A Parka in Pieces

Two caribou skins are making their way around Kodiak, traveling to rural schools as part of the New Sewers’ Club.  These hides are the raw material for a child’s sized parka that is literally stitching the island together. Students across the archipelago are making the garment as part of an effort to awaken skin sewing in artists of all ages.

At each school, master sewer Susan Malutin provides instruction, teaching students to sew leather and create a decorated bag.  While they work, students also take turns adding stitches to the parka, which will become part of the museum’s collection. Akhiok students sewed the neck. Larsen Bay student added the front and back panels. Old Harbor, students sewed on the sleeves.  Port Lions and Ouzinkie students stitched the sides together.  The final step will be decoration, an intensive process scheduled for a weekly sewing circle starting in September.

Archaeology is an imprecise science.  Setting out to find something doesn’t mean that it is actually there to find! Museum Curator Patrick Saltonstall was reminded of this fact last October, during a survey of the Buskin River valley.

With funding from the Sun’aq tribe, Saltonstall and museum staffer Jill Lipka completed five days of investigation along the shores of Buskin lake and river.  Alutiiq people settled the banks of Kodiak’s resource rich salmon streams, including those of the Buskin.  A few sites were known in the drainage, but archaeologists had never reviewed the area thoroughly.  The Sun’aq Tribe wanted to correct this situation to insure the protection of ancestral settlements.

“We walked areas that had never been reviewed,” said Saltonstall.  “We examined eroding banks and areas disturbed by construction to look for buried materials.  We dug test pits in likely site locations.  We thought there would be additional sites, but we didn’t find any.”

Why?  Saltonstall believes that the answers lie in how Alutiiq people used the valley and not the disturbances of the past century. 

Butter, sugar, flour, and eggs, and a host of secret additions, were the ingredients for the Alutiiq Museum’s first ever Kulich-off, a baking challenge featuring Easter bread.  The contest was part of a grand reopening celebration held to mark the successful renovation of the museum’s gallery. More than 200 visitors enjoyed new exhibits, door prizes, and a taste of lovingly crafted Kulich at this April event.

Kulich is dense, sweet bread eaten by the Orthodox faithful to break the fasting of Lent. Chefs often bake the yeast-risen dough in coffee cans, creating tall loaves said to resemble the domed spires of Russian Orthodox churches.

Seven Kodiak contestants entered Kulich creations in the museum’s competition.  A panel of community judges scored the entries in a blind review considering taste, aroma, appearance, texture, and creativity. Jolene Eluska took home the First Place prize for her tender, tasty loaf, but her recipe remains a secret! Kulich baking is an art passed down in families and like smoked salmon or perok (fish pie), many people have a special way of making this favorite food.

Jolene Eluska, First Place
Winner of an ERA Aviation round trip ticket from Kodiak to Anchorage

Miles / Wolkoff  / Madrid girls, Second Place
Winner of leather petroglyph bag by Lazy M Leather

Damian Madrid (5 years old), Third Place
Winner of a Norman’s Fine Gifts Easter Basket

Imagine your living room.  Now think of what it would look like if 8,000 people visited every year . . . for 18 years!   Can you see the stains in the carpet, the scuffmarks on the walls?  The Alutiiq Museum has been a community gathering place for nearly two decades, and despite careful maintenance our public space is showing its age.

Just like a home, museums need maintenance.  In some cases, a museum gallery may need even more TLC that your living room.  “Every years we hang many things in our gallery – from heavy cases to framed photographs and works of art,” said Exhibits Coordinator Jill Lipka. “That results in a lot of holes in the walls, and a lot of patching and painting.  At a certain point we just need an entirely fresh start.”

With generous support from the Rasmuson Foundation, Royal Dutch Shell Oil, and Native of Kodiak, Inc., that fresh start is underway.  The Alutiiq Museums’ gallery is getting a facelift.   The project began in early January and will be completed by April 2nd.  In addition to a clean coat of paint, the gallery will receive new carpeting and partition walls with electrical outlets.

It has been difficult for students to learn to write in the Alutiiq language.  With a new book published by the Alutiiq Museum, the process just became easier.  Released in January 2013, The Alutiiq Orthography: Kodiak Dialect is a 100-page paperback written by linguists April Laktonen Counceller and Jeff Leer.

This informative volume shares all the rules for Alutiiq writing, compiled with the assistance of a team of Kodiak Alutiiq Elders.  The publication brings together all of the rules in a single resource and aligns the Kodiak Alutiiq writing system with that used by Prince William Sound's Alutiiq speakers.

The book covers everything from the Alutiiq Alphabet, to the use of vowels and consonants, syllables, apostrophes and hyphens, loan words from Russian, and much more. It was designed and edited by Alutiiq speaker Alisha Drabek and includes black and white photos of recent language projects and gatherings. There are also helpful appendices; a glossary, an index, a language map, and a list of references.

This resource is the result of a two-year project funded by the National Science Foundation, with additional support from Chugachmiut, Inc., the Alutiiq Heritage Foundation, Kodiak College, Alutiiq Language Club, the Alaska Native Language Center, and Alaska Native Language Archive at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Copies of The Alutiiq Orthography are available for free.  People interested in the Alutiiq writing system can stop by the museum to pick up a copy or download an electronic copy below.

Alutiiq Orthography Download