Title:
Making history : Alutiiq/Sugpiaq life on the Alaska Peninsula
JLCTITLE245:
Patricia H. Partnow.
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
Fairbanks, Alaska : University of Alaska Press, ©2001.
Physical Description:
xiv, 296 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
ISBN:
9781889963389
9781889963396
Abstract:
"Documents about the Alutiiq people of the Alaska Peninsula, written by outsiders, tell a familiar story of political subjugation, economic deprivation, and cultural loss. But recordings of oral traditions and personal histories by the Alutiiqs themselves tell a different tale. These narratives, woven together here with written records and scholarly commentary into an ethnohistory, show that Alutiiqs have been making their own history for millennia. Through stories and actions, Alutiiqs not only affect the course of their lives, but in so doing express a unique perception of the very nature of history. Illustrated with numerous photographs and maps, the author offers interviews and tales from storytellers from Alaska Peninsula villages. She gives historical and cultural context to each voice, allowing people to speak for themselves while helping readers comprehend the unspoken significance and implications each account contains. Alutiiq history is revealed here as an ongoing, complex, multivocal expression of a people's actions and reactions, decisions and compromises."--taken from back cover.
Bibliography Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-285) and index.
Genre:
Variant Title:
Portion of title: Alutiiq/Sugpiaq life on the Alaska Peninsula
Contents:
Preface -- Introduction. How this book came about ; History and ethnohistory ; History as interpretation ; How this book is arranged ; The storytellers. Perryville ; Ivanof Bay ; Chignik Lake ; Chignik Bay ; Port Heiden ; Chignik Lagoon ; South Naknek ; Other storytellers -- 1. Alutiiqs and the Land. The land ; Alaska Peninsula inhabitants -- 2. The Precontact Period on the Alaska Peninsula. Origins ; Precontact culture as reported by the Russians -- 3. The Russian Period on the Alaska Peninsula : 1741 to 1867. Europeans learn about the Alaska Peninsula ; Russian economic interests in the Alaska Peninsula. 1780s to 1818 ; 1818 to 1867 ; Russians along the Katmai Coast and the Naknek River drainage. Baidarshchiks ; Katmai in the nineteenth century ; Russian period Alutiiq settlements ; Russian Orthodoxy and the Alutiiqs ; Creoles ; Effects of company and church on Alaska Peninsula Alutiiqs. Population decline ; Changes in warfare and trading practices ; Subsistence ; Beginning of an Alutiiq identity -- 4. The American Period, 1867 to 1912. The American fur trade ; End of the fur trade ; Subsistence ; Commercial fishing and other economic opportunities on the Alaska Peninsula ; Creoles in the American period ; Alaska Peninsula villages in the nineteenth century ; Religion ; Gambling as control : The game of kaataq ; Health ; Dawning of the twentieth century -- 5. Katmai, 1912. The Katmai eruption ; Posteruption settlements -- 6. The American Period, 1912 to World War II. Social structure ; Population dynamics. Population increase ; Villages ; Economy. Subsistence and the continuation of tradition ; Fishing and cannery work ; Furs ; Reindeer ; Education ; Organized religion ; Disasters, natural and human ; Postscript : World War II and life after the War ; Afterword : History made and remade -- References cited -- Index.