In the remote Alutiiq village of Old Harbor on Kodiak Island in Alaska, I was sharing a lunch of seafood chowder and alaciq (fry bread) at the community center with a pair of elders. We were discussing the craziness of cellphones, but Victor Peterson, 84, said they weren’t the most important change he’d seen in his life. That would be indoor plumbing, which arrived here only after a devastating Good Friday earthquake and tsunami in 1964. “Then the light bulb came, then cellphones,” he chuckled.
Today the village of about 230, with its picture-perfect setting on a sheltered harbor backed by mountains that are lush green in late June, still gets its electricity via diesel generators. Residents rely heavily on subsistence living, hunting, and fishing—even as salmon runs have declined due to climate change, overfishing, and other factors.
Change is afoot. And measured, responsible tourism is part of the picture.
Reaching Old Harbor
Old Harbor, Alaska, is accessible only by air or by sea.
Courtesy of HX Expeditions
Old Harbor can be reached by boat or plane. A regularly scheduled half-hour air-taxi flight from Kodiak city to Old Harbor on Island Air Service is about $380 round-trip, making frequent trips out of reach for many residents (from Kodiak there is flight service available to Anchorage). Delays due to fog and inclement weather are common.
The few tourists who visit Old Harbor mostly come to fish or hunt. They stay at a few small lodges in town; the largest, Kodiak Sportsman’s Lodge, has 10 rooms.
This summer, I flew into town with leaders from the Old Harbor Native Corporation (OHNC), which, like many other Native corporations in Alaska, is focused on economic and educational empowerment. The corporation earlier this year launched a new subsidiary, Alaska Nuna Adventures, which offers new Native-led cultural tours for cruise visitors in Kodiak and, for the first time, in Old Harbor.
A 21st-century first
In August, HX Expeditions became the first cruise line to visit the town (well, the first during this century, as locals recall that a 40-passenger boat stopped by once in the 1990s). The 530-passenger, hybrid-electric Roald Amundsen, on its way to visiting Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, docked in Old Harbor for the first and only time this season and will be back next year.
After the HX ship was tied up at the ferry dock, passengers participated in a walking tour led by community members. Other smaller cruise lines besides HX are taking note and may come calling soon too, according to OHNC officials.
The point behind having small cruise ships call is to share not only stories and traditions but also perspectives, says Kristina Woolston, CEO of OHNC, who joined me during my recent visit. Members of the Alutiiq community guide the tours, which provide financial benefits in a place where the traditional way of life is very much alive.
A newly constructed replica of a ciqlluaq (a traditional Alutiiq/Sugpiaq village house) constructed using driftwood
Courtesy of HX Expeditions
While in town, cruise passengers visit a newly constructed replica of a ciqlluaq built not only as a tourist site for visitors but also as a symbol of cultural pride. (A ciqlluaq is a traditional Alutiiq/Sugpiaq village sod house; Sugpiaq is the ancestral name of the Alutiiq Alaskan Native group.) During my time there, artist Rolf Christiansen was hard at work, constructing the walls using driftwood. He said he didn’t need design plans but rather was using skills he had learned from word of mouth. Some of the wood he found was from old tribal homes. “Washed-up tidal wave wood,” he called it.
“We were barterers and storytellers,” Allison Pestrikoff, lands director for OHNC in the Kodiak office, told me as I clung to her back on a one-seat trike as we crossed a beach on our way to Nuniaq Camp on nearby Sitkalidak Island, to which we had taken a small boat. Nuniaq is the traditional name for Old Harbor, and the camp, run by the Alutiiq Tribe, is where elders teach local children how their ancestors lived, leading activities such as net fishing, foraging, and traditional crafts.
The plan is for cruise guests eventually to hike to Nuniaq Camp to learn about gill-net fishing. We found a bear skeleton on the beach (I spotted one live Kodiak bear later, and it was far in the distance).
Looking to the future while preserving the past
The newer economic developments in town, thanks to efforts by the Native corporation, include a hydroponic farm and apple orchard, a 240-head bison herd and a meat-processing plant, and a kelp farm. The town soon plans to seed an oyster farm and build a small hydroelectric plant.
All developments are intended to address food security and provide an income stream to substitute for the dwindling fishing industry. When I visited a local store, I got the sense that even canned food choices are limited in this remote outpost.
Amy Peterson, an Old Harbor resident who manages the corporation’s local office, told me abandoned homes are another issue, as young people leave home in search of jobs. The city had some 600 residents in 1991.
At the community center, where activities include yoga and senior lunches, I watched as kids in jeans and sweatpants participated in their twice-a-week practice to keep dance-and-music storytelling traditions alive. One dance told of making seal oil. For cruise guests, the kids performed in full regalia, local artists displayed traditional crafts such as beading and carving, and the visitors were invited to play augca’aq (a traditional Alutiiq dart game).
A Russian Orthodox Church in Old Harbor is a holdover from a violent eight-year visit from Siberian fur traders.
Courtesy of HX Expeditions
There was a lesson in local history, too. Siberian fur traders arrived, initiating a violent and deadly takeover, and stayed from 1784 to 1792. Religion took hold. The traditional Alaskan Three Saints Russian Orthodox Church, with its impressive icons and pristine hilltop cemetery, remains a source of local pride despite the disreputable history it represents.
For me, these complex conversations about past and present, and the connections forged, made this trip extraordinary, even for someone who has visited Alaska regularly over the past 40 years.
In the 1990s, when I arrived by small ship at the Tsimshian community of Metlakatla in southeast Alaska, kids on bikes came over and asked me if I was from a city and if I had ever seen a bear close-up, then giggled when I responded that yes, I was, and no, I had not.
Fast-forward to Peterson telling me how, when she grew up, Santa brought fruit, a rare treat, and she had access to fresh vegetables only because her parents gardened. Now with the hydroponic farm, kids in town are planting seeds for lettuce, peas, tomatoes, and other vegetables in school, participating in a planting festival when citizens come together to plant crops, and attending a once-a-week agricultural camp.
Old Harbor is a rare place in the world. Thoughtful modernization, including inviting a limited number of tourists to stop by, is not simply economically motivated; it’s part of the community’s efforts to keep its unique culture and traditions alive.
