Talk:Aleuts

concern
Well, I'm concerned about this entry.

According to local souces, http://arctic.net/~updhcvb/, the people call themselves Unangan. Shall we move most of the information to an article called Unangan? orcalover
 * I would think not. Aleut is the most commonly used name for them, and the one most people are familiar with. Would we put the article on Germans under Deutsch? Similarly, Apache actually means "enemy," and the people's name for themselves is Na Dineh, but it is not in common usage, so I think Apache is preferred. Certainly, the article should mention that the people calls itself/prefers to be called Unangan. Danny

Thanks. I'll try it that way. I agree that the term Aleut has a respectable history.

Old talk
The term "Aleut", commonly pronounced "Alley-youte" in my experience, is an appropriate word describing the indigenous peoples of the Aleutian chain. At the offices of The Aleut Corporation, the Regional ANCSA Corporation, the receptionist pronounces the word each time she gets a call from an Aleut shareholder, a certified descendant of the Aleuts. //Don Karabelnikoff, a Russian-Aleut and Chairman Emeritus of The CIRI Foundation, cultural heritage affiliate of Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI). //Don K. (talk) 11:00, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Balanced presentation
"Japanese forces ... transported captive Attu Islanders to Hokkaidō, where they were held as prisoners of war."

United states government, on the the other hand "evacuated" them and "placed them in internment camps where many died."

Perhaps a more balanced wording should be used. 93.103.96.231 (talk) 16:29, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

snow crash
I read in the Snow Crash book that the Aleuts (their territory?) suffered with U.S. nuclear testing in the 1970s? -- Error

It's true. Nuclear testing on Amchitka Island exposed people and sea life to radioactive fallout. Uyanga 14:06 May 5, 2003 (UTC)

Also, the US transplantation of Aleuts during WWII had disastrous effects on the culture and people. They were forced to abandon their homes with almost nothing but the clothes on their backs, and many died from starvation and sickness in extremely poor housing with little food and no knowledge of the foreign environment.

How about the other bits in Snow Crash about the glass knives and the using kayaks to surf from island to island? Are those true also, or were they made up for the story the way the same author Qghlm for Cryptonomicon?

1838 Epidemy
From 1838: * Epidemic kills half of the native population in the Aleuts If this is correct, can someone please write a bit more about it here (in particular, which disease was it?) and reinsert the entry which I removed? Thanks, Common Man 10:57, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

It was smallpox. The Russians have provided all their settlements with smallpox serum to prevent the spread of the disease. However, only the Aleuts took the serum, while the other tribes (Tlingits or Athabascans) rejected 'white man's medicine'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.49.90.190 (talk) 14:41, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Aleut Restitution Act of 1988
Reading Russian colonization of the Americas, I came across a word called Aleut, to which I was interested in finding out its definition. Upon coming to this page, I saw a red link for Aleut Restitution Act of 1988 and started researching. A little research turned into an hour of research, and I ended up with what you see now at Aleut Restitution Act of 1988. I doubt many of you would be interested, but just letting you know that that's one less red link now. Kareeser|Talk! 05:18, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Typographical edits / Suggested changes
I'm correcting a few very minor typos in this entry. It's my first run at a wiki edit, so hopefully I'm playing by the rules here. There will still need to be a good amount of additional effort by someone that has domain knowledge of this subject. I too, just read snow crash (awesome) and wanted to read about the Aleuts, since I know nothing about them. Also, I'd suggest someone take a closer look at rewording some of the more subjective items in this article, but since this appears to be an active Native American project (from what I saw), I will leave this alone for now.

-- user:coreydaj

Anthropology and Prehistory?
We could really do with a good paragraph or two on anthropology and pre-contact history, here...

