Community

Saint Mary’s, Alaska

Our History

Andreafsky was established in 1899 as a supply depot and winter headquarters for the Northern Commercial Company’s riverboat fleet. The village took its name from the Andrea family which settled on the river and built a Russian Orthodox church.

Akulurak was set up 90 miles downriver in 1903 by Jesuit missionaries who established the mission to educate and care for the children orphaned by the flu epidemic of 1900-1901. Akulurak means “in between place,” aptly describing the village, which was on an island in a slough connecting two arms of the Yukon River. The mission school flourished, and by 1915 there were 70 full-time students.

Relocation Over the years, the slough surrounding Akulurak silted in severely. In 1948, the villagers decided to move to higher ground. Materials from an abandoned hotel built during the gold rush were used to construct the new mission and several village homes at the modern-day site. In 1949, an unused 15′ by 30′ building and other building materials from Galena Air Force Station were barged to the area by Father Spills, a Jesuit priest. These materials, along with a tractor borrowed from Holy Cross, were used to construct a school. During the 1950s, numerous Yup’ik families moved into the Andreafsky area, only a short distance from the mission. Dormitories and a large house for the Jesuits were built during the 1960s.

Incorporation In 1967, the area adjacent to the mission incorporated as the City of Saint Mary’s, although Andreafsky chose to remain independent. In 1980, the residents of Andreafsky voted for annexation into the city. In 1987, the Catholic church closed the mission school, and the schools are now part of the Saint Mary’s School District.

Saint Mary’s is a Yup’ik community that maintains a fishing and subsistence lifestyle. 

city council members