Shadows on the Koyukuk

Shadows on the Koyukuk PDF Author: Jim Rearden
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
ISBN: 0882409301
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
“I owe Alaska. It gave me everything I have.” Says Sidney Huntington, son of an Athapaskan mother and white trader/trapper father. Growing up on the Koyukuk River in Alaska’s harsh Interior, that “everything” spans 78 years of tragedies and adventures. When his mother died suddenly, 5-year-old Huntington protected and cared for his younger brother and sister during two weeks of isolation. Later, as a teenager, he plied the wilderness traplines with his father, nearly freezing to death several times. One spring, he watched an ice-filled breakup flood sweep his family’s cabin and belongings away. These and many other episodes are the compelling background for the story of a man who learned the lessons of a land and culture, lessons that enabled him to prosper as trapper, boat builder, and fisherman. This is more than one man's incredible tale of hardship and success in Alaska. It is also a tribute to the Athapaskan traditions and spiritual beliefs that enabled him and his ancestors to survive. His story, simply told, is a testament to the durability of Alaska's wild lands and to the strength of the people who inhabit them.

Shadows on the Koyukuk

Shadows on the Koyukuk PDF Author: Jim Rearden
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
ISBN: 0882409301
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
“I owe Alaska. It gave me everything I have.” Says Sidney Huntington, son of an Athapaskan mother and white trader/trapper father. Growing up on the Koyukuk River in Alaska’s harsh Interior, that “everything” spans 78 years of tragedies and adventures. When his mother died suddenly, 5-year-old Huntington protected and cared for his younger brother and sister during two weeks of isolation. Later, as a teenager, he plied the wilderness traplines with his father, nearly freezing to death several times. One spring, he watched an ice-filled breakup flood sweep his family’s cabin and belongings away. These and many other episodes are the compelling background for the story of a man who learned the lessons of a land and culture, lessons that enabled him to prosper as trapper, boat builder, and fisherman. This is more than one man's incredible tale of hardship and success in Alaska. It is also a tribute to the Athapaskan traditions and spiritual beliefs that enabled him and his ancestors to survive. His story, simply told, is a testament to the durability of Alaska's wild lands and to the strength of the people who inhabit them.

Shem Pete's Alaska

Shem Pete's Alaska PDF Author: James Kari
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
ISBN: 1602233063
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
"Shem Pete (1896-1989), the colorful and brilliant raconteur from Susitna Station, Alaska left a rich legacy of knowledge about the Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina world. Shem was one of the most versatile storytellers and historians in twentieth century Alaska. His lifetime travel map of approximately 13,500 square miles is one of the largest ever documented in this degree of detail anywhere in the world. Reflecting the latest scholarship on Upper Inlet Dena'ina ethnogeography and history, this revised second edition includes new place names, two new essays, numerous annotations, and new photographs. It also illustrates how Shem Pete's Alaska has contributed to the recognition of the Dena'ina heritage of southcentral Alaska since the publication of the second edition in 2003. The names form a reconstructed place name network from the vantage points of the life experiences of Shem Pete and other Dena'ina and Ahtna speakers. The place names are annotated with comments and stories by Shem Pete and more than fifty other contributors, and with historic references, vignettes, numerous photographs, a selection of historic maps, and shaded-relief place name maps. The authors provide perspective on Dena'ina language and culture, and a summary of Dena'ina geographic knowledge and place name research methodology. The book is a significant contribution to Athabascan ethnography and linguistics, the history of Alaska, and to the fields of ethnogeography and onomastics. This book will be the basic reference work on the Dena'ina people of Upper Cook Inlet"--Provided by publisher.

Alaska and Its Resources

Alaska and Its Resources PDF Author: William Healey Dall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Alaska
Languages : en
Pages : 716

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Book Description


Taatsaa' Shaa K' Exalthet

Taatsaa' Shaa K' Exalthet PDF Author: Kenny Thomas
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806136592
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Born in 1922, Kenny Thomas Sr. has been a trapper, firefighter, road builder, river-freight hauler, and soldier. Today he is a respected elder and member of a northern Athabaskan tribal group residing in Tanacross, Alaska. As a song and dance leader for the Tanacross community, Thomas has been teaching village traditions at an annual culture camp for more than twenty years. Over a three-year period, folklorist Craig Mishler conducted a series of interviews with Thomas about his life experiences. Crow Is My Boss is the fascinating result of this collaboration. Written in a style that reflects the dialogue between Thomas and Mishler, Crow Is My Boss retains the authenticity of Thomas’s voice, capturing his honesty and humor. Thomas reveals biographical details, performs and explains traditional folktales and the potlatch tradition, and discusses ghosts and medicine people. One folktale is presented in both English and Tanacross, Thomas’s native language. A compelling personal story, Crow Is My Boss provides insight into the traditional and contemporary culture of Tanacross Athabaskans in Alaska. Volume 250 in the Civilization of the American Indian series