"related groups" info removed from infobox
For dedicated editors of this page: The "Related Groups" info was removed from all Infobox Ethnic group infoboxes. Comments may be left here. Ling.Nut 22:57, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

In pop culture:

Book by Janet Dailey 'The Great Alone' Sphere Books Limited, London, 1987 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.49.90.190 (talk) 14:33, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

name change?
after reading this article it says they prefer to be called unangan and that the name aleut was given to them by russian fur traders. Maybe it should be changed to unanangan with a redirect from aleut?

here is the link I found this information fromMatsuiny2004 (talk) 07:36, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/aleuts.html

some links
this link to a book digitized by google has some information on what seems to be the prehistory of the unangandan (Aleut)Matsuiny2004 (talk) 07:48, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

http://books.google.com/books?id=QNqtYsH4EScC&pg=PA12&dq=barabara+aleut

http://books.google.com/books?id=33hayxkqNYgC&pg=RA1-PA35&dq=barabara+aleut

the second one discusses barabaras at least the page it leads to does

this third link has some information on precontact

http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/ancr/Aleut/CulturalChange/append.a-f.html

Matsuiny2004 (talk) 07:55, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

"Homeland"
There were several factual problems with the "Location" section - Aleuts were "resettled" - not "deported", and the Pribilofs were not part of their "original homeland". I fixed these errors, and added some references. Apologies for sloppy ref formatting. - Eliezg (talk) 10:08, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

In popular culture
Here's the section from the article:

In Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, the character Raven is an Aleut harpooner seeking revenge for the US's nuclear testing on Amchitka.

The Aleut tribes are also the subject of the Sue Harrison's Ivory Carver Trilogy that includes Mother Earth Father Sky, My Sister the Moon, and Brother Wind.

Aleuts are the subject of Irving Warner's 2007 historical novel about the Attuans held as prisoners of war in Japan, The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith.

Dana Stabenow has published a series of mystery novels set in Alaska. The novels' main character and detective is an Aleut woman named Kate Shugak. -Uyvsdi (talk) 21:04, 28 April 2011 (UTC)Uyvsdi

Modern place in society?
This article is excellent in terms of the history and traditional culture of the Aleut peoples but seems to say little about how they live now. Have they continued with the traditional practices of their ancestors or mostly integrated into modern culture? or is it a mix of the two? do they still live on their original islands or followed the mass migration into cities during the 20th and 21st centuries. Have they adapted to using modern technology and the internet?. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stripy tie (talk • contribs) 20:56, 23 December 2011 (UTC)


 * This is 6 months late, and I don't have online sources, so I wouldn't think I should edit the article, but I can tell you (as someone who is over 1/4 Aleut) we've definitely adapted to modern technology. There are, of course, rural villages in AK with Aleut populations, but there are also many Aleuts in cities (e.g. Anchorage), there's definite spread. Generally the more urban the area, the less any traditions would have followed or even known much of. Even Aleut elders, who might at least speak the language, generally wouldn't have any piercings/tattoos/beliefs in old ways apart from, say, subsistence living. While there are still techniques related to hunting/preparing food in more isolated areas, for example, religion etc has been "modernized" almost entirely. I don't know if there are any sites that would have this info in a more credible way, though. I can only speak from personal experience/what I've seen. Iliamna (talk) 21:27, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Chipewyan people which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 09:14, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Move. As with other similar moves, we seem to have an emerging consensus here that the people are the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC and should be at the base name. Cúchullain t/ c 13:36, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Aleut people → Aleut – target moved to current title by Kwami on Jan 15 2011, then converted into two-item dab page by same editor then moved to PRIMARYTOPIC current redirect by Uysvdi on July 6 2011 citing WP:TWODABS. WP:UNDAB applies here as in other such cases. Skookum1 (talk) 06:00, 20 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Oppose until the issue is addressed properly. These should be discussed at a centralized location.
 * There was a discussion once on whether the ethnicity should have precedence for the name, and it was decided it shouldn't. That could be revisited.  But it really should be one discussion on the principle, not thousands of separate discussions at every ethnicity in the world over whether it should be at "X", "Xs", or "X people".  — kwami (talk) 12:39, 20 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Support per nom. An identified people should be the primary topic of a term absent something remarkable standing in the way. bd2412  T 02:28, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Support as per the policy Article titles and the guideline Naming conventions (ethnicities and tribes). The section Article titles also applies given that Aleut is a redirect here. There is no need to redo any guideline as it already supports the un-disabiguated title. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 03:43, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Support per CambridgeBayWeather. In cases where the requested move simply eliminates the word "people", and the destination title is already a simple redirect to the current title, it is clear that guidelines favoring both precision and conciseness support the move. Xoloz (talk) 20:19, 30 March 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Unanga etymology/grammar
The article contradicts itself: '' A regional self-denomination is Unangax̂, Unangan or Unanga, meaning "original people." [...] The word Unangan (plural Unanga-x) evidently translates to "Seasider."'' So which is it, "original people" or "seasiders"?

