Pre-colonization Alaska

a modern alutiiq dancer in traditional festival garb.

numerous indigenous peoples occupied alaska thousands of years before arrival of european peoples area. linguistic , dna studies done here have provided evidence settlement of north america way of bering land bridge. tlingit people developed society matrilineal kinship system of property inheritance , descent in today southeast alaska, along parts of british columbia , yukon. in southeast haida, known unique arts. tsimshian people came alaska british columbia in 1887, when president grover cleveland, , later u.s. congress, granted them permission settle on annette island , found town of metlakatla. 3 of these peoples, other indigenous peoples of pacific northwest coast, experienced smallpox outbreaks late 18th through mid-19th century, devastating epidemics occurring in 1830s , 1860s, resulting in high fatalities , social disruption.

the aleutian islands still home aleut people s seafaring society, although first native alaskans exploited russians. western , southwestern alaska home yup ik, while cousins alutiiq ~ sugpiaq lived in southcentral alaska. gwich in people of northern interior region athabaskan , known today dependence on caribou within much-contested arctic national wildlife refuge. north slope , little diomede island occupied widespread inupiat people.