Afognak (; also Agw'aneqANLC : Alaska Native Place Names
/ref> in

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 ...

was an

village on 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 ...

in Kodiak Island Borough,

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, United States. It was located on Afognak Bay on the southwest coast of the island, three miles north of

Kodiak Island Kodiak Island (, ) is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the Un ...

.Native Village of Afognak.
Native Village of Afognak, n.d. Web. Retrieved July 23, 2013. The site is now within the CDP of Aleneva.

History

Prehistory

For more than 7,500 years, the Alutiiq people lived in hundreds of settlements 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 ...

. Like most other early native Alaskan peoples, the people of Afognak fished and hunted sea mammals from

kayaks ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

covered in seal skin. Men and women performed different tasks for the village. The people of Afognak traded services and goods with other settlements in Southeast Alaska and the Aleutian chain.

The Russian settlement period

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 United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the company in the Ukase of 17 ...

arrived on the island in 1784. The Russians invited and took several men from the village to hunt sea otters for sale in Europe. However, many people died as a result of mistreatment, and the smallpox epidemic of 1837–1840 killed many others in the archipelago. The Alutiiq began to change their lifestyle and governance. The name "Afognak" was derived from Afognak Island and was first reported in 1839 by Russian Sub-Lt. Mikhail Murashev. The natives and Russians on the island continued to fish, hunt, and gather food. Despite tensions between the two groups, many Russians and natives married and started families, and many natives learned

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and converted to

Russian Orthodoxy The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The primate of the ROC is the patriarch of Moscow and all Rus ...

. The Alutiiq tradition was not abandoned, however, and was just added to. Many Russian workers who had married into the native community settled into the

retirement communities upon their retirement. Eventually, the community of Russian Town, located next to Aleut Town, grew into the Afognak village, and the two merged.

The American period

The U.S. bought the occupation rights in 1867. Schools that only taught in English were established in regions where no one spoke the language, but by 1900, much of the younger community was

trilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monoling ...

, speaking Alutiiq, Russian, and English. In the late 1800s, the U.S. fishing business began to flourish. The business opened many canneries in

Kodiak, Alaska Kodiak (Alutiiq language, Alutiiq: ) is the main city and one of seven communities on Kodiak Island in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska, Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska. All commercial transportation between the island's communities and the outside ...

, and fishermen from

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

traveled to Alaska. The business in the area raised tension with the Alutiiq, who wanted to keep their fishing lifestyle. A post office was maintained intermittently from 1888 to 1964. Afognak was covered by one meter (3 ft) of ash when

Mount Katmai Mount Katmai () is a large active stratovolcano (composite volcano) on the Alaska Peninsula in southern Alaska, located within Katmai National Park and Preserve. It is about in diameter with a central lake-filled caldera about in size, formed ...

erupted in 1912. The 1964

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.

generated a tsunami which destroyed the village. With help from 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 ...

and the federal government, a new community was constructed on the northeast coast of Kodiak Island, called Port Lions in honor of the

who helped relocate the village. The former residents of Afognak moved permanently in December 1964, though 11 residents were still residing there as late as 1980.

Demographics

Afognak first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village of 339 residents with a "Creole" (mixed Russian and native) majority of 195 and 144 Inuit minority. In 1890, the population also included Little Afognak, Cattanee and two Canneries. It continued to report until the 1960 census. With the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, most of the population departed. It did not appear on the 1970 census, but did in 1980 as an Alaskan Native Village designation. It has not reported separately since, but as of 2000, the original area that included Afognak is now mostly within the CDP of Aleneva.

Geography

Afognak was located on the southwestern shore of

Afognak Island 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 ...

in Kodiak Island Borough,

, United States. It is located three miles north of

References

External links

Afognak
at the Community Database Online from the Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs {{authority control 1964 disestablishments in Alaska Ghost towns in Alaska Populated coastal places in Alaska on the Pacific Ocean Populated places in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska Road-inaccessible communities of Alaska Populated places disestablished in 1964 Natural disaster ghost towns