Alaska
Alaska-Alutiiq Word of the Week-October 9th – Alaska Native News
Alaska– Alas’kaaq
Guangkuta Alas’kaarmiu’at. – We’re all Alaskans.
Unangam Tunuu, the Native language of the Aleutian Island chain, is the supply of the title Alaska. In Unangam Tunuu, Alax̂sxix̂ basically means “nice land” or “mainland.” Earlier than western conquest, Aleutian Islanders used this phrase to confer with the western finish of the Alaska Peninsula. From their island perspective, the peninsula was an unlimited land.
Early western explorers adopted Unangan custom, utilizing the time period Alaska for the Alaska Peninsula. Early cartographers recorded many variations of the phrase, together with Alakshak, Alaksu, Alaxsa, and Aliaska. Alaska was not adopted because the title for what’s now the forty-ninth state till 1867. Secretary of the Inside William H. Seward and his colleagues Charles Sumner and H. W. Hallek proposed the title when the area handed from Russian to American rule and have become a territory of the USA.
The time period Alaska can also be distinctively Native in different methods. Alaska Native place names usually confer with native options of the panorama. Alutiiq folks, for instance, may title a cove for a selected plant discovered alongside its shores, or a headland for its dominant wind. In distinction, European peoples have a tendency to call giant geographic options or to make use of place names to commemorate others: Chirikof Island, Mt. Glotov, and Shelikof Strait are some native examples.
Source: Alutiiq Museum