Both the Aleuts and the islands are politically divided between the US state of Alaska and the Russian administrative division of Kamchatka Krai.

[3] The language belongs to the Eskaleut language family and includes three dialects: Eastern Aleut, spoken on the Eastern Aleutian, Shumagin, Fox and Pribilof Islands; Atkan, spoken on Atka and Bering islands; and the now extinct Attuan dialect.

[12] In the 1820s, the Russian-American Company administered a large portion of the North Pacific during a Russian-led expansion of the fur trade.

According to Russian American Company (RAC) records which were translated and published in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, a 200-ton otter hunting ship named Il’mena with a mixed-nationality crew, including a majority Aleut contingent, was involved in conflict resulting in a massacre of the indigenous natives of San Nicolas Island.

[19] In 1814, to obtain more of the commercially valuable otter pelts, a Russian company brought a party of conscripted Aleut hunters to the coastal island of San Nicolas, near the Alta California-Baja California border.

The locally resident Nicoleño nation sought a payment from the Aleut hunters for the large number of otters being killed in the area.

She may have been the last living Nicoleñan, as what happened to the others after they were brought to the mainland is unknown (Juana Maria, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas).

[20][21] In June 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces occupied Kiska and Attu Islands in the western Aleutians.

Fearing a Japanese attack on other Aleutian Islands and mainland Alaska, the U.S. government evacuated hundreds more Aleuts from the western chain and the Pribilofs, placing them in internment camps in southeast Alaska, where many died of measles, influenza and other infectious diseases which spread quickly in the overcrowded dormitories.

[25] The World War II campaign by the United States to retake Attu and Kiska was a significant component of the operations in the American and Pacific theaters.

Before their way of life was changed by major influences from the outside world, approximately 25,000 Aleuts were located on the archipelago.

Foreign diseases, harsh treatment and disruption of aboriginal society soon reduced the population to less than one-tenth this number.

According to Lillie McGarvey, a 20th-century Aleut leader, barabaras keep "occupants dry from the frequent rains, warm at all times, and snugly sheltered from the high winds common to the area".

[citation needed] Aleuts traditionally built houses by digging an oblong square pit in the ground, usually 50 by 20 feet (15.2 by 6.1 m) or smaller.

They fished for salmon, crabs, shellfish, and cod, as well as hunting sea mammals such as seal, walrus, and whales.

[28] Customary arts of the Aleuts include weapon-making, building of baidarkas (special hunting boats), weaving, figurines, clothing, carving, and mask making.

Nineteenth century craftsmen were famed for their ornate wooden hunting hats, which feature elaborate and colorful designs and may be trimmed with sea lion whiskers, feathers, and walrus ivory.

Andrew Gronholdt of the Shumagin Islands has played a vital role in reviving the ancient art of building the chagudax or bentwood hunting visors.

Aleut carving, distinct in each region, has attracted traders for centuries, including early Europeans and other Alaska Natives.

[29] Early Aleut women created baskets and woven mats of exceptional technical quality, using only their thumbnail, grown long and then sharpened, as a tool.

Today, Aleut weavers continue to produce woven grass pieces of a remarkable cloth-like texture, works of modern art with roots in ancient tradition.

By piercing their orifices: the nose, the mouth, and ears, they would stop evil entities, khoughkh, from entering their bodies.

Worn for decorative reasons, and sometimes to signify social standing, reputation, and the age of the wearer, Aleuts would pierce their lower lips with walrus ivory and wear beads or bones.

When the men were hunting on the water, they wore waterproof parkas made from seal or sea-lion guts, or the entrails of bear, walrus, or whales.

[30] They used vermilion paint, hematite, the ink bag of the octopus, and the root of a kind of grass or vine to color the threads.

[37] The Aleuts hunted small sea mammals with barbed darts and harpoons slung from throwing boards.

[38] The simple Aleut harpoon consisted of four main parts: the wooden shaft, the bone foreshaft, and the bonehead (tip) with barbs pointed backward.

The throwing lance usually consisted of three parts: a wooden shaft, a bone ring or belt, and the compound head that was made with a barbed bonehead and a stone tip.

[40] Archaeologists have been trying to dissect the absence of grave goods, but their findings have been ambiguous and do not really help the academic community to understand these practices more.

In Snow Crash, a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, a central character named Raven is portrayed as an Aleut with incredible toughness and hunting skill.