Soon after Vitus Bering first stopped in the Aleutian Islands in 1741, Russian hunters and merchants established a colonial presence in what is now Alaska to profit from the furs of sea otters. The Russians exploited Native labor for their colonial venture. They sold the valuable pelts of sea otters to a Chinese market and to fellow Russians. Following the decline of sea otters in the Aleutian Chain, the Russians turned toward the rich waters of the Kodiak region. Although Kodiak Natives successfully repelled an initial trading visit by the colonists, the Russians' muskets and cannons soon enabled the colonials to dominate the Alutiiqs by force.

In 1784 the first sustained Russian contact with Alutiiqs occurred when Shelikhov's men founded a Russian settlement on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay, near the present-day village of Old Harbor. The local population was used as laborers in the sea otter hunting industry. Alutiiq men were organized into work groups and forced to hunt at sea in large fleets of bidarkas, while women, old men, and children were made to work on shore. By the end of the Russian colony in 1867, the pre-contact population of perhaps 8,000 on Kodiak Island had dwindled to around 2,000.

In 1793, the Russians moved the capital of their colony from Three Saints Bay to the northern part of Kodiak. They established a new center of government, which they named Pavlov Harbor ("Paul Harbor"), at the site of today's city of Kodiak. Pavlov Harbor's central position in the colonial empire lasted until 1808, when the capital was again moved to Sitka.

The Russian Orthodox clergy arrived in Kodiak in 1794 to convert Alaskan Natives to Christianity. They began to perform baptisms and marriages, and soon afterwards established a school and orphanage near Kodiak. One of the original eight monks, Father Herman, was canonized by the Orthodox church in 1971. This saint, highly revered among Alutiiq Orthodox people, is credited with performing miracles such as healing the sick and turning back a tsunami. Among the Alutiiq people, the Orthodox church is the most lasting remnant of the Russian colony in Alaska, and is a central feature of social life in almost every village.

Among the American missionary groups who began to work in the territory of Alaska in the early 1880s were the Baptists, who sent religious workers to the Kodiak area. As part of the Baptist mission, an orphanage and school were opened in Kodiak in 1886. While some Alutiiq villages now have both Protestant and Orthodox churches, the Russian Orthodox church has remained the dominant religion in most Alutiiq communities.

Natives became increasingly involved in commercial fishing after 1900. Few owned their own boats, but some fished on cannery-owned boats. Most Native fishermen moved to fishing camps for the summer, harvesting salmon with beach seines. They coordinated traditional hunting and fishing with commercial fishing.

In the Kodiak, efforts toward cultural revitalization began to gather force in the early 1980s, aided greatly by the development of an energetic cultural heritage program within the Kodiak Area Native Association. The program made great strides in fostering Alutiiq pride and achievement. Some projects included oral history programs, arts and crafts programs, elders' conferences, and educational outreach. KANA worked closely with archaeologists conducting research on the island and coordinated local Native youths' involvement in archeological excavations. It encouraged the development of an Alutiiq language dictionary, grammar, and school curriculum.

In 1994, the Afognak Native Corporation instituted a program called Dig Afognak that allows tourist participation in archaeological excavations and also offers instruction in Alutiiq cultural traditions. The Kodiak Tribal Council has promoted a tour package which includes learning about Alutiiq culture and performances by the Alutiiq Dancers.

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