting boats), and weaving. 19th century craftsmen were famed for their ornate wooden hunting huts, which feature elaborate and colorful designs and may be trimmed with sea lion whiskers, feathers, and ivory. Aleut seamstresses created finely stitched waterproof parkas from seal gut, and some women still master the skill of weaving fine baskets from rye and beach grass.
Aleut basketry is some of the finest in the world, and the tradition began in prehistoric times. Early Aleut women created baskets and woven mats of exceptional technical quality using only an elongated and sharpened thumbnail as a tool. Today, Aleut weavers continue to produce woven pieces of a remarkable cloth-like texture, works of modern art with roots in ancient tradition. The Aleut term for grass basket is qiigam aygaaxsii.
Fishing, hunting and gathering were the only way aleuts could find food. Salmon, seal, walrus, crabs, shellfish, cod were all caught and dried, smoked or roasted. Caribou, musk oxen, deer, moose, whale and other types of game were eaten roasted or preserved. Berries were often whipped into alutiqqutigaq, which was a mixture of berries, fat and fish, or dried. The skin and blubber from the whale which was boiled was a delicacy and so was walrus. These days aleuts eat their traditional food but also with the new processed foods the outside world brought in.
Traditional aleut clothing for the men was a seal skin kamleika (long robe) often embroidered with wool and beach rye for aristocrats. The kamleika often had a hood and boots made of caribou hide were worn as foot wear. The famous aleut visor was only worn outside in cold weather or in dances. When going outside to hunt, fish or kayak the men would wear and extra waterproof seal, walrus or fish skin robe. Men kept their hair short while the women kept theirs long or in a styled braid, they often wore a long buckskin robe like the men but with pointed ends and baggy trousers under them. They also wore boots and donned shell necklaces which the Europeans and Russian explorers marvelled at.
Harpoons, spears, bows and arrows, paddle clubs were all made by the aleuts. Harpoons were made by sticking a thinner piece of wood in a hollow pole and connecting it sinew. This was often used in whaling but also in hunting the same way spears were used. Bows were curved, which in a way, looked like the Mongol bow. It was painted black and strung with sinew. Paddle clubs were kayak paddles which could be folded and made into a simple but deadly club much like the northwestern Indians like the haida and tsimshian.
While English and Russian are the dominant languages used by Aleuts living in the US and Russia respectively, the Aleut language is still spoken by several hundred people. The language belongs to the Eskimo-Aleut language family and includes three dialect groupings: Eastern Aleut, spoken on the Eastern Aleutian, Shumagin, Fox and Pribilof islands; Atkan, spoken on Atka and Bering islands; and the now extinct Attuan dialect. The Pribilof Islands boast the highest number of active speakers of Aleutian.
In Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, the character Raven is an Aleut harpooner seeking revenge for the US's nuclear testing on Amchitka.
The Aleut tribes are also the subject of the Sue Harrison's Ivory Carver Trilogy that includes Mother Earth Father Sky, My Sister the Moon, and Brother Wind.
Aleuts are the subject of Irving Warner's 2007 historical novel about the Attuans held as prisoners of war in Japan, The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith.
Dana Stabenow has published a series of mystery novels set in Alaska, U.S.A., the main character/ detective of which is an Aleut woman named Kate Shugak.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
 | Alaska |
| Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act |
| Aleutian (Aleut) |
 | What plate are the Aleution Islands on? Read answer... |
| Where do aleut live location? Read answer... |
| How did aleuts get their name? Read answer... |
 | What is aleut word for grizzly bear? |
| Where did the Inuit and Aleuts inhabit? |
| What utensils did the Aleuts use? |
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Aleut". Read more |
Mentioned in
