Iñupiaq men in qayaqs, Noatak, Alaska, circa 1929. Edward S. Curtis Collection, Library of Congress Digital Collections.
Crossing the Chilkoot Pass, circa 1898. Courtesy Candy Waugaman and Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
The Gold Rush boomtown of Nome on the Seward Peninsula, 1900. Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library.
Alaskana is an annotated listing of recent publications on the North featured in Alaska History, the journal of the Alaska Historical Society.
Compiled by Bruce Merrell, Alaska Bibliographer at the Z. J. Loussac Library in Anchorage.
Pierre Berton, Prisoners of the North: Portraits of Five Arctic Immortals (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004), 328 pp., hardback, $26.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-7867-1507-3, 245 West 17th Street, New York, NY 10011. In his fiftieth and final book, the author offers biographies of Klondike Joe Boyle, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Lady Jane Franklin, John Hornby, and Robert Service.
Janet Boylan, compiler, The Day Trees Bent to the Ground: Stories from the ’64 Alaska Earthquake, edited and with photographs by Dolores Roguszka (Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2004), 352 pp., paperback, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-59433-021-2, P.O. Box 221974, Anchorage, AK 99522-1974. Memories of the earthquake, told by 151 survivors.
Harry Brower, The Whales, They Give Themselves: Conversations with Harry Brower, Sr., edited by Karen Brewster (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2004), 232 pp., hardback, $45.00 plus postage, ISBN 1-889963-65-8 or paperback, $22.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-889963-66-6, P.O. Box 756240-UAF, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. Life history of an Inupiaq whaling captain, artisan, and community leader from Barrow.
Ken S. Coates and William R. Morrison, Strange Things Done: Murder in Yukon History (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004), 227 pp., hardback, $34.95 plus postage, ISBN 0773527052, 3430 McTavish Street, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1X9. A study of myths and reality surrounding violent deeds in gold rush country.
Nikolai N. Dikov, Archaeological Sites of Kamchatka, Chukotka, and the Upper Kolyma, translated by Richard L. Bland (Anchorage: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Shared Beringian Heritage Program, 2004), 394 pp., paperback, no ISBN, request from 240 West 5th Avenue, Room 114, Anchorage, AK 99501. A description of 170 sites in an illustrated translation of the Russian text, which was first published in 1977.
Nikolai N. Dikov, Early Cultures of Northeastern Asia, translated by Richard L. Bland (Anchorage: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Shared Beringian Heritage Program, 2004), 331 pp., paperback, no ISBN, request from 240 West 5th Avenue, Room 114, Anchorage, AK 99501. A discussion of the sites cataloged in the title directly above; an illustrated translation of the Russian text, which was first published in 1979.
Harry B. Dodge, III, Kodiak Island and Its Bears: A History of Bear/Human Interaction on Alaska’s Kodiak Archipelago (Anchorage: Great Northwest Publishing and Distributing Company, 2004), 352 pp., paperbound, $27.50 plus postage, ISBN 0-937708-30-5 or hardback, ISBN 0-937708-29-1. Includes profiles of hunting guides.
Linda J. Ellanna and George K. Sherrod, From Hunters to Herders: The Transformation of Earth, Society, and Heaven Among the Inupiat of Beringia (Anchorage: National Park Service, Alaska Region, 2004), 227 pp., paperback, request from National Park Service, 240 W. 5th Avenue, Room 114, Anchorage, AK 99501. A study of a group of Inupiaq reindeer herders on the Seward Peninsula between the years 1918 and 1925, and more broadly, an examination of sociocultural change associated with the introduction of reindeer herding in Alaska.
Agnes Herbert and A. Shikari, Two Dianas in Alaska (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004), 316 pp., paperback, $16.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-8117-3131-6, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055. Originally published in 1909, this is an account of the author, her cousin, and two unnamed men hunting big game trophies. A new foreword by Mary Zeiss Stange adds perspective.
McKay Jenkins, Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder, and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic, 1913 (New York: Random House, 2005), 278 pp., hardback, $25.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-375-50721-3. A study of cultural conflict set off by the murder of two priests by Inuit Natives in the Canadian Arctic.
Joseph F. Macdonald, Macdonald’s Steamboats & Steamships of the Pacific Northwest (Portland: Joemac Press, 2004), 277 pp., softbound, ISBN 0-943645-45-X, P.O. Box 68239, Portland, OR 97268. “A directory of steamboats & steamships of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, Yukon Territory and Idaho, and include[s] lists of crew members, owners, companies and builders.” Volume I covers vessel names starting with A-M; Volume II will complete the alphabet and be available in March 2005.
Kari Mohn, editor, Cemetery Inscriptions and Area Memorials in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula Borough (Kenai: Kenai Totem Tracers Genealogical Society, 2004), 425 pp., 3-ring binder, $40.00 plus $10.35 postage, ISBN 0-9755313-0-1, order from Kenai Community Library, 163 Main Street Loop, Kenai, AK 99611. Surveys some sixty cemeteries with over 5,000 individual entries; includes maps and photos.
Daniel Nelson, Northern Landscapes: The Struggle for Wilderness Alaska (Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 2004), 312 pp., hardback, $36.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-891853-84-8 or paperback, $22.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-891853-85-6, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-1400. History of “the campaign to preserve wild Alaska through the creation of a vast system of parks and wildlife refuges,” culminating in the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980.
