Our Voices: Native Stories of Alaska and the Yukon - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803289847 ISBN 13: 9780803289840

Publisher: Bison Books, 2001

Synopsis

Storytelling is a precious, vibrant tradition among the Native peoples of the Far North. Collected here for the first time are stories from the communities of interior Alaska and the Yukon Territory. These are the tales the people tell about themselves, their communities, and the world they inhabit.

 

Our Voices showcases twenty storytellers and writers who represent a full range of Athabaskan and related languages of Alaska and the Yukon. Both men and women recount popular tales of ancient times that describe the origins of social institutions and cultural values, as well as meaningful, sometimes intimate stories about their own lives and families or the history of their people. As representatives of an art transmitted through countless generations and now practiced with renewed interest and vigor by people reclaiming their cultural heritage, these narratives create a broad, brightly colored, richly detailed picture of the world of the Far North, present and past.

About this title

About the Author

James Ruppert is a professor of English and Alaska Native studies, and John W. Bernet is a professor emeritus of English, both at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Ruppert's books include Mediation in Contemporary Native American Fiction.

Reviews

Editors Ruppert (English and Alaska Native studies, Univ. of Alaska) and Bernet (English, emeritus, Univ. of Alaska) have done a tremendous service to the presentation and preservation of Native American literary craft with their new book. Readers will immediately note its twofold importance: it contributes to the historical archive of Native American traditional stories from Alaska and the Yukon while presenting the most significant narratives as told by Athabaskan storytellers. But this is not an ethnography of Athabaskan groups (of which the Deg Hit'an, Koyukon, Gwich'in, Northern Tutchone, Kaska, Tagish, Southern Tutchone, Upper Tanana, Tanacross, Lower Tanana, Upper Kuskokwim, Dena'ina, Ahtna, and Eyak are represented here). Instead, the book serves to introduce readers to the wonderful variability of Athabaskan narration, presenting 20 storytellers altogether. Ethnographers, lay readers and researchers interested in Native American traditional storytelling, and readers with an academic interest in Native American groups from Alaska and the Yukon will find this book a significant resource. Suitable for public as well as academic libraries. John E. Dockall, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803289847
• ISBN 13: 9780803289840
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 394
• Editor: Ruppert James, Bernet John W.