Description
Book SynopsisThis portrayal of Native Alaska brings together essays, poems, songs, stories, maps, and visual art. Most of the selections are by Alaska Natives; many were written especially for this volume.
Trade Review“
The Alaska Native Reader successfully describes and captures the diversity of Alaska’s history, politics, and cultural traditions. The book, although highly descriptive, provides a solid historical foundation and raises some thought-provoking questions.” - Gregory R. Campbell,
Canadian Journal of Native Studies“There are voluminous accounts of Alaska’s white sourdoughs, homesteaders, mountaineers, and trophy hunters, but one person’s frontier is another’s sacred homeland, and Native voices are often underplayed or overlooked in the popular written record.
The Alaska Native Reader: History, Culture, Politics is a welcome antidote. From a heartrending description of the long shadow of the Great Death—the 1900 flu outbreak—to mythological tales of magical northern pike and a project unearthing the Indian history of the Anchorage area, this reader is a breath of fresh tundra air.” - Keith Goetzman,
Utne Reader“I learned a lot, I enjoyed the book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested not just in Native Alaskan topics, but to those who want to understand the real people of Alaska and see things through different eyes.” - Wallace M. Olson,
Juneau Empire“As a book that purports to address history, culture, and politics, it fulfills its mission. As an anthology, it accomplishes what it should, providing an overview of issues that interested readers can go on to explore in more depth.” - Anne Coray,
Alaska History“An insightful portrayal of Alaskan Native history, culture and politics expressed through multiple voices to inform indigenous and cross-cultural understandings. The importance of this volume is its ability to dispel the colonizing myth of the homogeneity of indigenous lived experience.”—
Graham Hingangaroa Smith, Distinguished Professor and Chief Executive Officer, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi
“The predominance of indigenous voices in
The Alaska Native Reader will help correct the disgraceful imbalance in the way that the history of Alaska has been recorded and constructed. The reasons for the imbalance lie in the very history that is exposed here.”—
Charlotte Townsend-Gault, University of British Columbia
“
The Alaska Native Reader successfully describes and captures the diversity of Alaska’s history, politics, and cultural traditions. The book, although highly descriptive, provides a solid historical foundation and raises some thought-provoking questions.” -- Gregory R. Campbell * Canadian Journal of Native Studies *
“As a book that purports to address history, culture, and politics, it fulfills its mission. As an anthology, it accomplishes what it should, providing an overview of issues that interested readers can go on to explore in more depth.” -- Anne Coray * Alaska History *
“I learned a lot, I enjoyed the book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested not just in Native Alaskan topics, but to those who want to understand the real people of Alaska and see things through different eyes.” -- Wallace M. Olson * Juneau Empire *
“There are voluminous accounts of Alaska’s white sourdoughs, homesteaders, mountaineers, and trophy hunters, but one person’s frontier is another’s sacred homeland, and Native voices are often underplayed or overlooked in the popular written record.
The Alaska Native Reader: History, Culture, Politics is a welcome antidote. From a heartrending description of the long shadow of the Great Death—the 1900 flu outbreak—to mythological tales of magical northern pike and a project unearthing the Indian history of the Anchorage area, this reader is a breath of fresh tundra air.” -- Keith Goetzman * Utne Reader *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxi
Alaska and Its People: An Introduction 1
I. Portraits of Nations: Telling Our Own Story 13
II. Empire: Processing Colonization 115
III. Worldviews: Alaska Native and Indigenous Epistemologies 217
IV. Native Arts: A Weaving of Melody and Color 257
V. Ravenstales 337
Suggestions for Further Reading 363
Acknowledgment of Copyrights 381
Index 385
