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.
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.
Politics in Alaska have changed significantly since the last major book on the subject was published more than twenty years ago, with the rise and fall of Sarah Palin and the rise and fall of oil prices being but two of the many developments to alter the political landscape. This book, the most comprehensive on the subject to date, focuses on the question of how beliefs, institutions, personalities, and power interact to shape Alaska politics and public policy. Drawing on these interactions, the contributors explain how and why certain issues get dealt with successfully and others unsuccessfully, and why some issues are taken up quickly while others are not addressed at all. This comprehensive guide to the political climate of Alaska will be essential to anyone studying the politics of America’s largest—and in some ways most unusual—state.
This book explores the application of federal Indian policy to Alaska Natives in the 20th century, a process driven by the federal government's desire to acquire Indian land. Twentieth century Indian policy, as applied in Alaska, has oscillated between encouraging the privatization of land and assimilation of Native Alaskans into the dominant society, and allowing for Native autonomy and self-government. The Alaska Reorganization Act of 1936, better known as the Alaska Native New Deal, promoted Native self-government through constitutions and native self-sufficiency through corporations within geographic limits of designated reservations. In Alaska, the federal government's termination policy extended state jurisdiction over Native peoples after World War Two. A new policy of self-determination was initiated by the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. With this act, 40 million acres were conveyed to newly created Native corporations. Alaska Natives would achieve self-determination by participation in corporate decisions. This history of the legislation and implementation of federal Indian policy in Alaska explores the tensions and reversals expressed through successive legislative acts, and focuses upon the implications of this policy for Native Alaskans.
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.
In this wide-ranging and carefully curated anthology, Daniel M. Cobb presents the words of Indigenous people who have shaped Native American rights movements from the late nineteenth century through the present day. Presenting essays, letters, interviews, speeches, government documents, and other testimony, Cobb shows how tribal leaders, intellectuals, and activists deployed a variety of protest methods over more than a century to demand Indigenous sovereignty. As these documents show, Native peoples have adopted a wide range of strategies in this struggle, invoking "American" and global democratic ideas about citizenship, freedom, justice, consent of the governed, representation, and personal and civil liberties while investing them with indigenized meanings. The more than fifty documents gathered here are organized chronologically and thematically for ease in classroom and research use. They address the aspirations of Indigenous nations and individuals within Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska as well as the continental United States, placing their activism in both national and international contexts. The collection's topical breadth, analytical framework, and emphasis on unpublished materials offer students and scholars new sources with which to engage and explore American Indian thought and political action.
Thirty years after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act became law, Alaska Natives are subject more than ever to a dizzying array of laws, statutes, and regulations. Once again, Case and Voluck have provided the most rigorous and comprehensive presentation of the important laws and concepts in Alaska Native law and policy to date. This second edition provides a much-expanded and up-to-date analysis of ANCSA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and four fields of Alaska Native law and policy: land, human services, subsistence, and self-government. The authors also trace the development of the Alaska Native organizations working to influence and change these policies. Like the first edition, the expanded Alaska Natives and American Laws is the essential reference for anyone working in Native law, policy, or social services, and for scholars and students in law, public policy, environmental studies, and Native American studies.
With a long history and deep connection to the Earth’s resources, indigenous peoples have an intimate understanding and ability to observe the impacts linked to climate change. Traditional ecological knowledge and tribal experience play a key role in developing future scientific solutions for adaptation to the impacts. The book explores climate-related issues for indigenous communities in the United States, including loss of traditional knowledge, forests and ecosystems, food security and traditional foods, as well as water, Arctic sea ice loss, permafrost thaw and relocation. The book also highlights how tribal communities and programs are responding to the changing environments. Fifty authors from tribal communities, academia, government agencies and NGOs contributed to the book. Previously published in Climatic Change, Volume 120, Issue 3, 2013.
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passed by Congress in 1971, hailed at the time as the most liberal settlement ever achieved with Native Americans, granted 44 million acres and nearly $1 billion in cash to a new entity -- Native corporations. When this book was published in 1985, that settlement was bitterly resented by the Alaska Natives themselves. Thomas R. Berger, invited by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference to head the Alaska Native Review Commission, traveled to sixty-two villages and towns, held village meetings and listened to testimony from Inuit, Aboriginal peoples, and Aleuts. His report, Village Journey, suggests changes in the law and public attitudes that will be required to reach a fair accommodation with the Alaska Natives and enable them to keep their land for themselves and for their descendants. The author's new Preface deals with problems still facing Alaska Natives and their corporations. This is a new release of the book published in May 1995.
After decades of national, state, and institutional initiatives to increase access to higher education, the college pipeline for American Indian and Alaska Native students remains largely unaddressed. As a result, little is known and even less is understood about the critical isues, conditions, and postsecondary transitions of this diverse group of students. Framed around the concept of tribal nation building, this monograph reviews the research on higher education for Indigenous peoples in the United States. It offers an analysis of what is currently known about postsecondary education among Indigenous students, Native communities, and tribal nations. Also offered is an overview of the concept of tribal nation building, with the suggestion that future research, policy, and practice center the ideas of nation building, sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge systems, and culturally responsive schooling.
