Aleut Grammar

Introduction — Aleut Grammar — 1

0. Introduction

0. 1 . Historical survey

The documented history of the Aleuts, in their own language Unangan, in
the dialect of Atka Unangas, begins with die <:cMiquest of Attu, the westenimost of
the Aleutian Islands, by Russian fiir traders in 1745. Forty years later the Russian
traders dominated the entire chain of islands and a large part of the Alaska Peninsula
(in Aleut Alaxsxa, the origin of the name Alaska), including parts of the territory of
the Pacific Eskimos called by the Aleuts Kanaagin, in Atkan Kanaagis, K(mi^s.
The Russians called all these people Aleuts, Russian plural Aleuty, a name report-
edly transferred in 1745 by pilot Nevodchikov from the name of islands near
Kamchatka (article XVUI of the instructions for the Billings expedition 1785 in
Sarychev 1802 and Sauer 1802, Appendix p. 45), cf. the Koryak village Alut, in
Russian Olyutorskoye (further references in Bergsland 1959:11; Lantis
1984:183).

The border between the Unangan and the Kanaagin on the P^ific coast
according to Veniaminov (1840 1:231 / 1984:116) was Kupreanof Cape, in Aleut
Alaxsxim Yaga 'Alaska Cape' or Yaagam Yaganaa Tree Cape' (1910, J 17:24),
about 1060 nautical miles east of Attu. On the north coast of the peninsula the bor-
der was in the region of Port Moller.

At the time of the Russian conquest there were probably more than two
hundred Aleut settiements or villages (tanadgusin, tanadgusis) along the coasts of
the Alaska Peninsula and the larger Aleutian Islmids. According to Russian sources
from the period 1768-1840 and some later information <references in Bergsland
1959: 1 1-14), the pec^le were divided into the following eight groups (the names are
given here in the modem orthography):

(1) Qagaan Tayagungin Teopie of the East' (at least thirty-four settle-
ments): the people of (a) the Alaska Peninsula (Alaxsxa); (b) the Shumagin Islands
(Qagiigun); (c) Sanak Island (Sanaiagin pi. Samwell 1778) and the islets north of
it (Qutxin); and (d) Unimak Island (Unimax) (acceding to Veniaminov 1840 11:2 a
separate group, pi. Unimgi[i]n).

(2) Qigiigun *Near-Eastemers' (some forty settlements): the people of the
eastern part of the Fox Islands, viz. the Krenitzin Islands - Ugamak (Uganga^),
Tigalda (Qigalga), Avatanak (Awatanai^), Akun (Akungan), Akutan (Akutanai),
Unalga (Unalga) - and the eastern part of Unaiaska Island (Nawan-Alaxsxa, Nagun-
Alaxsxa, Awan-Alaxsxa, Agun-Alaxsxa), from Sedanka Island (Sidaanai) through
Wislow Point (Tachiqala) northwest of the modem UnalaskaViilage<so Veniaminov
1840 n:3 and H. McGlashan of Akutan to G.H. Marsh 1952).

(3) Qawalangin [qawa- *east, east side'] (at least twenty-eight settlements):
the people of the western part of the Fox Islands, viz. the western p^t of Unaiaska
Island and Umnak Isl^d (Unmax) with Samalga (Samalga).

(4) Akuugun 'Those Over There (to the side)' (eight settlements): the people
of the Islands of Four Mountains (Uniigun), notably Chuginadak Island (Tana^
Angunai^ *Big Island', flie eastern part, and Chuginadax 'Sinmiering' with Mount

2 — Aleut Grammar — Introduction

Cleveland), Kagamil (Qagaamaa), Herbert Island <Chigulai),Yunaska (Yuna^xa),
Amukta (Amuuita^).

(5) Niigugis (sonae thirty-six settlements): the people of the Andreanof Is-
lands, notably Amlia (Amlax), Atka (At^ai), Adak (Adaax), Kanaga (Kanaga),
and Tanaga (Tanai^ax, referred to the next group by W. Dirks Sr. as understood in
1952).

(6) Naahmigus 'Western Neighbors' (at least three settlements): the people
of the Delarof Islands, from Ilak Island (Iila«) through Amatignak Island
(Amatignai^) (so Netsvetov 1840, W. Dirks Jr. 1984).

(7) Eastern Qaiciin, Atkan Qaius (at least ten settlements): the people of
the Rat Islands, notably Amchitka (Amchixtai), Semisopochnoi Island (Un(i)yax),
and Kiska (Qisxa).

(8) Sasignan (A Sasxinas, E Sasxinan) (numerous ancient settiements, exact
number unknown): the people of the Near Islands, Attn (Atan, A, E Atui), Agattu
(Angatui^), and the Semichi Islands (Samiyan, A Samidas, E Samidan).

