Given the violence underlying the colonial period, and confusion because the Sugpiaq term for Aleut is "Alutiiq", some Alaska Natives from the region have advocated use of the terms that the people themselves use to describe their people and language: "Sugpiaq" (singular), "Sugpiak" (dual), "Sugpiat" (plural) — to identify the people (meaning "the real people"), and "Sugstun, Sugcestun, Sugt'stun, or Sugtestun" to refer to the language.