Newsletter
Smithsonian Institution        National Museum of Natural History
May 2022 h ttps://na turalhistory.si.edu/research/anthropology/programs/arctic-studies-center Number 29
NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR beginning with a 2019 centennial symposium in Nome, 
Alaska, bringing together colleagues from Denmark, 
By William W. Fitzhugh Canada, Alaska, and the Lower 48, including Inuit 
Another covid year has come and gone leaving whose ancestors hosted the expedition. Crowell and 
us a bit surprised and bewildered. Breaks in the Krupnik edited the Nome proceedings for a special 
COVID-19 waves in 2021 had us launching field double issue of Alaska Journal of Anthropology (19:1-2) 
plans, experimenting with office returns, and getting released in September.
‘boosted’. The jabs promised a return to normalcy, To initiate the first year of the FTE centennial, we 
or at least a new normal, fortified by zooming invited Dr. Mari Kleist, a Greenland Inuk assistant 
technology and hybrid conferencing. Now we’re able professor at Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland, 
to talk and listen instantaneously around the world Nuuk, to give our annual Tiger Burch Memorial 
with few or no conference fees. The sky was clearing, Lecture. Delivered on 15 December, her talk, “The 
and the future looked bright—that is, until Omicron Expedition Would Not Have Succeeded Without 
appeared, and we were hauled back into lock-down. Them”, demonstrated the crucial role played by 
the Inuit/Inughuit participants in the expedition. 
The ASC survived a Heretofore, credit for this 
second covid year, and mammoth undertaking 
thanks to the miraculous has been attributed to its 
appearance of vaccines scholarly leaders, especially 
and diligent isolation, Knud Rasmussen. Kleist’s talk and the papers of the 
none of us fell ill. You AJA volume document in 
might say we thrived detail, for the first time, 
in our capsules. We’ve the contributions of Inuit 
grown closer to our participants as translators, 
immediate and distant knowledge providers, and 
families and had fewer full expedition partners.
distractions. Meetings 
are shorter and more In his third year as 
productive, and anthropology department 
commuting has been Knud Rasmussen visiting Washington DC with chair, and in addition to 
replaced by a couple of Arnarulunnguaq (“Little Girl”) and Qaavigarsuaq (“Eider his FTE activities, Igor 
clicks, leaving those of Duck”) after completing the Alaskan leg of the Fifth Thule finished editorial work on 
us with empty nests more Expedition. Smithsonian Archives photo Volume 1 (Introduction) 
time to read and write. of the Handbook of North 
In this respect, our ‘mature’ ASC crowd may have American Indians series, and Arctic Crashes: People 
advantages not available to colleagues with youngsters. and Animals in the Changing North (2020) received 
the museum’s book award for 2021. In addition to 
This year our major activity surrounded the hundred- scholarly activity and supervising staff and operations, 
year anniversary of the Danish Fifth Thule Expedition Igor led the Department of Anthropology’s response 
(FTE) of 1921–24, a research enterprise that laid to changes in our relationships with constituents, 
an extraordinary foundation for all subsequent particularly with Indigenous communities. In 
anthropological research in Arctic North America. For addition, this year, responding to the national dialogue 
the past several years, Igor Krupnik, assisted by Aron concerning racism, equity, and endemic issues of 
Crowell, laid the groundwork for an FTE retrospective, disrespect, our physical anthropologists conducted a 
2      ASC Newsletter
comprehensive review of African American human since 2012 on the Material Traditions' series with 
remains held at NMNH. Concern about institutional Alaska Native artists, students, and communities. She 
involvement in colonial attitudes and issues of organized webinars with the Inuit Art Foundation 
representation resulting from past collecting practices, and others on Alaska Native land acknowledgment 
and appropriate research and exhibition activities, have and cultural appropriation. Her “Voices from Cedar” 
brought new challenges to the museum. Our collections materials are on the “Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center 
are no longer inaccessible; their images and histories in Alaska” website on the SI Learning Lab.
are available for all to see. Curators, conservators, 
collection managers, and museum officials are Covid isolation gave me a chance to complete several 
discovering Smithsonian collections have attracted long-term projects. With Gracie Ramsfield, I finished 
the interest of others besides scholars, students, editing Wilfred Richard’s autobiography, Northern 
and indigenous groups. Many sectors of the public, Light: My Life Behind a Lens, co-published with 
especially source communities and media, are taking an IPI Press in Vermont. Illustrated with Will’s photos 
interest in Smithsonian collections for the first time. from a lifetime of northern travel, the book argues for 
environment sanity and cultural sustainability. Assisted 
As a result, across the museum world we need more by Olivia Box, I edited an English translation of 
transparency and new collection Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan’s 
policies to redress errors of the monograph Deer Stones of 
past and strengthen Indigenous Mongolia, and with Bayaraa 
and constituent relationships. published an article on 
Anthropology is not unique Mongolian deer stones. My 
in this regard. Other NMNH report on an 1820s homestead 
departments and Smithsonian in the Fairlee VT forest 
museums are also engaged appeared, and I began work 
in introspection, establishing at a second site and produced 
standing committees and a small exhibit for the local 
working groups, discovering school and town. In Canada, my 
issues the Institution never absence on the Quebec Lower 
adequately considered. This North Shore was filled by 
is, in fact, a remarkable SSHRC-SI Fellow Francisco 
time, one full of discussion, Rivera, who conducted 
rehabilitation, and hope. Covid industrial archaeology of 
demanded physical isolation, the St. Paul 19th century cod 
but it also encouraged new fishery. In February 2022, 
ways of thinking, stimulated Jesse Casana, Aron Crowell, 
connectivity, awakened David Nordlander, and I 
sensibilities, and is producing re-submitted a revised Arctic 
institutional change. Digital Library proposal to 
NSF with Dartmouth College, 
Along these lines, Aron Special Issue: From Greenland to the Pacific: Anchorage Museum, Sealaska 
Crowell completed his third Centennial of The Fifth Thule Heritage, and the Kitikmeot 
year of service on the Advisory Expedition 1921–1924 Heritage Society of Cambridge 
Committee for the NSF Office Bay, Nunavut, as partners. Burch 
of Polar Programs and joined 2020 lecturer Brendan Griebel 
its Subcommittee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, provided our link with Kitikmeot. Aron and I submitted 
which will make recommendations to NSF on a parallel ADL proposal to NMNH. 
initiatives to increase participation by underrepresented 
groups in Arctic and Antarctic research. Crowell Meanwhile, the ASC doubled down on several exhibition 
joined the NMNH task forces on Science Culture and projects. Stephen Loring collaborated with Elisa 
Structure, aimed at changing the institutional culture Palomino Perez to produce a traditional Alaskan fish-
of science at NMNH. He also completed a draft report skin technology display for the Smithsonian’s “Futures” 
on his NSF-funded archaeology and Indigenous exhibition in the renovated Arts and Industries Building. 
knowledge research at Yakutat in Southeast Alaska. Stephen and I, along with Rob Mullen and others, 
The project exemplifies multidisciplinary collaborative provided guidance for a SITES (Smithsonian Traveling 
research and knowledge co-production with Indigenous Exhibition Service) exhibition coordinated by Carol 
communities. Dawn Biddison received the 2021 Bossert on boreal forest ecology and preservation titled 
Museum Award from Museums Alaska for work Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest. Stephen 
      ASC Newsletter 3
also served as anthropologist on the forthcoming NMNH collaboration with Russian agencies and institutions, and 
exhibition, Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky. the future of many research projects is in doubt. How 
these events will affect us and our Russian and Ukrainian 
Our research associates kept us connected to Arctic colleagues will be reviewed in our 30th year issue.
colleagues and fellow institutions. Amy Phillips-
Chan published her book Our Stories Etched in Ivory, Sad news came from Anchorage, Alaska while we have 
designed by Igor Chechushkov, in our Contributions been preparing this issue for printintg. Dr. Gordon L. 
to Circumpolar Anthropology series. John Cloud and Pullar, age 78, passed away on April 18, 2022, after 
Elisa Palomino Perez conducted research at the Museum a long illness. As we do not have enough space in this 
of Anthropology in Florence, Italy, established in 1868, issue, we will do proper respects for Dr. Pullar in our 
becoming the world's first museum of anthropology. 2023 Newsletter. 
John published an article on Indigenous cartography 
in Calafia, the journal of the California Map Society. And with this round-up, we encourage you to explore 
Our former SI colleague Susan Rowley was appointed “ASC 2022” in the following pages!
Director of the Museum of Anthropology at the 
University British Columbia. Ted Timreck finished a INCREASING DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND 
film featuring forty years of ASC research titled Ancient INCLUSION IN SCIENCE: CURRENT 
Sea Peoples of the North Atlantic. Ann Fienup-Riordan INITIATIVES AT THE SMITHSONIAN AND 
published All the Land's Surface Is Medicine: Edible NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
and Medicinal Plants of Southwest Alaska with co-
authors Alice Rearden, Marie Meade, Kevin Jernigan, By Aron L. Crowell 
and Jacqueline Cleveland, as well as a second book, 
Ircenrraat/Other-Than-Human Persons in Southwest The underrepresentation of women and minoritized 
Alaska with Alice Rearden, Marie Meade, and Mark communities in science, technology, engineering, 
John. As editor of the Alaska Journal of Anthropology, and mathematics (STEM) is a persistent and widely 
Ken Pratt oversaw production of the Fifth Thule recognized issue in the United States (Bernard and 
centennial volume described above. He also conducted Cooperdock 2018; National Academies of Sciences, 
research on former boarding schools in Alaska for a Engineering, and Medicine 2019, 2020). In a 
report responding to the “Federal Indian Boarding recent report to Congress, the Committee on Equal 
School Initiative” issued by the US Secretary of the Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE) 
Interior in June 2021. compared sectional representation in STEM to shares 
of the U.S. population, employing U.S. Census Bureau 
Our archaeology associates have also been busy. Chris categories (CEOSE 2021). According to the study, 
Wolff took on editorship of Northeast Anthropology underrepresented groups include Black women (1.8% 
and wrote reports with Donald Holly and Stephen of the STEM workforce vs. 6.7% of the population), 
Hull on Newfoundland Dorset and Beothuk Black men (3.3% vs. 6.3%), Hispanic women (2.4% 
archeology, and on subsistence and longhouses in the vs. 9.1%), Hispanic men (5.1% vs. 9.5%), and White 
Archaic of the Far Northeast. After a 2-year covid women (17.7% vs. 29.6%). 
hiatus, Bill Honeychurch will continue his interrupted 
NSF-supported study of climate, human, and ecosystem Similar findings were reported by the Pew Research 
interactions during the Turkic and Mongol Empires in Center (Fry et al. 2021), which in addition documented 
Mongolia. In Labrador, Anthony Jenkinson continued sizeable pay differences in STEM fields by gender, 
work at the Shukapesh site in Sheshatshit (North West race, and ethnicity. Disparities in STEM arise from 
River) and an Early Archaic Mistanuk caribou ambush social attitudes, discrimination, harassment, explicit 
site at Kamestastin. and implicit biases, differential access, and systemic 
racism that can hinder scientists at every stage of their 
As this issue is being printed, we face new challenges education and careers.
triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that 
began on February 24, 2022. The ASC itself is a child At the Smithsonian, equity issues have been brought to 
of the ‘Crossroads Era,’ an outcome and a symbol of the fore by Secretary Lonnie Bunch, whose initiatives 
the new spirit of partnership built in the aftermath of include the national forum “Our Shared Future: 
the opening of Siberia and the Russian Arctic since the Reckoning with Our Racial Past” and the SI Civil 
late 1980s and early 1990s. We have achieved much program for reporting and mitigation of workplace 
in the following decades, thanks in part to our strong bias and harassment. Other current efforts focus on 
connection to colleagues across the Arctic, including raising awareness and seeking solutions within the 
in Russia. Since the war started, many links have been Smithsonian scientific community, which includes 
put on hold; the Arctic Council and IASC suspended its personnel in all roles and departments at the National 
4      ASC Newsletter
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Tropical The task forces designed a peer-to-peer process to 
Research Institute, Smithsonian Marine Station, and share experiences and gather suggestions for cultural 
other research branches. and structural reform, including more than 30 small 
group listening sessions led on Zoom by task force 
In 2021, the NMNH Advisory Council for Inclusion, volunteers. The NMNH Anthropology Department was 
Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA Council) represented on the Science Culture group by Dorothy 
conducted an employee survey which found generally Lippert (co-lead with Nick Pyenson of Paleobiology), 
encouraging results, including that more than 90% of Josh Bell, Laurie Burgess, Amanda Lawrence, and 
respondents felt that “my coworkers/ Mark White; I also played a small role. 
peers treat me with respect” and “I Insights from the listening sessions 
value inclusion, diversity, equity, and will shape recommendations to NMNH 
access (IDEA) in the workplace.” leadership on building a culture of 
However, 18% disagreed with the mutual respect, increasing diversity, 
statement that “At NMNH, my improving communication, transparent 
identity characteristics have never decision making, and ensuring equity 
been a barrier to professional growth in opportunities for professional growth 
opportunities,” signaling a perception and advancement. For me, the listening 
of biases in hiring, promotions, full sessions clearly demonstrated how much 
equity with peers, and advancement those who work at NMNH take pride in 
to leadership roles. About the same their institution but also want to see it 
number (17%) reported having grow and change.
experienced unacceptable identity-
based treatment in the workplace and On behalf of the Smithsonian and the 
24% had witnessed such behavior. Arctic Studies Center it has also been 
The IDEA Council is developing my honor to serve since 2018 on the 
recommendations to address these Advisory Committee for the Office of 
concerns, including training for Polar Programs (OPP) at the National 
museum leadership and staff. Science Foundation, and since 2020 
on the OPP diversity, equity, and 
The NMNH Senate of Scientists’ inclusion (DEI) subcommittee. As 
Committee on Diversity, Antiracism, the lead science funding agency, NSF 
and Belonging (CDAB) is also accepted the challenge of increasing 
contributing to this effort. In diversity in the nation’s scientific 
February 2021 CDAB sponsored a community more than four decades 
webinar on equity, inclusion, and Mellisa Maktuayaq Johnson ago when it established CEOSE to 
institutional change, led by consultant encourage “full participation of women, 
Desiree Adaway and attended by minorities, and persons with disabilities 
nearly 200 NMNH staff members. Adaway received in scientific, engineering, and professional fields.” 
widespread praise for the inspiration, clarity of ideas, In subsequent years NSF investments under the 
and transformational strategies she presented. In a umbrella of Broadening Participation have included 
CDAB discussion in March 2022 speakers addressed funding for STEM education at all levels, research 
issues of racism and exclusion relating to collections at and fieldwork opportunities for undergraduates and 
NMNH, including ethical responsibility for repatriation emerging scientists, partnerships with minority-serving 
of African American human remains in the biological institutions of higher learning (for example, historically 
anthropology collections (Amanda Lawrence); Black colleges and universities), and other initiatives, 
colonial legacies and shared stewardship of the national with an annual budget that currently exceeds $1B. 
fossil collection, largely extracted from Indigenous NSF recently set up INCLUDES, aimed at increasing 
lands in the Great Plains (Kathy Hollis); and the diversity in STEM education through alliances of 
role of Indigenous knowledge, science, and cultural educational institutions, professional organizations, and 
practices in research and collections management communities, and ASPIRE, aimed at building diverse 
(Dorothy Lippert). university faculties.
NMNH task forces on Science Culture and Science The DEI subcommittee on which I now serve is 
Structure, initiated in response to an external Visiting reviewing the extent to which NSF’s efforts to 
Committee evaluation in 2019, were also launched build diversity in science can be more widely and 
in 2021 under the executive leadership of NMNH effectively implemented in Arctic and Antarctic 
Associate Director for Science Rebecca Johnson. research, which includes virtually all scientific 
      ASC Newsletter 5
disciplines from anthropology to atmospheric science, Black People Pursuing Careers in Science, Engineering, 
geosciences, deep space research, biology, zoology, and Medicine: Proceedings of a Workshop. The National 
and ecology. Notable current grant programs include Academies Press, Washington, DC.
Navigating the New Arctic, which funds convergent 
research often involving collaboration with northern 
Indigenous communities. At the same time, a review 
of proposal submissions and other indicators of 
participation and leadership in the polar sciences 
over past years indicate some of the same patterns of 
underrepresentation that are evident in the national 
statistics. The subcommittee is now preparing its 
report and recommendations for innovative strategies 
to ensure that the polar research community offers 
opportunities to all and benefits from the creative 
input of scientists of all backgrounds.
The Arctic Studies Center in Alaska is also pleased THE FIFTH THULE EXPEDITION 
to welcome Mellisa Maktuayaq Johnson, who is CENTENNIAL
now based in our Anchorage office as the Indigenous 
Engagement and Communications Specialist for By Bent Nielsen and Igor Krupnik
the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee The Danish Arctic Institute (Arktisk Insitut) in 
(IARPC). Mellisa’s work will focus on research Copenhagen launched a new website in 2021 
coordination between Alaska Native communities and dedicated to the centennial of the Fifth Thule 
agencies such as the Eskimo Whaling Commission with Expedition at www.5thule100.dk. The site in Danish 
federal bodies including the Department of the Interior, and English provides updates on the FTE centennial 
Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic program, primarily in Denmark. It includes: 1) 
and Atmospheric Administration, and Bureau of Ocean a report on an FTE anniversary exhibit at Knud 
Energy Management. Coming from a professional Rasmussen House in Hundested north of Copenhagen 
background in community health, education, non- (May 1 to October 24, 2021) displaying photographs, 
profit management, and Iñupiaq language teaching, documents, and maps from the Rasmussen archive 
most recently with the Bering Sea Elders Group and at the nearby town of Frederiksvaerk; 2) a Northern 
University of Alaska Anchorage, Mellisa’s appointment Lights (Nordlys) Festival (September 17–19, 2021) 
represents another welcome step toward diversity and organized by the National Museum of Denmark that 
Indigenous engagement in Arctic science. included podcasts, films, exhibit tours, crafts, music, 
Bernard, Rachel E. and Emily H. G. Cooperdock. and food related to the Arctic and Inuit culture; 3) a 
2018. No Progress on Diversity in 40 Years. Nature preview of the forthcoming 2023/2024 FTE exhibit 
Geoscience 11:292-295. planned by the Danish Arctic Institute celebrating the expedition with their voluminous collections; 4) an 
Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and overview of Danish FTE archival holdings by Bent 
Engineering (CEOSE). 2021. Making Visible the Nielsen; 5) a new teaching unit titled Discovering 
Invisible, Bold Leadership Actions. CEOSE 2019- New People describing life in the Arctic during 
2020 Biennial Report to Congress. National Science FTE and today, for release in March 2023; and 6) 
Foundation, Washington, DC. new publications including the Alaska Journal of 
Anthropology (2021, Vol.19), the new book by Knud 
Fry, Rick, Brian Kennedy, and Cary Funk. 2021. STEM Michelsen, Ambassador on Dog Sled (2021, see this 
Jobs See Uneven Progress in Increasing Gender, issue), and another book in Danish, Rejsen til det 
Racial, and Ethnic Diversity. Pew Research Center, Oprindelige Folk/Journey to the Original People. 
Washington DC. Read more about FTE in this and next year’s 2023 
Newsletters.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and 
Medicine. 2019. Minority Serving Institutions: 
America’s Underutilized Resource for Strengthening EDITORIAL NOTE
the STEM Workforce. The National Academies Press, 
Washington, DC. If you are receiving this Newsletter in the postal mail and would prefer 
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and getting it electronically, and in color, send your email address to: 
Medicine. 2020. The Impacts of Racism and Bias on NMNHArcticStudiesCenter@si.edu
6      ASC Newsletter
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR .....................................1 How Local Knowledge Can Inform Policy .........................43
Increasing Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion in Science: 
Current Initiatives at The Smithsonian and National Science COLLECTIONS ................................................................44
Foundation  ............................................................................3 The Lost Skull from Ungava ................................................44
The Fifth Thule Expedition Centennial .................................5 Building Birch Bark Canoes in Siberia ................................47
A Japanese Mystery Object Solved by Team Effort ............49
THANKS TO OUR 2021/2022 DONORS and The Artic Viewed from Florence, Italy ................................51
PARTNERS ..........................................................................7 Up-Dating “Polar Observer: The Arctic Digital Library” ....54
Re-Presenting Archival and Library Collections Through the 
BURCH ENDOWMENT ....................................................8 Voices and Languages of First Nations, Inuit, and The Mėtis 
Ernest S. Burch Endowment Support for ASC Activities in Nation in an Interctive eBook ..............................................54
2021........................................................................................8
Burch Lecture. “The Expedition Would Not Have Succeeded OUTREACH ......................................................................56
Without Them”: The Crucial Role Of The Inuit/Inughuit Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest .....................56
Participants Of The Fifth Thule Expedition Across Arctic Native and American Ethno-Medicine at Lebanon Springs ...57
North America, 1921–24 ........................................................9 Integrating Inughuit and Greenlandic Traditional Knowledge 
When Did the FTE Actually Start: New Clues From an Old With Ecotourism Development in Greenland ......................58
Photo? ..................................................................................14 North by Nuuk: Greenland After Rockwell Kent ................60
Inuit Tik-Tokers: Spreading Knowledge in 60 Seconds or 
ASC ANCHORAGE, ALASKA OFFICE ........................16 Less ......................................................................................61
Major Endowment Gift From Jo and Peter Michalski .........16 Sounds of the Arctic .............................................................62
Generous Support from Laura Brouse-Long .......................16
Why Glacial Fiords Are Great Places to Live, Part 2: The INTERNS AND FELLOWS..............................................64
Cultural Ecology of Cook Inlet, Alaska ...............................17 Using Media to Enhance and Communicate Archaeological 
The CIRI Foundation’s Alaska Native Museum Fellowship and Environmental Research  ..............................................64
Program: Annie Wenstrup ....................................................20 Editing a Deer Stone Book ..................................................65
Conversations Webinar Series: A Collaboration with The 
Inuit Art Foundation .............................................................21 BOOK REVIEWS ..............................................................66
Intergenerational Creativity and Learning Through Water—a Biography, by Giulio Bocaletti ............................66
Indigenous Comic Art: Chickaloonies .................................21 Northern Light: My Life Behind a Lens, by Wilfred E. 
