Aleutian Islands | History, Climate, & Facts

Fast Facts

Aleutian Islands, chain of small islands that separate the Bering Sea ( north ) from the main part of the Pacific Ocean ( south ). They extend in an arc southwest, then northwest, for about 1,100 miles ( 1,800 kilometer ) from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula to Attu Island, Alaska, U.S. The Aleutians occupy a total area of 6,821 square miles ( 17,666 hearty kilometer ) .Rat Island Rat Island, Aleutian Islands, southwestern Alaska .Art Sowls/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

History

For some 8,000 years, Aleuts ( who call themselves Unangan ) were the sole inhabitants of the islands, and by the time of russian exploration there were an estimated 25,000 Aleuts scattered throughout the islands. In 1741 the Russians sent the Dane Vitus Bering and the russian Aleksey Chirikov on a voyage of discovery. After their ships became separated in a storm, Chirikov discovered several of the eastern islands, while Bering discovered respective of the western islands. Bering died during the ocean trip, but respective of the gang survived and returned to Russia with stories of the abundance of fur-bearing animals there. Hunters from Siberia subsequently flocked to the Komandor Islands and gradually moved eastbound across the Aleutians to the alaskan mainland. Russia frankincense gained a beachhead in North America but closely caused the extinction of the Aleuts, who were slaughtered, forced to relocate, and enslaved. Russia sold the islands, along with the rest of Alaska, to the United States in 1867 ( the Alaska Purchase ) . Ships in Vitus Bering ‘s excursion bury in the waters off the aleutian Islands, 1741 .North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy In June 1942, during World War II, japanese troops invaded and occupied Attu and Kiska islands. Preparations by U.S. forces to oust the japanese began shortly thereafter. Attu was retaken after a short but bloody battle in May 1943. however, the japanese evacuate Kiska before U.S. troops could land there in August.

The oldest and largest permanent colony is that of Unalaska ( Dutch Harbor ) on Unalaska Island, where Russians built a greenwich village in the 1770s. Unalaska is the former headquarters of a big U.S. Coast Guard fleet that patrolled the sealing grounds of the Pribilof Islands to the north ; the city ’ mho Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Ascension, one of the oldest russian churches in the United States ( the oldest parts of the build up date to 1825 ), has an across-the-board collection of religious artifacts and icons. Conflicts between the native Aleuts and Russian fur traders resulted in a massacre of Aleuts in the 1760s. Unalaska is nowadays among the peak fish ports ( particularly of walleye pollack [ Theragra chalcogramma ] ) in the United States, with large fish-processing plants on land and factory ships offshore. Adak ( once Adak Station ) was the web site of a naval place ( 1942–97 ), its military installations used as a free-base for mounting the Attu political campaign in May 1943. Before the blockage of the naval station, Adak was once Alaska ’ s sixth-largest city, with some 6,000 people. In 2004 some about 50,000 acres ( 20,000 hectares ) of domain on Adak Island ( including the sphere of the early naval station ) were transferred to the Aleut Corporation, a Native Alaskan arrangement established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 .Aleutian Islands: marines in training U.S. marines engaging in cold-weather train, aleutian Islands, southwest Alaska .Courtesy of United States Marine Corps On December 8, 2004, a bottom broke apart near Unalaska Island, spilling an estimated 320,000 to 360,000 gallons ( 1,210,000 to 1,360,000 litres ) of fuel oil and diesel fuel—as well as more than 60,000 tons of soybeans—into the ocean. several thousand birds and fish were killed by the resulting befoulment. Cleanup efforts took more than a year and a half, and by 2009 more than $ 110 million in damage fees had been paid by the ship ’ sulfur owners and operators to the state of matter.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn