Mike Swetzof grew up in the 1950s in Unalaska and St. George Island, in the Pribilofs. He remembers hunting for subsistence, fishing, and speaking Unangam Tunnuu, the Native language. But one thing was missing: Music.
"There was no dancing or anything. We didn't have anything," Swetzof said during a dance performance in Sand Point this summer.
Just a few decades ago, traditional dance was all but gone from the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands, the Unangax̂ homeland.
Today, Unangax̂ dance is having something of a renaissance. About half a dozen communities hold culture camps, where young people learn traditional knowledge from elders. Unangax̂ music and dance are a big part of those camps.
This summer, dance groups from Atka to Sand Point performed across the 1,000-mile island chain. The camp season culminated in August with the inaugural Anaĝaĝinangin Festival in Unalaska, which event planners said was the first time there has ever been a dance celebration for communities across the chain.
Back in July, at Sand Point's camp, Swetzof sat at the front table to watch the big dance performance on the final night. His wife, Sally Swetzof, grew up in Atka, an island with a similar history to St. George. The couple met in Anchorage, and they moved to her home island.
She says part of the reason dance had largely disappeared from Unangax̂ life was World War II. In 1942, the U.S. government forcibly evacuated Atka and burned the village to the ground.
"Even the church. I mean, they burned the school, everything," Swetzof said, sitting beside her husband at the performance. "And so after the war, when they came back in 1945, my mom said there wasn't any more dancing. 'Everything went to sleep then.'"
Decades later, as president of the Aleutian Region school board, Mike Swetzof took a trip to Kamchatka in Russia's Far East. It's the closest place to the Aleutians on the Russian mainland. There, he saw a dance performance by the Indigenous Koryak performers, and he had an idea — he would bring dance back home.
Swetzof asked the choreographer if she would come to Atka to help them start a dance troupe. She stayed for a year.
"She knew dancing, and so we took what we could from her and created our own," he said.
Along with a few other Unangax̂ teachers, the group developed their best interpretations of how they imagined the lost performances. Students studied whatever records they could find, like wax cylinder song recordings and old photographs. The rest, they created themselves.
The group officially launched the Atxam Taligisniikangis dancers in 1996. Ethan Petticrew, a Wrangell-born teacher of Unangax̂ descent, moved to Atka to teach at the school. He and his wife, Jolene, became the troupe's instructors, helping to refine and expand the repertoire. Then the group carried the performances to neighboring communities.
Over time, the group taught those communities songs and movements, laying the groundwork for the revival that continues today.
"It's just something that I wanted to start, and they took it by the horns. It's come a long way. Feels good," Mike Swetzof said.
In Sand Point, after the dancing wrapped up and the potluck was finished, the Swetzofs remained at their table eating dried salmon. Sally Swetzof said she was happy so many communities have embraced Unangax̂ dance.
Mike Swetzof never performed with the Atka Dancers. Now 80-years-old, he says he's just glad that Unangax̂ dance has become what it is today.
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