Alaska Native Art

Alaska Native Art PDF Author: Susan W. Fair
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
ISBN: 1889963798
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
The rich artistic traditions of Alaska Natives are the subject of this landmark volume, which examines the work of the premier Alaska artists of the twentieth century. Ranging across the state from the islands of the Bering Sea to the interior forests, Alaska Native Art provides a living context for beadwork and ivory carving, basketry and skin sewing. Examples of work from Tlingit, Aleutian Islanders, Pacific Eskimo, Athabascan, Yupik, and Inupiaq artists make this volume the most comprehensive study of Alaskan art ever published. Alaska Native Art examines the concept of tradition in the modern world. Alaska Native Art is a volume to treasure, a tribute to the incredible vision of Alaska's artists and to the enduring traditions of all of Alaska's Native peoples.

Northern Athabascan Survival

Northern Athabascan Survival PDF Author: Phyllis Ann Fast
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803205703
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
The Northern Athabascan peoples of the Alaskan interior and the Yukon have survived centuries of contact and attempted domination by outsiders. Their lives today are rich in meaning and tradition yet are also complicated by numerous challenges such as poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, suicide, and troubled leadership. Combining scholarly analysis, first-person accounts, and her own experiences and insights as a Koyukon Athabascan artist and anthropologist, Phyllis Ann Fast illuminates the modern Athabascan world. Her conversations with Athabascan women offer revealing glimpses of their personal lives and a probing assessment of their professional opportunities and limitations. Also showcased is the crucial but ambiguous role of Athabascan leaders, who are needed to champion reform and social healing but are often undermined by conflicting notions of decision making, personhood, and leadership in Athabascan society. A troubling observation of this study is the vast extent to which addiction—manifested as both substance abuse and economic dependency—pervades Northern Athabascan society and threatens to curtail its cohesion and aspirations. But Northern Athabascans are far from victims. As Fast discovers, Northern Athabascan men and women are well aware of these widespread social problems, and many have undertaken initiatives to deal with and heal them. Rigorous and compassionate, Northern Athabascan Survival provides an uncompromising view of a remarkable and troubled world.

Nanutset Ch'u Q'udi Gu

Nanutset Ch'u Q'udi Gu PDF Author: Karen K. Gaul
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Clark, Lake (Alaska)
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description


The Girl who Swam with the Fish

The Girl who Swam with the Fish PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780882405230
Category : Athapascan Indians
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This Athabascan legend follows a young girl and her family as they set up their traditional seasonal fishing camp along the banks of a river. As they prepare for the return of the salmon, the girl wonders, "What would it be like to be a fish?" This heartfelt wish sends the young girl on a startling odyssey to the sea where she learns the ways of the salmon.

Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun

Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun PDF Author: Velma Wallis
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060977280
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
With the publication of Two Old Women, Velma Wallis firmly established herself as one of the most important voices in Native American writing. A national bestseller, her empowering fable won the Western State Book Award in 1993 and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award in 1994. Translated into 16 languages, it went on to international success, quickly reaching bestseller status in Germany. To date, more than 350,000 copies have been sold worldwide. Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun follows in this bestselling tradition. Rooted in the ancient legends of Alaska's Athabaskan Indians, it tells the stories of two adventurers who decide to leave the safety of their respective tribes. Bird Girl is a headstrong young woman who learned early on the skills of a hunter. When told that she must end her forays and take up the traditional role of wife and mother, she defies her family's expectations and confidently takes off to brave life on her own. Daagoo is a dreamer, curious about the world beyond. Longing to know what happens to the sun in winter, he sets out on a quest to find the legendary "Land of the Sun." Their stories interweave and intersect as they each face the many dangers and challenges of life alone in the wilderness. In the end, both learn that the search for individualism often comes at a high price, but that it is a price well worth paying, for through this quest comes the beginning of true wisdom.

Tanana and Chandalar

Tanana and Chandalar PDF Author: Robert Addison McKennan
Publisher: Calgary : University of Calgary Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
"One of Alaska's premier ethnographers, Robert A. McKennan (1903-1982) spent the years between 1929 and 1933 in several remote Native villages where he documented Interior Athabaskan life in a series of books and journals. McKennan's journals are a window onto Athabaskan culture before World War II. While McKennan's two major ethnographies - on the Tanana and the Gwich'in (Kutchin) - represent the scientific aspects of his work, his voluminous letters and journals form an equally significant part of anthropology's humanistic tradition." "McKennan chronicles both his day-to-day struggles to survive in the Alaska wilderness and his frustrations as an anthropologist. He recorded his field methods and the difficulties he encountered in pursuing his research. The result is a personal memoir of a dedicated researcher and sensitive observer."--BOOK JACKET.