Alaska Native in Traditional Times: A Cultural Profile
Project
as of July 2011
Do not quote or copy without permission from Mike
Gaffney or from Ray Barnhardt at
the Alaska Native Knowledge Network, University of Alaska-Fairbanks. For
an overview of the purpose and design of the Cultural Profile Project, see Instructional
Notes for Teachers.
Mike Gaffney
Congratulations – but don’t
stop studying now!
If you are reading this, then you have completed your Cultural Profile Project
or are
very close to completing it. If you have dedicated the necessary time and effort
to the
required research and readings, then you know more about Alaska Native ethnohistory – that
is, about Native life in traditional times then most Alaskans. And certainly
more than nearly
all people outside of Alaska. Congratulations!
Now let’s see why congratulations are in order. Although you worked on
just one or
two Native groups, the concepts and methods – the tools – you used
for this research can be
applied to the study of any Native group. The Cultural Profile Project’s
outline, for example,
provides you with a comprehensive guide – a road map – for the study
of traditional Native
life anywhere in Alaska. Most important, you now have the actual experience of
bringing
this outline to life with your own cultural profile work. You know what has to
be done and
how to do it. In fact, the outline can serve as a framework for studying the
life of indigenous
subsistence-based societies anywhere in the world. So don’t lose it. You
may need it again.
Along with doing actual research, you were asked to think hard about the concepts
and methods often used to study Native American history. You have contemplated
the
meaning of such terms as culture, tradition, ethnocentrism, tribe, aboriginal
title, social
stratification, assimilation, and even the concept of “Alaska Native.” You
have been
introduced to the variety of Alaska Native histories and cultures. You have explored
the
world of Native traditional technology, science, and art. And you have taken
what amounts
to a short course on Alaska Native historiography – the ways and means
of studying Native
history.
You have been asked, moreover, to contemplate how history has shaped current
Alaska Native perspectives on the important civic issues facing their communities.
Now, for
example, You may be able to assist a tribe struggling with the research required
for federal
recognition. You may even have some good ideas about how to go about researching
traditional Native use of the Outer Continental Shelf. If you spent some extra
time on the
several segments dealing with aspects of federal Indian law, then you join
an
even smaller
group of Alaskans who know the fundamental principles of this very important
American
jurisprudence. Perhaps your cultural profile work has given you new ways of
thinking about
such highly publicized issues as regulating subsistence hunting and fishing,
the powers of
tribal governments in Alaska, or on the problems of law and order in rural
Alaskan villages.
So again, congratulations!
Are you now thinking any differently about your own educational future, maybe
thinking about going on to college? Work on the Cultural Profile Project has
given you
important academic skills and insights. But there is so much more to know and
to do. Have
you developed an interest in Alaska history generally and in Native histories
and cultures
specifically? Or have you developed an broader interest in Native American
history?
Was
your curiosity at all sharpened when we discussed Native peoples in other parts
of the world?
If so, what about pursuing comparative indigenous studies? If science is your
academic
interest, then what about working toward a degree in one of the natural sciences
with an eye
toward including traditional Native science as part of your program? We certainly
know
more about bowhead whale populations and behavior because traditional and modern
science
have finally formed a partnership.
These are just some of the possibilities in higher education if you have the
desire to
pursue them. It will be hard work. No question about that. But it will be an
extended
educational expedition well worth the effort. In some ways it will be an expedition
to explore
uncharted waters because the pace of social change has quicken just as changes
in the
planet’s climate have quicken, particularly in the Arctic. Who knows what
lies ahead ten or
twenty years down the road. Well, that’s not quite true. We do know that
all of us will be
better off if more young Alaskans – Native and non-Native – have
the motivation and
knowledge to smartly tackle the social, political, and environmental issues of
the day and
stand ready to confront issues yet to come. You are needed on this new expedition,
so give it
some serious thought. Thank you.
Mike Gaffney
Michael J. Gaffney
Emeritus Associate Professor
Alaska Native Studies
University of Alaska - Fairbanks
Bibliography
Cultural Profile Project
Alaska Native Cultures – General (Covers more than one cultural group)
Alaska Natives and the Land, Robert Arnold et al., Federal Field Committee
for Development Planning in Alaska (Anchorage, Alaska, 1968). Online at:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED055719.pdf
Note: This work includes extensive information on the physiography and climate
of Alaska’s
different regions and on traditional Native land use and occupancy within these
regions. It’s findings provided baseline data for the Native regional land
selections
under ANCSA.
Michael E. Krauss, Alaska Native Languages: Past, Present, and Future. Research
Paper No.
4
(Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska – Fairbanks,
1980).
Alaska’s Native People, Lael Morgan, Chief Ed. (Anchorage: Alaska Geographic
Society,
1979).
–
Iñupiaq/The Northern Eskimos, p. 49.