Voices From Cedar Digital Learning Project .......................22 Richard .................................................................................67
Media ...................................................................................24 Our Stories Etched in Ivory / Qulip’yugut Iksiaqtuumaruat 
Nome Celebrates Our Stories Etched in Ivory .....................24 Tuugaami. The Smithsonian Collections of Engraved Drill 
Bows with Stories From the Arctic. Edited by Amy Phillips-
NEWS ..................................................................................26 Chan .....................................................................................67
Susan Rowley Appointed Director of UBC Museum of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by 
Anthropology .......................................................................26 David Graeber and David Wengrow ....................................68
Further Note on Rowley Family History .............................27 Knud Rasmussen: Ambassador on Dog Sled, by Knud 
Norse in Newfoundland in 1021 ..........................................28 Michelsen .............................................................................69
Yale Analysis Unlocks Secret of The Vinland Map—It’s A Mensch und Natur in Sibirien (Man and Nature in Siberia), 
Fake ......................................................................................29 Erich Kasten, ed ...................................................................70
Meet Allison Willcox, NMNH Deputy Director ..................30 Yukagirskie Tosy (“The Yukaghir Tos’es”), by Nikolai 
Arctic Crashes Volume Wins NMNH 2021 Science Vakhtin .................................................................................71
Achievement Award .............................................................31
TRANSITIONS ..................................................................72
RESEARCH .......................................................................31 Lyudmila Ainana, Yupik Educator and Activist (1934–
Archaeology of the Industrial Frontier in St. Paul River, 2021).............................................................................. 72
Lower North Shore, Quebec ................................................31 Robert Petersen (1928–2021) ..............................................73
Cross Mountain North: More Archaeology in the Vermont Tatiana P. Roon (1961–2021) ...............................................74
Hills ......................................................................................34 Jacques Cinq-Mars (1942–2021) .........................................75
Tshikapisk Labrador Research in 2021 ................................36 Floyd Kuptana (1964–2021) ................................................75
Shell Island: a Reduction Station on the Ramah Chert Trail ....38 Edith Dietz (1924–2022) ......................................................76
Labrador Radiocarbon Date-List Update .............................40 Sergei Serotetto: Reindeer Nomadism as Profession, 
Captain Herendeen and The Herschel Island Parka .............41 Lifestyle, Passion and Love (1954–2021) ...........................77
Preserving Mongolia’s Past ..................................................42
Climate Change in Oymyakon: Perceptions, Responses, and 2021 ASC STAFF PUBLICATIONS ................................78
      ASC Newsletter 7
THANKS TO OUR 
2021/2022 DONORS AND PARTNERS*
We extend our sincerest gratitude to the donors and partners who support the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center. 
Alaska Anthropological Association STAFF
Alaska State Council on the Arts William Fitzhugh, ASC Director, and N. America Arch. 
Anchorage Museum Foundation Curator: fitzhugh@si.edu
Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated Aron Crowell, Alaska Director and Arctic Archaeologist: 
Betsy Baker crowella@si.edu
Laura Browse-Long Igor Krupnik, Curator and Ethnologist: 
Ernest “Tiger” Burch Endowment krupniki@si.edu
Carlson Family Trust Stephen Loring, Museum Anthropologist, and Arctic 
The Honorable Morgan Christen and Jim Torgerson Archaeologist: lorings@si.edu
The CIRI Foundation Dawn Biddison, ASC Alaska, Museum Specialist: 
Cook Inlet Tribal Council biddisond@si.edu
Perry and Arden Eaton Nancy Shorey, Program Specialist: shoreyn@si.edu
Fairlee VT Town Select Board
Richard and Janet Faulkner RESEARCH ASSOCIATES AND COLLABORATORS
Peggy and Greg Favretto Bruce Bradley, Archaeologist, Cortez, Colorado: 
Susan M. Ferguson primtech@yahoo.com
First National Bank Alaska Noel Broadbent, Archaeologist, Washington DC: 
William W. and Lynne D. Fitzhugh nbroadb@pipeline.com
Heather Flynn John Cloud, Geographer, Washington, D.C.: 
Stephen W. Haycox cloudj@si.edu
Hintz Family Bernadette Driscoll Engelstad, Ethnologist, Kensington, 
Dr. and Mrs. Donald Holly MD: bengelstad@aol.com
Inuit Art Foundation Ann Fienup-Riordan, Ethnologist, Anchorage, AK: 
Innu Nation riordan@alaska.net
Betsy and David Lawer Norman Hallendy, Author/Photographer, Carp, Ontario, 
John Levy Canada: tukilik@icloud.com
Lynden Family of Companies Scott Heyes, Geographer/Cartographer, Australia: 
Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies scott.heyes@monash.edu
Jo Michalski and the Honorable Peter Michalski William Honeychurch, Archaeologist, Yale University: 
Mid-Coast Marine william.honeychurch@yale.edu
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Anthony Jenkinson, Archaeologist, North West River, 
Rika and John Mouw Labrador: shaputuan@hotmail.com
National Endowment for the Arts Martin Nweeia, Dentist/Narwhal Researcher: 
National Resources Defense Council Martin.Nweeia@hsdm.harvard.edu
National Science Foundation Elisa Palomino-Perez, Fashion Designer, London, UK: 
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador e.palomino@csm.arts.ac.uk
Newfoundland Provincial Archaeology Office Kenneth Pratt, Anthropologist, Anchorage: 
Robert and Diana Paulus kenneth.pratt@bia.gov
Rasmuson Foundation Wilfred E. Richard, Geographer/Photographer, 
Rivendell Elementary School, Orford NH Georgetown, Maine: 34pondroad@gmail.com
The Frances and David Rose Foundation Ted Timreck, Film Producer, New York: 
Jeanine St. John / Lynden Transport ttimreck@gmail.com
Sealaska Heritage Foundation Christopher B. Wolff, Archaeologist, SUNY, Albany, NY: 
Gail Sieberts cwolff@albany.edu
Smithsonian Legacy Challenge Fund
Smithsonian Office of the Provost
Smithsonian Office of the Undersecretary for Education The Smithsonian Arctic Center (ASC) is sustained through a 
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Service public-private partnership. Philanthropic donations provide 
Smithsonian Recovering Voices Program funding for essential community-based collaborations, 
Fran Ulmer impactful educational programming for the public, and 
University of Montreal continuous research in the ever-changing Arctic region.
Whiteley Museum, St. Paul River, Quebec To make a tax deductible contribution, please contact the 
James Vanstone Endowment NMNH Office of Development at 
Douglas W. and Kathie Veltre 202-633-0821 or NMNH-Advancement@si.edu
8      ASC Newsletter
BURCH ENDOWMENT
ERNEST S. BURCH ENDOWMENT SUPPORT edited by Aron 
FOR ASC ACTIVITIES IN 2021 Crowell and Igor 
Krupnik, titled 
By Igor Krupnik From Greenland 
The Ernest S. (‘Tiger’) Burch Endowment with the to the Pacific: 
Arctic Studies Center (ASC) was established in 2012 by Centennial of 
the family of our late colleague and long-term research the Fifth Thule 
associate Ernest S. (‘Tiger’) Burch Jr., with the aim Expedition, 
to support, promote, and interpret the study of Arctic 1921–1924. Like 
Indigenous peoples and their cultures. The fund ensures Dr. Kleist’s lecture, 
that our work and the legacy of Tiger’s many decades this was a part of 
of collaboration with the Smithsonian continues. As in the ASC “Fifth 
previous years, the Burch Endowment remained the Thule Expedition 
prime source of funding for various ASC operations Centennial” program 
in 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, that began in 2018; 
many regular activities by the ASC staff were put on its many elements 
hold. For the entire 2021 (actually, since March 2020), have been funded 
all activities were conducted via teleworking, online primarily by the Mari Kleist
conferences and other electronic channels. That, in turn, Burch Endowment. 
allowed the ASC to re-direct some of the Endowment For the two 
funds to support other activities, such as publications, or publications, the 
to save it for future use as soon as travel and fieldwork endowment funds covered graphic work and portions 
restrictions are lifted. of the distribution expenses.
As in the previous years, the Burch Endowment The Burch Endowment continued to provide funds for 
supported the ASC main annual public event called other ASC operations, such as the publication of the 
“Tiger Burch annual lecture” that promotes Arctic annual ASC Newsletter (No. 28 published in summer 
anthropological research to wider audiences and to 2021), the ASC membership in the Arctic Consortium 
our colleagues worldwide. Beginning in 2014, the of the United States (ARCUS), and research work for 
“Tiger Burch Lecture” has emerged as one of the key other ASC-based projects. We plan to continue using 
events that ASC hosts for the Museum community Burch Endowment funds to advance our research and 
and the public. The 2021 annual ‘Burch Lecture” public programs, in conference travel and fieldwork 
was delivered on December 8, 2021, by Greenlandic for the ASC staff and associates, and to promote Tiger 
scholar, Dr. Mari Kleist (see below). The lecture Burch’s legacy to the international Arctic research 
explored the role of several Greenlandic Inughuit community via publications, conferences, professional 
and Kalaallit participants whose contribution to exchanges, and our annual Newsletter.
the Fifth Thule Expedition of 1921–1924 has been 
underappreciated. BURCH LECTURE
In 2021, the Burch Endowment also provided much- The 2021 Ernest S. Burch Jr. Lecture was 
needed matching funds to the production of two presented by Dr. Mari Kleist. Mari is Assistant 
publications stemming from research by the ASC Professor at the Department of Cultural and Social 
members, as well as their associates and partners. The History, Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland). An 
first book, Our Stories Etched in Ivory / Qulip’yugut Inuk from Nuuk, Mari holds a PhD in Archaeology 
Iksiaqtuumaruat Tuugaami: The Smithsonian from the University of Copenhagen and has worked 
Collections of Engraved Drill Bows with Stories from on archaeological projects across Canada and 
the Arctic (2021, Amy Phillips Chan, ed.—see this Greenland. Her research interests include developing 
issue) is an illustrated catalog of precious decorated greater community involvement and full Inuit 
objects (engraved bow drills) from the Smithsonian partnership in research projects. Mari is currently co-
collections. The book features numerous illustrations directing a research team partnered with the Inughuit 
and includes comments by Indigenous Alaskan carvers people of Avanersuaq (Northwest Greenland) on a 
(with their portraits), who shared their experience in project about Inughuit Creativity and Environmental 
heritage ivory carving. The second collection was a Responsiveness. A shortened version of her Burch 
special volume of the Alaska Journal of Anthropology Lecture is presented below.
