Chugach , Chugach Sugpiaq or Chugachigmiut is the name of an Alaska Native people in the region of the

Kenai Peninsula The Kenai Peninsula ( Dena'ina: ''Yaghenen'') is a large peninsula jutting from the coast of Southcentral Alaska. The name Kenai (, ) is derived from the word "Kenaitze" or "Kenaitze Indian Tribe", the name of the Native Athabascan Alaskan trib ...

and Prince William Sound on the southern coast of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

. The Chugach people are an

Alutiiq The Alutiiq people (pronounced in English; from Promyshlenniki Russian Алеутъ, " Aleut"; plural often "Alutiit"), also called by their ancestral name ( or ; plural often "Sugpiat"), as well as Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yupik, are a s ...

( Pacific Eskimo) people who speak the Chugach dialect of the

Alutiiq language The Alutiiq language (also called Sugpiak, Sugpiaq, Sugcestun, Vocabulary comparison The comparison of number terms and month names in the two dialects: References Further reading * Bass, Willard P., Edward A. Tennant, and Carl Anahona ...

Name

Their autonym ''Sugpiaq'' derives from ''suk'', meaning "person" and -''piaq'', meaning "real." The term ''Alutiiq'' derives from the Russian term for the

Aleut The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the U ...

people. According to Ethnologue, earlier terms for the Chugach such as Chugach Eskimo, South Alaska Eskimo, Sugpiak Eskimo, and Sugpiaq Eskimo, are pejorative.

Settlements

Chugach villages include Chenega Bay, Eyak, Nanwalek (English Bay), Port Graham, and

Tatitlek Tatitlek (Alutiiq: ''Taatiilaaq''; russian: Татитлек) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Chugach Census Area, United States. The population was 88 at the 2010 census, down from 107 in 2000. Tatitlek is in the Chugach School District an ...

History

The Chugach people have lived in the region around Prince William Sound for millennia, according to archaeological finds. They were the first indigenous Alaskans to encounter the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

n explorer

Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering, was a Danish cartographer and explorer in ...

in 1741. The Russians were followed by Spanish, English, and American explorers. The Chugach have at times traded with or fought against neighboring groups, the Eyak,

Ahtna The Ahtna (also Ahtena, Atna, Ahtna-kohtaene, or Copper River) are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. The people's homeland called Atna Nenn', is located in the Copper River area of southern ...

, and the

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

. In 1964, a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

generated by the Good Friday earthquake destroyed the Chugach village of Chenega, Alaska. The fishing-based Chugach economy was badly affected by the environmental damage caused by the ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill in 1989.

Language

Chugach people speak one of two dialects of the Pacific Gulf Yupik language; the other being Koniag. These Central Yupik languages belong to the

Alaskan Yupik language Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a U.S. state, state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity o ...

family. Once written in

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking cou ...

, the language is now written in the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...

."Yupik, Pacific Gulf."
''Ethnologue.'' Accessed 5 February 2013.

Social structures and gender

There are historical accounts of some androgynous

third gender Third gender is a concept in which individuals are categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither man nor woman. It is also a social category present in societies that recognize three or more genders. The term ''third'' is usuall ...

or two spirit individuals among the Chugach, known as ''aranu'tiq''.''Pacific Homosexualities'' (2002, ), page 209 According to anthropologists writing in the 1950s, these individuals were considered to be male on one side of their bodies and female on the other. Some had descriptive names like "Tyakutyik" ("What Kind Of People Are These Two?"), but this description was given to many types of people in the community, and was not related to gender expression.

Namesakes

The Chugach people gave their name to

Chugach National Forest The Chugach National Forest is a United States National Forest in south central Alaska. Covering portions of Prince William Sound, the Kenai Peninsula and the Copper River Delta, it was formed in 1907 from part of a larger forest reserve. The C ...

, the

Chugach Mountains The Chugach Mountains of southern Alaska are the northernmost of the several mountain ranges that make up the Pacific Coast Ranges of the western edge of North America. The range is about long and wide, and extends from the Knik and Turnaga ...

, and

's Chugach State Park, all located in or near the traditional range of the Chugach people in southcentral

Chugach Alaska Corporation Chugach Alaska Corporation, or CAC, is one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. Chugach Alaska Corporation was incorporated ...

, an

Alaska Native regional corporation The Alaska Native Regional Corporations were established in 1971 when the United States Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) which settled aboriginal land claims, land and financial claims made by the Alaska Natives and p ...

created under the

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting at the time the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve long-standin ...

of 1971, also derives its name from the Chugach people, many of whom are shareholders of the corporation.

Notes

External links

Chugach Alaska Corporation

Chugach National Forest
{{Authority control Alaska Native ethnic groups Alutiiq