thickness is 0.33 inch (8.5mm). ABOVE: ATL91: radio carbon dated (Simon Fraser University Radio Carbon Lab) to approximately 2,000 years old, the Quiltanton Lake Atlatl was discovered in the lake mud when the water body was drained (located in the Highland Valley east of Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada). Some who ran away were either killed or captured by the Spanish, while others escaped temporarily, only to return later. Elliott figures in U.S. environmental history. Such a case was reported by Fedor Litke on a visit to Bodega Bay, while circumnavigating the globe on the Russian sloop Kamchatka in 1818. This atlatl does not appear to have employed a spur or peg; this is therefore of the variety referred to as a female spear thrower: one in which the butt end of the dart rests in the recess at the end of the slot. Source: Smithsonian; National Museum of the American Indian (http://alaska.si.edu, ABOVE: ATL87: third of five views beginning with frame #85: Unangan hunters with spears and throwing boards; these may be for sea otter hunting given the relatively small spear size; hats described as wooden hunting hats and brightly colored --- although also referred to in caption that accompanies next image as chiefs hats, which sounds odd; their over-garment is waterproof gut of unspecified species; 1909-1910, Aleutian Islands, Alaska; photo from History, Ethnology and Anthropology of the Aleut (fig. The native craft was the kayak - but how do you hunt whales from kayaks? Source: the Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org), ABOVE, RIGHT: ATL73: modern day spear thrower use: A young man from the Tanami region [central western part of Australias Northern Territory] launches a spear with a "pikirri" or woomera (spear thrower). Source: http://www.ozoutback.com.au, EDITORS NOTE: Although the term woomera is often employed as a generic term for the Australian spear thrower, woomera is technically the name used by the Eora, the indigenous people of the Sydney region. Source: Alaskas Digital Archives (http://vilda.alaska.edu), ABOVE, LEFT: ATL72: Spear thrower, Kalgoorlie Region, Western Australia; 25.25 inches (641.35mm); 19th to early 20th century; wood, spinifex resin, sinew, stone. ABOVE: ATL88: fourth of five views beginning with frame #85: the same Unangan hunters in two-man kayak demonstrating hunting technique with spear and spear thrower; photo from History, Ethnology and Anthropology of the Aleut (fig. The Aleutians are pretty barren. Over-Exploiting the Arctic Animal Commons | ABOVE: ATL99 AND ATL100: atlatl described as Eskimo from Nunagiak, Alaska; catalogue number shown. ! "H`,AD^2" =A`=LA"@S5@ x While this site is windy and barren, it resembled the treeless Aleutian and South Kodiak Islands that were familiar to the Alaska Natives. The identity of these valuable workers, who were truly the backbone of the Russian-American Company, has often been confused and poorly represented. 313 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[]/Index[288 49]/Info 287 0 R/Length 119/Prev 1324365/Root 289 0 R/Size 337/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream endobj Posted at 03:35 PM in Marine mammals, Native peoples | Permalink. Main According to the accompanying text, the spear thrower is still is use by Yupik hunters on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers; first of two related views. 17) by Waldemar Jochelson, 1933. Source: Smithsonian Department of Anthropology http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/anth. Ironically, it was these very skills which caused the eventual disruption of these native cultures by Russian hunters in search of fur. ABOVE: ATL87: third of five views beginning with frame #85: Unangan hunters with spears and throwing boards; these may be for sea otter hunting given the relatively small spear size; hats described as wooden hunting hats and brightly colored --- although also referred to in caption that accompanies next image as chiefs hats, which sounds odd; their over-garment is waterproof gut of unspecified species; 1909-1910, Aleutian Islands, Alaska; photo from History, Ethnology and Anthropology of the Aleut (fig. These women were Kashaya, Central Pomo, Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok. Her coat is delicately shaded. The Arctic Province, by Henry W. Elliott, 1886. In the 1820 census compiled by then-manager Ivan Kuskov. RAC also brought native people from Hawaii to Fort Ross, making it a truly multicultural settlement. thickness is 0.33 inch (8.5mm). Many diverse native cultures with disparate cultural identities were represented at Ross. In the months of June and July the whales begin to make their first inshore visits to the Aleutian bays, where they follow up schools of herring and shoals of Amphipoda, or sea-fleas, upon which they love to feed. Outside the thick wooden walls, the affairs of life went on in this ethnically mixed settlement. He had been at Bodega Bay and had separated from the others in a two-hatch baidarka; after waiting for him to return for a long time, they had found him dead on the shore with [his] baidarka. Source: the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada (http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/MainSite/) It