      ASC Newsletter 9
“THE EXPEDITION WOULD NOT HAVE It is discouraging to realize that there is little 
SUCCEEDED WITHOUT THEM”: THE documented about the Inughuit and other Inuit 
CRUCIAL ROLE OF THE INUIT/INUGHUIT participants. Their stories, for example their reasons 
PARTICIPANTS OF THE FIFTH THULE for participating or their experiences or views are 
EXPEDITION ACROSS ARCTIC NORTH more or less unreported in expedition history. It 
AMERICA, 1921–24 is time to dig deeper into the archives and collect 
Inuit oral histories. In this paper, I share some of 
By Mari Kleist the histories of the Kalaallit participants that I have 
collected from various sources, including knowledge 
I would like to begin by recognizing that the Inughuit shared by their families.
and Inuit who have come before me are the very reason 
I am presenting now. I express my deep gratitude for Why do we know so little of the Inuit and Inughuit 
the Kalaallit members of the Fifth Thule Expedition expedition members? The Arctic has been a place 
(FTE) whose vast knowledge and incredible skills were where long-distance trade took place between pre-
essential to the expedition’s success, which brought Inuit and Inuit groups. Inuit knowledge derives 
international attention to what we now know as Arctic from intimate familiarity with the changing trends 
North America and the peoples that call it home. I in the Arctic landscape including seasonal changes. 
would also like to express my sincere gratitude for the Later the Arctic became a place of interaction with 
descendants of the Fifth Thule Expedition participants, Europeans, Euro-Americans, and Russian explorers 
the Inughuit of Avanersuaq. I am grateful to share part and colonizers. Explorers needed guidance and help 
of their ancestor’s stories. from Natives to ensure successful expeditions. Inuit 
provided fundamental skills and knowledge that 
Background enabled the explorers to survive and navigate the 
Arctic environment. But these Inuit, as crucial as they 
I will start by introducing my objectives and provide were, were often overlooked, and their contributions 
some background on the FTE and exploration in were minimized or excluded from public discourse 
Arctic regions and will then move on to the Kalaallit because the results were written by non-Arctic people 
participants and what we know about them. I use following Western standards, people who were 
Kalaallit to refer to all Inuit from Kalaallit Nunaat, and products of their time and contextualized their history 
Inughuit when referring to the unique histories and of exploration and colonization from a European and 
lifeways of those from northwest Greenland. Euro-American point of view, choosing what they saw 
My goal is to draw attention to the Kalaallit members as important to disseminate. 
of the expedition, recognizing their contributions and As geopolitical interest in the Arctic grew, exploration 
sacrifices on an equal level to their Danish counterparts. of natural resources, including ethnographical, 
The popularized narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition anthropological, and archaeological investigations, 
has been shaped by colonial tendencies and value rapidly advanced. Knud Rasmussen initiated the FTE to 
systems and the focus has been on the accomplishments seek and document the origins and connections between 
of Danish members trained in Western Science. This all Inuit groups, based on their “ancient Inuit” way of 
has produced a white-washed version of history which life, from Greenland to the Bering Strait. With the FTE, 
marginalized Kalaallit experience. It is time to change systematic Danish research became established and saw 
this narrative. an immense amount of data collected, making the FTE 
one of the best-known and most successful scientific 
To gain a more holistic and accurate understanding of expeditions to the North American Arctic. These 
the expedition it is important to deconstruct the common advances, including the FTE, could not have succeeded 
narrative, to acknowledge the social context in which it without the help of Inuit who constantly lived their lives 
has been shaped and whose voices have been missing— in these regions. The assessments and decisions Inuit 
the Kalaallit participants. We must look at their roles, made every day enabled these expeditions to survive and 
their intentions, recognize their agency, and ensure they succeed, and without the Inuit role we would not have 
are credited. To do so not only is significant for our our current knowledge the Arctic. 
understanding of historic events; it helps to break the 
colonial legacy of our discipline. Rasmussen has been Who Were They and What Were Their Roles?
hailed as the “undisputed king of the long-haul Arctic 
expedition”, and Danish crew members are celebrated as The crew from Kalaallit Nunaat provided expertise 
expedition heroes for their scientific and anthropological for fundamental logistical tasks like navigation, 
“discoveries”. Inuit deserve the same opportunity to pay dog sledging, hunting, procurement of animals and 
tribute to our own expedition heroes. materials, and mending and making skin clothes and 
INUGHUIT FEMALE EXPEDITION MEMBERS
10      ASC Newsletter
Navarana Arnannguaq Arnarulunnguaq Aqattaq
Photo: N.P. Sørensen. National Museum of Denmark National Museum of Denmark National Museum of Denmark
Danish Arctic Institute
INUGHUIT/INUITI nuMghuitA femLaleE ex peEditXionP meEmbeDrs ITION MEMBERS
Aajako Iggiannguaq Nasaatsorluarsuk
Danish Arctic Institute Source: Mathiassen 1945 National Museum of Denmark
Aaqqioq Qaavigarsuaq Jakob
National Museum National Museum National Museum 
of Denmark of Denmark of Denmark
Inughuit/Inuit male expedition members
kamiks (boots), translating, and assisting in many other Aqattaq, and the men included Aajaku, Iggiannguaq, 
ways that ensured the survival of the crew. Nasaatsorluarsuk, Aaqqioq, and Qaavigarsuaq—all 
are names we should remember and know. Rasmussen 
Rasmussen had a great knowledge of the Inughuit selected Jakob Olsen (Jâkúnguak), whom he knew 
lifestyle and knew how skilled they were at hunting to be an excellent kayaker and dogsled driver, to act 
prey and driving their sledges. Rasmussen made a wise as translator/interpreter. Unfortunately, three Inughuit 
decision to travel with Inughuit. In 1920 he selected passed away before leaving Kalaallit Nunaat. While 
Inughuit and had them prepare for the journey by traveling to Nuuk, where the expedition journey would 
producing skin clothes, sleds, tools, dog food, and start, the Inughuit came down with pneumonia and 
assembling the dog teams. The four Inughuit women were hospitalized in Upernavik and Nuuk. Navarana 
included Navarana, Arnarulunnguaq, Arnannguaq, passed away in Upernavik Kujalleq, and Iggiannguaq 
KALAALLIT  MEM BE RS  OF  THE  FIAFSTCH N eTwHsleUtteLr E EXPEDITION 11
in Nuuk. When they reached the expedition’s Canadian 
Arctic base camp “Blæsebælgen” at “Danish Island/
Danskeøen” called Ullersuaq by Inuit in Nunavut, the 
Inughuit were still convalescing. 
Arnarulunnguaq wife of Iggiannguaq 
(Arnarulúnguak and Iggiánguak), also called Fokina 
by the Danes, was born around 1896 in Avanersuaq. 
Her father passed away when she and her three older 
brothers were only young children, leaving no adult male 
provider. According to the norms of the time, bereaved 
mothers would be forced to kill their youngest children 
or female children to spare them from starvation when 
survival was threatened by famine. This fate almost 
befell Arnarulunnguaq, but her brother, Aajako, came to 
her rescue and begged his mother to let her survive. 
Arnarulunnguaq’s husband Iggiannguaq was born around 
1883. Like Arnarulunnguaq, he was lucky to survive 
as when he was only around eight years old his mother 
Sujuluk lost her husband, leaving her without a provider. 
She had no other option than to kill Iggiannguaq’s 
younger siblings. Later, Sujuluk had another son, Ivik, 
with her second husband. Iggiannguaq on his mother’s 
side was a cousin of Minik (Wallace) who travelled with 
From right: Nasaatsorluarsuk, Arnannguaq, Navarana, Arnarulunnguaq, Aqattaq, Nasaatsorluarsuk, Qaavigarsuaq. The Royal Danish Library Jakob Olsen. Danish Arctic InstituteRobert E. Peary in 1897. Iggiannguaq began travelingPh otographer Peter Freuchen Jakob Olsen
with Rasmussen in 1903. Iggiannguaq was a local Courtesy of Navarana Freuchen 
hunter in Avanersuaq and had travelled with Peary. It with tuberculosis. She returned to Uummannaq in 
came as no surprise when Rasmussen chose him to 1925. On April 9, 1928, she married Karl (Kâlipaluk) 
take over his deceased brother-in-law, Aajaku’s, place. Peary, Robert Peary’s son by his Inughuaq wife, 
But then, tragically, Iggiannguaq died from pneumonia Aleqasina. Arnarulunnguaq never fully recovered 
while in Nuuk on September 6, 1921, the day before from her illness and died in 1933 in the hospital in 
the expedition left for Inuit Nunangat/Arctic Canada. Uummannaq. She and Kâlipaluk never had children, 
Iggiannguaq had to be baptized before he could be and Kaalipaluk later said Arnarulunnguaq never talked 
buried, and the priest, Gustav Olsen, and Rasmussen about her 3.5 year-long expedition.
agreed they would baptize him the next day, right 
before his funeral. The rest of the unbaptized Inughuit, Aqattaq and Nasaatsorluarsuk (Akátak and 
except for the youngest participant, Aqattaq, were also Nasaitsordluarssuk). Aqattaq was the youngest 
baptized. Rasmussen tells how Arnarulunnguaq insisted expedition member and was Nasaatsorluarsuk’s wife. 
on participating rather than being left among strangers Aqattaq’s parents were Talilánguak and Nujaliánguak, 
in Nuuk. Probably she knew the journey would keep her and her only sister was Kiajúnguak. She was born 
from dwelling too much on the loss of her husband and around 1907 in Uummannaq and was only about 
brother. Rasmussen recalled: “she had to travel to forget.” 14 when she left Avanersuaq to participate in the 
expedition. She was the least experienced female 
Arnarulunnguaq and her cousin Qaavigarsuaq expedition member and often tended camp while others 
accompanied Rasmussen until the end of the expedition were traveling. Her husband, Nasaatsorluarsuk, also 
in Alaska. She was one the most experienced in called Boorsimaat/Bådsmand, meaning boatswain, was 
processing skins and had many other talents that born around 1897 in Uummannaq. Knud Rasmussen 
received high praise. In addition to cooking and knew him since he was a small boy and treated him 
clothing maintenance, she was an accute observer and like a foster son. As a young man, Nasaatsorluarsuk 
assisted scientific collecting and care of botanical and participated in Rasmussen's Second Thule Expedition 
zoological materials; helped excavate house ruins at the (1916–18) as guide, hunter, and sledge driver. 
