Native Cultures in Alaska

Native Cultures in Alaska
Author: Alaska Geographic Association
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2012-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0882409026

In the minds of most Americans, Native culture in Alaska amounts to Eskimos and igloos....The latest publication of the Alaska Geographic Society offers an accessible and attractive antidote to such misconceptions. Native Cultures in Alaska blends beautiful photographs with informative text to create a striking portrait of the state's diverse and dynamic indigenous population.

Alaska Native Cultures and Issues

Alaska Native Cultures and Issues
Author: Libby Roderick
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2010-07-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1602230927

Making up more than ten percent of Alaska's population, Native Alaskans are the state's largest minority group. Yet most non-Native Alaskans know surprisingly little about the histories and cultures of their indigenous neighbors, or about the important issues they face. This concise book compiles frequently asked questions and provides informative and accessible responses that shed light on some common misconceptions. With responses composed by scholars within the represented communities and reviewed by a panel of experts, this easy-to-read compendium aims to facilitate a deeper exploration and richer discussion of the complex and compelling issues that are part of Alaska Native life today.

Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage

Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage
Author: Aron A. Crowell
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2010-05-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1588342700

Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska features more than 200 objects representing the masterful artistry and design traditions of twenty Alaska Native peoples. Based on a collaborative exhibition created by Alaska Native communities, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, and the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, this richly illustrated volume celebrates both the long-awaited return of ancestral treasures to their native homeland and the diverse cultures in which they were created. Despite the North's transformation through globalizing change, the objects shown in these pages are interpretable within ongoing cultural frames, articulated in languges still spoken. They were made for a way of life on the land that is carried on today throughout Alaska. Dialogue with the region's First Peoples evokes past meanings but focuses equally on contemporary values, practices, and identities. Objects and narratives show how each Alaska Native nation is unique—and how all are connected. After introductions to the history of the land and its people, universal themes of “Sea, Land, Rivers,” “Family and Community,” and “Ceremony and Celebration” are explored referencing exquisite masks, parkas, beaded garments, basketry, weapons, and carvings that embody the diverse environments and practices of their makers. Accompanied by traditional stories and personal accounts by Alaska Native elders, artists, and scholars, each piece featured in Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage evokes both historical and contemporary meaning, and breathes the life of its people.

The Alaska Native Reader

The Alaska Native Reader
Author: Maria Sháa Tláa Williams
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2009-09-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0822390833

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.

The Native People of Alaska

The Native People of Alaska
Author: Steve Langdon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 84
Release: 1989
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

Introductory guide to the Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts. Focus is on their life-styles, traditions, and culture.

Alaska Native Art

Alaska Native Art
Author: Susan W. Fair
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2006
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1889963798

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.

Blonde Indian

Blonde Indian
Author: Ernestine Hayes
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2015-05-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0816532362

In the spring, the bear returns to the forest, the glacier returns to its source, and the salmon returns to the fresh water where it was spawned. Drawing on the special relationship that the Native people of southeastern Alaska have always had with nature, Blonde Indian is a story about returning. Told in eloquent layers that blend Native stories and metaphor with social and spiritual journeys, this enchanting memoir traces the author’s life from her difficult childhood growing up in the Tlingit community, through her adulthood, during which she lived for some time in Seattle and San Francisco, and eventually to her return home. Neither fully Native American nor Euro-American, Hayes encounters a unique sense of alienation from both her Native community and the dominant culture. We witness her struggles alongside other Tlingit men and women—many of whom never left their Native community but wrestle with their own challenges, including unemployment, prejudice, alcoholism, and poverty. The author’s personal journey, the symbolic stories of contemporary Natives, and the tales and legends that have circulated among the Tlingit people for centuries are all woven together, making Blonde Indian much more than the story of one woman’s life. Filled with anecdotes, descriptions, and histories that are unique to the Tlingit community, this book is a document of cultural heritage, a tribute to the Alaskan landscape, and a moving testament to how going back—in nature and in life—allows movement forward.

Not Just a Pretty Face

Not Just a Pretty Face
Author: Molly Lee
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2006
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 1889963852

Now in a full-color second edition, Not Just a Pretty Face is an engaging exploration of the role of dolls and doll making in Alaska Native cultures. From ancient ivory carvings to the thriving tourist market, dolls and human figurines have played integral parts in the ritual, economic, and social lives of Native Alaskans. Dolls served as children's playthings, represented absent community members at ceremonies, and predicted the movements of game animals for shamans. Not Just a Pretty Face surveys these and other uses of dolls and figurines, illustrating in beautiful color photographs the diversity of the doll-making tradition in Eskimo, Athabaskan, and Northwest Coast Native communities. Authors explore the ethnographic literature, twentieth-century oral histories, and photographic documentation of dolls and the doll-making process. Contemporary doll makers explain, in their own words, how they learned to make dolls and what doll making means to them. The second edition features a photo essay on Rosalie Paniyak of Chevak, one of the most influential doll makers in Alaska today. Not Just a Pretty Face provides a panoramic view of an ancient tradition and situates the art of doll making within a contemporary context. Scholarly, yet accessible, Not Just a Pretty Face is a lively contribution to the literature on dolls, anthropology, and Native studies.

So, How Long Have You Been Native?

So, How Long Have You Been Native?
Author: Alexis C. Bunten
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2015-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0803269773

So, How Long Have You Been Native? is Alexis C. Bunten's firsthand account of what it is like to work in the Alaska cultural tourism industry. An Alaska Native and anthropologist, she spent two seasons working for a tribally owned tourism business that markets the Tlingit culture in Sitka. Bunten's narrative takes readers through the summer tour season as she is hired and trained and eventually becomes a guide. A multibillion-dollar worldwide industry, cultural tourism provides one of the most ubiquitous face-to-face interactions between peoples of different cultures and is arguably one of the primary means by which knowledge about other cultures is disseminated. Bunten goes beyond debates about who owns Native culture and has the right to "sell" it to tourists. Through a series of anecdotes, she examines issues such as how and why Natives choose to sell their culture, the cutthroat politics of business in a small town, how the cruise industry maintains its bottom line, the impact of colonization on contemporary Native peoples, the ways that traditional cultural values play a role in everyday life for contemporary Alaska Natives, and how Indigenous peoples are engaging in global enterprises on their own terms. Bunten's bottom-up approach provides a fascinating and informative look at the cultural tourism industry in Alaska.

Against Culture

Against Culture
Author: Kirk Dombrowski
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780803266322

In a small Tlingit village in 1992, newly converted members of an all-native church started a bonfire of "non-Christian" items including, reportedly, native dancing regalia. The burnings recalled an earlier century in which church converts in the same village burned totem poles, and stirred long simmering tensions between native dance groups and fundamentalist Christian churches throughout the region. This book traces the years leading up to the most recent burnings and reveals the multiple strands of social tension defining Tlingit and Haida life in Southeast Alaska today. ø Author Kirk Dombrowksi roots these tensions in a history of misunderstanding and exploitation of native life, including, most recently, the consequences of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. He traces the results of economic upheaval, changes in dependence on timber and commercial fishing, and differences over the meaning of contemporary native culture that lie beneath current struggles. His cogent, highly readable analysis shows how these local disputes reflect broader problems of negotiating culture and Native American identity today. Revealing in its ethnographic details, arresting in its interpretive insights, Against Culture raises important practical and theoretical implications for the understanding of indigenous cultural and political processes.