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.
Alaska Statehood Celebration Commission, Alaska 50: Celebrating Alaska’s 50th Anniversary of Statehood, 1959-2009 (Tampa, FL: Faircount Media Group, 2008), 206 pp., paperback, request from Alaska Statehood Celebration Commission, Office of the Governor, 550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1700, Anchorage, AK 99501. A series of articles celebrating Alaska’s history, with emphasis on accomplishments since statehood.
Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During World War II, edited by Alexander B. Dolitsky (Juneau: Alaska-Siberia Research Center, 2007), 144 pages, hardback, $29.95 plus $10.00 postage, ISBN 0-9653891-6-7, P. O. Box 34871, Juneau, AK 99803. Illustrated description of the program that transferred combat aircraft from the U.S. to the Soviet Union; includes a section about a memorial statue dedicated in Fairbanks in 2006.
Martha Ellen Anderson, Brother Asaiah . . . (Parker, CO: Thornton Publishing, 2006), 328 pp., paperback, $19.97 plus $2.50 postage, ISBN 0-9779960-4-2, 17011 Lincoln Ave., #408, Parker, CO 80134. Life story of World War II veteran Claude Bates, who came to Homer in the 1950s with a new name, Brother Asaiah, and a group known to locals as “The Barefooters.” He became the town’s spiritual and social conscience, attending public meetings and writing hundreds of letters to the editor in which he referred to Homer as “our cosmic hamlet by the sea;” he died in 2000.
Frank Andrew, Sr., Paitarkiutenka / My Legacy to You, transcriptions and translations by Alice Rearden and Marie Meade, edited by Ann Fienup-Riordan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, in association with Calista Elders Council and the Anchorage Museum Association, 2008), 440 pp., paperback, $25.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-98780-4, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096. Yup’ik elder Frank “Miisaq” Andrew shares his knowledge of life on the Bering Sea coast near Kwigillingok; this bilingual account is a companion volume to the exhibit catalog Yuungnaqpiallerput, The Way we Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup’ik Science and Survival.
Sergei A. Arutiunov and Dorian A. Sergeev, Problems of Ethnic History in the Bering Sea: The Ekven Cemetery, translated and edited by Richard L. Bland (Anchorage: National Park Service, Alaska Regional Office, Shared Beringian Heritage Program, 2007), 262 pp., paperback, request from Shared Beringian Heritage Program, 240 West 5th Avenue, Room 114, Anchorage, AK 99501. Translation from Russian of a study published in 1975; this is a companion to the author’s other volume on prehistoric mortuary practices along the Chukotka coast, Ancient Cultures of the Asiatic Eskimos: The Uelen Cemetery, published in 2007.
Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths Reported in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Fairbanks, Alaska 1950-1955, edited by Suzanne Carroll (Fairbanks: Fairbanks Genealogical Society, 2002), 349 pp., $50.00 postpaid, P.O. Box 60534, Fairbanks, AK 99706-0534. Vital statistics for 16,000 events; continues earlier compilations that provide coverage back to 1903.
William E. Brown, History of the Central Brooks Range: Gaunt Beauty, Tenuous Life (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2007), 219 pp., hardback, $45.00 plus $5.00 postage, ISBN 1-60223-012-9 or paperback, $24.95 plus $5.00 postage, ISBN 1-60223-009-5, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. Social history of the region included in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, originally published as Gaunt Beauty . . . Tenuous Life by the National Park Service in 1988.
Robert Campbell, In Darkest Alaska: Travel and Empire Along the Inside Passage (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), 348 pp., hardback, $45.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-8122-4021-9, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4112. A study of nineteenth century travelers’ tales from southeast Alaska.
Dnaghelt’ana Qut’ana K’eli Ahdelyax (They Sing the Songs of Many People): The 1954 Nondalton Recordings of John Coray (Nondalton: Kijik Corporation, 2007), 88 pp., paperback plus audio compact disc, ISBN 978-0-615-14375-0, request from Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, National Park Service, 240 West 5th Avenue, Suite 236, Anchorage, AK 99501. Text, historical photos, and audio disc of Inland Dena’ina Athabaskan songs recorded by a village schoolteacher.
John Dunmore, Where Fate Beckons: The Life of Jean-Francois de la Perouse (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2007), 292 pp., $24.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-60223-003-X, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. Biography of the French explorer who visited the coast of Alaska in 1786; first published in New Zealand in 2006.
James Duros, Straight from Benny: Alaska’s Flag Designer—Benny Benson’s Autobiography (Kodiak: The Author, 2002), 67 pp., spiral-bound, $11.95 plus postage, no ISBN, order from Kodiak Historical Society, Baranov Museum, 101 Marine Way, Kodiak, AK 99615. At the age of thirteen Benny Benson won a contest to design a flag for Alaska; based on interviews and conversations recorded before his death in 1972.
Ann Fienup-Riordan, Yuungnaqpiallerput, The Way We Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup’ik Science and Survival (Seattle: University of Washington Press, in association with Anchorage Museum Association and Calista Elders Council, 2007), 360 pp., paperback, $45.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-98669-7, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145. Catalog for an exhibit featuring traditional technology and its place in Yup’ik society.
Mark Forsythe and Greg Dickson, The Trail of 1858: British Columbia’s Gold Rush Past (Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing, 2007), 223 pp., paperback, $26.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-55017-424-X, P.O. Box 219, Madeira Park, B.C. V0N 2H0. A celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Cariboo and other gold rushes in nineteenth century British Columbia—precursors to the Klondike and Alaska gold rushes.
Karen K. Gaul, Nanutset ch’u Q’udi Gu / Before Our Time and Now: An Ethnohistory of Lake Clark National Park & Preserve (Anchorage: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, 2007), 129 pp., paperback, request from Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, 240 West 5th Avenue, Suite 236, Anchorage, AK 99501. A history of occupation and use, from prehistory to the present.
Barry Gough, Fortune’s a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America (Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing, 2007), 400 pp., hardback, $36.95 CDN plus $9.00 postage, ISBN 1-55017-428-2, P.O. Box 219, Madeira Park, B.C. V0N 2H0. An examination of the imperial struggle for possession of lands now occupied by British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska.
Larry Hayden, A History of Alaska Methodist University, 1948-1977 [and] Alaska Pacific University, 1978-2008 (Anchorage: Alaska Conference, United Methodist Church, Commission on Archives and History, 2008), 144 pp., paperback, 1660 Patterson Street, Anchorage 99504. A scrapbook of photographs and facts about this Anchorage university, which opened its doors in 1960.
Stephen Haycox and Alexandra J. McClanahan, Alaska Scrapbook: Moments in Alaska History, 1816-1998 (Anchorage: CIRI Foundation, 2007), 255 pp., paperback, $24.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-938227-08-3. An anthology of short articles that first appeared in the Anchorage Daily News, highlighting the history of Alaska’s indigenous people and newcomers.
Terry L. Haynes and William E. Simeone, Upper Tanana Ethnographic Overview and Assessment, Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Technical Paper No. 325 (Juneau: Division of Subsistence, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 2007), 238 pp., spiral-bound, request from P.O. Box 115526, Juneau, AK 99811-5526. A description of upper Tanana River Athabaskan culture before and after western contact, plus a study of relationships between them and their neighbors, the Ahtna Athabaskans.
Raymond L. Hudson, Family After All: Alaska’s Jesse Lee Home. Volume I, Unalaska, 1889-1925 (Walnut Creek, CA: Hardscratch Press, 2007), 397 pp., paperback, $33.00 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-9789979-0-8, 2358 Banbury Place, Walnut Creek, CA 94598-2347. First installment of a history of the missionary-run school and orphanage which moved to Seward in 1925.
Helge Ingstad, Nunamiut: Among Alaska’s Inland Eskimos (Woodstock, VT: Countryman Press, 2006), 303 pp., paperback, $19.95 plus postage, P.O. Box 748, Woodstock, VT 05091. This “special commemorative edition” reprints the 1954 classic account describing nomadic Eskimos in northern Alaska and includes a new preface by Grant Spearman of Anaktuvuk Pass.
Lone E. Janson, Penny in My Shoe: Vagabond Girl in Frontier Alaska, 1945-1947 (Anchorage: Todd Communications, 2006), 216 pp., paperback, $14.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-57833-3563, 611 East 12th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. Trading her waitress job for adventure, the eighteen-year-old author bought a steamship ticket to Alaska and never left. This is the story of her first years in the north.
John Jennings, Bark Canoes: The Art and Obsession of Tappan Adney (Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, 2004), 152 pp., hardback, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 1-55297-733-1, P.O. Box 1338, Ellicott Station, Buffalo, NY 14205. Illustrated with photos of 110 canoe models made by Adney, including several Alaskan Native designs. In 1897, he had joined the Klondike gold rush and several years later published his classic account, The Klondike Stampede.
Kaylene Johnson, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down (Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press, 2008), 159 pp., hardback, $19.95 plus $5.00 postage, ISBN 0-9790470-8-4, P.O. Box 82368, Kenmore, WA. Biography of Alaska’s current governor, Sarah Palin.
The King Island Journal: The 1951-52 Journal of Juan and Rie Muñoz, Teachers on a Bering Sea Island (Juneau: Rie Muñoz, Ltd., 2007), 151 pp., hardback, $29.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9645701-7-3, 2101 Jordan Avenue, Juneau, AK 99801. Letters and photographs documenting life in the village of Ukivok on remote King Island. Most of the Inupiaq residents moved to Nome in the 1950s after the government school was closed.
M. J. Kirchhoff, Jack Dalton: The Alaska Pathfinder (Juneau: Alaska Cedar Press, 2007), 243 pp., hardback, $39.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-9624904-2-2, 506 W. Ninth Street, Juneau, AK 99801. Life story of a legendary miner and promoter active in the North from 1885 until 1916.
Sis Laraux, Our Side of the River II (Anchorage?: The Author, 2006), 144 pp., paperback, $14.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9644809-0-5. New edition, with some changes to text and photographs, of the author’s Our Side of the River published in 1994.
Steven C. Levi, Boom and Bust in the Alaska Goldfields: A Multicultural Adventure (Portsmouth, NH: Praeger Publishing, 2008), 268 pp., hardback, $49.95 plus $5.00 postage, P.O. Box 6926, Portsmouth, NH 03802-6926.
Bruce McAllister, Wings Over the Yukon: A Photographic History of Yukon Aviation (Boulder, CO: Roundup Press, 2008), 200 pp., paperback, $39.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9638817-1-7, P.O. Box 109, Boulder, CO 80306-0109. Text accompanied by historic and contemporary photographs, following the format of the author’s earlier Wings Over the Alaska Highway, Wings Above the Arctic, and Wings Over Denali.
James S. Magdanz, Sandra Tahbone, Austin Ahmasuk, David S. Koster, and Brian L. Davis, Customary Trade and Barter in Fish in the Seward Peninsula Area, Alaska, Technical Paper No. 328 (Juneau: Division of Subsistence, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 2007), 126 pp., spiral-bound, request from P.O. Box 689, Kotzebue, AK 99752-0689. Study of contemporary practices in Norton Sound villages includes an overview of historic trade activities and the literature describing them.
Kenneth L. Marsh, The Trail: The Story of the Historic Valdez-Fairbanks Trail that Opened Alaska’s Vast Interior (Trapper Creek: Trapper Creek Museum, 2008), 406 pp., paperback, $29.95 plus postage, P.O. Box 13011, Trapper Creek, AK 99683. Story of Alaska’s first major overland trail, and especially the roadhouses along it; the trail is now the route of the Richardson Highway.
Bill Miller, Wires in the Wilderness: The Story of the Yukon Telegraph (Surrey, B.C.: Heritage House Publishing, 2004), 336 pp., paperback, ISBN 1-894384-58-X, 17665 66A Avenue, Unit #108, Surrey, B.C. V3S 2A7. How the gold rush city of Dawson was connected to the world, and how that telegraph system through northern Canada was operated and maintained for thirty-five years.
Patrick H. O’Neill, From Snowshoes to Wingtips: The Life of Patrick O’Neill (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Foundation, 2007), 197 pp., paperback, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-883309-05-0, distributed by University of Alaska Press, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. Memoirs of a mining executive who was born and raised in Cordova.
Gary Peterson and Glynda Schaad, Women to Reckon With: Untamed Women of the Olympic Wilderness (Forks, WA: Poseidon Peak Publishing, 2007), 109 pp., hardback, $21.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-57833-387-5, 4913 Upper Hoh Road, Forks, WA 98331. Profiles of a dozen Washington State pioneers including information on the early life of Skagway hotel owner Harriet Pullen, who came north during the Klondike gold rush.
Katie Johnson Ringsmuth, Beyond the Moon Crater Myth: A New History of the Aniakchak Landscape (Anchorage: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Katmai National Park & Preserve, 2007), 262 pp., paperback, request from National Park Service, 240 West 5th Avenue, Suite 236, Anchorage, AK 99501. Resource study of the environment and history of this volcanic region in southwest Alaska, designated Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve in 1980.
Dave Rose, as told to Charles Wohlforth, Saving for the Future: My Life and the Alaska Permanent Fund (Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press, 2008), 254 pp., hardback, $24.95 plus $7.00 postage, ISBN 0-9790470-4-6, P.O. Box 82368, Kenmore, WA. Life story of the first executive director of the agency charged with saving some of Alaska’s oil riches; today the fund is worth over $40 billion.
Barbara Sweetland Smith, The Church of the Holy Apostles Saints Peter and Paul on Saint Paul Island, Pribilof Islands: A History—1821-2001 (Anchorage: Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Restitution Trust, 2007), 36 pp., paperback, request from 11511 Brayton Drive, #2, Anchorage, AK 99516. First in a series documenting six churches damaged during American occupation during World War II, and restored or replaced in recent years. Includes biographies of clergy.
Barbara Sweetland Smith, The Church of the Holy Great Martyr Saint George the Victorious on Saint George Island, Pribilof Islands: A History—1833-1998 (Anchorage: Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Restitution Trust, 2007), 40 pp., paperback, request from 11511 Brayton Drive, #2, Anchorage, AK 99516.
Marc Songini, The Lost Fleet: A Yankee Whaler’s Struggle Against the Confederate Navy and Arctic Disaster (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007), 432 pp., hardback, $25.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-312-28648-1, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Story of the nineteenth-century New Bedford whaling fleet in the western Arctic, told through a profile of whaling captain Thomas William Williams and his wife, Eliza.
Catherine Holder Spude, Sin and Grace: A Historical Novel of the Skagway, Alaska Sporting Wars (Skagway: Lynn Canal Publishing, 2006), 218 pp., paperback, $16.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-945284-08-X, P.O. Box 498, Skagway, AK 99840-0498. After many years of archeological research in the gold rush town of Skagway, the author crafts a fictional story of prostitution, prohibition, law and order, populated by characters she met in newspapers and court records.
Ronald T. Stanek, James A. Fall, and Davin L. Holen, West Cook Inlet: Ethnographic Overview and Assessment for Lake Clark National Park & Preserve (Anchorage: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve and Juneau: Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence, 2006), 129 pp., paperback, request from Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, 240 West 5th Avenue, Suite 236, Anchorage, AK 99501. Describes residents and their communities in western Cook Inlet; illustrated with historic and modern photographs.
Pamela R. Stern, Historical Dictionary of the Inuit (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004), 199 pp., hardback, $62.00 plus $5.00 postage, ISBN 0-8108-5058-3, order from 15200 NBN Way, P.O. Box 191, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214-0191. Part of the “Historical Dictionaries of People and Cultures” series; contains 450 entries with information on traditional cultures as well as recent history of circumpolar Inuit communities from Prince William Sound to Greenland.
Thomas F. Thornton, Being and Place among the Tlingit (Seattle: University of Washington Press; and Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Institute, 2008), 247 pp., paperback, $24.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-98749-0, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145. A study of the notion of place and how it relates to southeast Alaska’s Tlingit culture.
Tsimshian Treasures: The Remarkable Journey of the Dundas Collection, edited by Donald Ellis (Dundas, Ontario: Donald Ellis Gallery; Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre; and Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007), 143 pp., hardback, $45.00 plus postage, ISBN 1-55365-332-5, University of Washington Press, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096. Illustrated account of how a large collection of Tsimshian artifacts was acquired in 1863, preserved for generations by one Scottish family, auctioned in 2006, and returned to Canada.
We Are the Land, We Are the Sea: Stories of Subsistence from the People of Chenega, collected and edited by John E. Smelcer and Morgen A. Young (Anchorage: Chenega Heritage, 2007), 176 pp., paperback, $14.95 plus postage, no ISBN, order from Shareholder Relations, Chenega Corporation, 3000 C Street, Suite 301, Anchorage, AK 99503-3975. First-person accounts, and recipes, by Alutiiq Natives from a village in Prince William Sound.
Edna Wilder, The Eskimo Girl and the Englishman (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2007), 156 pp., hardback, $26.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-60223-015-3, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. Biography of Minnie Tucker, an Inupiaq woman from the Seward Peninsula, told by her daughter. Continues the author’s Once Upon an Eskimo Time, published in 1987.
