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 of Anchorage.
Edward Adams, Into the Savage Land: The Alaskan Journal of Edward Adams, edited by Ernest Sipes (Blaine, WA: Hancock House Publishers, 2007), 157 pp., paperback, $12.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-88839-562-0, 1431 Harrison Avenue, Blaine, WA 98230-5005. In 1850, Adams was the assistant surgeon and naturalist aboard HMS Enterprise, a British navy ship commanded by Captain Richard Collinson and sent via the Bering Sea to search for survivors of the Franklin Expedition. Adams and two others were put ashore at St. Michael and spent the winter in the area, Lieutenant John Barnard travelling overland to Nulato on the Yukon River where he was killed by Koyukon Athabaskans.
Anóoshi Lingít Aaní Ká: Russians in Tlingit America—The Battles of Sitka, 1802 and 1804, edited by Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Richard Dauenhauer, and Lydia T. Black (Seattle: University of Washington Press and Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Institute, 2008), 491 pp., paperback, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-295-98601-2, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145. Covering the period from the arrival of European and American fur traders through the establishment of permanent non-Native settlements in southeast Alaska, this is the story of interactions between two cultures. Sources include newly available Russian documents and transcriptions of Tlingit oral traditions recorded almost fifty years ago.
Rae Arno, Anchorage Place Names: The Who and Why of Streets, Parks, and Places (Anchorage: Todd Communications, 2008), 80 pp., paperback, $9.95 plus $2.00 postage, ISBN 1-57833-407-0, 611 E. 12th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501-4603. A guide to the names behind the places in Alaska’s largest city.
David F. Arnold, The Fishermen’s Frontier: People and Salmon in Southeast Alaska (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008), 267 pp., hardback, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-295-98788-0, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA, 98145. A study of economic, cultural, and political relationships in the salmon fisheries from aboriginal to modern times.
James K. Barnett, Captain Cook in Alaska and the North Pacific (Anchorage: Todd Communications, 2008), 304 pp., paperback, $30.95 postpaid, ISBN 978-1-57833-408-7, 611 E. 12th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501-4603. The story of Captain Cook’s 179 days in Alaskan waters during the year 1778, on his third and final voyage around the world.
John B. Branson, The Canneries, Cabins and Caches of Bristol Bay, Alaska (Anchorage: National Park Service, 2007), 254 pp., paperback, request from Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, 240 W. 5th Avenue, Suite 236, Anchorage, AK 99501. Pictorial history of the Bristol Bay region in the early twentieth century, emphasizing the salmon canning industry but also documenting upriver subsistence activities.
John C. Breiby, Rigging the Spritsail on a Bristol Bay Double-Ender [Anchorage: Office of History & Archaeology, Alaska Division of Parks & Outdoor Recreation, Department of Natural Resources, 2006], 30 pp., comb-bound, request from Office of History & Archaeology, 550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1310, Anchorage, AK 99501. Fishermen gathered in 2006 to remember how to set up the rigging of a traditional sail-powered fishing boat. After engines were first allowed in 1952, sail-power quickly dropped from use.
Rolfe G. Buzzell, History of the Caro-Coldfoot Trail (RST 262) and the Coldfoot-Chandalar Trail (RST 9) (Anchorage: Office of History & Archaeology, Alaska Division of Parks & Outdoor Recreation, Department of Natural Resources, 2007), 138 pp., comb-bound, request from Office of History & Archaeology, 550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1310, Anchorage, AK 99501. A century of transportation and mining history in the central Brooks Range.
Phyllis Downing Carlson and Laurel Downing Bill, Aunt Phil’s Trunk, Volume III: An Alaska Historian’s Collection of Treasured Tales (Anchorage: Laudon Enterprises, 2007), 344 pp., paperback, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-57833-343-1, order from Title Wave Books, 1360 W. Northern Lights Boulevard, Anchorage, AK 99503-2510. “This book contains a collection of Alaska history stories written by my aunt, Phyllis Downing Carlson, as well as stories written by me that came from tidbits found among the notes and rare books I inherited when she died in 1993.” Volumes I and II were published in 2006 and 2007.
Dermot Cole, Historic Photos of Alaska (Nashville: Turner Publishing, 2008), 205 pp., hardback, $39.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-59652-424-8, 200 4th Avenue North, Suite 950, Nashville, TN 37219. A selection of 200 black and white photographs from the 1880s to present.
Dermot Cole, North to the Future: The Alaska Story, 1959-2009 (Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press, 2008), 253 pp., paperback, $14.95 plus $5.00 postage, ISBN 978-0-9800825-3-1, P.O. Box 82368, Kenmore, WA 98028. Historic overview of the first fifty years of the new state of Alaska. Includes appendices with timelines of the capital move controversy, subsistence issues, natural resource revenue statistics, and more.
Bonnie Demerjian, Anan: Stream of Living Water (Wrangell: Stikine River Books, 2007), 70 pp., paperback, $14.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-9776792-1-8, P.O. Box 1762, Wrangell, AK 99929. Visitor’s guide to a prime bear and salmon viewing area in southeast Alaska; includes history of use by Tlingits and commercial fishermen.
Gastineau Channel Memories, Volume III: 1880-1967 (Juneau: Pioneer Book Committee, 2008), 377 pp., paperback, $27.95 plus postage, order from Hearthside Books, 8745 Glacier Highway, Juneau, AK 99801. Life stories of 160 Juneau-area families, illustrated with photographs of families and “then and now” scenes. Includes corrections for volumes I and II, published in 2001 and 2004.
Donald L. Guimary, Marumina Trabaho: A History of Labor in Alaska’s Salmon Canning Industry (New York: iUniverse, 2006), 321 pp., paperback, $22.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-595-40707-1, 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512. Drawing on personal experience that began in 1946, the author discusses treatment of workers, especially Filipinos, in the canned salmon industry.
Heart of the Yukon: A Natural and Cultural History of the Mayo Area, edited by Lynette Bleiler, Christopher Burn, and Mark O’Donoghue (Mayo: Village of Mayo, 2006), 138 pp., paperback, $27.36 plus postage, ISBN 9780978026301, order from Mac’s Fireweed Books, 203 Main Street, Whitehorse, YT Y1A 2B2, Canada.
William L. Iggiagruk Hensley, Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009), 256 pp., hardback, $24.00 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-374-15484-4, 18 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011. Autobiography of an Alaska Native leader who was instrumental in the passage of the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act in 1971.
In Sisterhood: The History of Camp 2 of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, edited by Kimberly L. Metcalfe (Juneau: Hazy Island Books, 2008), 232 pp., hardback, $34.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-9777689-2-9 or paperback, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-9777689-1-2, order from Hearthside Books, 8745 Glacier Highway, Juneau, AK 99801. Founded in 1926, this organization of Tlingit women has fought for equal education, health care, voting rights, and settlement of claims to traditional lands. The story of the ANS is told with transcribed interviews and historical photographs.
Susan M. Jeffrey, A Legacy Built to Last: Kodiak’s Russian American Magazine (Kodiak: Kodiak Historical Society, 2008), 151 pp., paperback, $24.95 plus $5.00 postage, 101 Marine Way, Kodiak, AK 99615. Portrait of the oldest Russian building in North America and the oldest Western structure in Alaska, which has served variously as a fur warehouse, store, home, and museum.
Holger Jorgenson, Jorgy: The Life of Native Alaskan Bush Pilot and Airline Captain Holger “Jorgy” Jorgenson, as told to Jean Lester (Ester, AK: Ester Republic Press, 2007), 268 pp., paperback, $25.00 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-9749221-5-7, P.O. Box 24, Ester, AK 99725. Autobiography of an Inupiat man with an eighth-grade education whose flying career between 1943 and 2001 took him throughout the world.
James Gore (Jim) King, Attending Alaska’s Birds: A Wildlife Pilot’s Story (Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing, 2008) 470 pp., paperback, $28.62 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-4251-4243-5, 2657 Wilfert Road, Victoria, BC Canada V9B 5Z3. Former AHS board member King arrived in Alaska in 1949 and describes life as a pilot/game warden, a refuge manager, and an expert at enumerating birds from small planes at low altitude. Along the way he and his wife built the King Bird Farm on the tide flats near Juneau and raised a family.
Janet R. Klein, Kachemak Bay Communities: Their Histories, Their Mysteries (Homer: Kachemak Country Publications, 2008), 157 pp., paperback, $14.50 plus postage, P.O. Box 2386, Homer, AK 99603. New information and photographs are included in this revision of the author’s A History of Kachemak Bay: the Country, the Communities (1981).
Kodiak, Alaska: Les Masques de la Collection Alphonse Pinart, under the direction of Emmanuel Désveaux (Paris: Éditions Adam Biro and Musée du Quai Branly, 2002), 255 pp., hardback, ISBN 9782876603639. Catalog for an exhibit of Alutiiq masks and artifacts collected by Frenchman Alphonse Pinart in 1871-72.
Sonja Luehrmann, Alutiiq Villages Under Russian and U.S. Rule (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2008), 221 pp., hardback, $45.00 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-60223-010-1, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775. An examination of Alutiiq history under Russian and American colonial rule.
Peter Ulf Møller and Natasha Okhotina Lind, Until Death Do Us Part: The Letters and Travels of Anna and Vitus Bering (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2008), 171 pp., hardback, $29.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-889963-94-5, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. Correspondence and background about the Danish explorer who sailed from Russia to Alaska in 1741, first published in Denmark in 1997.
Frank Norris, Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve, Volume II—General Park History since 1980, Plus Specialized Themes (Anchorage: National Park Service, 2008), 458 pp., paperback, request from Alaska Regional Office, National Park Service, 240 West 5th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. A general history of management issues after the park was expanded in 1981, plus in-depth chapters dealing with interpretation, natural and cultural resource management, mountaineering, and mining.
Joshua ‘Maqista’ Phillip, Maqista: Memoirs of Traditional Yup’ik Values – Ellangutemta Qanruyutait, Yup’ik translation by Elena Chingliak, English translation by Frank Chingliak (Akiachak: Yupiit School District, 2008), 138 pp., paperback, ISBN 978-0-9778151-7-3, P.O. Box 51190, Akiachak, AK 99551. Traditional ways and history, told by a resident of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta who was born in 1912 and lived in the region all his life.
Josephine E. Papp and Josie A Phillips, Like a Tree to the Soil: A History of Farming in Alaska’s Tanana Valley, 1903-1940 (Fairbanks: School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2007), 250 pp., paperback, $26.00 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-615-17898-1, P.O. Box 757200, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7200.
Pribilof Islands, Alaska: Preserving the Legacy (Seattle: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, Office of Response and Restoration, 2008), 282 pp., hardback plus HTML disc, request from Office of Response and Restoration, Building 3, Room 2016, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115. (The HTML disc containing text, maps, image gallery and video gallery plus another disc containing nine GIS projects are available by request from the Office of History and Archaeology, 550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 1310, Anchorage, AK 99501-3565.) “A comprehensive look at the Pribilof Islands from the time of the United States’ purchase through 2007,” produced to mitigate the impact of restoration and transfer of public lands and buildings. The federal government administered the islands and supervised fur seal harvests there from 1910 until 1983.
David A. Remley, Crooked Road: The Story of the Alaska Highway, second edition (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2008), 253 pp., paperback, $21.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-60223-037-8, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240.
Russian America: Materials of III International Scientific Conference “Russian America” (Irkutsk, 8-12 August 2007) (Irkutsk: Architectural and Ethnographic Museum “Talci”, 2007), 562 pp., hardback, ISBN 978-5-91344-064-8. Papers presented at a third conference on the Russian period of Alaska’s history; most are in Russian but there is an English table of contents. The first conferences were held in Sitka in 1979 and 1987.
Sonya Senkowsky and Amanda Coyne, Alaska Then & Now: Anchorage, Juneau & Fairbanks (San Diego: Thunder Bay Press, 2008), 144 pp., $18.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-59223-799-9, 10350 Barnes Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92121. Matches over seventy historic photos with views of the same scenes today.
Robert J. Serling, Character & Characters: The Spirit of Alaska Airlines (Seattle: Documentary Media LLC, 2008), 492 pp., hardback, $29.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-933245-11-9, 3250 41st Avenue S.W., Seattle, WA 98116. A “biography of an airline,” from its 1932 founding by Linious McGee with a single airplane to its current status as a national airline with 10,000 employees and a fleet of jets serving 92 cities.
Blake W. Smith, Wings Over the Wilderness: They Flew the Trail of ’42 (Blaine, WA: Hancock House Publishers, 2008), 295 pp., paperback, $39.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-88839-595-5, 1431 Harrison Avenue, Blaine, WA 98230-5005. Illustrated history of the Lend-Lease program that supplied American aircraft to Russia via Alaska during World War II; continues narrative begun by the author in his Warplanes to Alaska (1998).
John M. Sweet, Discovery at Prudhoe Bay (Blaine, WA: Hancock House Publishers, 2008), 312 pp., paperback, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-0-88839-630-3, 1431 Harrison Avenue, Blaine, WA 98230-5005. A former oil geologist tells the story of oil exploration and development in Alaska.
Will Troyer, Bear Wrangler: Memoirs of an Alaska Pioneer Biologist (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2008), 250 pp., hardback, $26.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-60223-029-3, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. Story of a wildlife management career that began in 1951.
John Evangelist Walsh, When the Laughing Stopped: The Strange, Sad Death of Will Rogers (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2008), 189 pp., hardback, $26.95 plus postage, ISBN 978-1-60223-043-9, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. Account of the death of the beloved humorist and newspaper columnist in 1935 at Barrow, Alaska.
Mary Pat Wyatt and Penny Bauder, The Wickersham State Historic Site: Master Interpretive Plan (Anchorage: Alaska State Office of History and Archaeology, 2008), 96 pp., spiral-bound, request from Office of History and Archaeology, 550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 1310, Anchorage, AK 99501-3565. Includes history of the judge and congressional delegate who dominated territorial politics until his death in 1939.
