The Alaska native reader : history, culture, politics

Book

The Alaska native reader : history, culture, politics / edited by Maria Sháa Tláa Williams.

Williams, Maria Sháa Tláa, 1958- (Added Author).

Summary:

Alaska is home to more than two hundred federally recognized tribes. Yet the long histories and diverse cultures of Alaska’s first peoples are often ignored, while the stories of Russian fur hunters and American gold miners, of salmon canneries and oil pipelines, are praised. Filled with essays, poems, songs, stories, maps, and visual art, this volume foregrounds the perspectives of Alaska Native people, from a Tlingit photographer to Athabascan and Yup’ik linguists, and from an Alutiiq mask carver to a prominent Native politician and member of Alaska’s House of Representatives. The contributors, most of whom are Alaska Natives, include scholars, political leaders, activists, and artists. The majority of the pieces in The Alaska Native Reader were written especially for the volume, while several were translated from Native languages.

The Alaska Native Reader describes indigenous worldviews, languages, arts, and other cultural traditions as well as contemporary efforts to preserve them. Several pieces examine Alaska Natives’ experiences of and resistance to Russian and American colonialism; some of these address land claims, self-determination, and sovereignty. Some essays discuss contemporary Alaska Native literature, indigenous philosophical and spiritual tenets, and the ways that Native peoples are represented in the media. Others take up such diverse topics as the use of digital technologies to document Native cultures, planning systems that have enabled indigenous communities to survive in the Arctic for thousands of years, and a project to accurately represent Dena’ina heritage in and around Anchorage. Fourteen of the volume’s many illustrations appear in color, including work by the contemporary artists Subhankar Banerjee, Perry Eaton, Erica Lord, and Larry McNeil.

Record details

ISBN: 9780822344650 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 0822344653 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 9780822344803 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 0822344807 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Physical Description: xix, 387 pages : ill. ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Durham : Duke University Press, 2009.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (p. [363]-379) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Alaska and its people : an introduction / Maria Sháa Tláa Williams -- Lazeni 'iinn Nataelde Ghadghaande : when Russians were killed at "Roasted salmon place" (Batlzulnetas) / James Kari, with Katie and Fred John (Athabascan) -- The fur rush : a chronicle of colonial life / Katerina Solovjova and Aleksandra A. Vovnyanko -- Redefining our planning traditions : Caribou fences, community, and the Neetsaii experience / Charlene Khaih Zhuu Stern (Neetsaii Gwich'in Athabascan) -- Memories of my trap line / Maria Bolanz -- Cultural identity through Yupiaq narrative / George P. Kanaqlak Charles (Yup'ik) -- Dena'ina e_nena : Dena'ina country : the dena'ina in Anchorage, Alaska / James Fall -- Qaneryaramta egmiucia : continuing our language / Walkie Kumaggaq Charles (Yup'ik) -- Deg Xinag oral traditions : reconnecting Indigenous language and education through traditional narratives / Beth Ginondidoy Leonard (Deg Xinag Athabascan) -- The Alaskan Haida language today : reasons for hope / Jeane Breinig (Haida) -- Yuuyaraq : the way of the human being / Harold Napoleon (Yup'ik) -- Angoon remembers : the religious significance of balance and reciprocity / Nancy Furlow (Tlingit) -- The comity agreement : missionization of Alaska native people / Maria Sháa Tláa Williams (Tlingit) -- Dena'ina heritage and representation in Anchorage : a collaborative project / Stephen J. Langdon and Aaron Leggett (Dena'ina Athabascan) -- How it feels to have your history stolen / Ted Mayac Sr. (King Island Inupiaq) -- Undermining our tribal governments : the stripping of land, resources, and rights from Alaska native nations / Evon Peter (Neetsaii Gwitch'in and Jewish) -- Terra incognita : communities and resource wars / Subhankar Banerjee -- Why the natives of Alaska have a land claim / William Iggiagruk Hensley (Inupiaq) -- A brief history of native solidarity / Maria Sháa Tláa Williams (Tlingit) -- A Yupiaq worldview : a pathway to ecology and spirit / Oscar Angayuqaq Kawagley (Yupiaq) -- The cosmos : indigenous perspectives / Gregory A. Cajete (Santa Clara Pueblo) -- Seeing Mathematics with Indian eyes / Claudette Engblom-Bradley (Schaghticoke) -- What is truth? where Western science and traditional knowledge converge / Lilian Na'ia Alessa -- The Yup'ik and Cup'ik people / Joan Pirciralria Hamilton (Cup'ik) -- Ugiuvangmiut illugiit atuut : teasing cousin songs of the King Island Inupiat / Deanna Paniataaq Kingston (Inupiaq) -- Fly by night mythology : an Indigenous guide to white man, or how to stay sane when te world makes no sense / Larry Mcneil (Tlingit and Nisga'a) -- Kodiak masks : a personal odyssey / Perry Eaton (Alutiiq/Sugpiaq) -- Artifacts in sound : a century of field recordings of Alaska natives / Craig Coray -- Digital media as a means of self discovery : identity affirmations in modern technology / Frank Francis-Chythlook (Yup'ik) -- America's wretched / Erica Lord (Inupiaq and Athabascan) -- The Alaska native arts festival / Tim Murphrey -- Conflict and counter-myth in the film smoke signals / Anna Smith Chiburis (Tlingit) -- Alaska native literature : an updated introduction / James Ruppert -- Poems / Nora Marks Dauenhauer (Tlingit) and Richard Dauenhauer -- Poem / G. Williams -- Living in the Arctic / Denise Cross Wartes -- Tunnel? . . .what tunnel? / Eleanor Hadden (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian) -- Daisy's best-ever moose stew / Daisy Stri da Zatse Demientieff (Athabascan).