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.
The Alaska Historical Society hosted its 2022 annual conference on October 6-8 and 13-15, 2022, in collaboration with the Cook Inlet Historical Society.
Bathsheba Demuth is an associate professor of History and Environment and Society at Brown University where she specializes in the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic. Her interest in the north began when she was 18 and moved to the village of Old Crow in the Yukon Territory of Canada, where she spent several years mushing, hunting, fishing, and otherwise learning the ways of the taiga and tundra.
She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brown University, and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Her writing has appeared in publications from The American Historical Review to The New Yorker. Floating Coast was named a best book of 2019 by Nature, National Public Radio, Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal, among others. A current Carnegie Foundation Fellow, she is working on a book about the environmental pasts of the Yukon River.
Demuth’s talk, History from a Dogsled: The Yukon and the Stakes of Telling the Past” looked at the intertwined, co-dependent lives of people, dogs and salmon along the 19th century Yukon River for examples of how to tell more capacious, polyvocal narratives—and the stakes of doing so for and about Alaska, a place where the politics of who speaks the past has bearing on present conflicts over land, meaning, and the possibilities of the future. Her presentation, which you can watch below, was followed by a book-signing for her award-winning book, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait.
For more information about Bathsheba Demuth and her presentation, see the Alaska Historical Society’s July 7, 2022 Press Release, “National Author, Environmental Historian to Open Fall History Conference.”
Alaska history provides numerous examples of conflicting visions. Russian colonizers coerced Native labor to pursue sea otters for a profitable commercial trade, disrupting the Native subsistence economy and decimating populations. Following the U.S. purchase of Alaska, conflicts arose as fortune-seekers reaped profits from this resource-rich territory, often with disastrous consequences to the indigenous people already occupying Alaska. The discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay and the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act set the stage for legal battles over land and resource use.
Other conflicting visions in our history revolved around education. For example, the practice of removing Alaska Native children from their communities and taking them to boarding schools, intended to educate and “civilize” them, harshly curtailed the transmission of Native language and culture. The conference included a panel on Alaskan boarding schools, featuring former students at Mount Edgecumbe and other schools.
The conference also highlighted the importance of recent history. Panels on the rollout of ANCSA and preparations for the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline, both of which occurred within the last 50 years, also occurred and were recorded for later viewing. For more information or questions about the 2022 conference, contact: Rachel Mason, Program Chair, rachel_mason@nps.gov.
Bathsheba Demuth
David Ramseur, Moderator
Judy Bittner, Moderator
Sue Sherif, William Schneider, Karen Brewster
Charleen Fisher, Michael Hawfield, Jennifer Romer, Michael Hoyt
Rachel Mason, Moderator
Wendy Ranney, Moderator
Averil Lerman, Moderator
Wendy Ranney, Moderator
Virtual tour with Heather McClain, Chloe Nielsen, Monica Shah
Rebecca Paulson, Moderator
Gunnar Knapp, Moderator
Erik Johnson, Moderator
With Presenter Rachel Cohen
With Moderator Karen Brewster
With Moderator Averil Lerman
Conference also included the Alaska Historical Society’s annual business meeting. Click here for the business meeting agenda.
The primary agenda item was consideration of changes to AHS bylaws, which hadn’t been updated since 2009. The board requested members approve changes to permit electronic voting and circulation of information, among other issues. These changes were voted into place during the meeting. Click here to view the AHS Bylaws with accepted 2022 revisions.
The meeting also had reports of the past year’s activities, announcement of newly elected members of the board of directors, a presentation of the society’s annual awards, and a remembrance of our colleagues who died in 2022. There was also time for members to speak on issues of concern to Alaska’s history community and propose programs and projects for the society to undertake.
