Uncovering Native-Lived Colonialism in Old Harbor, Alaska. 

This dissertation research examines how the Indigenous Sugpiaq (i.e., Alutiiq) people of the Kodiak archipelago, Alaska, experienced contact with Russian colonists and fur traders from the 1780s to 1860s. Colonialism brought unprecedented challenges to Sugpiaq communities, including violence, epidemic disease, forced labor, resettlement and religious conversion. This project brings together data from archaeological excavation and analysis of two colonial-period Sugpiaq village sites with oral history and archival records to produce a fuller picture of Sugpiaq life during the Russian colonial period. The project involves collaboration with the modern Sugpiaq community in Old Harbor to co-produce knowledge about the past, providing archaeological field and laboratory training for graduate students and Old Harbor youth through an internship program, an archaeology camp, and curriculum development with the Old Harbor school. These initiatives will increase the participation of Alaska Native students in archaeology and enhance the Old Harbor community’s capacity to document and care for their cultural heritage. The work will advance archaeological knowledge of Alaska Native lives during the colonial period and explore the potential of community-based practices in anthropological research.

This project employs archival, archaeological, and ethnographic methods to reconstruct nineteenth-century Sugpiaq lifeways. Archival research focuses on Russian American Company documents, which provide data on trade and demography. Limited excavation at two sites—Ing’yug and Nuniaq—will focus on middens and houses, building upon previous research by the PI team. Site components will be dated using historic beads and ceramics; artifacts, flora, and fauna will be analyzed to reconstruct household activities and social organization. Finally, semi-structured ethnographic interviews with Old Harbor Elders will provide information on long-term use of the landscape, including subsistence practices.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.