Making up more than ten percent of Alaska's population, Native Alaskans are the state's largest minority group. Yet most non-Native Alaskans know surprisingly little about the histories and cultures of their indigenous neighbors, or about the important issues they face. This concise book compiles frequently asked questions and provides informative and accessible responses that shed light on some common misconceptions. With responses composed by scholars within the represented communities and reviewed by a panel of experts, this easy-to-read compendium aims to facilitate a deeper exploration and richer discussion of the complex and compelling issues that are part of Alaska Native life today.

In the spring, the bear returns to the forest, the glacier returns to its source, and the salmon returns to the fresh water where it was spawned. Drawing on the special relationship that the Native people of southeastern Alaska have always had with nature, Blonde Indian is a story about returning. Told in eloquent layers that blend Native stories and metaphor with social and spiritual journeys, this enchanting memoir traces the author’s life from her difficult childhood growing up in the Tlingit community, through her adulthood, during which she lived for some time in Seattle and San Francisco, and eventually to her return home. Neither fully Native American nor Euro-American, Hayes encounters a unique sense of alienation from both her Native community and the dominant culture. We witness her struggles alongside other Tlingit men and women—many of whom never left their Native community but wrestle with their own challenges, including unemployment, prejudice, alcoholism, and poverty. The author’s personal journey, the symbolic stories of contemporary Natives, and the tales and legends that have circulated among the Tlingit people for centuries are all woven together, making Blonde Indian much more than the story of one woman’s life. Filled with anecdotes, descriptions, and histories that are unique to the Tlingit community, this book is a document of cultural heritage, a tribute to the Alaskan landscape, and a moving testament to how going back—in nature and in life—allows movement forward.

This book explores the application of federal Indian policy to Alaska Natives in the 20th century, a process driven by the federal government's desire to acquire Indian land. Twentieth century Indian policy, as applied in Alaska, has oscillated between encouraging the privatization of land and assimilation of Native Alaskans into the dominant society, and allowing for Native autonomy and self-government. The Alaska Reorganization Act of 1936, better known as the Alaska Native New Deal, promoted Native self-government through constitutions and native self-sufficiency through corporations within geographic limits of designated reservations. In Alaska, the federal government's termination policy extended state jurisdiction over Native peoples after World War Two. A new policy of self-determination was initiated by the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. With this act, 40 million acres were conveyed to newly created Native corporations. Alaska Natives would achieve self-determination by participation in corporate decisions. This history of the legislation and implementation of federal Indian policy in Alaska explores the tensions and reversals expressed through successive legislative acts, and focuses upon the implications of this policy for Native Alaskans.

Thirty years after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act became law, Alaska Natives are subject more than ever to a dizzying array of laws, statutes, and regulations. Once again, Case and Voluck have provided the most rigorous and comprehensive presentation of the important laws and concepts in Alaska Native law and policy to date. This second edition provides a much-expanded and up-to-date analysis of ANCSA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and four fields of Alaska Native law and policy: land, human services, subsistence, and self-government. The authors also trace the development of the Alaska Native organizations working to influence and change these policies. Like the first edition, the expanded Alaska Natives and American Laws is the essential reference for anyone working in Native law, policy, or social services, and for scholars and students in law, public policy, environmental studies, and Native American studies.

Alaska is home to more than two hundred federally recognized tribes. Yet the long histories and diverse cultures of Alaska’s first peoples are often ignored, while the stories of Russian fur hunters and American gold miners, of salmon canneries and oil pipelines, are praised. Filled with essays, poems, songs, stories, maps, and visual art, this volume foregrounds the perspectives of Alaska Native people, from a Tlingit photographer to Athabascan and Yup’ik linguists, and from an Alutiiq mask carver to a prominent Native politician and member of Alaska’s House of Representatives. The contributors, most of whom are Alaska Natives, include scholars, political leaders, activists, and artists. The majority of the pieces in The Alaska Native Reader were written especially for the volume, while several were translated from Native languages. The Alaska Native Reader describes indigenous worldviews, languages, arts, and other cultural traditions as well as contemporary efforts to preserve them. Several pieces examine Alaska Natives’ experiences of and resistance to Russian and American colonialism; some of these address land claims, self-determination, and sovereignty. Some essays discuss contemporary Alaska Native literature, indigenous philosophical and spiritual tenets, and the ways that Native peoples are represented in the media. Others take up such diverse topics as the use of digital technologies to document Native cultures, planning systems that have enabled indigenous communities to survive in the Arctic for thousands of years, and a project to accurately represent Dena’ina heritage in and around Anchorage. Fourteen of the volume’s many illustrations appear in color, including work by the contemporary artists Subhankar Banerjee, Perry Eaton, Erica Lord, and Larry McNeil.

In her first book, Blonde Indian, Ernestine Hayes powerfully recounted the story of returning to Juneau and to her Tlingit home after many years of wandering. The Tao of Raven takes up the next and, in some ways, less explored question: once the exile returns, then what? Using the story of Raven and the Box of Daylight (and relating it to Sun Tzu’s equally timeless Art of War) to deepen her narration and reflection, Hayes expresses an ongoing frustration and anger at the obstacles and prejudices still facing Alaska Natives in their own land, but also recounts her own story of attending and completing college in her fifties and becoming a professor and a writer. Hayes lyrically weaves together strands of memoir, contemplation, and fiction to articulate an Indigenous worldview in which all things are connected, in which intergenerational trauma creates many hardships but transformation is still possible. Now a grandmother and thinking very much of the generations who will come after her, Hayes speaks for herself but also has powerful things to say about the resilience and complications of her Native community.

Introductory guide to the Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts. Focus is on their life-styles, traditions, and culture.