Douglas W. Veltre

Aleutian Island prehistory: Living in insular extremes

Peoples of the Aleutian Islands lived under a number of stressful environmental constraints, including extreme isolation, volcanic eruptions, seismic activity (including tsunamis), frequent storms, rough seas, gale-force winds, frequent fog and precipitation, and an exclusive marine diet. Nevertheless, the Aleutian Islands supported a large maritime population during late prehistoric times. Cultural adaptations to these conditions included the use of relatively large coastal settlements, semisubterranean houses, tailored warm and waterproof clothing, sophisticated skin boats for hunting, fishing, and traveling, broad species utilization of food and raw materials, food storage, fuel for heating and cooking, and refuge rocks or islets for protection against raids.

Historical Overview of Archaeological Research in the Aleut Region of Alaska

Abstract The Aleut region has the longest history of anthropological and archaeological investigations in all of Alaska. Although predating formal anthropological studies, the extensive ethnographic account by the Russian Orthodox priest Ivan Veniaminov in the early 1800s laid a solid foundation for scientific archaeological and anthropological investigations over the next 100 years, including those by William Healy Dall in the 1870s, Waldemar Jochelson from 1909 to 1910, and Aleš Hrdlička in the 1930s. Following World War II, research continued, and the evolving political picture in Alaska gave Aleut people increasing influence and control over such efforts.

Russian Exploitation of Aleuts and Fur Seals: The Archaeology of Eighteenth- and Early-Nineteenth-Century Settlements in the Pribilof Islands, Alaska

Shortly after Russian fur hunters found the uninhabited Pribilof Islands of St. Paul and St. George in the late 1780s, they began forcing Aleut men from the Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula to travel there seasonally to provide labor for the profitable commercial harvest of northern fur seals. Recent archaeological surveys of the earliest Aleut and Russian work camps that were established on the islands show them to be unusual in many respects when compared to contemporary sites in the Aleutian Islands region. These include the absence of precontact site components, their relatively narrow period of occupation, their occupancy by an exclusively or nearly exclusively male population, and their potential as multiethnic settlements to reveal differences between the lives of Russian overseers and Aleut laborers.

Glass Trade Beads from Reese Bay, Unalaska Island: Spatial and Temporal Patterns

Unalaska History and Archaeology Project researchers excavated several thousand glass trade beads from an Aleutian longhouse at the Reese Bay site on Unalaska Island, Alaska. This paper provides a description of the beads, a discussion of their use by Russian explorers and Alaska Natives, and an analysis of the horizontal and vertical distribution of the beads within the longhouse. Comparison to other Alaskan sites revealed that the composition of the Reese Bay trade bead assemblage is consistent with occupation during the early Russian period. Several factors, both behavioral and depositional, created and affected the spatial patterning of the beads within the site: roof fall from the dismantling of the longhouse superstructure; periodic housecleaning by the residents of the longhouse; bead working techniques and location preferences; and changing status relationships within the longhouse. The spatial and temporal patterning of the glass trade beads from the Reese Bay site provides insight into the lives of the inhabitants.

An Uncommon Accomplishment: Allen McCartney's Forty Years of Research in the Aleut Region of Alaska

Allen McCartney’s career of northern field research began in 1962 in the Aleut region of Alaska, an area to which he has returned many times over the next four decades. During that time, he worked throughout the region, from the Alaska Peninsula to the far western Aleutians, to the isolated Pribilof Islands, and at sites spanning the entire range of human occupation. The depth and breadth of his experience and interests have yielded important insights concerning the Aleut area, specifically, and the circumpolar region, generally. His efforts have also influenced the research goals and careers of many other northern scholars and have assisted in some unforeseen and unacknowledged ways in matters of Aleut land ownership and cultural heritage.

Gardening in Colonial Russian America

Abstract Soon after Russian fur hunters arrived in Alaska in the mid-18th century, they began gardening to supplement the limited foods they brought with them and the locally available food resources. Although published accounts of gardening become more numerous by the early 19th century, the details of such efforts in the Aleut region of southwestern Alaska remain unclear. Archaeological and ethnohistoric data from several locales in this area, especially the Korovinski site on Atka Island, indicate that gardening, particularly for potatoes, was an important subsistence enterprise during the Russian era, not only for the Russian colonial population but also for Aleuts (Unanga◯1), whose overall subsistence economy underwent profound changes following contact.