Kodiak Island History: Alutiiq, Russian America & Statehood

Updated July 2026 · Kodiak Island, Alaska

Kodiak Island has one of the longest continuously inhabited human histories in Alaska. Layer by layer: the Alutiiq, Russian America, the United States purchase, WWII, and the earthquake that reshaped the town.

The Alutiiq (Sugpiaq)

The Alutiiq — also called Sugpiaq — have lived on Kodiak Island for at least 7,500 years. They were skilled kayakers and sea hunters, harvesting sea mammals, salmon, and shellfish, and building substantial semi-subterranean sod houses. The Alutiiq Museum in the town of Kodiak preserves and interprets this history.

Russian America (1784–1867)

In 1784, Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov established the first permanent European settlement in Alaska at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island. The Russian-American Company later moved its base to what is now the town of Kodiak. The arrival was violent — the Awa'uq (Refuge Rock) massacre in 1784 killed hundreds of Alutiiq who had taken refuge on an offshore rock.

Kodiak became the administrative and commercial center of Russian America until Alexander Baranov moved the capital to Sitka in 1804. Russian influence — Orthodox churches, family names, food traditions — remains woven into the community today.

The sale of Alaska (1867)

In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Kodiak passed with it and became a U.S. territory holding, then part of the Territory of Alaska, then the 49th state in 1959.

World War II

With the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands in 1942, Kodiak became a major naval and army base. Fort Abercrombie was built to protect Womens Bay and the naval air station. Concrete bunkers, gun mounts, and observation posts from that era still stand and are now part of a state historical park.

The 1964 earthquake and tsunami

On March 27, 1964 — Good Friday — a magnitude 9.2 earthquake struck south-central Alaska. It remains the second-largest earthquake ever recorded. Kodiak was far from the epicenter, but the resulting tsunami wave devastated the downtown waterfront and the fishing fleet. The town rebuilt higher and stronger.

Kodiak today

Kodiak is a working town of roughly 6,000 people, one of the largest commercial fishing ports in the United States, and home to the U.S. Coast Guard's largest base. The Alutiiq community remains central to Kodiak's identity, and much of the archipelago is protected as the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge — established in 1941 primarily to preserve Kodiak brown bear habitat.