Memory and Landscape

Indigenous Responses to a Changing North

Edited by Kenneth L. Pratt & Scott A. Heyes
Categories: Indigenous Studies, Social Sciences, Archeology
Publisher: Athabasca University Press
Ebook (PDF) : 9781771993166, 413 pages, October 2022
Ebook (EPUB) : 9781771993173, 413 pages, October 2022
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Excerpt

“Our identity, our sense of belonging, our understanding of being human, is all connected to our relationship with the land. And our relationship with these lands span millennia. Our grandfathers and grandmothers that came before us walked these same ridges, valleys, and trails. They fished the same lakes, streams, and rivers. They cherished memories carried in the pungent smell of the fall tundra, in wafts of spruce, cottonwood, and willow smoke. They ventured throughout these lands until their final rest. Our ancestors are literally part of this land. We are part of this land.” –Evon Peter

Table of contents

Contents

Foreword | Hugh Brody

Note on Orthography and Terminology

Introduction

 

Perspective Our Land | Vinnie Baron and Felix St-Aubin

1. What “Really Happened”: A Migration Narrative from Southeast Alaska Compared to Archaeological and Geological Data | Aron L. Crowell

2 .Inuvialuit Ethnonyms and Toponyms as a Reflection of Identity, Language, and Memory | Murielle Nagy

3. Wandering in Place: A Close Examination of Two Names at Nunivak Island | Robert Drozda

4. Berry Harvesting in the Eastern Arctic: An Enduring Expression of Inuit Women’s Identity | Martha Dowsley, Scott A. Heyes, Anna Bunce, and Williams Stolz

 

Perspective But Who Am I? | Apay’u Moore

5. Places of Memory, Anticipation, and Agitation in Northwest Greenland | Mark Nuttall

6. “The Country Keeps Changing”: Cultural and Historical Contexts of Ecosystem Changes in the Yukon Delta | Kenneth L. Pratt

7. Inventing the Copper River: Maps and the Colonization of Ahtna Lands | William E. Simeone

8. Inuit Identity and the Land: Toward Distinctive Built Form in the Nunavik Homeland | Scott A. Heyes and Peter Jacobs

 

Perspective Diitsii Diitsuu Nąįį Gooveenjit / For Our Ancestors | Evon Peter

9. Place-Naming Strategies in Inuit-Yupik and Dene Languages in Alaska | Gary Holton

10. Watershed Ethnoecology in Yup’ik Place Names of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta | Louann Rank

11. Sentiment Analysis of Inuit Place Names from the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut | Peter C. Dawson, Colleen Hughes, Donald Butler, and Kenneth Buck

12. Indigenous Place Names in the Senyavin Strait Area, Chukotka | Michael A. Chlenov, with an introduction by Igor Krupnik

 

Appendix: Northern Animal Illustrations

List of Contributors

 

Description

The North is changing at an unprecedented rate as industrial development and the climate crisis disrupt not only the environment but also long-standing relationships to the land and traditional means of livelihood. Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North explores the ways in which Indigenous peoples in the Arctic have adapted to challenging circumstances, including past cultural and environmental changes. In this beautifully illustrated volume, contributors document how Indigenous communities in Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and Siberia are seeking ways to maintain and strengthen their cultural identity while also embracing forces of disruption.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors bring together oral history and scholarly research from disciplines such as linguistics, archaeology, and ethnohistory. With an emphasis on Indigenous place names, this volume illuminates how the land—and the memories that are inextricably tied to it—continue to define Indigenous identity. The perspectives presented here also serve to underscore the value of Indigenous knowledge and its essential place in future studies of the Arctic.

Contributions by Vinnie Baron, Hugh Brody, Kenneth Buck, Anna Bunce, Donald Butler, Michael A. Chenlov, Aron L. Crowell, Peter C. Dawson, Martha Dowsley, Robert Drozda, Gary Holton, Colleen Hughes, Peter Jacobs, Emily Kearney-Williams, Igor Krupnik, Apayo Moore, Murielle Nagy, Mark Nuttall, Evon Peter, Louann Rank, William E. Simeone, Felix St-Aubin, and Will Stolz.