#Alutiiq

[folkfashion]

Sugpiat women, Alaska, by Lexi Qass’uq Trainer

[sealwomyn]

Linda Infante Lyons (Alutiiq), "Sovereign of the North," 2022, oil on panel, 30 × 30 in

[uwmspeccoll]

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: Tanya Lukin Linklater

Today we feature the art and poetry of multidisciplinary artist Tanya Lukin Linklater (b. 1976) from southwestern Alaska. Her work incorporates dance, sculpture, textiles, video, and text, and often draws on the lived experiences of indigenous peoples. She is of Alutiiq heritage and an enrolled tribal member of Native Villages of Afognak and Port Lions on the Kodiak Island archipelago. The poems featured are from Slow Scrape; our copy is a second edition published in 2022 by Talonbooks, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In her introduction to the collection, the poet Layli Long Soldier suggests that Lukin Linklater’s power establishes itself in her choreographer’s mastery of rhythm (“text in step”), and in the relational themes of the poems: “Through particulars of place, language, and culture, people begin to know each other; and erasure (rife with overlooking, forgetting, denial and invisibility) becomes impossible.” It is not dominance and defiance that characterizes these relations, the power is in the knowledge: “We feel for one another.”

The images are from various projects of Lukin Linklater’s featured in An Indigenous Present, edited by Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter for BIG NDN Press out of New York City in 2023. The collection gathers dynamic visual work and writing from contemporary Native North American artists.

Check out a recent consideration of Lukin-Linklater’s work in Art Review.

See other work featured in An Indigenous Present.

View other posts on Natives American/First Nation Women Writers.

See other Women’s History Month posts.

--Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern.

[meztlijaguar]

«I love you» in different Native American languages Qunukamken = I love you (Alutiiq Language, Alaska) Chiholloli = I love you (Chickasaw, Oklahoma) Ayóó’áníínísh’ní = I love you (Diné, Navajo, Arizona/New Mexico) Moo ‘ams ni stinta = I love you (Klamath-Modoc, Oregon) Ktaʔwãanin = I love you (Mahican Dialect, Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe of Wisconsin) Konnorónhkwa = I love you (Mohawk, New York) In ‘ee hetewise = I love you (Nimiipuutimpt, Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho) Nu Soopeda U = I love you (Northern Paiute, Nevada) Gizaagiin = I love you (Ojibwa/Bad River Ojibwe, Wisconsin) Kunoluhkwa = I love you (Oneida Tribe, Wisconsin) Thro sii muu = You are dear to me (Pueblo of Acoma, Acoma Keres dictionary, New Mexico) Eee-peinoom = I love you (Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico) Amuu-thro-maa = I love you (Pueblo of Laguna, Laguna Keres dictionary, New Mexico) Shro- tse-mah = I love you (Pueblo of San Felipe, San Felipe Keres dictionary, New Mexico) ‘Ho’doh’ee’cheht’mah = I love you (Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico) Kʷ in̓x̣menč = I love you (Salish, Washington) Gönóöhgwa’ = I love you (Seneca Tribe, New York) Ixsixán = I love you (Tlingit, Alaska) I daat axajóon — I’m dreaming of you (Tlingit, Alaska) Ma ihkmahka — I love you (to a male) (Tunica, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana) Hɛma ihkmahka — I love you (to a female) (Tunica, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana)

[arthistoryanimalia]

Happy #InternationalDayOfTheSeal ! 🦭

Seal Decoy Helmet

Alutiiq (Pacific Eskimo), Kodiak Island, Alaska, before 1869

Carved & painted spruce wood, inlay whiskers, 17.5 x 25.5 x 19 cm (6 7/8 x 10 1/16 x 7 1/2 in.)

Harvard Peabody Museum 69-30-10/64700

“Carved from wood, hunters would have worn this hat to approach and trap seals.”

[matriarchy-au]

[nonhapiupareti]

Linda Infante Lyons

The Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository, Kodiak, Alaska.

[islandgirl37]

A Beautiful Sunday in Kodiak

It was a beautiful sunny day, the first one we’d seen in a while. I took advantage of the weather and decided to go for a walk around town. Since we were docked at the Ferry Terminal, the first thing I did was to visit the Kodiak Visitors Center right around in front. Kodiak Ferry Terminal The people there were very nice and helpful. They gave me some good ideas for things to do and answered a…

[gritty-big-naturals]

who wants to go to the met museum and yell about stolen indigenous art with me bc WEW i’m heated

[doktorsung]

“As a coastal maritime people, the Alutiiq possessed an awareness of surrounding areas and a complex knowledge about ocean navigation, including methods of reading the stars, currents, tides, winds, and animal behaviors. This close awareness of their environment also included knowledge of weather and natural catastrophic event predictions, including ways to contend with their often harsh environment. They understood and perfected engineering methods that enabled them to develop tools specifically suited to their environment.”

- from Our Way: A Parallel History, edited by Julie Cajune, “History of Kodiak Alutiiq Education and Impacts on Families Today” by Alisha Drabek, page 323

Do you think that ancient people would give enough fucks about movements and nature of stars and planets if they didn't think that it would allow them to see the future?

Like it feels like before the European Naval Empires this was the only reason people cared about astronomy, and navigation was based on laws that some people described because they were certain that knowing the exact position of Mars in any moment would allow them to do better star charts

You can use the stars for things other than divination. Tracking the movements of the heavens is useful for fairly normal things like timekeeping and basic navigation on land. England did not invent navigating by the stars lol.

[folkfashion]

Alutiiq dancers, Alaska, by Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers

[mathosapabeads]

Makhachega bolo, inspired by (and named for) earthenware pottery. made with 11/0 seed beads, 11/0 copper lined seed beads, rhinestone banding, glass copper vitrail spike beads, glass czech beads, Alutiiq made salmon leather, Cherokee made resin cab with dried flower, steel slider and tips, and leather cord.

[yuritypology]

Alutiiq Seal Hunting Hat (c. 18th century)

[baebeylik]

Whale. Ivory. Alutiiq. Alaska, United States. 20th Century CE.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[dailymothanon]

I wasn't sure what to draw and didn't feel like being too complicated, so here's ND, squeezing him squashing him twisting him. A good stress reliever I would know because I do this all the time

😌 also this was just me playing around with some random tattoos for Alaska, dunno if i'll keep it or not. As for his gender, and the nuance between all his cultures, the simplest I can say is that to me he could be third gender, which there is many nuance towards it because he has so many different cultures, but for now i'll go with the Sugpiaq/Alutiiq term, arnauciq, or basically, "two persons united in one" and can do both roles that are viewed as equal in communities.

I am currently making a doc for all my findings towards gender in Alaskan culture since there is a lot, so ermm just tell me if you ever wanna see it cuz why not 🤷 I just wanna be respectful as I do it hence all the research

[delicatuscii-wasbella102]

Hunter's hat with sea lion whiskers. Alaska, United States, Alutiiq peoples, 1820-1860