Malerualik archaeological site on King William Island; Rasmussen described Nasaatsorluarsuk as one of the 
collected information from locals; and documented best seal hunters he knew. Although he often was the 
female tattoos. Upon arrival in Denmark in November last one to get up in the morning, he would always 
1924 she was hospitalized in Copenhagen, diagnosed make up the lost time working late in the evenings 
12      ASC Newsletter
after everyone else had retired. On their return from the Rasmussen first met Qaavigarsuaq as a young boy 
expedition, Nasaatsorluarsuk and Aqattaq lived in Sukat during the Literary Expedition in 1904. Danes referred to 
in Avanersuaq. They had a son, Talilánguak Ajorssalik him as Edderfuglen (eider), as his second name Miteq 
Minigssuak Daorana, born on March 30, 1925. When means “eider.” Rasmussen knew Qaavigarsuaq had 
their son was only seven years old, Akátak died on become a great hunter and was eager to have him join 
August 8, 1932, from tuberculosis in Siorapaluk. In 1935 the FTE, but Qaavigarsuaq initially refused because he 
Nasaatsorluarsuk married Nadúk but they later divorced, had fallen in love with the catechist Enok Kristiansen's 
after which he lived with a woman named Helene for the young daughter, Bebianne Kristiansen, and feared 
rest of his days. Nasaatsorluarsuk passed away in 1975 she would marry before he returned. However, 
in Qaanaaq. Qaavigarsuaq's parents had already given Rasmussen 
their consent, and Qaavigarsuaq had to accept. At 22, he 
Arnannguaq and Aaqqioq (Arnánguak and became the youngest male expedition member. After he 
Ârkiok) were the oldest and most experienced couple. returned to Avanersuaq, he married Bebianne Kristiansen 
Arnannguaq was born between 1894 and 1896. She was on November 29, 1925, in Uummannaq. Qaavigarsuaq 
the most experienced in domestic chores, excellent in later took her surname, becoming Qaavigarsuaq Miteq 
making and mending skin clothes. She was very cheerful Ijaja Kristiansen. Qaavigarsuaq and Bebianne had eight 
and lifted everyone’s spirits. Her husband Aaqqioq was children. Qaavigarsuaq passed away in Qaanaaq in 
born around 1891 in Avanersuaq and had travelled on August 1978, the year after he lost his wife. Both are 
expeditions, sometimes with Peter Freuchen, whom he buried in Uummannaq. 
had known for 14 years before the FTE. Aaqqiorsuaq 
was known as a skilled hunter and sledge driver, pleasant Jakob Olsen (Jâkúnguak) was born 1890 in Sisimiut. 
and encouraging. His father was a chief catechist, and his brother was 
Rasmussen’s friend Gustav Olsen, the missionary priest 
Arnannguaq and Aaqqioq had a daughter on August in Avanersuaq. Before the expedition left Kalaallit 
9, 1923 at Ullersuaq/Danskeøen whom they named Nunaat for Inuit Nunangat, Olsen was approached 
Navarana. She was baptized when they returned home to join it. He was given barely a day to make his 
on March 1, 1925, in Uummannaq and later had a decision and accepted. Like the rest of the scientific 
second daughter, Mikivsuk, born on May 17, 1927. crew, Olsen kept a diary, writing accounts of songs, 
Aaqqioq took part in another expedition in 1930 led by customs, archaeology, and material culture. Olsen was 
the German geologist, Hans Krüger, and his Danish an excellent hunter and skilled at handling dogsleds. As 
assistant, Åge Rose Bjare. The project investigated a catechist, he taught in Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) when 
western Umimmaat Nunaat (Ellesmere Island), but among the Inuit in Danskeøen. Olsen traveled with 
the expedition failed, and neither Krüger, Bjare, nor Birket-Smith collecting ethnographic objects during 
Aaqqioq were ever found. It is suspected they died the first period of the expedition; later he traveled 
in an accident on Meighen Island. Arnannguaq was with Mathiassen for archaeological investigations at 
left with her daughters Navarana and Mikivsuk, but Naujan, Repulse Bay, and Southampton Island. He also 
Navarana died from pneumonia on August 26, 1933, recorded Inuit customs and transcribed data collected 
just after she turned 10 years old. Arnannguaq also died by other expedition members. After returning home, he 
from pneumonia, in 1955, in Qeqertat, where she is traveled back and forth between Kalaallit Nunaat and 
buried. Her second daughter Mikivsuk had six children. Denmark helping Rasmussen organize and interpret 
the collected folklore material. In 1925 Olsen took a 
Qaavigarsuaq Miteq (Kaivigarssuak Mitek) was position at the South Greenland County Council in 
born in 1899 while his parents lived, together with other Nuuk as an interpreter and secretary. He died from 
expedition members, on board Robert Peary's ship. scarlet fever on July 10, 1936, in Nuuk, at age 45.
Qaavigarsuaq's mother was Inaluk and was married to 
Angutikavsak, but Angutikavsak passed away when Navarana Mequpaluk, also known by her nickname 
Qaavigarsuaq was only a little boy. His mother then Mequ, was the daughter of Kassaaluk and Angulluk 
married Akumalik who raised Qaavigarsuaq as his own. and was born around 1898. Her father and her one-
Qaavigarsuaq never found out who his biological father year-old brother died from famine when she was only 
was, other than being European. His descendants thought about 3 years old. Her mother’s second husband was 
Qaavigarsuaq's father was probably Robert Bartlett, the Ulloriaq, who gave Navarana three brothers and two 
well-known Newfoundland captain who traveled with sisters. Navarana met Peter Freuchen in 1911 and 
Robert Peary for the first time in 1898. Qaavigarsuaq’s became his wife. In 1916 Navarana and Freuchen 
mother Inaluk died shortly after Qaavigarsuaq had a son Merkussâk and in 1918 a daughter named 
left for the FTE, leaving behind her sons Ulloriaq, Pipaluk. When Navarana was pregnant with her 
Inukitsorujuk and Qaaviagrsuaq. daughter Pipaluk, she suffered from pneumonia. 
      ASC Newsletter 13
The illness lingered, and three years later she died 
in Upernivik Kujalleq on August 2, 1921, just a 
month before the FTE began. Freuchen wanted her 
to be buried in the churchyard, but since she was not 
baptized, the priest would not approve, so Freuchen 
buried his beloved wife himself.
Aajako was born around 1892. He was the brother 
of Arnarulunnguaq and participated in Rasmussen's 
Second Thule Expedition (1916-–1918) in which 
geologists Lauge Koch and Hendrik Olsen from 
Appat/Ritenbænk, Nasaatsorluarsuk, and Inukitsupaluk 
(Harrigan) also participated. Although Aajako did not 
participate in the First Thule Expedition, he traveled 
with Rasmussen and Freuchen when they returned to 
Denmark in 1913 to present their expedition results. Inughuit participants (left to right): Arkioq, Arnánguaq, 
Aajako became a travel companion and a close friend Arnarulúnguaq, Akátak, Nasaitsordluarssuk, and 
of both Rasmussen and Freuchen, and it came as no Kaivigarssuak Mitek, all decorated with their FTE silver 
surprise when Aajako agreed to join the expedition. medals. Little Navarana stands in front of her parents. 
Unfortunately, he took his own life just before it began, (Royal Danish Library, by Peter Freuchen, Courtesy of 
leaving behind his wife Avoortungiaq and siblings Navarana Freuchen) 
Inukitsoq, Eqilak, and Arnarulunnguaq. 
Danskeøen on March 11, 1923, and traveled west 
Their Achievements, Findings, Perspectives, and through Inuit Nunangat and Alaska to Siberia, not 
Voices returning home until late fall 1924. 
Rasmussen knew the Inughuit were great hunters Other Inuit from other regions of Inuit Nunangat and 
and travelers who could provide him with complete Alaska assisted the expedition in various ways even 
independence while traveling in Inuit Nunangat (the though they were largely unrecognized in the FTE 
Canadian Arctic)—that is, without having to depend reports. Among these are Patdloq, Takornaaq, Qatalik, 
on local Indigenous groups for food or support. The Taqaugaq, Paniluk, Akuano, Autdlanâq, Inuujaq, 
Inughuit provided that independence. The expedition Taparte, Aqaút, Angutimmarik, Nivietsianaaq, 
team was divided into groups that traveled to different Sanaq, Makik, Noqatdlaq, Maneq, Nanoraq, 
regions by sled and boat to collect scientific data. Atakutaluk, Kukikuluk, Pilakavsik, Saamik, 
Explorations to the south, west, and north were Ilupaalik and his family, Aua and his family, Utuliaq, 
conducted to make contact with as many Inuit groups Uming, Akumalik, Anarqaaq, Usugtaq, and many 
as possible. Although their names are not included in others. Inuit who either travelled with the expedition, 
the published maps, where only the scientific team’s functioned as informants, shared knowledge, produced 
names are recorded, the Inughuit navigated the trips. drawings, and collected data, transported mail, and 
In late 1921 Aaqqioq and Qaavigarsuaq travelled with performed other tasks. All contributed to the expedition’s 
Rasmussen on reconnaissance and hunting; Aaqqioq success and deserve recognition. Their contributions, 
travelled with Freuchen, Mathiassen and Birket- perspectives, and voices would provide valuable insight 
Smith; Aaqqioq, Nsaatsorluarsuk, Qaavigarsuaq, and to how this expedition impacted local communities 
Olsen travelled with Rasmussen and Mathiassen on across Inuit Nunanga, and I hope will receive more 
map reconnaissance; in 1922 for the longer journeys, attention in the future. Fortunately, times are changing 
Aaqqioq and Arnannguaq travelled with Peter and proper recognition of Inuit contributions in the 
Freuchen on reconnaisance; and Arnarulunnguaq and Arctic context are beginning to increase. Both Western 
Qaavigarsuaq travelled with Rasmussen and Bangsted. and Indigenous scholars are acknowledging the need 
When that part of the expedition ended in the fall of to better understand the experiences of those who have 
1923, Mathiassen, Birket-Smith, and Olsen returned been marginalized in expedition narratives, making their 
to Denmark via New York. Freuchen and most of the stories better known to the public and the history of 
Inughuit participants traveled northeast by dogsled Arctic science. 
during the winter of 1924, arriving in Kalaallit Nunaat Inughuit and Inuit FTE Contributions
by boat from Mittimattalik (Pond Inlet) in fall 1924. 
And for the final part of the expedition, Rasmussen, As previously mentioned, there are very few 
Qaavigarsuaq, and Arnarulunnguaq left Ullersuaq/ documented details about the Inughuit participants. It 
14      ASC Newsletter
was mostly Qaavigarsuaq and Arnarulunnguaq who WHEN DID THE FTE ACTUALLY START: 
received belated attention in scholarly and popular NEW CLUES FROM AN OLD PHOTO?
literature. This was largely because they accompanied 
Rasmussen from Hudson Bay to Alaska and Siberia By Mari Kleist and Igor Krupnik
between 1923 and 1924. Every now and then, written 
sources mentioned the rest of the Inughuit, mostly In June 2021, while looking for a cover image 
collectively and usually mentioned last, while the for the FTE special issue of the Alaska Journal of 
scholars, including Olsen, are listed as primary Anthropology (See ‘Notes from the Director,’ this 
participants or expedition members. Proper descriptions issue), we came across a photo of the FTE team 
of their contributions are lacking. taking a break on a sled journey in the collection of the Danish Arctic Institute (Photo ID - p48934, 
Throughout the journey, Inughuit participants gathered resource ID 200824). The photo caption in the online 
and discussed field data together with the scientific crew, database (in Danish) under the overall title “5 Thule 
Inuit cultural expertise provided essential knowledge, Ekspedition (1921-1924)” provided the date when 
and both contributed to the recovery of artifacts leading the photo was taken (August 6, 1921), the names of 
to cultural understandings. Inughuit were usually sent people featured ("1. Birket-Smidt; 2 Th Mathiasen; 3 
ahead to introduce the expedition and often risked H. Bangsted; 4 Qavigarssuaq?; 5 Jakob Olsen; 6 Knud 
possible hostile encounters. They were also sent ahead to Rasm.; 7 Arnarulunguaq"), but neither the name of 
scout potentially dangerous landscapes and sea ice. the photographer (“unknown”) nor the place where 
photograph was taken. Person no.5 was clearly not 
One might ask why it is so important to acknowledge Jakob Olsen and person no.7 was not Arnarulunnguaq. 
