Integrates ethnological, demographic, biological, archaeological and ecological information about the Alaskan Aleut people.

"Facts about the Aleut indigenous peoples of northern Alaska and Russia. Includes information about their traditions, myths, social activities, the development of their culture, methods of hunting and gathering, rituals, and their daily lives. Intended for fifth to eight grade students"--Provided by publisher.

Translation from Russian

World War II came to the North Pacific in June 1942. Alaska's Native people living on the Aleutian and Pribilof islands, the Aleuts, felt its impact as did no other American citizens in that region. Forty-two residents of Attu Island were captured and imprisoned in Japan and, in response to Japanese bombings of Dutch Harbor and invasions of Kiska Island, the American military evacuated the remaining 881 Aleuts from the islands to camps in southeastern Alaska. The story of the removal of the Aleuts is little known outside Alaska. Dean Kohlhoff delved extensively into civilian and government archives, as well as videotapes of Aleuts chronicling their wartime experiences, to compile this engrossing account of the evacuation. Personal accounts tell of life in the temporary camps, in which the makeshift accommodations arranged by the Department of the Interior failed to reflect the good intentions of some Interior officials. One visitor to the Funter Bay camp wrote, "I have no language at my command which can adequately describe what I saw....I have seen some tough places in my days in Alaska, but nothing to equal the situation in Funter". Upon their eventual return, the Aleuts found that their homes had been devastated by weather, fire, and both Japanese and American military operations, and they began the fight for reparation for loss of property and income that would affect them long after the war. Finally the Civil Rights Act of 1988, which awarded damage claims to Japanese Americans relocated during the war, led to restitution for the Aleuts, who Congress and the president agreed had been mistreated.

In June 1942, seven months after attacking Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy invaded Alaska's Aleutian Islands. For nine thousand years the Aleut people had lived and thrived on these treeless, windswept lands. Within days of the first attack, the entire native population living west of Unimak Island was gathered up and evacuated to relocation centers in the dense forests of Alaska's Southeast. With resilience, compassion, and humor, the Aleuts responded to the sorrows of upheaval and dislocation. This is the story of Vera, a young Aleut caught up in the turmoil of war. It chronicles her struggles to survive and to keep community and heritage intact despite harsh conditions in an alien environment.

A contemporary portrait of an Indigenous commercial fishing society in the Arctic.

The work translated here is Ocherki po etnografii aleutov (konets XVIII-pervaia polovina XIX v.) (Leningrad: Nauka, 1975), one of Roza G. Liapunova's two monographs on the Aleuts of Alaska. Liapunova discusses the archaeology of Aleut origins, Aleut life as documented in early historical sources, and Aleut material culture based on historical sources and in museum collections. Essays remains a valuable synthesis of English- and Russian-language sources on these topics. It also showcases the wide-ranging interests and broad expertise of a Soviet scholar whose work deserves to be read by an English-speaking audience. The volume includes a brief biography and bibliography of selected works of the author and an index.

This book, one of the first ever written on its subject, focuses on Russian America and American Alaska and their impact on the native population. From the closing years of the 17th century when the Russians first set foot on the shores of the far-flung Aleutian Islands, through the war years, to the reparations hearings of the late 1970s, it sheds light on the little-known story of the Aleut people and the events in war and peace that shaped their lives. The actions that led to the internments of the Aleuts are documented through official records, letters, and personal accounts that reveal the experiences of a native people who suffered and died in the camps while posing no threat to national security in time of war. In some cases native Alaskans were held in camps that were almost as bad as the Japanese POW camps.

Integrates ethnological, demographic, biological, archaeological and ecological information about the Alaskan Aleut people.