The Story of Chenega Bay and Chevak

Chenega Bay is located in Sawmill Bay on Evan's Island. What's up with that? The reason is fascinating. This area has been home to the Alutiiq people whom Captain Cook encountered in 1778, and later a scoundrel named Ivan Petroff was the first to mention a village here in the 1880 census. The 1964 earthquake created a tsunami that killed a third of the village population, an unbelievable tragedy. Then in 1989 the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster devastated the fishing economy of Chenega Bay. Yet a beautiful blue orthodox church resides here and it appears that the Orthodox Church has been the most prominent faith in this place for a very long time.Chevak is the moving village as it has been moved twice in it's history because of flooding. The people of Chevak call themselves Cup'ik, a slight variation of Yup'ik and many residents still speak this language. A very blue Catholic Church resides in Chevak and Catholicism seems to be the prominent faith in Chevak.Contact the show at [email protected] Logo was created by Evan Van KirkMusic was created by Isaac Bedingfield