Indigenous people’s achievements from a time of If the photograph was taken in Canada, during the 
colonial encounters and bygone rules or standards. expedition fieldwork then either Peter Freuchen 
To some extent, I believe history has been skewed or Jakob Olsen could be the photographer/s. It was 
in order to perpetuate colonial patterns and continue obvious that the date and the caption did not match; 
treating Inuit as objects, ignoring Inuit agency. One so, we asked Mari Kleist to help identify the Inughuit 
may argue that calls for a changing perspective should participants as a clue to photo’s origin.
become part of a reconciliation process with past 
colonial powers, to right some wrongs. Inuit heritage Mari’s immediate suggestion was that the photo 
perspectives have long been ignored in popular was indeed taken in August 1921 in Avanersuaq 
narratives and removed from their rightful place; (Thule, Northwest Greenland) and that it might have 
the lack of recognition of Inuit achievements not documented some earlier encounter rather than the 
only continues the colonial way of historicizing the FTE main fieldwork in Canada. According to the FTE 
Inuit past; it also erases their true contributions and timeline, in August 1921 Rasmussen and his Danish 
perspectives. It is necessary to bring these formerly crew (Therkel Mathiassen, Kaj Birket Smith, and 
marginalized voices to the center, to engage Inuit as full Helge Bangstead) went on a short visit to Avanersuaq 
partners and acknowledge their contributions, as well 
as their right to narrate their own pasts and culture. By 
doing so, it may be possible to produce more holistic 
narratives of the past. As Qaavigarsuaq’s daughter 
Regine told me: 
When you think about how much the Fifth Thule 
Expedition has contributed to science, we find it 
very strange that our parents and other Inughuit 
have never been visibly honored. The Inughuit were 
awarded the silver merit medal, but we do not even 
have a memorial of them, and one can wonder why 
that is so. It is also strange that Rasmussen did not 
get them recognized as being expedition members 
on an equal footing with the Danish members. 
Without Inughuit, the Fifth Thule Expedition would 
not have come to realization, so one can wonder 
where they are in our history. The 'mystery' photo described above, was taken in August 
1921 in Avanersuaq (Thule) during a 'dry run' for the full 
Qujanaq. FTE.
      ASC Newsletter 15
(Thule District) to meet with their future Inughuit a 90-minute documentary titled “Den store 
partners and to pick up sled dogs and field gear for Grønlandsfilm” (The Great Greenland Movie), 1922, 
fieldwork in Canada. Mathiassen’s “Report on the now in the collection of the Danish Film Institute 
Expedition” (FTE Reports 1945, Vol. 1(1), pp. 15–17) (DFI) in Copenhagen. The contemporary caption in 
described their arduous journey to Avanersuaq in the DFI catalog introduces the film as “…pictures 
July–August 1921 onboard the Bele and later the of daily life in Greenland, of seal hunting and shark 
Søkongen, after the Bele’s wreck off Uumanaq on fishing as well as hunting of walruses and polar 
July 14, and the loss of the FTE supplies. On August bears. In addition, there are recordings of the start 
2, 1921, the crew arrived at Thule. As Mathiassen of the 5th Thule expedition, which is led by Knud 
reported: Rasmussen.” A contemporary film poster attached 
to the online record displays several still photos, 
During the following days the ship was including three from the August 6, trip to the ice 
discharged… and we made a short sledge journey cap with the FTE participants, and a new one with 
up on to the ice cap to take a film, Rimmen the a cameraman and the tent. Hence, some additional 
photographer having accompanied us to Thule. photos from that trip might have been preserved 
Here the Expedition’s Polar Eskimos joined us: in the Danish archives. A short caption printed in 
Iggianguaq (about 35 years old) and his wife the 8-page movie program from 1922 says that the 
Arnarulunguaq, Arqioq and his wife Arnanguaq, FTE members were having a "farewell-kaffemik 
“The Bo’sun” (Nasaitordluarssuk) and his (invitation for coffee)" on the ice cap.
wife Aqatsaq, and the young unmarried man 
Qavigarssuaq. …On the 7th of August the Søkongen Several FTE participants were not on that trip, like 
left Thule on a southerly course, now carrying the Peter Freuchen, who was left in Upernavik, when his 
Polar Eskimos (Inughuit), their dogs and other Inughuit wife Navarana got ill with influenza on the 
equipment” (Mathiassen 1945:17). way to Avanersuaq (she, unfortunately, passed away 
in Upenivik on July 31, 1921). Another key member, 
That citation provided the date, the Inughuit to Jakob Olsen was then at his residence in Ujarasussuk 
be checked on the photo, and the name of the in Disko Bay; he did not even know about the FTE 
photographer (Hellwig F. Rimmen, 1884–1960). until August 14, 1921 (Kleist, this issue). Three other 
Soon, Mari was able to identify yet another picture FTE Inughuit members who reportedly joined the 
evidently taken on the same trip in the Danish Royal sledge trip on August 6 but were not featured in this 
Library (“Fifth Thule Expedition,” ke011479.tif ) but photo included Iggiánguak (Iggiannguaq), Arnánguak 
only with the names of its Danish members listed. This (Arnannguaq), and Akátak (Aqattaq). Iggiánguak 
and another photo in the Arctic Institute collection (Iggiannguaq), Arnarulunnguaq’s husband, the most 
feature the same group of people, same pieces of field senior Inughuit man on the team, died of influenza on 
gear (a big kettle used to boil water for coffee (?), a September 6, 1921, in Nuuk, before the expedition 
primus with attached container, a large tin can, etc.,) departed for Canada.
and the same small tent, as in our selected photographs, 
including a dog lying in snow. All people were dressed A short trip on August 6, was then a sort of a 
in the same heavy fur clothing that seemed a bit ‘out of ‘warming up’ event for the FTE members to see 
season’ in early August and in relatively warm weather each other and to develop some personal chemistry. 
(by Avanersuaq standard), even if traveling over the The informal and non-hierarchical nature of the 
inland icesheet. team and Rasmussen’s personal style of leadership 
are clearly obvious in the picture. These relations 
With this, we were able to put all missing pieces mostly continued through the FTE later journeys 
together. The official starting date for the FTE, between fall 1921 and fall 1924. So, when thinking 
according to its chronology was June 18, 1921, when about the actual starting date for the FTE, we may 
Danish crew members, Rasmussen, Mathiassen, put yet another date, August 6, 1921, next to June 18, 
and Birket-Smith, sailed to Greenland from 1921 (the Danish team departure from Copenhagen), 
Copenhagen, onboard the Belle. The ship was also September 7, 1921 (the full crew departure from 
carrying people who planned to participate in the Nuuk/Godthaab on board the Søkongen), and 
200th anniversary event for Hans Egede’s landing September 18, 1921 (the expedition landing in Canada 
in Greenland in 1721. Among them was a small on the Danish Island). It was on August 6th, when the 
film crew of Eduard Schnedler-Sørensen, film Danish and the Inughuit members first met on a short 
director; Carl Hillebrandt, actor; and Hellwig training trip and tested their skills, gear, and character, 
Rimmen, photographer and cameraman. That film a prelude to their heroic three-year journey “across 
crew produced the first-ever film in Greenland, Arctic America.” 
16      ASC Newsletter
ASC ANCHORAGE, ALASKA OFFICE
MAJOR ENDOWMENT GIFT FROM JO AND Coming from a distinguished career in the law, Peter 
PETER MICHALSKI Michalski has also long been dedicated to community 
causes. He is the past Chair of the Board of the Alaska 
By Aron L. Crowell Community Foundation, served on the Anchorage 
NMNH Director Kirk Johnson and NMNH Chief Museum Board of Directors, and is presently on the 
Development Officer Sandra Luvinguth announced in Board of the Anchorage Museum Foundation. Peter 
November that Jo and Peter Michalski of Anchorage— was a Superior Court judge for the Third Judicial 
longtime friends, advocates, and financial supporters District in Anchorage (1985–2012) and during his 
of the Arctic Studies Center’s Alaska program—have earlier career worked for the District Attorney's Office 
arranged a $250,000 bequest to support the future of ASC in Fairbanks and the Department of Law in Juneau. 
research and education. Thank you, Jo and Peter! On top His Juris Doctor is from the University of Minnesota 
of this great news, a $10,000 match to the Michalski’s Law School.
generous bequest was made immediately available About their legacy gift, Jo said, “Hopefully it will 
through the Smithsonian’s Legacy Challenge program, in encourage others to consider a gift to the Arctic Studies 
celebration of the institution’s 175th anniversary. Center to recognize and continue their important 
Jo Michalski is a successful entrepreneur and work.” The Michalskis have always led by generous 
prominent leader in civic philanthropy who has example, and we are proud and gratified to have 
served on the Smithsonian National Board since 2019 received their support through the years, and now a 
and as past chair of the Smithsonian Council for foundation for the future. 
