Stories of Sugpiaq Survivance: Uncovering Lifeways at Ing'yuq Village

Abstract

This dissertation explores various storytelling methods in archaeology, as situated within a community-based project in Old Harbor, Alaska, a Sugpiaq village in the Kodiak Archipelago. The research is grounded in archaeologies of survivance, which center Native presence, sovereignty, and futurity throughout the archaeological research process. As a concept, survivance is an important intervention within studies of settler colonialism, especially in North America, because it encourages researchers to consider multiple ways of knowing beyond the dominant systems of the academy. Epistemic diversity creates rigorous and robust research practices and interpretations, and often leads to new insights when data are contextualized within specific Indigenous epistemic communities. In this dissertation, an engagement with survivance has led to the co-creation of storytelling methods with collaborators in Old Harbor. These story methods work to both interpret archaeological data and effectively communicate and engage with the Old Harbor community. Story genres employed in this dissertation include story-models for hypothesis generation, fictive narrative, personal reflection, artistic reconstruction, and object-centered vignettes. These stories were generated as part of the Old Harbor Archaeological History Project (OHAHP). The purpose of OHAHP is to uncover Sugpiaq lifeways during the Russian colonial period (1760s to 1867 CE) in the Old Harbor region. This dissertation research focuses on labor practices, foodways, and elements of residence and governance among the people of Ing’yuq Village (KOD-114). Sugpiaq ancestors lived at Ing’yuq, located on Sitkalidak Island, for at least a century prior to Russian arrival in 1784, and persisted in place until the year 1840. This dissertation draws on data from archaeological excavations at Ing’yuq, critical examinations of the ethnohistoric and archival documentation of the Russian colonial period, and ethnographic interviews with Old Harbor community members to examine Sugpiaq negotiations of Russian colonialism. Analysis of these data reveal how Sugpiaq ancestors at Ing’yuq creatively maintained their relationships to their homelands through the tumultuous period of Russian occupation. Archaeofaunal remains from the Ing’yuq site show that people ate a wider variety of locally-procured foods and lived at Ing’yuq year-round during the Russian colonial period, which contrasts with indications of seasonal occupation in the century prior to Russian arrival. This signals a consolidation of the population, as men were sent away to hunt sea otter in distant regions for months at a time, and women pooled their labor to address Russian demands for goods. By reorganizing households, Sugpiaq families sought to maintain community even while so many relatives were lost to violence, disease, and removal. Analysis of belongings (a.k.a. artifacts) found that processing and manufacturing were the predominant activities in both the precolonial and colonial period deposits at Ing’yuq. That pattern roughly fits in with the characterization of belongings from other late precolonial and early colonial sites in southeastern Kodiak, suggesting a continuity of practice within these villages through time. The ubiquity of locally made pottery at Ing’yuq and the diversity of ulus found at the site suggest that Sugpiaq crafting traditions continued into the Russian colonial period, despite the increasing availability of imported goods through time. Storytelling is what holds these archaeological conclusions together and makes them make sense anthropologically and in community. The narrative that emerges from integrating the archaeological interpretations together is one of persistence and survivance by Sugpiaq people as they navigated, and continue to navigate, waves of Russian and American colonialism within their homelands. The use of collaborative storytelling in this dissertation contributes a novel framework for interpretation of the past. In using multiple storytelling strategies throughout this dissertation, I showcase a grounded method for making sense of archaeological data within an Indigenous survivance framework that weaves together cultural stories, archaeological data, personal narratives, and oral history to prioritize Indigenous experiences in our telling of Indigenous histories.