–
Yup’ik/ The Western Eskimos, p. 95.
–
Aleut/ People of the Aleutian Chain, p. 141.
–
Koniag, Chugach, Eyak/ People of the Gulf Coast, p. 175.
–
Athabascan/ People of the Great Interior, p. 195.
– Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian/ Indians of Southeastern, p. 229.
Steve Langdon, The Native People of Alaska (Anchorage: Greatland Graphics,
4th Ed., 2002).
Major Ecosystems of Alaska (Anchorage: Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning
Commission for Alaska, 1973).
Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska, Map compiled by Michael E. Krauss,
Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, 1982.
Anne Shinkwin, “Traditional Alaska Native Societies” in David S.
Case, Alaska Natives and
American Laws (1st Edition, University of Alaska Press, 1984) pp. 333-370.
Joan Townsend, “Ranked Societies of the Alaskan Pacific Rim,” Senri
Ethnological
Studies, 4, 1979, pp 123–156.
W. Fitzhugh, and A. Crowell (Eds.), Crossroads of Continents: Cultures
of Siberia and
Alaska, (Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1988).
Note: Be careful to distinguish references to Siberian people from Alaska
Native people.
–
I. S. Gurvich, “Ethnic Connections Across Bering Strait,” p. 17.
–
William W. Fitzhugh, “Eskimos: Hunters of the Frozen Coasts,” p.
42.
–
James VanStone, “Northern Athapakans: People of the Deer,” p. 64.
–
Christy G. Turner II, “Ancient Peoples of the North Pacific Rim,” p.
111.
–
Michael E. Krauss, “Many Tongues – Ancient Tales,” p. 145.
–
Jean-Loup Rousselot, “Maritime Economies of the North Pacific Rim,” p.
151.
–
James W. VanStone, “Hunters, Herders, Trappers, and Fishermen,” p.
173.
–
William W. Fitzhugh, “Economic Patterns in Alaska,” p.191.
–
Aron Crowell, “Dwellings, Settlements, and Domestic Life,” p. 194.
–
Valérlie Chaussonnet, “Needles and Animals: Women’s Magic,” p.
209.
–
Ernest S. Burch Jr., “War and Trade,” p. 227.
–
William W. Fitzhugh, “Comparative Art of the North Pacific Rim,” p.294.
Frederick E. Hoxie, (ed.) The Encyclopedia of North American Indians (New
York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996).
–
Gorden L. Pullar, “Aleuts,” p. 19. [Includes Koniag, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq]
–
Charles W. Smythe, “Eskimo (Yupik/Inupiat/Inuit),” p. 182.
–
William E. Simeone, “Subarctic Tribes,” p. 611.
–
Rosita Worl, “Tlingit,” p. 630.
R. Wolfe and L. Ellanna, Resource Use and Socioeconomic Systems: Case
Studies of Fishing
and Hunting in Alaskan Communities, ADF&G Division of Subsistence (March
1983).
Online Sources:
Alaska Native Knowledge Network – http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/index.html
Alaskool – http://www.alaskool.org/default.htm
Arctic Circle: History and Culture – http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/HistoryCulture/
Project Jukebox (Native oral history) – http://jukebox.uaf.edu/
Traditional Whaling in the Western Arctic – http://www.uark.edu/misc/jcdixon/Historic_Whaling/index.htm
Alaska Native Language Center – http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/
Alaska Native Heritage Center – http://www.alaskanative.net/
Arctic Studies Center – http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/index.html
Iñupiaq
Ernest Burch Jr., The Traditional Eskimo Hunters of Point Hope, Alaska,
1800–1875.
Barrow, Alaska: The North Slope Borough, 1981
------------------, “From Skeptic to Believer: The Making of an Oral Historian,” Alaska
History, Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 1991.
Note: also online at:
http://www.alaskool.org/projects/traditionalife/oralhistory/skeptic_
to_believer.htm
----------------, The Iñupiaq Eskimo Nations of Northwest Alaska (Fairbanks:
University of
Alaska Press, 1998).
--------------- , Social Life in Northwest Alaska: the Structure of Iñupiaq
Eskimo Nations (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2006).
Emily Ivanoff Brown, The Roots of Ticasuk: An Eskimo Woman’s Family Story,
(Anchorage:
Alaska Northwest Publishing Co., 1981)
Norman Chance, The Eskimo of North Alaska (New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston,
1966).
Linda J. Ellanna and George K Sherrod, From Hunters to Herders: The Transformation
of
Earth, Society, and Heaven Among the Iñupiaq of Beringia, Department of
Anthropology,
University of Alaska – Fairbanks, August, 2004.
Claire Fejes, People of the Noatak (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966).
Don Charles Foote Collection, Archives, Alaska and Polar Regions (Rasmuson
Library: University of Alaska – Fairbanks) See various field notes.
Nicholas Gubster, The Nunamiut Eskimos: Hunters of Caribou (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1965).
Charles Lucier, James VanStone, Della Keats, “Medical Practices and Human
Anatomical
Knowledge,” Ethnology 10 (3), p 251.
Wendell Oswalt, Alaskan Eskimos (Scranton, PA.: Chandler Publishing Co., 1967)
NANA Elders’ Conference Collection. Typescript. (Kotzebue, Alaska, 1976).
NANA Cultural Heritage Project, 1975.
Richard K Nelson, Hunters of the Northern Ice (Chicago: University of Chicago,
1972).
William Oquilluk, People of Kauwerak: Legends of the Northern Eskimo (Anchorage:
Alaska Pacific Univ. Press, 2nd Edition, 1981).
Dorothy Jean Ray, The Eskimos of Bering Strait, 1650-1898 (Seattle: Univ.
of Washington
Press, 1992)
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, Arctic, edited by David Damas
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1984).
–
Dorothy Jean Ray, “Bering Strait Eskimo,” p. 285
–
Robert Spencer, “North Alaska Eskimo: Introduction,” p. 278.
–
Ernest Burch Jr., “Kotzebue Sound Eskimo,” p. 303.
–
Edwin S. Hall Jr., “Interior North Alaska Eskimo,” p. 338.
Siberian Yupik
Charles C. Hughes, “St. Lawrence Island Eskimo,” Handbook
of North American Indians,
Vol. 5, Arctic, edited by David Damas (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution,
1984). p.
262
Charles C. Hughes and Nathan Kakianak, Eskimo Boyhood, (Lexington: University
of
Kentucky Press, 1974).
Central Yup’ik
A. Oscar Kawagley, Yupiaq Worldview: A Pathway to Ecology and Spirit. (Prospect
Heights,
Ill.: Waveland Press, 1995)
Lydia Black, “The Yup’ik of Western Alaska” in Inuit
Studies,
Vol. 8, 1984.
Margaret Lantis, (Ed.), Ethnohistory in Southwestern and the Southern
Yukon: Method and
Content. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1970).
L. A. Zagoskin, Travels in Russian America, 1842-1844, edited by Henry N.
Michael (Arctic
Institute of North America, University of Toronto Press, 1967).
Richard A. Pierce (Ed.) The Journals of Iakov Netsvetov: the Yukon Years,
1845-1863. Translated, with introductory and supplementary material by Lydia
Black (Kingston,
Ontario: Limestone Press, 1984.
Ann Fienup-Riordan,, “Regional Groups on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta,” Études
Inuit, 8,
1984.
----------------------- , “Robert Redford, Apanuugpak, and the Invention
of Tradition” , Études
Inuit, 11, 1987.
----------------------- , The Nelson Island Eskimo (Anchorage: Alaska Pacific
Univ. Press,
1983)
-----------------------, “Eye of the Dance: Spiritual Life of the Bering
Sea Eskimo,” in W.
Fitzhugh, and A. Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures
of Siberia and Alaska,
(Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1988) p. 256.
Anne Shinkwin and Mary Pete, Yup’ik Eskimo Societies. Études/ Inuit/
Studies,
Supplementary issue 8:95-112, 1984.
W. Fitzhugh, and S. Kaplan, Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo, Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1982.
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, Arctic, edited by David Damas
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1984):
–
James W. VanStone, “Southwest Alaska Eskimo,” p. 205
–
Margaret Lantis, “Nunivak Eskimo,” p. 209
–
James W. VanStone, “Mainland Southwest Alaska Eskimo,” p. 224
James W. VanStone, Eskimos of the Nushagak River: An Ethnographic History (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967.
Aleut (Unangan)
Lydia Black and R. G. Liapunova, “Aleut: Islanders of the North Pacific” in
W. Fitzhugh &
Crowell (eds.), Crossroads of Continents (Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press,
1988) p. 52.
Waldemar Jochelson, History Ethnology & Anthropology of the Aleut, (University
of Utah
Press 2002)
Margaret Lantis, (Ed.), Ethnohistory in Southwestern and the Southern
Yukon: Method and
Content. The University Press of Kentucky, 1970,
------------------- “Aleut,” in Handbook of North American
Indians, Vol. 5, Arctic, edited by
David Damas (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1984) p. 161.
William S Laughlin, Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land Bridge. (New York:
Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1980).
Alutiiq (Sugpiaq, Pacific Eskimo)
Donald W. Clark, “Pacific Eskimo: Historical Ethnography,” Handbook
of North American
Indians, Vol. 5, Arctic, edited by David Damas (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution,
1984) p. 185.
Rachel Mason, The Alutiiq Ethnographic Bibliography (Fairbanks: Alaska Native
Knowledge Network, 1995).
