From Library Journal
"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.
From Booklist
These remarkable essays by contemporary native Alaskans preserve traditional ways and offer a vision of a sustainable life that encompasses both the old and the new. Mostly Inupiat (northern Eskimo) living near Kotzebue in far northwest Alaska, the writers live off of the grid and off of the highway system in villages accessible only by air and water or, seasonally, by snowmobile. In fresh and unassuming prose, they describe such subsistence traditions as digging roots from mouse caches, fishing for sea mammals, gathering wild greens, and making seal oil. The culture, from potlatch dancing to blanket toss, that sustained and was sustained by these food-gathering activities is also brought vividly to life. Far from purveying a romanticized vision of native life, these essays include chilling memoirs of near-death on frozen trails, drunken life on urban streets, and abusive educational experiences. But contemporary modern life has its pleasures, too, including Internet cruising and university studies. An enlightening and lively exploration of native Alaskan life.
Patricia Monaghan
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
