The genocide of the Aleutian islanders

In the far east of Siberia, East of Yakutia, on the Chukotka peninsula of Eastern Russia, lives the ethnic group of the Chukchis, who, like the Yakuts and the Nenets of the tundra, are also engaged in fishing and reindeer husbandry.

The Chukchis are related to the Aleuts of the North-American oceanic islands and the Inuit of the American Arctic. Some authors, such as Spencer Wells, think that the ancestors of the Chukchi would have arrived in that area following the reindeer herds more than 10,000 years ago and some of them might have crossed the Bering Strait to migrate the American continent.

On the other hand, the Aleuts, who in their language call themselves Unanga, inhabit an archipelago that acts like a bridge of islands between Asia and North America.

This archipelago, which is composed of 300 volcanic islands, covers an area of ​​37,000 km2 and extends 1,900 kilometers from the Alaska peninsula to the mainland coast of Russia. Its current population is about 17,000 people.

In ancient times, because the islands provided few resources, the Aleuts obtained their food, clothing, and even tools from the adjacent sea. They were excellent navigators using small craft made with seal skin. They fished and hunted marine mammals with harpoons using nautical and hunting techniques of great sophistication.

The arrival of the Europeans, particularly of the Russian fur traders, radically changed their way of life.

Some Japanese castaways who arrived to the island Amchitka in 1783, found the Russians cruelly exploiting the native Aleuts.

One of them upon returning to Japan expressed in his testimony:

"The Russians stole the seal skins from the Aleuts. If they were angry or did not give them the skins or did not give them enough, the Aleuts were beaten almost to death, and If they did not obey orders, they would kill them. "

The production obtained by the furs (from seals and sea otters) was divided equally between the employer, the workers and the Russian Government, but the Aleuts who extracted the riches received only punishment. In successive years groups of fur traders continued to arrive to the island of Arnchitka and gradually the native population diminished until disappearing in 1832.

Many Aleuts from the other islands who suffered similar aggressions during Russian domination also saw their numbers considerably reduced.

When the United States bought Alaska and occupied the islands in 1867,  intense colonization was unleashed.

The Russian imperial-authoritarian-bureaucratic system was replaced by a liberal regime that changed radically the islands regime into a capitalist laissez-faire.

The Eastern islands were invaded by a stream of Americans seeking to quickly enrich themselves. Excessive hunting ended up extinguishing populations of sea otters and seals before the end of the 19th century. The Aleuts who had survived were relegated to less attractive jobs and areas.

To complete the grim picture, in 1971 the United States decided to detonate a nuclear bomb on the island of Amchitka, which had been depopulated during Russian times, and which had since been uninhabited.

This explosion provoked contamination Amchitka and other neighboring islands. It probably still subsists today.

At present the economic activity of the Aleutian Islands revolves around the fishing of herring and salmon. The main fishing port of the archipelago is Amaknak, located on the island of the same name, which in turn is located in a bay of another major island (Unalaska Island with 2,720 km2).

Today, there are about 10,000 inhabitants who have largely lost the use of their ancestral language. which is likely to become extinct in the next few years.

There are only a few hundred older people who still use some of the original dialects.

The tragedy of the Aleutian Islands is one of the least known and cruelest genocides in contemporary history.

From "Chronicles of Human Peripecie", Danilo Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones.