KAUWERAMIUT
Kauweramiut, or "The People of Kauwerak," are still thriving in the Bering Strait community of Teller.
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Kauwerak is known in the colonized language as "Mary’s Igloo," and is located on the northwest bank of the Kuzitrin River, on the Seward Peninsula, northeast of Nome. It lies forty miles southeast of Teller, and is one of the closest communities to Pilgrim Hot Springs. All land bordering Pilgrim Hot Springs is owned exclusively by Mary's Igloo Native Corporation.
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The present site of the Kauwerak people was called “Aukvaunlook,” meaning “black whale,” although the original village before the Gold Rush years was located 15 miles downriver.
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During the gold prospecting boom, non-Natives renamed Aukvaunlook to “Mary’s Igloo,” after an Alaska Native woman named Mary, who welcomed miners, trappers, and other newcomers into her home for coffee.
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Supplies for the gold fields upriver were transferred onto river boats here. A post office and store were opened in 1901. By 1910, "Mary’s Igloo" had become a large mixed community of Kaweramiut, white traders, miners, innkeepers, missionaries, and support crews for barges.
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The flu epidemic of 1918-19 and a tuberculosis epidemic two years later devastated the community. A Catholic orphanage, “Our Lady of Lourdes Mission,” was opened at nearby Pilgrim Hot Springs in 1918 by Father Bellarmine Lafortune. A Lutheran orphanage was built at nearby New Igloo.
The Mary's Igloo Bureau of Indian Affairs school closed in 1948 and the Alaska Native school was closed in 1952 for lack of students. The post office and store also closed in 1952.
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The traditional village of Aukvaunlook, or "Mary’s Igloo," is now a summer fish camp. Many of the Kauweramiut live in Teller.