is made of antler which is most probably caribou given the size criteria and other characteristics. Soon after their arrival in California, Alaska Native men formed unions with Native California women. This atlatl does not appear to have employed a spur or peg; this is therefore of the variety referred to as a female spear thrower: one in which the butt end of the dart rests in the recess at the end of the slot. Other examples of tribal or cultural names for the spear thrower include amirre (the Arrernte people) and mirru (the Pintupi people). /Filter /FlateDecode These luxuriant, dark brown furs brought fortune to the Russian-American Company, but brought death and degradation to the Aleut and Kodiak Island populations. . All were women, making the adult male labor force at Ross almost entirely Alutiiq. Source: Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/anth), ABOVE: ATL70: Aleut spear thrower from Alaska, described as Alutiq - Sugpiaq Ethnotechnology; Old Harbor, Kodiak Island, Alaska; top side; slotted rectangle at far left indicates position of missing ivory peg; 19.25 inches (488.9mm); catalogue number 1-1933-9427; first of two views. /AIS false Need? After the animal is speared, hunters track the floating bladder, waiting for the animal to come up for air. ABOVE: ATL95 AND ATL96: atlatl described as Eskimo from Nunagiak, Wainwright Quad, Alaska; catalogue number shown. For some nine to ten thousand years, these people inhabited the western portion of the Alaskan Peninsula, the Kodiak Archipelago, and the numerous treeless, windswept, volcanic islands which stretch 1,250 miles from Alaska to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Siberia. One of these laborers, Malikhnak Matvei, from Ugatskoe Village on Kodiak, was married to a Native Californian woman from Bodega Bay, named Kytypaliva, with whom he had a daughter, Ashana Alimpiada. In the interests of full disclosure, Muse's current employer has fisheries, marine habitat, endangered species, and marine mammal management responsibilities in the Arctic. - Lauren Peters, FRC Alaska Native Advisor, Excerpted from Fort Ross 1998 Fort Ross Interpretive Association (Fort Ross Conservancy) ISBN # 1-56540-355-X. Baidaras (anyaq in Alutiiq) were open skin-covered craft propelled by oars. He was sent north again in 1872 as U.S. Treasury Agent supervising the Alaska Commercial Company's management of the fur seal industry in the Pribilof Islands.

The Alaskan Native village, with its multi-ethnic, multilinguistic composition must have been one of the liveliest locations in the entire settlement. They also made beautiful bird parkas to take advantage of feathers water resistant and insulating qualities. 6 0 obj ABOVE: ATL91: radio carbon dated (Simon Fraser University Radio Carbon Lab) to approximately 2,000 years old, the Quiltanton Lake Atlatl was discovered in the lake mud when the water body was drained (located in the Highland Valley east of Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada). As his body did not show any suspicious signs, they concluded the toion [chief] had grown weak from rowing and with hunger and had died (Khlebnikov 1990:143). 17) by Waldemar Jochelson, 1933.

; Montastruc rock shelter, Tarn-et-Garonne, France.

[The Aleut] had lived with the Indians for nearly a year, but when the next group came to hunt, he reappeared and began hunting sea otters with the others He said they [the local natives] quite often fight and quarrel with one another, but they never bothered him (Litke 1975:135-138). This is a colorized version of an original 1883 drawing by Henry W. Elliott, a U.S. Treasury officer and a conservationist, who spent a lot of time out there in the late 19th Century. Source: Smithsonian; National Museum of the American Indian (http://alaska.si.edu Source: Lithic Casting Lab (lithiccastinglab.com), ABOVE: ATL82: fisherman, c1908, using an atlatl on Lake Patzcuaro, Mexico; republished work by Project Gutenberg: In Indian Mexico by Frederick Starr, originally published 1908. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16183/16183-h/16183-h.htm, ABOVE: ATL83: Late Magdalenian spear thrower mammoth carving; approximately 12,500 Y.B.P. Source: Smithsonian Department of Anthropology http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/anth, (http://webprojects.prm.ox.ac.uk/arms-and-armour/o/Spears/1888.43.2/), (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/s/mammoth_spear_thrower.aspx). is 2.48 inches (36mm); max. /ColorSpace /DeviceGray I've been working on a project connected with Aleutian fisheries recently, so I've been thinking about the Aleutians a lot at work. Marine resources, including whales, were very important to them. Ethnic Russians and Creoles (people who were the offspring of Russian/Native unions) of lower standing lived in a village of small houses with kitchen gardens. Open ocean hunting from these slight yet swift craft was a high risk, high reward proposition. Muravev, however, set their salary at 100 rubles per year apiece. ABOVE: ATL93: second of two views: Yupik hunter, c.1928, using spear thrower; described as wearing a hunting hat and [seal] gut parka. On both animals the antlers are laid along the back