The impulse to tell stories is universal to the human condition, and language is the lens through which we convey who we are. The stories in Alaska Traditions fall into two general categories: Stories to Live By includes narratives and storytelling of the peoples of Alaska. Some of these stories are products of the oral tradition while others have emerged in written form-- both reflecting the cultures and heritages of Alaska's people. The section also features articles about topics and organizations that promote an awareness of cultural identity. Life Stories focuses on the memory of what life was like (or how it has changed) in the Last Frontier.

Stories to Live By

Unfinished Business: The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
In this multi-page feature, Byron Mallott, one of the framers of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA), reflects on the Act's impact over the past thirty years and toward a vision of the future. Also featured are a summary of ANSCA and Alexandra J. McClanahan's Growing Up Native in Alaska.

ANCSA at 30
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is milestone legislation that affects all Alaska Natives and all Alaskans. ANCSA at 30 contains interviews and events featuring original participants reflecting upon the 30 years since the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Listen to the Other Guy's Story
Father Michael Oleksa shares a way to develop community in Alaska through cultural understanding.

The Story of Alaska's Flag
Thirteen-year-old Benny Benson designed a flag with "eight stars of gold on a field of blue" that not only won an American Legion contest in 1926 but became Alaska's territorial and, later, state flag.

Why Brown Bears Are Meaner
on the Other Side of the Inlet
Brown bears appear in stories and tales throughout the ages, and Alaska Native storytelling is certainly no exception. This story, told by Kenaitze storyteller June Lindgren Gagnon, is a lesson about community, about how people need to work together.

The Origins of "Tlingit Moon and Tide"
"Tlingit Moon and Tide," developed by teachers in Southeast Alaska, includes a resource guide on using Native legends and local culture and surroundings to teach science in the school.

Alaskool Web Site
As an Alaska Native growing up in Alaska, Paul Ongtooguk was often surprised that schools offered so little about the issues and history of Alaska and its Native communities. The Alaskool web site has much of the information he wished had been taught.

Northern Star: Alaska Quarterly Review

Alaska Quarterly Review, UAA’s internationally acclaimed literary journal, recently published a special volume entitled Alaska Native Writers, Storytellers & Orators: The Expanded Edition.

CIRI's Native Pride Program
In partnership with the Anchorage School District Indian Education program, CIRI is developing The Native Pride Program, designed to decrease the number of high school dropouts and increase pride among Alaska Native and American Indian students.

KNBA: Vitality of Cultures
KNBA 90.3 FM in Anchorage expresses the vibrancy of Native cultures through a variety of programs featuring storytelling and oral traditions. Founded in 1996, KNBA is the first, and only, urban Native American public radio station in the nation.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center
"The tradition of storytelling is intrinsic in all Alaska Native cultures. It has been used since ancient times to tell about family histories, life lessons, tell of valuable role models, mythology, and entertainment. The stories of any people tell a great deal about their culture."

Life Stories

Getting an Education Took a Lot of Grit
When Sophie Prosser was a 14-year-old girl in Ninilchik, she wanted an education so badly she went on a hunger strike to prove to her parents just how serious she was. Today, at 76, Prosser looks back on the many successes of her life.

Writing Truth, Three Generations
Writing and telling stories is a tradition in Susie Silook's family. Her father and grandfather have both written about their lives on St. Lawrence Island.

Native Rights Started In a Freezer
Native leader Roy Huhndorf tells of growing up in Nulato and Anchorage and of becoming involved in Native organizations through a conversation with a fellow worker in a Grocers Wholesale freezer.

Helping the Nation Find a Conscience
Shari Huhndorf, in her book Going Native: Indians in the American Cultural Imagination, addresses the history of distortion and romantizication of Native American culture and customs by European Americans. Though she doesn't consider herself to be a leader in the traditional sense of the word, Shari Huhndorf's work may just help the nation find a conscience.

Inside the Circle of a Story
As a child, Jeane Breinig liked to listen to her grandfather tell stories of a half-human, half-land otter creature, and of mysterious transformations of animals who might be human, and humans who might be animals. As an adult, she has received more Haida stories from her mother.

My Father's Legacy: Lion on the Mountain
Margie (Twitchell) Brown, former CIRI senior vice president, grew up in the tiny village of Takotna. She said that one of the most important lessons she learned from her father, Benjamin F. Twitchell, was about the enduring nature of the land and its natural features.

Koyukon Language, Past and Present
Eliza Jones, a 63-year-old elder and Athabaskan scholar, is co-author with Jules Jette -- a man who died long before she was born -- of the recently published Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary.

Our House Was Different
Mom was busy making Dad a waterproof hunting bag. She used three types of seal hide and beluga whale sinew to sew. I loved to hear the sound of the sinew as she pulled the needle through the thick hide. I can still hear the rhythm. "What are you thinking so hard about, Ahvooruk?" Mom inquired. "Our house," I replied.

"She's a Native, Isn't She?"
Ebba Hamm describes an incident of prejudice she experienced after she moved to Anchorage with her husband, Nolan Hamm.

Writing for Her People
For Patricia Wade the written word has a particular power. It has the power to inform, the power to persuade, and even, sometimes, the power to change people. She used its power after a small plot of land where her tribe's dead were buried came into private hands.

I Usually Flew Straight
Retired airline executive Ray I. Petersen recalls the difficulties early pilots faced with virtually no communications and points out how some of his key decisions in those days were based on luck.


The Father of Military Construction in Alaska
Brigadier General B.B. Talley came to Alaska in September 1940 to build an airfield near Yakutat. For three years, General Talley worked reconnaissance on the mainland and in the Aleutians and supervised construction on more than 60 projects.

51 Hours and 19 Minutes
Lisa Frederic describes her adventures along the trail as she and her 12 dogs ran -- and won -- the 2001 Denali sled dog race.

The Heroine of Wrangel Island
Ada Blackjack Johnson was just 23 years old when she was hired as a seamstress to accompany four other members of an ill-fated expedition charged with colonizing Russia’s Wrangel Island in 1921.