Kodiak

Kodiak (Alutiiq: Sun'aq; Russian: Кадьяк) is the main city and one of seven communities on Kodiak Island in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska. All commercial transportation between the island's communities and the outside world goes through this city via ferryboat or airline. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 5,581, down from 6,130 in 2010. It is the tenth-largest city in Alaska.

Inhabited by Alutiiq Natives for more than 7,000 years, Kodiak was settled in 1792 by subjects of the Russian crown. Originally named Paul's Harbor, it was the capital of Russian Alaska. Russian harvesting of the area's sea otter pelts led to the near extinction of the animal in the following century and led to wars with and enslavement of the natives for over 150 years. The city has experienced two natural disasters in the 20th century: a volcanic ashfall from the 1912 eruption of Novarupta and a tsunami from the 1964 Alaska earthquake. Since the earthquake, Kodiak has been the headquarters of the Native Village of Afognak, an Alutiiq federally recognized Alaska Native tribe.