The Native Village of Afognak is a federally recognized

Alutiiq The Alutiiq (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 Yupik ...

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the I ...

tribal entity, originally native to the island of

Afognak Afognak (Alutiiq: ''Agw’aneq''; ) is an island in the Kodiak Archipelago north of Kodiak Island in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is long from east to west and wide from north to south and has a land area of , making it the 18th largest i ...

Earthquake and relocation

The

Good Friday earthquake The 1964 Alaska earthquake, also known as the Great Alaska earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27, 1964.

of 1964 resulted in the relocation of surviving members of the village of Ag’waneq on the island of Afognak. A new village, Port Lions (named for the

Lions Club Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization, currently headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. , it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members (including the youth wing Leo clubs, Leo) in more than 200 ge ...

who helped construct it), was constructed to house the tribe, but many moved on to Kodiak or elsewhere in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

History

The history of the Alutiiq goes back more than 7,500 years in the

Kodiak Archipelago The Kodiak Archipelago () is an archipelago (group of islands) south of the main land-mass of the state of Alaska (United States), about by air south-west of Anchorage in the Gulf of Alaska. The largest island in the archipelago is Kodiak Islan ...

, but during the late 18th century, the

Russian-American Company The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the c ...

pressed many of the men of the islands in the area into service hunting

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...

. This mistreatment and a

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

epidemic in 1837 lead to increased protections from Russia and the imposition of a system of legislated villages, one of which was Afognak. The village of Afognak was actually a combination of two former villages known simply as ''Russian Town'' and ''Aleut Town'', formed through continual contact between the two groups.

Alaska Purchase and statehood

Many Native traditions were cast aside in 1867 when Alaska was purchased by the

. During the period from the purchase of Alaska through its becoming a state in 1959 and until the earthquake in 1964, the quality of life was much lower for the Village of Afognak.

Commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

interfered with local sustenance and employment conditions were often far less than ideal.

Government recognition

In 1971 the

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by U.S. President, President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting what is still the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to reso ...

resulted in the formation of thirteen regional corporations and a number of "''Native Village Corporations''" which were recognized by the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

as ''tribal entities''. The Native Village of Afognak is one such officially designated tribe. The regional Alaska Native Corporation is Koniag, Inc. Many members of the Native Village of Afognak also hold shares in one of the region's village corporations, Afognak Native Corporation. Koniag, Inc. and Afognak Native Corporation are distinct legal entities.

Tribal council

The tribal council of the Native Village of Afognak consists of seven elected members who sit for three year terms. The council is the official governing body of the tribe as well as managing cultural and land resources and preserving the cultural traditions of the Alutiiq.

Archeology

In 1994, the Afognak Native Corporation began to build tourism by involving visitors in the

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

of the old Afognak island village of Ag’waneq in a program called "''Dig Afognak''". In 1998 the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a grant to fund the collection and preservation of historic and prehistoric data from the dig and from interviews with Elders of the community.

External links

The Native Village of Afognak Web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afognak, Native Village of Archaeological sites in Alaska Buildings and structures in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska Alutiiq tribes