According to language sites, Unangax is the dual, not the plural: singular Unanga{ ("{" being another transcription for "x̂", the voiceless uvular fricative), dual Unangax, plural Unangan. But sometimes Unangax seems to be used to denominate the people. --92.208.245.85 (talk) 10:17, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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Requested move 4 March 2017

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: No Consensus. Naulagmi (talk) 21:59, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Aleut → Unangax people – The name Aleut is starting to be outdated in Alaska, and occasionally somewhat offensive. The official languages bill passed in 2014 designated the language as Unangax, not Aleut. The Alaska Native Language Center also lists the language as Unangax: Writing about the term Aleut: "This language was formerly called Aleut, a general term for introduced by Russian explorers and fur traders to refer to Native Alaskan of the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island, and Prince William Sound". The regional non-profit APIA (Aleutian and Pribilof Islands Association, also lists there name as Unangax (or plural Unangas/Unangan), as well as the Alaska Native Heritage Center and Ounalaska Corporation. Use of Unangax has become common practice in Alaska in about the last five to ten years. It would have happened sooner, but there was disagreement about whether to use Unangax or the plural form. Naulagmi (talk) 09:04, 4 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Oppose. The article's sources overwhelmingly use "Aleut".  While "the name Aleut is starting to be outdated in Alaska" (my emphasis) may be true, this change needs to be reflected in common usage worldwide.  In addition, this article is about the Aleut people and not the Aleut language which is the subject of the linked sources above.  —  AjaxSmack   02:53, 5 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Worldwide, yes, Aleut, may still be the common name, but what percentage of people outside of Alaska are those ones using the word Aleut? It is in common use in Alaska, and I would assume that 90% of use of of Unangax/Aleut is in Alaska. Also, the only source above that is referring to language is the Alaska Native Language Center and the Official Languages Act. The other three sources refer to the people group. Please read the links again before making a decision. --Naulagmi (talk) 04:43, 5 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Oppose. "Aleut" has long been the accepted name of the people - which the people still use to designate themselves. Even if it is "occasionally somewhat offensive," surely this is dependent on the context in which it is used and not inherent in the name itself? The word itself, I contend, remains neutral - at least as far as I am aware.John Hill (talk) 03:32, 5 March 2017 (UTC)
 * You are wrong about the name which people still use to designate themselves. All major Unangax organizations (except for the Aleut Corporation) are using Unangax as common practice, as you can see in the links above, as well as the State government. To some people, the term Aleut (like Eskimo) in of itself, can be offensive. The terms common usage has shifted in Alaska in the last ten years. Please reconsider. --Naulagmi (talk) 04:43, 5 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Withdraw You may well be right - you are more up to date than I am - so I withdraw my opposition. Over to you. I hope everyone finds an acceptable solution.John Hill (talk) 05:39, 5 March 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

External links modified
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Adding a main article on related content
Hello fellow Wikipedians; I will be writing a new main article on wooden hunting hats (in which there is currently a short mention under 5.3 Visual Arts). I understand there has been discussion on the usage of 'Aleut' or demonym 'Unangan'. I am planning to use Unangan, and will link my article from the Aleut page/section. Please let me know if you have any concerns. You will be able to find the page here once complete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unangan_hunting_headgear. Thanks :) Alias112358 (talk) 01:05, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

Requested move 26 December 2023

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved as requested per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 17:10, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Aleut → Aleuts – Name already in article. Like Catalans, Romanians, Ukrainians.&#32;Lucjim (talk) 19:29, 22 December 2023 (UTC) This is a contested technical request (permalink). Ebbedlila (talk) 14:42, 26 December 2023 (UTC)


 * Support per nom. Yorkporter (talk) 19:27, 26 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Support; this is the standard naming convention. ― novov  (t   c)  09:18, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.