Aleutian Internment

Nineteenth-century Aleut and Eskimo baskets. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no.LC-USZ62-101278)

Aleut children on Unalaksa Island, Alaska – circa 1939

L-R “Mrs. Mike,” “Little Mike,” and “Big Mike” Hodikoff. In 1934 Big Mike was chief of the native Aleut Tribe on Attu. They are posing in front of their native Barabara, the Aleut hut. Trapping Blue Fox, fishing, and making baskets was the only means they had of making a living. This photo was taken in 1934 by the Bureau of Aeronautics of the U. S. Navy during an aerial survey of the Aleutian Islands. (Official U. S. Navy Photograph. Was made available for distribution on Thursday, August 6, 1942 at 3:00 P.M.) At the time this photo was released in 1942, it was assumed that Big Mike and his family were prisoners of the Japanese. It was later learned that Mike Hodikoff died in 1945, in Japan, while still imprisoned.

“A Family Group – Unalaska, Alaska.” Postcard courtesy Archgraphics.

Unangan Evacuees Cornelias Kudrin (right) and George Borenen (left) from Kaskega village, Unalaska Island, 1940s

Luke Shelikoff, in his army uniform, poses with a relative, Mike Shelikoff, in 1946. Luke was an Unangan evacuee who left the Ward Lake Refugee Camp in southeast Alaska for miltary service during World War II.

St. Paul residents gaze at their homes in 1942 as the US Delarof pulls away from the dock, taking them to internment camps in southeast AK.

Aleut children in front of a school, circa 1938.

Aleut (Unangan) children at a relocation camp in southeast Alaska, 1942

Interned Unangax child from Attu in Japan

Until I found Karen Hesse’s lovely, haunting verse novel Aleutian Sparrow (2003), I had no idea that the Aleut people–Native Alaskans who had lived for thousands of years on the spare, windswept Aleutian Islands off of Alaska–had been forcibly removed by the U.S. government. Citing fears of a Japanese invasion, the government insisted that the 881 Aleuts living in villages across the islands must be evacuated and moved inland to an entirely different landscape and climate.

The internment was disastrous to the 9,000 year old Aleut culture: Aleut people could no longer feed themselves because there was nowhere to fish and they could not treat illnesses or injuries because none of their medicinal plants grew where they were interned. Shelter, sanitation, and health care were vastly inadequate. In short, government neglect, racism, and disinterest insured that conditions were brutal. These links help to tell the Aleuts’ story.

“Agony of the Aleutians,” Alaska Daily News
“Alaska’s Aleuts: Forgotten Internees of WWII,” Los Angeles Times
“Timeline on Aleut Internment,” Native Voices
“Aleut Internment,” AAANative Arts
“Aleut Internment D uring WWII,” Alaska Web
“Unangan evacuated, interned during WW II,” National Library of Medicine/Native Voices
“Understanding Forcible Removal Through Maps,” National Park Service
“The Aleut Evacuation: A Grave Injustice ,” Alaska Humanities Forum
“U.S. Forcibly Detained Native Alaskans During World War II,” Smithsonian Magazine
“The Lost Internment ,” G. Edward White
“Unangax̂ (Aleut) Relocation during World War II” Alaska State Archives
“Cultural Heritage of the Aleuts ,” Science Education Resource Center of Carleton College
“After WWII internment apology, a new generation of Aleuts seek out history” KTOO Public Media
“Aleut Epitaph at Funter Bay: Human Rights and Constitutional Rights Violations at U.S. Internment Camps,” The Modern American/Alice Hilton
“The Legacy of Unjust and Illegal Treatment of Unangan During World War II and Its Place in Unangan History,” Carlene Arnold
“October 10, 1942: Petition from Aleut Women ,” Zinn Education Project
“The Other American-Internment Atrocity,” NPR

war stories

Children's experiences of incarceration, occupation, and internment in World War II

Aleutian Internment

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