The number of Aleuts at the time of the Russian conquest has been esti-
mated at 12,000 to 15,000 (Veniaminov 1840 Uilll 1 1984:246; Lantis 1984:163)
or 8,000 to 10,000 (Liapunova 1987:87). Within the first fifty years of the Russian
occupation the Aleut population appears to have been reduced to less than one third
of the pre-contact number. The incomplete census made by the Billings expedition
1791-92 has 1 178 male persons, while priest-monk Makariy's list of baptized Aleuts
1796 has 2440, 1 135 male and 1305 female (see Bergsland 1997). As causes of the
reduction Veniaminov (1840 H: 182 ff. / 1984:248 ff.) mentioned first, for the period
until 1760, the internecine wars between the Aleut groups and wars with the neigh-
boring Eskimos, and second, for the period from the arrival of the Russians until the
Billings expedition in the 1790s, the mistreatments by the Russian fur traders,
promyshlenniki; a third cause, diseases brought by the Russians, was as yet of less
importance (see further Lantis 1984: 163).

The Russian domination, aiming at the production of fiirs, changed the Aleut
economic and social life. The settlements or villages were concentrated for more
efficient exploitation, and Aleut hunters were also taken on Russian ships beyond
their ancient territory. In the 1790s, according to the census of the Billings expedi-
tion 1791-92 (abbreviated: B.) and priest-monk Makariy's list of baptized Aleuts
1796 (abbreviated: M.), the above-mentioned eight groups were represented by sixty
villages as follows.

(1) Six villages, B. five with 210 male inhabitants, M. six with 264 male +
312 female = 576 inhabitants, viz. (a) Morzhovoi Village, B. 55, M. 51+53; (b)
Unga, M. 53+73; (c) B. 53, M. 59+47; (d) three villages, B. 102, M. 101+139. Tax
lists 1777-1791 had four additional settlements in the strait between the Alaska Pen-
insula and Unimak Island, one of them Isanai^, False Pass (see Bergsland 1997,
Census 1.2-3. and 3.4-5.).

(2) Twenty-six villages, with B. 473 m., M. 531 m. + 540 f. = 1071 inhabit-
ants, viz. in the Krenitzin Islands seventeen villages (Ugamak, Tigalda two, Avatanak,

Introduction — Aleut Grammar — 3

Akun seven, Akutan five, Unalga) , B. 291, M. 326+334, and on eastern Unalaska
with Sedanka nine villages, B 182, M. 205+206. Tax lists 1780-1790 had two vil-
lages additional to the seven of Akun (Census 7.8-9.).

(3) Thirteen villages, with B. 268 m., M. 307 m. + 416 f. = 723 inhabitants,
viz. in western Unalaska six villages, B. 169, M. 186+235, and on Umnak with
Samalga seven villages, B. 99, M. 121+181.

(4) Not mentioned in B. or M., but one village had been moved, ^parently
recently, from Yunaska to a village of Umnak (Census 11.6. Chalukai, the later
Nikolski, 7 m.). Tax lists 1780-1789 had in addition two villages: Qignai, presum-
ably Chuginadak (Census 12.1.), and possibly Chigulai, Herbert Island (Census
12.2.). According to Veniaminov (1840 1:136 f. / 1984:73), most of tiie men of Tanai^
Angunai (Chuginadak) and Ulaga(n) (Uliaga Island) perished at the hands of ship-
master Stepan Glotov in 1764, while some of the women died of hunger and the rest
were resettled on Umnak.

(5) Twelve villages ( Amlia two, Atka one, Chugul one, Adak two, Kanaga
two, Tanaga four), with B. 231 male inhabitants. Priest-monk Makariy did not go
west of Unmak and listed only 9 m. + 8 f . (in four villages), baptized previously.

(6) One village (Ilak) with B. 14 inhabitants. According to Atkan W. Dirks
Sr. 1952 the Niigugis killed all the Naahmigus men and took their wives home.

(7) Not mentioned in B. or M. In 1776 seafarer Bragin found about thirty
men with their families on Amchitka and about twenty-five families on
Semisopochnoi, which was still inhabited in the early 1790's (Sarychev 1802, 2: 180).

(8) One village (Igasitai^ of Attn) wiUi M. 38 m. + 57 f. = 95 Aleuts bap-
tized previously by laymen.

In 1799 the more official Russian American Company was formed from
the leading private companies and in 1821 got a new charter that made the adminis-
tration of the colony more orderly. The concentration of the population into fewer
villages continued and the hunting of fiir animals was also extended beyond the
ancient Aleut territory, to the north and to the west. After the Russian discovery in
1786 of the two Pribilof Islands, St. George and St. Paul (according to Aleut tradi-
tion already known to Aleuts), Russians took hunters there, first from Atka (Black
1980:xvi), and in 1823-1826 established permanent settlements on tiie two islands
with Aleuts from Unalaska. The Commander Islands, discovered by Vitus Bering in
1741, were settled likewise in the 1820s, Bering Island mostly from Atka, Copper
Island (Mednoi) mostly from Attn (Krupnik 1987).

The colony was divided into two administrative districts, the Unalaska dis-
trict, which included the territory of groups (1) through (4) and the Pribilof Islands,
and the Atka district, which included the territory of groups (5) through t8) and the
Conmiander Islands. The center of the former was Unalaska Village, Iluului, in
Russian called Gavanskoye, where a church was built m 1825. The center of the
western district was a new-built village in Korovin Bay on the north side of Atka, in
Russian called Nikolskoye, later Korovinskoye, where at:hurch was built ^)out 1825
(in the early 1 860s the village with the church was moved to Nazan Bay on the east

Bergsland, Knut. 1997. Aleut Grammar. Fairbanks, Alaska:
Alaska Native Languages Center.