Note: Ms. Mason’s article is more than a bibliography. It contains important
information on Alutiiq culture and history. It is also online at:
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/ANCR/Alutiiq/RachelMason/index.html
Interior Athabaskan
Jean Aigner et al (eds.) Interior Alaska: A Journey Through Time (Anchorage:
Alaska
Geographic Society, 1986).
–
William S. Schneider, “On the Back Slough,” p.147
–
Richard K. Nelson, “Raven’s People,” p. 195
Ernest Burch Jr. and Craig Mishler, “The Di’haii Gwitch’in:
Mystery People of Northern
Alaska,” in Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 147-172, 1995.
Robert A. McKennan, “The Chandalar Kutchin” Technical Paper no. 17,
(Montreal: Arctic
Institute of North America, 1965).
Richard K Nelson, Make Prayers to the Raven (Chicago: University of Chicago,
1983).
-------------------- , Hunters of the Northern Forest (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press,
1986)
------------------- , “Athapaskan Subsistence Adaptations in Alaska,” Senri
Ethnological
Studies, 4, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, 1980, pp. 205-232.
Adeline Peter-Raboff, Inuksuk: Northern Koyukon, Gwich’in, & Lower
Tanana, 1800-1901.
( Fairbanks: Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 2001.
James Van Stone, Athabaskan Adaptations (Chicago: Aldine Publishing) 1974.
Miranda Wright, The Last Great Indian War, Masters Thesis, (Fairbanks: University
of
Alaska, 1995).
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 6, Subarctic, edited by June Helm
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1981).
– Edward H. Hosley, “ Environment and Culture in the Alaskan Plateau,” p.
533.
–
Robert A. McKennan, “Tanana,” p. 562
–
A. McFadyen Clark, “Koyukon,” p. 582.
–
Jeanne H. Snow, “Ingalik,” p. 602
Southern Athabaskan
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 6, Subarctic, edited by June Helm
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1981).
–
Joan Townsend, “Tanaina,” p. 623
–
Federica de Laguna, “Ahtna,” p. 641
Tlingit
Frederica de Laguna, “ Tlingit” Handbook of North American Indians,
Vol. 7, Northwest
Coast, edited by Wayne Suttles (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1990)
p. 203.
------------------------, “Tlingit: People of the Wolf and Raven,” in
W. Fitzhugh, and A.
Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures
of Siberia and Alaska, (Washington
D. C.:
Smithsonian Institution, 1988).
------------------------, “Ceremonialism on the Northwest Coast,” in
W. Fitzhugh, and A.
Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures
of Siberia and Alaska, (Washington
D. C.:
Smithsonian Institution, 1988) p. 271.
Nora Dauenhauer, Richard Dauenhauer, Lydia Black (eds.) Anooshi Lingit
Aani Ka, Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka, 1802 and 1804, University
of Washington
Press, 2007.
Nora Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer, Haa Shuka, Our Ancestors: Tlingit
Oral Narratives (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1987).
George Thorton Emmons, The Tlingit Indians, edited by Federica de Laguna (Settle:
University of Washington Press, 1991).
Bill Holm, Northwest Coast Indian Art, An Analysis of Form (Seattle: University
of
Washington Press, 1965).
------------, “Art and Culture Change at the Tlingit–Eskimo Border,” in
W. Fitzhugh, and A.
Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures
of Siberia and Alaska, (Washington
D. C.:
Smithsonian Institution, 1988) p. 281.
Andrew Hope III and Thomas F. Thornton, Will the Time Ever Come: A Tlingit
Source Book (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 2000).
Kalervo Oberg, The Social Economy of the Tlingit Indians (Seattle: Washington
Univ. Press,
1973).
Eyak
Frederica de Laguna, “Eyak” Handbook of North American Indians,
Vol. 7, Northwest Coast,
edited by Wayne Suttles (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1990) p. 189.
Haida
Margaret B. Blackman, “Haida: Traditional Culture,” in Handbook
of North American
Indians, Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, edited by Wayne Suttles (Washington, DC: Smithsonian
Institution, 1990) p. 240.
Mary Lee Stearns, Haida Culture in Custody (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press,
1981).
Frederica de Laguna, “Ceremonialism on the Northwest Coast,” in W.
Fitzhugh, and A.
Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures
of Siberia and Alaska, (Washington
D. C.:
Smithsonian Institution, 1988) p. 271.
Tsimshian (Traditional times – British Columbia)
Marjorie M. Halpin and Margaret Seguin, “Tsimshian Peoples: Southern Tsmshian,
Coast
Tsimshian, Nishga, and Gitksan,” in Handbook
of North American Indians, Vol. 7, Northwest
Coast, edited by Wayne Suttles (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1990)
p. 267.
NOTE: The Alaska Tsimshian came to Annette Island, Alaska in 1887. Therefore
we
must go back to their original homeland
in British Columbia to learn about Tsimshian life in traditional times.
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