and the legs are folded underneath, with the exception of the back left leg of the male which originally extended behind. Over-Exploiting the Arctic Animal Commons, How Many Polar Icebreakers Does the U.S. The full length Adobe document which contains far more detailed images, including close-ups of specific portions of the Quiltanton Lake Atlatl, can be downloaded from BC Archives; go to: http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/Human_History/Archaeology.aspx?id=2185 Ben Muse, an Alaskan economist, is the blogger. Source: Smithsonian; National Museum of the American Indian (http://alaska.si.edu), ABOVE: ATL89: fifth of five views beginning with frame #85: Unangan hunter in a 1778 illustration by John Webber (official artist on Captain James Cooks third voyage, 1776 1780); spears lashed down behind hunter are described in museum descriptive text as mammal darts. So those Native Alaskans at Ross were a mere remnant of a once thriving, dynamic culture. Source: the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada (http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/MainSite/). ABOVE: ATL88: fourth of five views beginning with frame #85: the same Unangan hunters in two-man kayak demonstrating hunting technique with spear and spear thrower; photo from History, Ethnology and Anthropology of the Aleut (fig. Source: Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, ABOVE: ATL67: second of two views of atlatl described above; fourth in sequence of six images from Anderson River beginning with frame #64; 1866 or earlier. As populations of otter diminished near Ross, hunters had to travel farther for the companys fur profits. ABOVE: ATL98: second of two views of atlatl described above. Source: Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, ABOVE: ATL69: sixth in sequence of six images from Anderson River beginning with frame #64: location of Anderson River. ABOVE: ATL84: Late Magdalenian spear thrower made from mammoth tusk, depicting two reindeer swimming; approximately 12,500 Y.B.P. Other swimming reindeer are known, for example in a painted frieze in the cave of Lascaux. . >> Source: Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/anth), ABOVE: ATL65: second view of spear thrower described above; second in sequence of six images from Anderson River beginning with frame #64. This traditional method is more productive than using modern weapons like a musket because when a sea mammal is shot, it sinks and the valuable pelt and food is lost. 2 . The iqyan (kayak) they developed is still studied today and its design is incorporated into modern shipbuilding. According to the accompanying text, the spear thrower is still is use by Yupik hunters on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers; first of two related views. The sex of each animal is clearly shown. By the mid-1800s, epidemic diseases introduced by the Russians, overwork and starvation had reduced the population of Kodiak Island from 10,000 to 1,500. hbbd```b```8 The term Aleut was used by the Russians to designate all native peoples from the western Aleutian Islands to the Alaskan Peninsula and Prince William Sound. Here resided single Native Alaskan men, some Native Alaskan families, and other households consisting of Native Alaskan men and Kashaya and Miwok women and their children. << One, Vera, lived with Vasilii Grudinin, the lead carpenter in charge of shipbuilding at the colony, and another, Catherine, with a highly regarded and widely traveled promyshlennik, Sysoi Slobodchicov. /Length 7 0 R Russian Lieutenant M.P. It was possibly his daughter who was referred to in this notation of the Company headquarters in Novo-Arkangelsk (Sitka) on June 12,1842: Aleut Aleksei Nariadov has asked permission to marry Olimpiada, a baptized Indian woman from the shores of California. Another prominent Alutiiq leader, a man known simply as Matvei, lived at Ross and fathered a child; he also died here and was buried locally. There was an estimated population of 10,000 spread among numerous villages, some with as many as 1,000 inhabitants. Source: Smithsonian; National Museum of the American Indian (http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=44) RAC employed skilled Creole scribes, doctors assistants, and engineers. 0 Within the stockade, high ranking Russians and Creoles carried on the affairs of a mercantile enterprise. He calculates to a nice range where the whale will rise again from its last point of disappearance, and directs the course of the bidarka accordingly. The full length Adobe document which contains far more detailed images, including close-ups of specific portions of the Quiltanton Lake Atlatl, can be downloaded from BC Archives; go to: http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/Human_History/Archaeology.aspx?id=2185

is 2.48 inches (36mm); max. /Subtype /Image 2) %PDF-1.4 Though the Russians brought Alutiiq men, their skills and their crafts, they did not bring as many women. Most Native Alaskans here were Alutiiq [1]; among them were Chugachmiut from Prince William Sound, some Unegkurmiut from the Kenai Peninsula, and many Qikertarmiut, the People of the Island, from Kodiak Island. In addition, when not hunting, the Aleuts were used for other types of heavy work, such as fetching wood from locations where horses could not be used. (Khlebnikov 1990: 132) In 1821 Manager Kuskov requested of Chief Manager Muravev in Sitka that five Aleuts be rewarded for long service to the Company. At this outpost of the Russian Empire on the shores of Alta California, the traditional lifeways of the Native Alaskans sent here from Kodiak Island were significantly altered. With their noses up and antlers back the carving appears to show the reindeer swimming. Food was prepared communally by the few women that lived in the village. /Width 212 The archaeological record also reflects this ethnic composition, as artifacts recovered on the Farallons represent elements of Russian, Alaska Native and California Native cultures. xX[($ H$D$ o ont:j&sA9>339(JqN:6f Hg2!pN!J{;uVy_},ogGh3i9Za:;D_p=l+T'+ly$V?M gxF[5i7 Russian and contracted American ships would transport the baidarkas, (qayaq in Alutiiq: swift narrow craft of marine mammal skin stretched over a wooden frame) to a given location, then drop off the men and their boats. As an important Company official, Kiril T. Khlebnikov, succinctly reported: There have been cases in which the Aleuts have run off to the mountains with their lovers (Khlebnikov 1990:194). Source: Smithsonian; National Museum of the American Indian (http://alaska.si.edu) 288 0 obj <> endobj The qayaq, or baidarka, the light maneuverable craft used by these sea hunters, was made primarily from sea lion skins stretched over a frame of driftwood. Family trees, epic stories, songs, and specialized knowledge accumulated through thousands of years died with the elders who were the tradition bearers in these cultures which had no written language. Source: Anchorage Museum of History and Art but cited by the Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian (http://alaska.si.edu) First posted at Ben Muse on March 20, 2004: 19th Century Aleut Whaling. In 1838, half [sixty] of the Aleuts living in the settlement were withdrawn to reinforce hunting parties in Alaska which had been decimated by disease.

8 . Source: Smithsonian Institute (http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=345); photo by Edward S. Curtis On both animals the antlers are laid along the back and the legs are folded underneath, with the exception of the back left leg of the male which originally extended behind. The business of watching for these expected carcasses then became the great object of everyone's life in that hunters' village; dusky sentinels and pickets were ranged over long intervals of coast-line, stationed on the brows of the most prominent headlands, where they commanded an extensive range of watery vision. /SM 0.02 "This is one of the most beautiful pieces of Stone Age art ever found. Meanwhile the canoe is paddled away as alertly as possible, before the plunging flukes of the tortured animal can destroy it or drown its human occupants.". The separate handle is missing; length is 19.8 inches (505mm); width max. Source: Smithsonian Department of Anthropology http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/anth The separate handle is missing; length is 19.8 inches (505mm); width max. ABOVE: ATL93: second of two views: Yupik hunter, c.1928, using spear thrower; described as wearing a hunting hat and [seal] gut parka. [1] Alutiiq (pl. Source: Lithic Casting Lab (lithiccastinglab.com), ABOVE: ATL81: second of two views: spear thrower hook, banner stone/weight and bone handle. Source: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Woomera_(spear-thrower), ABOVE: ATL74: modern day spear thrower use: Warlpiri youth practices launching a spear ("kurlarda") with apikirri .; Tanami region, central western part of Australias Northern Territory http://www.ozoutback.com.au, ABOVE: ATL75: spear thrower from Little Whale River on the eastern side of Hudsons Bay, Quebec, Canada; rare example of a socket type spear thrower: the butt of the spear fits into the socket or pocket rather than onto a protruding spur or peg. It shows two reindeer, one behind the other. Source: http://www.aboriginalartcoop.com.au, ABOVE: ATL91: radio carbon dated (Simon Fraser University Radio Carbon Lab) to approximately 2,000 years old, the Quiltanton Lake Atlatl was discovered in the lake mud when the water body was drained (located in the Highland Valley east of Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada). There are no trees and no wood for construction. ABOVE: ATL84: Late Magdalenian spear thrower made from mammoth tusk, depicting two reindeer swimming; approximately 12,500 Y.B.P. thickness is 0.33 inch (8.5mm). Other swimming reindeer are known, for example in a painted frieze in the cave of Lascaux. Intermarriage between Alaskan men and Kashaya and Coast Miwok women was common, and these families would join the Alaska Native village. How do you get the whale to a beach where it can be slaughtered for its various products? The tapering shape of the mammoth tusk may also have decided the shape of the animals, which are perfectly modeled from all angles." At Ross, as at other Russian-American Company outposts, hunting sea otter was a priority. There were also among the Alaskan natives people whom the Russians called Fox Island Aleuts, or more precisely, Unangan, the People of the Sea. In fact, in the Kuskov censuses of 1820 and 1821, there were only three Fox Island Aleuts at Ross. Company records anAleut Hatd recent archaeological evidence, however, show that Unangan men, most likely from the eastern Aleutian Island of Unalaska, also spent time as hunters and laborers at Ross. The Kashaya Pomo called the Alaska Natives Underwater People because their boats sat so low in the water it seemed as if they were coming out of the sea. The Russian American Company (RAC) established Fort Ross and worked with many diverse people to build and operate the settlement. This desolate post was populated by a Russian overseer, Alutiiq hunters with their wives, and some Native Californians. "The native hunter used, as his sole weapon of destruction, a spear-handle of wood about six feet in length; to the head of this he lashed a neatly-polished socket of walrus ivory, in which he inserted a tip of serrated slate that resembled a gigantic arrow-point, twelve or fourteen inches long and four or five broad at the barbs, and upon the point of which he carved his own mark. [/Pattern /DeviceRGB] Their homes were most likely similar to those in Alaska: semisubmerged sod homes, called Ulax, held up by local redwood or driftwood. "This is one of the most beautiful pieces of Stone Age art ever found. Source: Smithsonian Department of Anthropology http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/anth << Most men on this first trip were from Kodiak Island, but over the next 30 years they would come from the Aleutian Islands and Alaskan Peninsula. Ilia Chevyihpak, from Kilyudinskoe Village on Kodiak, fled from Ross with an Indian wife in 1824 (Khlebnikov 1990:162), but was soon brought back to Ross. Sea lions were killed to provide skins and sinews for the baidarkas, meat and blubber for food, bladders and intestines for waterproof clothing and oil for lamps. The website AskArt. ABOVE: ATL87: third of five views beginning with frame #85: Unangan hunters with spears and throwing boards; these may be for sea otter hunting given the relatively small spear size; hats described as wooden hunting hats and brightly colored --- although also referred to in caption that accompanies next image as chiefs hats, which sounds odd; their over-garment is waterproof gut of unspecified species; 1909-1910, Aleutian Islands, Alaska; photo from History, Ethnology and Anthropology of the Aleut (fig. /ca 1.0 The Alaska Natives were expert sea hunters. With their noses up and antlers back the carving appears to show the reindeer swimming. >> It was collected at Little Whale River by Dr. Walton Haydon between 1878 and 1883 and in the absence of further details, the source suggests that this artifact may be Innu. Also see the next image, taken of two Innu igloo builders beside the Little Whale River in 1872. Three other Alutiiq women lived with creole men. Their women gathered shellfish, cleaned and dried fish, and constructed and maintained kamleikas, waterproof garments stitched of marine mammal intestines, for the hunters. /BitsPerComponent 8 ?,e6V^S+`!5m@M^qJNd*7 VgD}24416 Nk+lu3Dz`,e@*-3*c4$Un 6-\rP]*Q82Mmt. "This is one of the most beautiful pieces of Stone Age art ever found. /SA true ABOVE: ATL92: detail of Yupik Culture spear thrower, southwest Alaska, 1927 or earlier; called nuqaq; full views only available at http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=345 (Smithsonian Institute) Source: British Museum (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/s/mammoth_spear_thrower.aspx), ABOVE: ATL85 AND ATL86: Unangan (Aleut) throwing board called haassk in the Unangan language of Unangam Tunuu; Aleutian Islands, Alaska (exact location not specified); 19.29 inches (490mm); first two of five associated views (large-format, highly detailed views can be seen at the link below; their format does not allow copying, hence the low-res versions shown above). He visited Alaska regularly thereafter, spending much of the rest of his life fighting in Congress to reverse the practices that had led to disastrous declines in the northern fur seal population. According to the accompanying text, the spear thrower is still is use by Yupik hunters on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers; first of two related views. ABOVE: ATL92: detail of Yupik Culture spear thrower, southwest Alaska, 1927 or earlier; called nuqaq; full views only available at http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=345 (Smithsonian Institute) ABOVE: ATL92: detail of Yupik Culture spear thrower, southwest Alaska, 1927 or earlier; called nuqaq; full views only available at http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=345 (Smithsonian Institute) He died a death curiously befitting a person from a noble seafaring culture. ; Montastruc rock shelter, Tarn-et-Garonne, France. The weather is brutal. Source: Kevin L. Callahan, Anthropology Department, University of Minnesota (http://www.tcinternet.net/users/cbailey/atl.html), ABOVE: ATL80: Atlatl hook; Davis Co., Indiana; 2.0 inches (50.8mm); found with banner stone (spear thrower weight) and handle; only the wooden (presumed) handle is missing (see next image); date 8000 to 5000 Y.B.P.