Local Culture

Present
Many local rural residents including Alaska Native People (Aleut, Alutiiq, Athabascan Indian and Yup’ik Eskimo), depend on Refuge resources to subsistence hunt, fish, trap and gather wild plants and berries. Native customs and traditions call for using all parts of these gifts from nature, not wasting anything that is gathered. Please respect the beliefs and customs of local people as you visit Refuge lands.

Past
Several researchers believe that Eskimo culture, reflected by their distinctive open-water maritime hunting tradition, had its origins along the Pacific Coast of the Alaska Peninsula and in the eastern Aleutians and Kodiak. The peopling of the New World, the origins of Eskimo culture and the origins of human adaptations to the rich marine environments of the North Pacific Ocean are all of critical importance in arctic anthropology. The earliest human occupation known on the Peninsula, the American Paleo-arctic tradition, dates to as early as 10,500 years ago. Though the earliest manifestations are those of mobile caribou hunters, at Ugashik Narrows among other sites, people soon gravitated towards the coasts and began hunting seals and sea lions. By eight thousand years ago Paleo-arctic tradition people were living in Kodiak and on islands in the eastern Aleutians.

By 6,000 years ago this coastal focus had evolved into the Ocean Bay and early Aleutian traditions. Ocean Bay people developed many of the characteristics associated with Eskimo culture including stone lamps for burning sea mammal oil, polished slate tools and an elaborate bone tool technology. The economy was based on exploitation of sea mammals, birds, and marine fish resources.

Although the coast of the Bering and Chukchi seas were occupied as early as the Alaska Peninsula, these areas, often considered the heartland of Eskimo Culture, did not exhibit a maritime adaptation until much later. Northern Archaic (4600-2900 BC) and Arctic Small Tool tradition (3100-1000 BC) people were primarily hunters of land animals although both did exploit coastal resources occasionally. The earliest maritime adaptation on the Chukchi and Bering Sea coast is Old Whaling (1400 BC) on Cape Kruzenstern which shows technological affinities to the Eastern Aleutians, Alaska Peninsula, and Kodiak cultures and may represent an expansion of these people to new regions.

Last updated: April 30, 2008
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