ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. - An archipelago of about 150 islands (of which 12 are major) and islets, all mountainous and volcanic (with dormant and active apparatuses), divided into 5 groups (Fox Islands, Four Mountains Islands, Andreanof Islands, Rat Islands, Near Islands), to the west of Alaska, of which they are administratively dependent. The Aleutian Islands cover a total area of 37,800 sq. km. and have about 1,200 inhabitants (formerly, it seems, more than 25,000), almost all indigenous, sharing language and culture with the neighboring Eskimos. At the time of their first contacts, the Russians called them Aleuts; their own name is Unangan.
Important for fishing (cod, herring, salmon) and hunting (seals, whales, sea lions), and with modern fox farms (Fox Islands), the Aleutian Islands enjoy a strategic position of the highest order; the North Americans have established two large naval bases at Dutch Harbor near Unalaska Island (Fox) and on Kiska Island (Rat).
The most important inhabited center is Unalaska (230 inhabitants) on the island of the same name. Small settlements are found in the eastern group of the Fox Islands (Unimak, Unalaska, Akutan, and Umnak); throughout the rest of the archipelago, the inhabited islands are Atka (Andreanof) and Attu (Near).
The Aleutian Islands, as a missionary territory, belong to the Apostolic Vicariate of Alaska (v.).