Chugach Sugpiaq

Chugach
Sugpiaq

Chugach man in traditional dress
Regions with significant populations
United States (Alaska)	12,113
Languages
Alutiiq (Also known as Sugt'stun) (Chugach dialect), English
Related ethnic groups
Koniag Alutiiq, Yup'ik

Chugach /ˈtʃuːɡætʃ/, Chugach Sugpiaq or Chugachigmiut is the name of an Alaska Native people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound on the southern coast of Alaska. The Chugach people are an Alutiiq (Pacific Eskimo) people who speak the Chugach dialect of the Alutiiq language.

Their autonym Sugpiaq derives from suk, meaning "person" and -piaq, meaning "real." The term Alutiiq derives from the Russian term for the Aleut people. According to Ethnologue, earlier terms for the Chugach such as Chugach Eskimo, South Alaska Eskimo, Sugpiak Eskimo, and Sugpiaq Eskimo, are pejorative.

Chugach villages include Chenega Bay, Eyak, Nanwalek (English Bay), Port Graham, and Tatitlek.

Chugach people speak one of two dialects of the Pacific Gulf Yupik language; the other being Koniag. These Central Yupik languages belong to the Alaskan Yupik language family. Once written in Cyrillic script, the language is now written in the Latin script.