Arctic Studies, the ASC’s circle of Alaskan private 
and corporate donors. Jo recently chaired a hugely GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM LAURA 
successful $100 endowment campaign for the Alaska BROUSE-LONG 
Community Foundation, and she has served on and 
chaired numerous non-profit boards including the By Aron L. Crowell
YWCA, Alaska Public Media, and University of Alaska 
Foundation. Over a 32-year career in business Jo Laura Brouse-Long, Director of the James Smithson 
opened and ran seven successful retail stores and was Society and Smithsonian Giving Circles, this year 
inducted into the Alaska Business Hall of Fame and the set in place a major and most welcome personal 
Alaska Women's Hall of Fame. With a background that bequest to the Arctic Studies Center, generously 
includes an M.A. in Secondary School Administration, complementing the crucial stewardship that she 
teaching in Minneapolis public schools, and positions provided in her professional capacity to the ASC’s 
with the Alaska Department of Education, Jo Michalski giving circle in Alaska, the Smithsonian Council 
has always been an educator at heart, and she especially for Arctic Studies. Laura, we are deeply grateful for 
values the ASC’s work with Alaska Native teachers, this and for your years of friendship and support. 
artists, and young people around the state. The bequest will add to the Arctic Studies Center’s growing endowment, and while that addition is 
far in the future, 
Laura said she 
was inspired by 
the benefit of a 
10% matching 
award conveyed 
immediately from 
the Smithsonian 
Legacy Challenge 
program when 
donors include the 
Smithsonian in their 
estate plans. That 
funding has already 
contributed to ASC 
Jo and Peter Michalski at a reception showing artwork by Laura Brouse-Long, Director of the James Smithson Society 
Sonya Kelliher Combs and Smithsonian Giving Circles
      ASC Newsletter 17
projects including “Batuk’enelyashi: Natural Dyes Having previously considered Yakutat Bay (Crowell 
from Dena'ina Lands” in partnership with the Alaska 2020, ASC Newsletter 27), the focus here is on 
Native Heritage Center (see article by Dawn Biddison Cook Inlet, the largest fiord in Alaska. Almost 300 
in this ASC Newsletter). km long, the inlet was carved by massive glaciers 
that poured out of the Chugach Range during the 
Laura’s work for the Smithsonian has been wide- Pleistocene, then began to retreat about 15,000 years 
ranging and highly impactful. She leads and provides ago. European navigators including James Cook and 
strategic direction to Giving Circles across the country George Vancouver were impressed by the majesty 
including the James Smithson Society, the oldest of the mountain-rimmed fiord and by its huge tidal 
annual giving circle at the institution. She designs and flux, strong currents, and dangerous shoals, but 
leads numerous donor engagement events and oversees gained little understanding of its cultural history and 
the Annual Smithsonian Weekend, a cultivation and ecology.
recognition activity for over 500 donors hosted by the 
leaders of all 21 Smithsonian museums. During her Starting as early as 10,000 years ago small numbers 
career, Laura has led and advised membership and of people of the Paleoarctic, Ocean Bay, Arctic Small 
giving programs at other national museums, including Tool, Norton, and Northern Archaic cultural traditions 
the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the United moved into Cook Inlet from nearby regions, drawn by 
States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Japanese the abundance of fish and game in its ocean waters, 
American National Museum, and the National Museum rivers, and surrounding boreal forests. Around 3,000 
of the American Indian. She began her professional life years ago Kachemak culture ancestors of the Sugpiat 
in direct marketing and fundraising for National Public (Alutiit) settled in Kachemak Bay, near the mouth of 
Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. It’s an Cook Inlet, where today the Sugpiaq communities of 
impressive list of public service, and we salute Laura’s Nanwalek and Port Graham are located, and along the 
many and enduring contributions. Kenai and Kasilof rivers (De Laguna 1975; Workman 
1996). The Sugpiat are the southernmost Alaskan 
As this brief bio suggests, Laura is a dedicated Inuit, with a traditional territory that extends from the 
supporter of the arts and humanities. In speaking Alaska Peninsula to the Kodiak archipelago, the Kenai 
about her gift to the Arctic Studies Center she says: Peninsula, and Prince William Sound. Dena’ina people 
“I was so inspired by my visits to Anchorage and belonging to the Dene/Athabascan cultural family 
hearing each year about the Center’s mission; the expanded their territory to the shores of upper Cook 
Smithsonian’s 150 year history in the area, its deep Inlet about 1,000 years ago from the adjacent interior, 
collaboration with Native communities, Dr. Crowell’s and today live in coastal towns that include Tyonek, 
extensive anthropological studies and field research, Knik, Eklutna, and Kenai (Jones et al. 2013; Reger 
and ongoing Alaska Native language reclamation. The 1998; Workman 1998). 
Smithsonian’s commitment in Alaska is exemplified 
by partnership between the National Museum of During nearly a millennium of shared tenancy in 
Natural History and National Museum of the American Cook Inlet the Dena’ina and Sugpiat have interacted 
Indian, which loan their collections to foster dialogue, with each other and with neighboring Indigenous 
education, and the preservation of our shared histories.  cultures. Warfare, trade, and political alliances figure 
The Arctic Studies Center is a beacon of knowledge prominently in the oral traditions of both peoples, and routes used by raiding and trading parties extended 
and commitment to community that warrants this kind north into the interior and south over mountain passes 
of continued investment by all of us who are touched to Prince William Sound and the outer Kenai coast. 
by its mission.” Both groups occupied large permanent villages and 
developed complex, lineage-based societies with 
WHY GLACIAL FIORDS ARE GREAT ranked kinship systems, similar to other coastal 
PLACES TO LIVE, PART 2: THE CULTURAL Indigenous cultures from the eastern Aleutian Islands to 
ECOLOGY OF COOK INLET, ALASKA the Northwest Coast of British Columbia.
By Aron L. Crowell From the standpoint of cultural ecology, the Dena’ina 
and Sugpiat occupy contrasting although partially 
This article, adapted from a chapter in Imagining overlapping niches in the Cook Inlet environment. 
Anchorage: The Making of America’s Northernmost For the Sugpiat, maritime resources of the lower inlet 
Metropolis (Crowell 2018), revisits the topic of have always predominated in the food quest, while 
glacial influences on the ecology of Alaskan fiords, for the Dena’ina terrestrial and riverine food sources 
and the question of why these environments are of the upper inlet, especially salmon, are the most 
such attractive places for Indigenous settlement. important. Evidence of these traditional subsistence 
18      ASC Newsletter
patterns is provided by faunal remains preserved at of human occupation, the contrasting resources of the 
archaeological sites. For the Kachemak and Sugpiaq estuarine and marine areas have influenced settlement 
cultures these include the Yukon Island and Port patterns and subsistence practices (Reger 1998).
Graham Cannery sites in Kachemak Bay (De Laguna 
1975; Workman 1998) while for the Dena’ina there The upper bay receives large inputs of fresh water from 
are riverine sites on the Kenai Peninsula (Reger 1998, the Knik, Matanuska, Susitna, Kenai, Kasilof, and other 
2013) and the Tiq’atl’ena Bena site at the head of rivers, and as a result is warmer and less saline than the 
Cook Inlet (Dixon 2003). Gulf of Alaska, a fact observed by Cook as he travelled 
up the fiord in 1778 and which he took as evidence 
The traditional subsistence technologies of the two that “Cook’s River” would not prove to be an open 
groups also reflect these specializations. The Dena’ina ocean strait or the long-sought Northwest Passage. 
used bows and arrows and a wide variety of snaring Silt flowing into the inlet from Matanuska, Knik, and 
and trapping methods for taking land animals, other glaciers builds broad tidal mud flats and mixes 
including caribou with the waters of the 
drive systems; they estuary, resulting in 
harvested salmon and high turbidity, low 
other river fish using light penetration, and 
weirs, traps, fish spears, minimal growth of 
and dip nets; they phytoplankton. As 
traveled overland using 
snowshoes in winter a result of this low 
and birch bark canoes level of productivity 
in summer; and they at the base of the 
made extensive use of food web, resident 
woodland and tundra populations of 
plants for food and marine invertebrates, 
medicine. Reflecting fish, seabirds, and 
cultural interchange mammals are quite 
with the Sugpiat, limited. However, 
they used kayaks to large numbers of 
hunt seals and sea salmon migrate from 
otters and harpooned Figure 1. Cook Inlet marine zones, Dena’ina and Sugpiaq their feeding grounds 
beluga whales from communities, and selected archaeological sites in the open ocean to 
tree platforms in the spawn in upper inlet 
tidal mud flats, although marine mammal hunting was rivers and lakes during May to September, pursued by 
of secondary importance in the overall subsistence harbor seals and beluga whales that move up from the 
pattern (Jones et al. 2013). The Sugpiat were far more lower inlet to feed on these fish.
oriented to the sea, as indicated by the predominance 
of sea mammal, sea bird, and pelagic fish bones in In contrast, the marine environment of lower Cook 
archaeological middens (De Laguna 1975; Workman Inlet is characterized by clear, cold, saline waters 
1998). They utilized a diverse inventory of ocean enriched by sediment plumes from glacier watersheds 
hunting and fishing tools including kayaks, umiaks, in Kachemak Bay (Grewingk, Portlock, and Dixon 
inflated seal skin drag floats, darts, throwing boards, glaciers) and by the upwelling of bottom water and 
various types of harpoons, sea otter arrows, poison- minerals from the ocean floor, generated by the clash 
coated projectiles for killing large whales, and rigs for of strong outgoing tides with westward-flowing waters 
cod and halibut fishing. of the Alaska Coastal Current. The upwelling zone at the mouth of Cook Inlet extends out into the Gulf 
This pattern of complementary co-occupation and of Alaska, encompassing the Kodiak archipelago, 
resource use by the Dena’ina and Sugpiat was northeastern Alaska Peninsula, and southwestern 
structured in large part by the marine biogeography of outer coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Favorable light 
Cook Inlet. The inlet is an extension of the continental and nutrient conditions in this area support flourishing 
shelf and therefore relatively shallow (generally less summer blooms of phytoplankton and zooplankton. 
than 50 m deep) over its entire extent. It is divided A counter-clockwise flow of biologically enriched 
into two oceanographic zones—estuarine in the upper water curls along the east side of Cook Inlet into outer 
inlet and marine in the lower—separated by a mid- Kachemak Bay and up to the marine–estuary transition 
bay transition zone (Fig. 1). Throughout the history line before turning west and circulating back toward 
      ASC Newsletter 19
the bay mouth. The highly productive food web of sites are Kachemak or Sugpiaq and are concentrated 
the lower Cook Inlet upwelling zone includes large in the rich marine environment of Kachemak Bay. 
populations of fish, seabirds, and marine mammals In addition, more than 30 Sugpiaq sites are known 
(Drew and Piatt 2002; Spies 2007). along the outer Kenai coast within the upwelling zone 
(Crowell and Mann 1996).
The contrast in productivity between Cook Inlet’s 
inner and outer fiord environments is a common Climatic changes in temperatures and circulation since 
biogeographical pattern around the Gulf of Alaska, the end of the Pleistocene have altered the marine 
where the abundance and variety of marine food environment of Cook Inlet and surrounding regions. 
resources are correlated with the density of human Some of the best evidence comes from isotopic 
settlement, both tending to be greater in outer fiords studies of lakes where red (sockeye) salmon spawn. 
and adjacent coastal regions. Archaeological sites Nitrogen-15 (N15) is enriched relative to N14 in the 
cluster around the bodies of salmon as 
outer Cook Inlet/Gulf the result of ocean 
of Alaska upwelling feeding, and when 
zone (Fig. 2) and they spawn and 
people living at these die this isotope is 
settlements had access deposited in lake 
to abundant marine bottom sediments. 
resources as indicated Coring of lakes in the 
by “richness” scores Kodiak archipelago 
representing the and around Cook 
overlap of harvesting Inlet and Bristol Bay 
catchment areas yielded a 2,200 year 
(Crowell et al. 2012). radiocarbon-dated 
It is not surprising sequence showing 
that ethnohistoric fluctuations in N15 
census data indicate levels that serve as 
that at the time of a proxy measure of 
European contact the salmon abundance 
Cook Inlet upwelling (Finney et al. 2002). 
