Nanutset Ch'u Q'udi Gu


Book Description




Tanaina Plantlore, Dena'ina K'et'una


Book Description

Describes how the Dena'ina, also called Tanaina, Athabaskans of Alaska use many of the plants that grow in their country. Also includes a physical description of each plant, information regarding habitat, and its Dena'ina, scientific and English name.




Project 562


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A photographic and narrative celebration of contemporary Native American life and cultures, alongside an in-depth examination of issues that Native people face, by celebrated photographer and storyteller Matika Wilbur of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes. “This book is too important to miss. It is a vast, sprawling look at who we are as Indigenous people in these United States.”—Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho), author of There There Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal In 2012, Matika Wilbur sold everything in her Seattle apartment and set out on a Kickstarter-funded pursuit to visit, engage, and photograph people from what were then the 562 federally recognized Native American Tribal Nations. Over the next decade, she traveled six hundred thousand miles across fifty states—from Seminole country (now known as the Everglades) to Inuit territory (now known as the Bering Sea)—to meet, interview, and photograph hundreds of Indigenous people. The body of work Wilbur created serves to counteract the one-dimensional and archaic stereotypes of Native people in mainstream media and offers justice to the richness, diversity, and lived experiences of Indian Country. The culmination of this decade-long art and storytelling endeavor, Project 562 is a peerless, sweeping, and moving love letter to Indigenous Americans, containing hundreds of stunning portraits and compelling personal narratives of contemporary Native people—all photographed in clothing, poses, and locations of their choosing. Their narratives touch on personal and cultural identity as well as issues of media representation, sovereignty, faith, family, the protection of sacred sites, subsistence living, traditional knowledge-keeping, land stewardship, language preservation, advocacy, education, the arts, and more. A vital contribution from an incomparable artist, Project 562 inspires, educates, and truly changes the way we see Native America.




More Readings From One Man's Wilderness


Book Description

Throughout history, many people have escaped to nature either permanently or temporarily to rest and recharge. Richard L. Proenneke, a modern-day Henry David Thoreau, is no exception. Proenneke built a cabin in Twin Lakes, Alaska in 1968 and began thirty years of personal growth, which he spent growing more connected to the wilderness in which he lived. This guide through Proenneke’s memories follows the journey that began with One Man’s Wilderness, which contains some of Proenneke’s journals. It continues the story and reflections of this mountain man and his time in Alaska. The editor, John Branson, was a longtime friend of Proenneke’s and a park historian. He takes care that Proenneke’s journals from 1974-1980 are kept exactly as the author wrote them. Branson’s footnotes give a background and a new understanding to the reader without detracting from Proenneke’s style. Anyone with an interest in conservation and genuine wilderness narratives will surely enjoy and treasure this book.




The Alaska Native Reader


Book Description

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.




Dena'ina Topical Dictionary


Book Description

This is a dictionary of the Dena'ina Athabascan language of Cook Inlet Basin and the Southern Alaska Range. Vocabulary lists arranged by topic provide a panoramic view of the central cultural and ecological concepts of the Dena'ina. In terms of breadth of subjects, technical specificity, dialect coverage, and illustrations, this is the most refined topical lexicon in existence for an Alaska Native language and for any language in the Athabascan family. More than one hundred Dena'ina speakers contributed words, and many chapters were reviewed by experts in natural history and ethnology. This work positions Dena'ina topical materials at the intersection of ethnology and linguistics.




Shem Pete's Alaska


Book Description

Shem Pete (1896–1989), a colorful and brilliant raconteur from Susitna Station, Alaska, left a rich legacy of knowledge about the Upper Cook Inlet Dena’ina world. Shem was one of the most versatile storytellers and historians in twentieth century Alaska, and his lifetime travel map of approximately 13,500 square miles is one of the largest ever documented with this degree of detail anywhere in the world. The first two editions of Shem Pete’s Alaska contributed much to Dena’ina cultural identity and public appreciation of the Dena’ina place names network in Upper Cook Inlet. This new edition adds nearly thirty new place names to its already extensive source material from Shem Pete and more than fifty other contributors, along with many revisions and new annotations. The authors provide synopses of Dena’ina language and culture and summaries of Dena’ina geographic knowledge, and they also discuss their methodology for place name research. Exhaustively refined over more than three decades, Shem Pete’s Alaska will remain the essential reference work on the landscape of the Dena’ina people of Upper Cook Inlet. As a book of ethnogeography, Native language materials, and linguistic scholarship, the extent of its range and influence is unlikely to be surpassed.




A Quest for Adventure


Book Description

When twenty-year-old Bert Ray Libe read “Men wanted for Alaska to build a railroad—apply 526 Jackson Street” on a signboard in San Francisco one July morning in 1905, he immediately envisioned hunting adventures and gold-seeking opportunities in the rugged land of the north. The next morning his adventurous soul was infused with excitement as he boarded the SS Valencia bound for Seward, Alaska, accompanied by over four hundred other men, a woman dressed as a man, and a teenage boy. Bert was soon given the moniker, Fuzzy, by his shipmates because of his unruly hair. In a fascinating retelling of Bert’s adventures, Jzonay Reitz invites others to witness the breathtaking beauty of Alaska through Fuzzy’s eyes as he hunts in the pristine Kenai Mountains and traverses the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys of Southcentral Alaska, then ventures across snow-covered benches of Denali (Mt. McKinley) with four dogs and a sled and returns in the spring to search for gold in the glacial tributaries. Interspersed throughout his stories are an abundance of historical facts and revealing photographs. A Quest for Adventure is an inspiring and engaging memoir, brimming with energy and personality, and laced with humor even during challenging circumstances. KIRKUS REVIEW "A historically satisfying...memoir. Reitz intersperses occasional historical photographs and notes...particularly helpful in guiding the reader through her uncle's portrayals of Alaskan life, as in her detailed description of the lay of the land in the town of Seward in 1905...'Home Brew Alley'...'Millionaire's Row'..." ~Kirkus Indie - a review service from Kirkus Reviews