Kasukuak

Kasukuak was the Alutiiq community associated with the later village of Akhiok in southern Kodiak. Its earlier location was at Humpy Cove, rather than the site occupied by the modern village. Russian fur traders established the community as a base for sea-otter hunting, bringing its people into the commercial organization of Russian America.

By the early nineteenth century, this economy also depended on preserved fish. At nearby Alitak, at the entrance to Olga Creek, Alutiiq workers processed salmon under Russian supervision. Historians link that station economically with Akhiok: work concentrated at Olga Creek during the salmon season and shifted back to Akhiok for the rest of the year. The smallpox epidemic of 1837 disrupted this network; thirteen Alitak residents subsequently moved to Aiaktalik. Hunting settlements and seasonal fishing stations had bound the southern bays together, while introduced disease threatened the communities sustaining them.