Archaeologists divide Kodiak's history into five cultural traditions, each reflecting a distinct way of life.

Ocean Bay Tradition (7,500 to 3,800 years ago)

Archaeologists assign Kodiak's oldest sites to the Ocean Bay tradition, a cultural period stretching more than 4,000 years.  During the early Ocean Bay, Kodiak's climate was warmer and drier and people probably lived in skin tents.  Site locations, stone tools, and animal remains, indicated that they were skilled mariners who harvested the full range of marine resources.  Tool kits from the beginning of this period contain small stone blades (microblades), which were inset into the edges of slender bone points to form lances.  These were used with a variety of harpoons, fish hooks, and chipped stone points to harvest subsistence resources.  Lances, projectile points, and knives ground from thin leaves of slate are common in later Ocean Bay sites, and eventually replaced blade tools.  Similarly, the early tents were replaced by sod houses by about 6,000 years ago.  In a shallow pit, residents erected a wooden frame and covered it with sod blocks to create a warm, weather resistant home.

Kachemak Tradition (3,800 to 800 years ago)

On Kodiak, cultural materials dating between 3,800 and 2,500 years ago are rare.  It may be that the archipelago was sparsely populated at this time, or that sites have been lost to changes in sea level.  Whatever the answer, Kodiak people began to live in large coastal, sod-house villages and to hunt and fish in new ways by about 2,500 years ago.  They developed nets to harvest large quantities of salmon, slate ulus to process these larger catches, and a new, more efficient type of sea mammal harpoon.  These trends may reflect a growing population and the need to feed larger groups of people.  Changes in subsistence were also couple with extensive inter-regional trade.  Antler, ivory, coal, and volcanic rocks from the Alaskan mainland are found in large quantities, suggesting that travel and trade were common practices.  Such exchanges probably created social ties and helped people gain access to resources in different ecological settings.  Many of these rare materials were made into jewelry or small pieces off art.  The labret, or decorative lip plug, appears for the first time in the Kachemak tradition as do intricate ivory carvings.   Another characteristic if the Late Kachemak is the elaborate treatment of the dead.   Burials are common and often include multiple individuals and grave goods.

About 800 years ago, Kodiak's climate began to change dramatically in response to the Little Ice Age.  Temperatures cooled, the weather worsened, and sea mammals became more difficult to catch.  Alutiiq people responded by relocating their villages to the banks of productive salmon streams and reorganized subsistence practices.  Related families lived together in larger, multiple roomed sod houses, pooling resources and labor.  Strong community leaders emerged and organized ceremonies to display their power and wealth.  The rise of an elaborate ceremonial culture is preserved in spectacular assemblages of wooden artifacts which include masks, mask attachments, fragments of drums and dance rattles, decorated feasting bowls, gaming pieces, and shaman's dolls.  Other artifacts illustrate increases in long-distance trade and warfare.  During the Koniag Tradition the Alutiiq also built fort sites on inaccessible islands, where families fled to protect themselves from raids.  It was at Awa'uq, once such a fort, where the Kodiak Alutiiq lost sovereignty of their homeland in a battle with the Russian military in 1784.

Russian (1763 to 1867)

By the late 1700s, Russian fur traders worked their way into the central Gulf of Alaska and colonized the Alutiiq Nation.  The Alutiiq were quickly compelled to adopt new economic, social and religious practices and many people died from infectious diseases.  Historians estimate that the Native population plummeted from about 9,000 people at contact to just 3,000 by the middle of the nineteenth century.  During the Russian period, Alutiiq people were forced to work in artels - camps dedicated to sea otter hunting, salmon fishing, and whaling.  It was at this time that the Russian clergy introduced the Orthodox faith, which remains a strong force in many Native communities.  Archaeologically, this period is marked by the presence of trade goods - European ceramics, glass beads, flint lock rifles - and the consolidation of more than 60 Alutiiq communities into a small number of regional settlements.

American (AD 1867 to the present)

With the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, life on Kodiak changed again.  The American period is characterized by the development of the modern fishing industry.  Many Alutiiq people worked for wages in the canneries, moving gradually from a subsistence lifestyle into the western market economy.  At the turn of the 20th century, wood framed houses began to replace sod structures and government schools forbid Native children to speak the Alutiiq language.  Today, elders are encouraged to return to the schools, this time to teach the Alutiiq language to children.   In 1971, the Alutiiq participated in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, regaining ownership of traditional lands and forming for-profit corporations.   Although Western influences have dramatically altered Alutiiq culture, Kodiak's Native people have combined Western traditions with their own world views to produce a lifestyle that is still uniquely Native.  At present, about 2,500 Alutiiq people live in the Kodiak Archipelago.

--courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum