Chugach

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This article is about the Chugach people. For other uses, see Chugach (disambiguation).
Chugach
Sugpiaq
Chugach man in traditional dress
Regions with significant populations
 United States (Alaska)12,113[1]
Languages
Alutiiq (Also known as Sugt'stun) (Chugach dialect), English
Related ethnic groups
Koniag Alutiiq, Yup'ik

Chugach

Alaska Native people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound on the southern coast of Alaska. The Chugach people are an Alutiiq (Pacific Native) people who speak the Chugach dialect of the Alutiiq language
.

Name

Their autonym Sugpiaq derives from suk, meaning "person" and -piaq, meaning "real."

Aleut people. According to Ethnologue, earlier terms for the Chugach such as Chugach Eskimo, South Alaska Eskimo, Sugpiak Eskimo, and Sugpiaq Eskimo, are pejorative.[2]

Settlements

Chugach villages include

Chenega Bay, Eyak, Nanwalek (English Bay), Port Graham, and Tatitlek.[1]

History

trade beads
, Museum of Cultures, Helsinki

The Chugach people have lived in the region around Prince William Sound for millennia, according to archaeological finds. They were the first indigenous Alaskans to encounter the

Tlingit.[1]

In 1964, a

Good Friday earthquake destroyed the Chugach village of Chenega, Alaska. The fishing-based Chugach economy was badly affected by the environmental damage caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill
in 1989.

Language

Chugach people speak one of two dialects of the

Alaskan Yupik language family. Once written in Cyrillic script, the language is now written in the Latin script.[2]

Social structures and gender

There are historical accounts of some androgynous

two spirit individuals among the Chugach, known as aranu'tiq.[3] According to anthropologists writing in the 1950s, these individuals were considered to be male on one side of their bodies and female on the other.[3] Some had descriptive names like "Tyakutyik" ("What Kind Of People Are These Two?"), but this description was given to many types of people in the community, and was not related to gender expression.[3]

Namesakes

The Chugach people gave their name to

Alaska Native regional corporation created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
of 1971, also derives its name from the Chugach people, many of whom are shareholders of the corporation.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "Chugach." First Alaskans Institute. Accessed 5 Feb 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Yupik, Pacific Gulf." Ethnologue. Accessed 5 February 2013.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0595227856
    ), page 209

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chugach people.
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