Unangan People Research Paper

THE UNANGAN
The Unangan people lived in the Alaska region of North America and their culture is known as the Arctic culture. At the start of the late eighteen century, the Russian missionaries had come to covert the Unangan people to Christianity however, most of them had died from starvation, diseases or being killed by the Russians who first owned the land but later sold it to the United States. The Americans also made life very difficult for the Unangans by forcing them to assimilate the American culture.
Fishing and sea mammal hunting were the two most essential economic activities for the Unangan people. That trade flourished for a while and they worked on fishing fleets and canneries. Fish, mostly from the ocean included salmon, herring, cod and halibut. They built dams for catching fresh water fish and spears, nets, hooks and lines from boats to catch ocean fish. However, when that trade declined they were forced to engage in other industries that developed such as sheep ranching but some Unangans continued in the fishing trade as well as hunting for fur seals.

After confiscating their lands, the United States built military bases on them. The trauma of this event cost most of them their lives, they died from malnutrition and diseases. At the end of the war, they were allowed to return to the island only to find out that their homes and properties had been vandalized, looted and destroyed by these military men. With nothing else left, they became heavily dependent on the U.S military for work. By the 1990s, the United States Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians recognized the injustices that had been committed against the Unangans so it was agreed that each Unangan would be paid restitution in the amount of