Alaska's Whaling Coast
Alaska's Whaling Coast

Author: Dale Vinnedge

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2014-05-05

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1439644977

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 1850, commercial whaling ships entered the Bering Sea for the first time. There, they found the summer grounds of bowhead whales, as well as local Inuit people who had been whaling the Alaskan coast for 2,000 years. Within a few years, almost the entire Pacific fleet came north each June to find a path through the melting ice, and the Inuit way of whalingin fact, their entire livelihoodwould be forever changed. Baleen was worth nearly $5 a pound. But the new trading posts brought guns, alcohol, and disease. In 1905, a new type of whaling using modern steel whale-catchers and harpoon cannons appeared along the Alaskan coast. Yet the Inuit and Inupiat continue whaling today from approximately 15 small towns scattered along the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Strait. Whaling for these people is a life-or-death proposition in a land considered uninhabitable by many, for without the whale, whole villages probably could not survive as they have for centuries.

Gift of the Whale
Gift of the Whale

Author: Bill Hess

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Bill Hess -a noted photographer - began his association with the Inupiat Eskimos in 1982. Eventually, he got permission to accompany them on their historic whale hunt. This book is his record, in sensitive text and almost 200 stark images, of what he experienced. Hess explores Inupiat history and traditions juxtaposed against contemporary life, never shying away from the controversial aspects of this ancient trek. Gift of the Whale is a rare contribution to Native history.

Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait
Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait

Author: Bathsheba Demuth

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2019-08-20

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0393635171

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Winner of the 2021 AHA John H. Dunning Prize Longlisted for the 2020 Cundill History Prize Named a Best Book of the Year by Nature, NPR, Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews "A monument to a people and their land… an allegory of the world we have created." —Sven Beckert, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of Cotton: A Global History Floating Coast is the first-ever comprehensive history of Beringia, the Arctic land and waters stretching from Russia to Canada. The unforgiving territories along the Bering Strait had long been home to humans—the Inupiat and Yupik in Alaska, and the Yupik and Chukchi in Russia—before American and European colonization. Rapidly, these frigid lands and waters became the site of an ongoing experiment: How, under conditions of extreme scarcity, would modern ideologies of capitalism and communism control and manage the resources they craved? Drawing on her own experience living with and interviewing indigenous people in the region, Bathsheba Demuth presents a profound tale of the dynamic changes and unforeseen consequences that human ambition has brought (and will continue to bring) to a finite planet.

Spirits of Our Whaling Ancestors
Spirits of Our Whaling Ancestors

Author: Charlotte Coté

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2015-07-21

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0295997583

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Following the removal of the gray whale from the Endangered Species list in 1994, the Makah tribe of northwest Washington State announced that they would revive their whale hunts; their relatives, the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation of British Columbia, shortly followed suit. Neither tribe had exercised their right to whale - in the case of the Makah, a right affirmed in their 1855 treaty with the federal government - since the gray whale had been hunted nearly to extinction by commercial whalers in the 1920s. The Makah whale hunt of 1999 was an event of international significance, connected to the worldwide struggle for aboriginal sovereignty and to the broader discourses of environmental sustainability, treaty rights, human rights, and animal rights. It was met with enthusiastic support and vehement opposition. As a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation, Charlotte Cote offers a valuable perspective on the issues surrounding indigenous whaling, past and present. Whaling served important social, economic, and ritual functions that have been at the core of Makah and Nuu-chahnulth societies throughout their histories. Even as Native societies faced disease epidemics and federal policies that undermined their cultures, they remained connected to their traditions. The revival of whaling has implications for the physical, mental, and spiritual health of these Native communities today, Cote asserts. Whaling, she says, “defines who we are as a people.” Her analysis includes major Native studies and contemporary Native rights issues, and addresses environmentalism, animal rights activism, anti-treaty conservatism, and the public’s expectations about what it means to be “Indian.” These thoughtful critiques are intertwined with the author’s personal reflections, family stories, and information from indigenous, anthropological, and historical sources to provide a bridge between cultures. A Capell Family Book

