Born: 1879 or 1877, United States
Died: 1974
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Palakia
The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
To learn the story of Pelagia (also spelled Palakia) Melgenak is to learn the sanctity of shared traditions, the loving bonds of kinship and the reverence of a spiritual connection to the land around you. Born in the late 1870s in the remote village of Savonoski in Alaska, Pelagia grew up learning about hunting, gathering, navigating and guiding in the area. In 1897, she married Petr Kayagvak and together they had several children. Records indicate they were known in and travelled between many villages in the area, but Savonoski was always home.
That all changed in 1912 with the hot ash falling like a blanket covering the region with the eruption of Novarupta. “Grandma Pelagia said they thought the end of the world was coming when the mountain started erupting,” recalled Teddy Melgenak. Obviously Pelagia talked about this event with her family, and oral traditions such as this are exactly what saved Pelagia and her fellow townspeople during that fateful day in 1912. People knew from their ancestors to overturn boats to prevent them from filling with ash, to collect fresh water before it was tainted and to protect as much of their portable property as possible to enable a safe escape. Due to the importance they placed on the stories of those that came before them, no known deaths occurred in any of the villages impacted by this volcanic eruption despite the severity of it (it was 30 times larger than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington State!). Residents that fled the area of Savonoski tried returning shortly after, but the hot ash made a return impossible. Instead, they settled along the Naknek River in a town they named New Savonoski.
Pelagia’s husband Petr was forever immortalized as “American Pete” after he was interviewed by a member of the Griggs volcano research team in 1918 and quoted as the closest witness to the eruption of 1912. Sometime soon after that interview, Petr died leaving Pelagia a widow and New Savonoski lost one of their leaders. Nikolai Melgenak changed both fortunes as he stepped in to help finish the construction of the chapel in New Savonoski and married Pelagia in 1919. A hunting accident cost Nikolai an arm, but he gained the nickname “One Arm Nick” and this setback never seemed to slow him down. Unfortunately, the flu pandemic of 1918-1919 had other plans for the area and over 25% of the Savonoski villagers perished as a result. Pelagia’s family survived unscathed, said to be the result of closing her doors to outsiders and villagers while deploying traditional medicine made from local plants, skills she learned through family and cultural practices.
Despite not permanently returning to the area she grew up in, Pelagia still made annual trips until she was in her 90s to Qit’rwik (also spelled Kittiwick), the Native Sugpiaq-Alutiiq name for the Brooks Camp area of what was now known as Katmai National Park. “Upon arrival at Kittiwick, Grandma would joyfully go ashore, make the sign of the cross on herself and venerate the earth by putting her forehead on the ground,” recalls Mary Jane Nielson. While there with her family, Pelagia was recalled as the fastest at filleting a fish for drying and the best at removing the bones. Family and fellow community members venerate Pelagia as a matriarch of her family, community and culture who would pass on stories, songs, customs and traditions to help link them all to their collective past.
Pelagia Melgenak’s story shows a grit and determination to survive as an individual but also as a vessel to help a culture survive. Despite losing her homeland to the largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century and having her community shaken, Pelagia was one of the people who never gave up living, teaching, and sharing her culture and values including a spiritual reverence for the very land she lived on. Our world will continue being a better place when we learn from examples set by people like her.