Stanton H. Patty, Fearless Men and Fabulous Women: A Reporter’s Memoir from Alaska & the Yukon (Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press, 2004), 295 pp., paperback, $17.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9745014-0-9, P.O. Box 82368, Kenmore, WA 98028. Memories of the author’s fifty-year career in journalism.
Jacquelin Benson Pels, compiler, Any Tonnage, Any Ocean: Conversations with a Resolute Alaskan (Walnut Creek, CA: Hardscratch Press, 2004), 307 pp., paperback, $24.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-9678989-5-1, 2358 Banbury Place, Walnut Creek, CA 94598-2347. Biography of Walter Jackinsky, Jr. of Ninilchik who retired after thirty-four years with the Alaska Marine Highway System.
Elizabeth Bernhardt Pinson, Alaska’s Daughter: An Eskimo Memoir of the Early Twentieth Century (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2004), 212 pp., hardback, $42.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-87421-596-X or paperback, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-97421-591-9, Utah State University Press, Logan, UT 84322-7800. Born to an Inupiat mother and a German father in Teller, the author tells her life story.
Priscilla N. Russell and George C. West, Bird Traditions of the Lime Village Area Dena’ina: Upper Stony River Ethno-Ornithology (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 2003), 206 pp., paperback, $10.00 plus postage, Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 756730, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6730. Thoughts and observations about birds and the way Athabaskan villagers interact with them.
John M. Sweet, Discovery at Prudhoe Bay (Boulder, CO: The Author, 2004), 273 pp., spiral-bound, no ISBN, 344 S. 68th Street, Boulder, CO 80303. A petroleum geologist who was the District Explorationist with Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) describes background and events surrounding the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968.
Geza Szurovy, Bushplanes (St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press, 2004), 160 pp., hardback, $29.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-7603-1478-0, 380 Jackson Street, Suite 200, St. Paul, MN 55101-3885. Using hundreds of modern and historic photos, the author sings the praises of bush aircraft in Canada, Australia, and especially, Alaska.
Thomas F. Thornton, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Ethnographic Overview and Assessment (Skagway: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, 2004), 302 pp., paperback, request from P.O. Box 517, Skagway, AK 99840-0517. A study of the Tlingit and Tagish Natives of the upper Lynn Canal region in southeast Alaska, with emphasis on effects of the Klondike Gold Rush upon them.
Ray Tremblay, On Patrol: True Adventures of an Alaska Game Warden (Portland: Alaska Northwest Books/Graphic Arts Center, 2004), 223 pp., paperback, $14.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-88240-573-X, P.O. Box 10306, Portland, OR 97296-0306. Memories of a pilot and game warden active from the 1950s onward, including a chapter about the “Duck Wars” of the 1960s.
Jack B. Webb and Susan Hankey Webb, as told by Richard B. Webb, True North in Alaska: Memories of Indians, Eskimos, Bush Pilots, and Us (Haverford, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2004), 500 pp., paperback, $29.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-7414-2060-0, order from Cook Inlet Books, 415 West Fifth Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. Careers of school teachers who arrived in Alaska in 1936, based on their correspondence and illustrated with hundreds of photographs.
Compiled by Bruce Merrell, Alaska Bibliographer at the Z. J. Loussac Library in Anchorage.
Katherine L. Arndt, Supplemental Report: The Bishop’s House, as Documented in the Alaskan Russian Church Archives and the Published Correspondence of Innokentii (Veniaminov), Second edition (Sitka: Sitka National Historical Park, 2004), 113 pp., paperback, request from Sitka National Historical Park, 103 Monastery Street, Sitka, AK 99835. An “enhanced printing” of the author’s 2001 report by the same title, containing translations of documents relating to this National Historic Landmark, built in 1843.
Ian W. Beaton, They Also Serve: Who Only Stand and Wait ([Philadelphia, PA?]: Xlibris Corp., 2000), 261 pp., hardback, $31.99 plus postage, ISBN 0-7388-2390-2 or paperback, $21.99 plus postage, ISBN 0-7388-2391-0, International Plaza II, Suite 340, Philadelphia, PA 19113. World War II experiences of an Army corporal, based on letters he wrote during his two years on Shemya in the Aleutian Islands.
Barbara E. Bundy, Dale M. Vinson, and Don E. Dumond, Brooks River Cutbank: An Archeological Data Recovery Project in Katmai National Park (Eugene: University of Oregon, Department of Anthropology, 2005), 92 pp., paperback, request from National Park Service, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Lake Clark-Katmai Studies Center, 4230 University Drive, Suite 311, Anchorage, AK 99508. Results of excavations conducted in 2001-04.
James A. Carroll, Above the Arctic Circle: The Alaska Journals of James A. Carroll, 1911-1922 (Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2005), 159 pp., paperback, $17.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-59433-032-8, order from Alaskana Books, 564 S. Denali Street, Palmer, AK 99645. New edition of the author’s First Ten Years in Alaska, published in 1957. Photographs and updated material about the Carroll family of Fort Yukon have been added.
Ann Chandonnet, Gold Rush Grub: From Turpentine Stew to Hoochinoo (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2005), 288 pp., hardback, $34.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-889963-71-2, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. History of gold rush food, from California to the Klondike and Alaska.
Ciuliamta Akluit/Things of our Ancestors: Yup’ik Elders Explore the Jacobsen Collection at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, translated by Marie Meade and edited by Ann Fienup-Riordan (Seattle: University of Washington Press in association with Calista Elders Council, 2005), 420 pp., paperback, $25.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-98471-6, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145. An Alaskan delegation visits Germany to view a large ethnographic assemblage collected in the 1880s; bilingual text with photographs.