The Whale and the Cupcake
The Whale and the Cupcake

Author: Julia O'Malley

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2019-12-10

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 0295746750

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From fish and fiddleheads to salmonberries and Spam, Alaskan cuisine spans the two extremes of locally abundant wild foods and shelf-stable ingredients produced thousands of miles away. As immigration shapes Anchorage into one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country, Alaska’s changing food culture continues to reflect the tension between self-reliance and longing for distant places or faraway homes. Alaska Native communities express their cultural resilience in gathering, processing, and sharing wild food; these seasonal food practices resonate with all Alaskans who come together to fish and stock their refrigerators in preparation for the long winter. In warm home kitchens and remote cafés, Alaskan food brings people together, creating community and excitement in canning salmon, slicing muktuk, and savoring fresh berry pies. This collection features interviews, photographs, and recipes by James Beard Award–winning journalist and third-generation Alaskan Julia O’Malley. Touching on issues of subsistence, climate change, cultural mixing and remixing, innovation, interdependence, and community, The Whale and the Cupcake reveals how Alaskans connect with the land and each other through food.

Whales, Ice, and Men
Whales, Ice, and Men

Author: John R. Bockstoce

Publisher:

Published: 1995-03-01

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780295974477

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the pages that follow, the story of commercial whaling in the western Arctic is told by a scholar intimately acquainted with the terrain--not only as it can be found in the historical records or at archaeological sites, but from lone experience on the shores and waters where the great adventure was played out. His book is written with such mastery and vigor that we confidently greet it as the finest history yet written on any aspect of American whaling.

The Yuquot Whalers' Shrine
The Yuquot Whalers' Shrine

Author: Aldona Jonaitis

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780295978284

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 1905 George Hunt, at the insistence of anthropologist Franz Boas, acquired a remarkable collection of materials from the Mowachaht band of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) for the American Museum of Natural History. An assemblage of 92 carved wooden figures and whales, 16 human skulls, and the small building that sheltered them, the shrine had for centuries stood in Yuquot, or Friendly Cove, on the remote west coast of Vancouver Island, visited only by chiefs and their wives. Since its removal to New York, it has been represented in anthropological and historical writings, film, television, and newspapers. In this fascinating study, Aldona Jonaitis investigates and reconstructs the history of the shrine both before and after it was acquired for the museum. Clues to the shrine's complex history--traced to the mid-17th century--and meaning are provided by historical and anthropological writings, photographs, stories, the Hunt-Boas correspondence, and the artifacts themselves. Jonaitis addresses important contemporary issues, including the Mowachaht band's desire to have the shrine repatriated for display in Yuquot.

The Sea Is My Country
The Sea Is My Country

Author: Joshua L. Reid

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2015-05-26

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 0300213689

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For the Makahs, a tribal nation at the most northwestern point of the contiguous United States, a deep relationship with the sea is the locus of personal and group identity. Unlike most other indigenous tribes whose lives are tied to lands, the Makah people have long placed marine space at the center of their culture, finding in their own waters the physical and spiritual resources to support themselves. This book is the first to explore the history and identity of the Makahs from the arrival of maritime fur-traders in the eighteenth century through the intervening centuries and to the present day. Joshua L. Reid discovers that the “People of the Cape” were far more involved in shaping the maritime economy of the Pacific Northwest than has been understood. He examines Makah attitudes toward borders and boundaries, their efforts to exercise control over their waters and resources as Europeans and Americans arrived, and their embrace of modern opportunities and technology to maintain autonomy and resist assimilation. The author also addresses current environmental debates relating to the tribe's customary whaling and fishing rights and illuminates the efforts of the Makahs to regain control over marine space, preserve their marine-oriented identity, and articulate a traditional future.

Guide to Marine Mammals of Alaska
Guide to Marine Mammals of Alaska

Author: Kate Wynne

Publisher: Alaska Sea Grant College Program

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781566121675

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The authoritative book on Alaska marine life, Guide to Marine Mammals of Alaska is a clear and concise look at all twenty-nine of Alaska's mammal species, including whales, dolphins, seals, walrus, and polar bears. Now in its fourth edition, this award-winning book is fully revised with updated information on range and status of all the species. Meant to be a user-friendly and travel-ready resource, the guide provides an overview of each species with data on body type, size, color, behavior, habitat, and more. Maps detail range and migration patterns while full color photos accompany each entry. A glossary, introduction to mammal types, and naming chart make recognizing the different Alaska mammals easy and accessible. In addition to the extensive photographs, the book includes Pieter Folkens's highly accurate illustrations to assist in precise identification. The book itself is a rugged tool that is waterproof and spiral bound, encouraging readers to get out and start spotting fascinating Alaska creatures from land or from sea.