Two New Books Soon to be Published by Alutiiq Museum

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
The Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository will dabble into literary works this fall when it plans to sell two different books that celebrate Alutiiq culture and heritage.
The first book is a hefty catalog of Alutiiq artifacts. Sven Haakanson is the executive director of the Alutiiq Museum and said the book was a collaborative project with another museum in Russia.

— (Alutiiq Publications 1 :43 “This a project we helped sponsor for the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in Russia, thanks to Koniag Inc., CIRI, Chugach and sponsorship through them, we have helped staff at the MAE, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, compile, photograph and come out with a book. And we raised the money so that it would not cost us $100, it will cost us $50. And so we worked with UAF Press to get it translated and we had one of our own, Louis Fields, she’s a descent from Afognak and also she’s just retiring next month from Koniag, she helped translate the primary text for the catalog.”)

Haakanson said the book will be available to purchase at the museum as soon as it arrives, it’s currently being shipped to the island.
Another book that will hit the shelves at the museum is a complete collection of Alutiiq words that have been featured on Alutiiq Word of the Week. Katie St. John is the museum manager and said the program that is featured on KMXT and in the Kodiak Daily Mirror has been running for 15 years, a remarkably long time considering the museum has only been open for 17 years. She said the book, which features more than 470 words, was compiled by museum staff and supporters.

— (Alutiiq Publications 2 : 45 “Alicia did a beautiful job with the layout and April Laktonen Counceller, who has worked on the language program with the museum for about ten years now I believe, and Amy Steffian, our deputy director, all worked to update all of the lessons, correct all of the Alutiiq words and sentences because over time how it’s written down has changed quite a bit, and our understanding of it has changed quite a bit. So it’s all accurate now, or you know, as accurate as we can get it. And it’s just a compilation of a huge amount of research and really very nicely put together into little bit size chunks that people can really access easily. And Alicia put together a really wonderful index to make it very, very useful for people. So we’re really excited to get it out.”)

St. John said the museum’s website has an audio archive of all the words and they are hoping to get those updated within the next year to compliment the new text. The book will be available Oct. 13.
Both Haakanson and St. John joined Susan Malutin on KMXT’s Talk of the Rock yesterday to discuss the upcoming publications and other happenings at the museum in the months to come. KMXT will bring you more from that conversation in the days to come.

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