Knecht believes the attacks were the result of
climate change—a 550-year chilling of the plan-
et now known as the Little Ice Age—that coin-
cided with Nunalleq’s occupation. The coldest
years in Alaska, in the 1600s, must have been
a desperate time, with raids probably launched
to steal food. “Whenever you get rapid change,
there’s a lot of disruption in the seasonal cy-
cles of subsistence,” says Knecht. “If you get an
extreme, like a Little Ice Age—or like now—
changes can occur faster than people can adjust.”
Retreating Ice
For centuries, Yup’ik people on both sides of the
Bering Sea have made the Arctic tundra their
home, but today’s unpredictable and increas-
ingly violent weather has not only thrown off
the rhythm of subsistence hunting cycles, it has
also driven Nunalleq to the brink of oblivion. In
summer everything looks fine as the land dons
its perennial robe of white-flowering yarrow and
sprigs of cotton grass that light up
like candles when the morning sun
hits the tundra. The scene turns
alarming come winter when the
Bering Sea hurls vicious storms at the
coast. If the waves get big enough, they
crash across a narrow gravel beach and rip away
at the remains of the site.A WOODEN YUP’IK MASK DEPICTS AN ANIMAL WITH A SEAL
CAUGHT IN ITS JAWS. MASKS SERVED SACRED PURPOSES
AND WERE USED TO PETITION THE GODS. 19TH CENTURY.
GOODNEWS BAY, ALASKA
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION