Authentic Alaska: Voices of Its Native Writers (American Indian Lives) - Softcover

Andrews, Susan B.; Creed, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803259336 ISBN 13: 9780803259331

Publisher: Bison Books, 1998

Synopsis

In this lively and sometimes poignant collection of essays and autobiographies, nearly fifty Alaska Native writers tell of their unique way of life and bear witness to the sweeping cultural changes occurring in their lifetimes.

They explore a range of experiences and issues, including skinning a polar bear; traditional domestic and subsistence practices; marriage customs; alcoholism; the challenges and opportunities of modern education; balancing traditional and contemporary demands; discrimination; adapting to urban life; the treatment of Native peoples in school textbooks; and the social realities of speaking standard and “village” English.

With its fresh perspectives and unfailingly authentic voices, this collection is essential for an understanding of Alaska Native peoples today.

About this title

About the Author

Susan B. Andrews and John Creed are award-winning journalists and associate professors in the humanities at the Chukchi campus of the University of Alaska in Kotzebue.

Reviews

"Cutting a polar bear is very easy, just like saying the alphabet for counting ones, twos, threes, and so on," states Siberian Yup'ik Linda Akeya in her essay on skinning a polar bear. Akeya's native Alaskan voice is typical of the more than 50 found here. There is a refreshing directness to this collection of essays and stories edited byAndrews and Creed, journalists and associate professors at the Chukchi campus of the University of Alaska in Kotzebue. Most of the narratives were part of a student writing project initiated in 1987-88, with the students' efforts often published in the Anchorage Daily News. The slender anthology includes a brief overview of Alaska's history in relation to its native peoples followed by individual autobiographies, accounts of rural life, formal schooling experiences, and the effects of Western culture on native traditions. The text is enhanced by historic and contemporary photographs. This is a bittersweet book, for there is no denying the destruction of one society by another. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.?Janet N. Ross, Washoe Cty. Lib. Sys., Sparks, Nev.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803259336
• ISBN 13: 9780803259331
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 177