For more than 7,500 years, the Alutiiq people lived in hundreds of settlements in the Kodiak Archipelago.

The people of Afognak traded services and goods with other settlements in Southeast Alaska and the Aleutian chain.

The Russians invited and took several men from the village to hunt sea otters for sale in Europe.

However, many people died as a result of mistreatment, and the smallpox epidemic of 1837–1840 killed many others in the archipelago.

[1] Afognak was covered by one meter (3 ft) of ash when Mount Katmai erupted in 1912.

[3] Afognak first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village of 339 residents with a "Creole" (mixed Russian and native) majority of 195 and 144 Inuit minority.

[3] It has not reported separately since, but as of 2000, the original area that included Afognak is now mostly within the CDP of Aleneva.