The Aleuts are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands. In the Aleut language they are known by the endonyms Unangan and Unangas, both of which mean "people".
Nikolski is a census-designated place (CDP) on Umnak Island in Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 39 at the 2020 census, up from 18 in 2010. Nikolski is on Nikolski Bay, off the southwest end of the island. It is 116 air miles west of Unalaska, and 900 air miles from Anchorage. Residents are known as Unangan, and Aleut is spoken in most of the remaining homes.
Umnak is one of the Fox Islands of the Aleutian Islands. With 686.01 square miles (1,776.76 km2) of land area, it is the third largest island in the Aleutian archipelago and the 19th largest island in the United States. The island is home to a large volcanic caldera on Mount Okmok and the only field of geysers in Alaska. It is separated from Unalaska Island by Umnak Pass. In 2000, Umnak was permanently inhabited by only 39 people and by 2010, around 18, placing the settlement of Nikolski in difficulty and its school was closed.
The Aleutian Tradition began around 2500 BC and ended in AD 1800. Aleutian artifacts are made out of chopped stone, unlike the more common slate tools. Objects were traditionally made using a concept called core and flake that uses bifacially carved projectile points. The Aleutian people lived in semi-subterranean winter houses made from driftwood, whale bone, and peat. They used kayaks, atlatls and harpoons to kill sea mammals for sustenance. Around AD 1150 Aleutian houses increased considerably in size. Food was stored in special chambers inside the house and weaponry was becoming more common around these sites. The sustenance pattern changed from relying on sea mammals to eating mostly salmon. Long-distance trade also started increasing community with other local groups.
Nikolski Air Station is an unattended airport located in Nikolski on Umnak Island in the Aleutians West Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska. This former military airport is now owned by The Aleut Corporation.
The Anangula Site is an archaeological site in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Located on a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long island off the western coast of Umnak Island, it lies 3.1 miles (5.0 km) north-northwest of Nikolski Bay. The site documents one of the earliest known human settlements in the Aleutian Islands, dating to c. 6400 BCE. It was in the 1970s believed to be a remnant of people thought to have migrated here across the land bridge from Asia.
The Birnirk Site is an archaeological site near Utqiagvik, Alaska. It includes sixteen prehistoric mounds which have yielded evidence of very early Birnirk and Thule culture. It is the type site of the Birnirk culture, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962 for its archaeological importance in understanding prehistoric Arctic cultures.
The Dry Creek Archeological Site is an archaeological site not far outside Denali National Park and Preserve. It is a multi-component site, whose stratified remains have yielded evidence of human occupation as far back as 11,000 years ago. The site is located on the northern flanks of the Alaska Range, near Healy, Alaska, in the Nenana River watershed. There are four major components to the site, layered in an outwash terrace overlooking Dry Creek, with layers of loess separating them.
The Ipiutak Site is a large archaeological site at Point Hope in northwest Alaska, United States. It is one of the most important discoveries in this area, competing only with Ekven, Russia.
The Onion Portage Archeological District encompasses a major archaeological site in Kobuk Valley National Park in northwestern Alaska. The site is a deeply stratified site, at which archaeologists have located nine complexes ranging dating from approximately 6500BC to AD1700. The site has been of critical benefit for the study of Arctic cultures, and is used to determine the cultural chronology of the region.
The Palugvik Site, also known as Palugvik Archeological District, is an archaeological site on Hawkins Island in Prince William Sound, near Cordova, Alaska, within Chugach National Forest. The site, first excavated in 1930, was the first to provide a view of prehistoric human habitation in Prince William Sound, the ancestral home of the Chugach people, and is one of the two primary sites for identifying the sequence of occupation in the area. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1962, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
Yukon Island is an island in outer Kachemak Bay, an inlet of the Cook Inlet of south central Alaska. The island is located about 9 miles (14 km) south of Homer. The island is archaeologically sensitive, with a number of sites documenting the prehistory of the bay. The Yukon Island Main Site, a National Historic Landmark, is a major shell midden site at which the pioneering archaeologist Frederica de Laguna was able to sequence 1500 years of the area's prehistory, and other sites have been found on the island since then. The island is now home to an educational retreat center.
The Gambell Sites are five archeological sites which established a chronology of over 2000 years of human habitation on St. Lawrence Island near Gambell, Alaska.
Anangula Island is a small island in the Fox Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of southwestern Alaska. The 1.4-mile (2.3 km)-long island is separated from Umnak Island by a channel about 0.93 miles (1.50 km) wide and consists of a mostly barren tundra landscape of volcanic ash.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska.
Sergie Sovoroff was an Aleut educational leader. He was born on Umnak Island in the Aleut village of Nikolski in 1902. Sovoroff was born only nine years before the United States government outlawed sea otter hunting. After 1911, the need and use of iqya-x, Aleut sea kayaks, declined abruptly. But Sovoroff continued to see a need for creating model sea kayaks, known in his days by the Russian name "baidarka". Sovoroff "...kept up the tradition of making kayak models". Model sea kayaks built by Sovoroff, quite often with three hatches with a Russian Orthodox priest seated in the middle hatch, can be seen in many museums around the world. These model sea kayaks, finely crafted by Sovoroff, often equipped with a rudder on the stern of the kayak, all too frequently bear the name of the person who purchased them or donated them to the museum, and not Sovoroff's.
Cape Air Force Base also known as Fort Glenn Army Air Base, is a site significant for its role in World War II fighting, operating alongside Naval Air Facility Otter Point.
St. Nicholas Church is a historic Russian Orthodox church in Nikolski, Alaska, which is located at the southern end of Umnak Island. Now it is under Diocese of Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America
The Port Moller Hot Springs Village Site is a prehistoric archeological site on the Alaska Peninsula. It is located on the shores of Moller Bay, an indentation on the peninsula with extensive tidal flats. Until historical times the area was a border region between the Aleut and the Inuit. The site is notable for the presence of a sulphurous hot spring, which provides drinkable water. The 50-acre (20 ha) site contains the remains of a native village and extensive refuse middens. The site was first excavated in 1928.
The Kukak Village Site is a prehistoric and historic archaeological site, located on the shore of Kukak Bay, on the south coast of the Alaska Peninsula in Katmai National Park and Preserve. The area was documented to be occupied in the early 20th century, and was abandoned after the 1912 volcanic eruption of Novarupta. The Kukak Bay area is also of prehistoric significance, with researchers identifying 89 depressions as likely sites of subterranean houses, and a refuse midden.
