Iñupiat of the Sii

Historical Ethnography and Arctic Challenges

Wanni W. Anderson, Douglas D. Anderson

• Publisher: University of Alaska Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781646426058, 9781646426041
• eBook ISBN: 9781646426065
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Iñupiat of the Sii is a firsthand account of Wanni and Douglas Anderson's lived experiences during eight field seasons of archaeological and ethnographic research in Selawik, Alaska, from 1968 to 1994. This study traces the Selawik village's history, compares Selawikers' past and current lifeways, studies the interfacing of the traditional with the modern, and explores how specific events in the Selawik past continued to shape their lives.
 
This fascinating book records, preserves, and contributes to the knowledge of the history and cultural lifeways of the Siilavi?miut people using contextual and ethnographic writing styles that apply community-based, lived-experience, and sense-of-place approaches. The authors, who have remained in contact with Selawikers since the original research period, center Iñupiaq elders' and local Iñupiaq historians' continued commitments to historical knowledge about the past, their ancestors, and their vast repertoire of traditional cultural and environmental knowledge. They portray the particularity of Iñupiaq life as it was lived, sensed, and felt by Selawikers themselves and as experienced by researchers. Quoted observations, conversations, and comments eloquently acknowledge Iñupiaq insiders' narrative voices.
 
Providing one of only a few ethnographic reviews of an Alaska Native village, Iñupiat of the Sii will appeal to general readers interested in learning about Iñupiaq lifeways and the experiences of anthropologists in the field. It will also be useful to instructors teaching college-level students how anthropological field research should be conducted, analyzed, and reported.
 
 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Prologue: Riverine Village by the Sii
• Part 1: Early Times
• Part 2: Through the Ethnographic Lens, Selawik from the 1970s
• Appendix 1: Selawik High School Students’ Journals of the 1981 Archaeology and Oral History Field School
• Appendix 2: Fish Counts of Two Fisherwomen: Clara Ballot and Lenora Skin
• Appendix 3: 1979 Selawik Christmas Program
• References
• Index