Sugpiaq Foodways during the Russian Colonial Period: Zooarchaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives from Old Harbor, Alaska

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Coastal Environments in Archaeology: Ancient Life, Lore, and Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Sugpiaq/Alutiiq peoples have millennia-long relationships with the coasts and waters of the Kodiak Archipelago, from which they harvest a variety of marine mammals, fish, shellfish, sea birds, and coastal plants. Harvesting and preparing these foods remain important ways of life in Sugpiaq/Alutiiq villages, such as Old Harbor, Alaska. An examination of traditional foodways is a key component of the Old Harbor Archaeological History Project, a community-based participatory research program exploring the resilience of the Old Harbor Sugpiaq/Alutiiq community during the Russian colonial period (1760–1867 CE). In this paper, I draw on zooarchaeological analysis of fauna from the Ing’yuq site (KOD-114), a colonial period Sugpiaq village, to discuss how harvesting became more localized following the Russian invasion in response to increasing labor demands on a decreasing Indigenous population. I complement this discussion through ethnographic interviews with contemporary residents of Old Harbor to better situate the archaeological data within the cultural values and traditions that guide Sugpiaq harvesting practices. These lines of evidence tell a story of survivance in the face of Russian colonialism as Sugpiaq ancestors at Ing’yuq creatively maintained their relations to the land and water while simultaneously managing colonial impositions on their labor, bodies, and ways of life.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Coastal Environments in Archaeology: Ancient Life, Lore, and Landscapes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36176.0