Alutiiq

The following is copied from The Alutiiq Ethnographic Bibliograpy:

The term "Alutiiq" is relatively new. It has been used by Native speakers and scholars since the early 1980s to refer to both the language and culture of the group of Alaska Native people indigenous to the Kodiak Island Archipelago, the southern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, Prince William Sound, and the lower tip of the Kenai Peninsula. These people speak a language so similar to Central Yup'ik (a language spoken by Eskimos in Western Alaska) that they can almost converse with Yup'ik speakers of western Alaska. There are smaller dialect differences between Alutiiq groups.

Beginning in Russian colonial times, most Alutiiqs were called and have called themselves Aleuts, although their language is not very similar to the language spoken by Aleuts on the Aleutian Chain. The Russians recognized that Alutiiqs were different from Aleuts, and referred to them by area as Kadiaks or Chugashes. However, the Russians used one blanket term, Aleuts, to distinguish Alutiiqs and Aleuts from other Native groups. In addition to a common language and traditional culture, Alutiiqs share a history of Russian colonization and the lasting influence of Russian Orthodox religion. Following the end of the Russian colony, Alutiiqs experienced a common induction into commercial fishing when it became the main wage industry in their coastal villages. In the twentieth century, many Alutiiqs also shared the experience of three disasters: the 1912 Mount Katmai eruption, the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake and tsunami, and the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.