About St Paul
“…in the early morning, as the fog rose, I saw the majestic island rising out of the sea like a large emerald. My ears were filled with the sounds of seals barking and birds calling from their roosts on the cliffs. As we rode the thundering breakers to shore I marvelled at the beauty of this place. So far from any other land, poised between Alaska and Russia in the middle of the mighty Bering Sea.”
.avif)
The St. Paul Community and Aleut People
The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island is a community in transition, adjusting to the cultural shock waves of Euro-American contact and governance. Beginning with enslavement by the Czar of Russia’s fur companies, through the 1867 Treaty of Cession to the United States of America with Marshall law and forced labor, the Unangan, or Aleut, people of St. Paul are on the front line of contact and efforts toward natural resources conquest. While the families relocated to St. Paul are strong people, generation-after-generation has been exposed to cultural, physical, and psychological trauma in the form of slavery, World War II Internment Camps, Native boarding schools away from home and family; corporal punishment for speaking in the Native language; epidemics of disease filling the Island’s cemetery; proselytization and condemnation of traditional spiritual practices; and overabundant interaction with the non-Native child welfare, justice, and corrections systems. Through this turbulent history, the Aleut people have maintained dignity and pride and have remained culturally resilient. The people of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island are survivors.
Our mission and vision
Ataqan Akun. To ensure the optimal quality of life for all Tribal members and never forget where we have come from.
Empowered, healthy families contributing to a thriving culture and sustainable community.
St. Paul Island
St. Paul Island is one of the five Pribilof Islands is located in the middle of the Bering Sea, 300 miles from the Alaska mainland; 800 miles from Anchorage, the closest urban center; and 300 miles north of the Aleutian Chain. It is one of two inhabited islands in the Pribilof Islands. Its total land and water area is 295 square miles and the island’s land area is 40.32 square miles.