zone supported the Salmon population 
largest Indigenous levels were low from 
populations in Alaska, 100 BCE to 800 CE 
including an estimated  Figure 2. Coastal archaeological sites in the central Gulf of Alaska, during the Neoglacial 
6,500 residents of the color coded by richness score, which measures the number species period, then trended 
Kodiak archipelago harvesting locales within a 10 km radius by boat or 1 km on foot. upward over the next 
and 1500 more in Highest richness values are in the Cook Inlet upwelling zone, where 400 years during 
lower Cook Inlet and site density (clustering) is also highest. the Medieval Warm 
along the Alaska and Period. Salmon 
Kenai peninsulas. remained relatively 
The reverse of these patterns is indicated for the high for the next nine centuries except for a dip around 
relatively depauperate estuarine environment of upper 1800 CE at the peak of the Little Ice Age, when ocean 
Cook Inlet. Here coastal archaeological sites are fewer waters significantly cooled.
in number and farther apart except for clusters at major 
salmon fisheries including the Kenai River area and These trends in salmon population signal wholesale 
the head of Knik Arm. Virtually all coastal sites in shifts in the marine ecosystem and coincide with 
the upper inlet have low diversity scores, since most archaeologically observed cultural transitions. 
are river mouth settlements with access to only a few Neoglacial cooling around 100 BCE coincided with 
species of fish (primarily salmon) and sea mammals. the shift from early to late Kachemak culture on 
Kodiak Island. In Kachemak Bay, faunal remains 
Most of the upper inlet sites depicted in Figure 2 are from late Kachemak sites include few salmon bones 
Dena’ina in cultural affiliation, although some sites of but show increased numbers of pelagic fish and sea 
earlier periods are represented including Kachemak mammals, which tend to be more abundant during 
fishing camps along the lower Kenai and Kasilof rivers. cooler climate phases. On Kodiak Island the rise in 
The reverse is true for the lower inlet where most of the red salmon from 800 CE to 1200 CE coincided with a 
20      ASC Newsletter
transition from late Kachemak to Sugpiaq culture (the THE CIRI FOUNDATION’S ALASKA NATIVE 
Koniag phase), accompanied by an increase in human MUSEUM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM: ANNIE 
population and the establishment of large salmon WENSTRUP
fishing villages along the Karluk, Ayakulik, and other 
rivers. In Cook Inlet, the rise in salmon numbers By Dawn Biddison
coincided with the end of the Kachemak occupation In the fall of 2021, Dawn Biddison worked with Annie 
and the migration of Dena’ina people to the Cook Wenstrup (Dena’ina Athabascan) who resides in 
Inlet area, where they established fishing villages Fairbanks, on a virtual Museum Sovereignty Fellowship, 
with multiroom houses and cache pits for storing the a program funded by The CIRI Foundation. Annie is 
salmon harvest. The climate had warmed, the marine as an Advisory Board member of the Kachemak Bay 
ecosystem had changed, and Indigenous peoples Writers’ Conference and a creative writing student in 
modified their settlement patterns and subsistence an MFA low-residency program at the University of 
practices in response. Southern Maine. The fellowship was organized as an 
As we contemplate the impacts of Arctic warming on opportunity for Annie to learn about developing an 
the present and future environment of Alaska and its online webinar series—specifically Conversations (see 
oceans, it is important to recognize that climatic and “Conversations Webinar Series” in this issue)—on Indigenous heritage and issues in collaboration with an 
ecosystem change have always influenced Indigenous Indigenous organization and an Indigenous advisors 
lifeways. Global average air temperatures are now group, including project development, research, 
higher than at any time in at least the last 1,400 years management and documentation. 
including the Medieval Warm Period, and a wide 
range of effects has been observed in Alaska and the The Conversations project was selected as an example 
circumpolar Arctic. These include ocean acidification, of how museum staff can extend collaborations with 
rising ocean temperatures, declining sea ice, significant Indigenous peoples beyond the physical space of 
declines of sea mammals such as harbor seals, sea a museum and can provide wider access to public 
lions, and sea otters, and changes in the abundance programs through virtual events that reduce barriers 
of salmon and other fish that are important to both for people living in remote locations. The fellowship 
subsistence and commercial fisheries.  While the included weekly meetings, issues-based research 
effects of climate warming on human societies is far related to the webinar topics, attending webinar 
different now than in the past, we can be sure that they planning meetings, and attending and discussing the 
will be both significant and long-lasting, challenging webinars. Annie also attended the NAASA session 
our ability to adapt as effectively as the Sugpiaq and “Creating and Engaging Virtually: A Conversation 
Dena’ina people of Cook Inlet. with Alaska Native Artists and Alaskan Museum 
Anthropologists” organized by Dawn, which was later 
Audrey Larson has accepted an Arctic Studies discussed and analyzed.
Center Graduate Fellowship for 2022 and will 
develop the topics discussed in this article for her Based on Annie’s 
Masters in Professional Studies (MPS) in Underwater experience and her academic work, 
Archaeology at the University of Miami in Coral the fellowship was 
Gables FL. Audrey, whose previous experience has extended to specifically 
been around (and under) more southern waters, became benefit her MFA 
intrigued by Indigenous adaptations to glacially studies. In this work, 
influenced environments in the Arctic. She plans to Annie focused on 
incorporate archaeological data and recent marine analyzing and writing 
ecological studies by Mayumi Arimitsu, Sarah Schoen, poetry within a 
and others into a GIS model of settlement and resource museum-like meta 
use in Cook Inlet. structure, including 
self-portraiture 
Reference elements and how 
staff and audiences 
Crowell, Aron. 2018. Inuit-Dene Cultural Ecology talk about images. 
in Cook Inlet, Alaska since 1000 B.C. In Imagining To accommodate Annie Wenstrup, TCF fellowship 
Anchorage: The Making of America’s Northernmost these interests, recipient with the Arctic Studies 
Metropolis, ed. James Barnett and Ian Hartman, meetings included Center Alaska, fall 2021. Photo by 
University of Alaska Press, pp. 2–19. conversations about Annie Wenstrup 
      ASC Newsletter 21
and analysis of museums at various levels and ways of • “Learning Across Generations and Back” with 
practice: structures, interpretation, audiences, museum moderator Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Sugpiaq) and 
accessibility, Indigenous presence and collaboration, speakers Miqqusaaq Bernadette Dean (Inuk: 
colonialism and post-colonialism, and Indigenous Kivalliq, NU), Keneggnarkayaaggaq Emily 
sovereignty. Given her interest in the virtual presence Edenshaw (Yup’ik/Iñupiaq), Kunaq Marjorie 
of museums, the content and goals behind the ASC- Tahbone (Iñupiaq) and Krista Ulujuk Zawadski 
AK Smithsonian Learning Lab site were also (Inuk: Rankin Inlet, NU)
discussed and analyzed, including decolonizing museum 
collections and museum work. Annie’s reflections about • “Activating Inuit Art Sovereignty” with 
her fellowship can be read her entry for the “Share Your moderator Emily Laurent Henderson (Greenlandic) 
Story” page on The CIRI Foundation website. and speakers Theresie Tungilik (Inuk: Nauyaat, NU) 
and Dalee Sambo Dorough (Iñupiaq/Kiowa)
CONVERSATIONS WEBINAR SERIES: A • “Challenges to Inuit Art Sovereignty” with 
COLLABORATION WITH THE INUIT ART moderator Tanya Lukin Linklater (Sugpiaq) and 
FOUNDATION speakers Taqralik Partridge (Inuk: Kuujjuaq, NU) 
By Dawn Biddison and Sven Haakanson (Sugpiaq)
Conversations is a webinar series that brings viewers You can find all six webinars in the Conversations 
into discussions by Indigenous peoples, which provide section of the Learning Lab site for Smithsonian 
information and insights on important subjects and Arctic Studies Center in Alaska. In addition to the 
issues, along with ideas and examples to help inform edited videos, the collections provide information about 
people about how to act with regard to Indigenous each speaker. Plans are underway to continue the series 
peoples and their heritage. The program was made in the fall of 2022. 
possible through generous support of the Inuit Art 
Foundation (IAF) and supporters of the Arctic Studies INTERGENERATIONAL CREATIVITY AND 
Center in Alaska. LEARNING THROUGH INDIGENOUS COMIC 
The Inuit advisors who developed the subjects and ART: CHICKALOONIES
selected speakers were Kacey Purruq Qunmiġu By Dawn Biddison
Hopson (Indigenous Knowledge Advocate, First 
Alaskans Institute), Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Artist), The Indigenous comic book Chickaloonies: First Frost 
Taqralik Partridge (Director, Nordic Lab at SAW) and is a story about two friends from Chickaloon Village 
Krista Ulujuk Zawadski (PhD Candidate, Carleton who go on a quest to become great storytellers, relying 
University). IAF staff Heather Campbell (Inuk: on the teachings of their grandmother throughout the 
Nunatsiavut, NL) and Alyson Hardwick (Inuk: Happy adventures and trials along their journey. It is an all-
Valley-Goose Bay, NL) hosted the webinars. Dawn ages, Alaska Native adventure about legends, language, 
Biddison was the project manager and online content magic and the journey of discovering one’s own story 
creator for the series, and Katie Barca provided in an ever-changing world. Chickaloonies is created 
technical support for the Zoom events. by Dimi Macheras (Ahtna Athabascan) and Casey 
Silver, the team that makes up 80% Studios. Melissa 
The eight webinars subjects are (in order of the events): Shaginoff (Ahtna Athabascan, Paiute) is a cultural 
• “Queer Inuit Art” with moderator Alice Qannik knowledge contributor for the project. 
Glenn (Iñupiaq) and speakers Jenny Irene Miller 
(Iñupiaq) and Ossie Michelin (Inuk: North West “The traditional Ya Ne Dah Ah (‘Ancient Teachings’ 
River, NL) in the Ahtna language) legends were passed on to us children by Chickaloon Village Elders, and my 
• “Inuit Identities and Vitalization” with moderator grandmother, Katherine Wade. Eventually I turned 
Heather Igloliorte (Inuk, Nunatsiavut, NL) and some of these stories into illustrated comic books. My 
speakers Christine Tootoo (Inuk: Kangiqliniq, NU) mother, Patricia Wade, helped bring them to life by 
and Allison Akootchook Warden (Iñupiaq) incorporating the art into live Ya Ne Dah Ah storytelling 
events, which she shared in schools and gatherings 
• “Music within Inuit Cultures and Languages” throughout Alaska. Sadly these two culture-bearers have 
with moderator Tiffany Ayalik (Inuk: Kugluktuk, passed on. The legacy of their contributions are hard 
NU) and speakers James Dommek Jr. (Iñupiaq), to quantify, but this book is how I hope to continue the 
Byron Nicholai (Yup’ik) and Julia Ogina (Inuk: tradition of sharing our culture in a fun new way that 
Cambridge Bay, NU) would make them proud.” (Dimi Macheras, 2021)
22      ASC Newsletter
Casey Silver and Dimi Macheras at a book signing for Title 
Wave Books in Anchorage, Alaska, 2021. Photo courtesy of 
80% Studios
The Chickaloonies team partnered with Dawn 
Biddison as project manager and co-developer to 
collaborate on expanding the scope of their work. With 
generous support by The CIRI Foundation's Education 
Heritage Grant program, the Recovering Voices Grandma tells a story in a page from the comic book 
program (NMNH), and the Alaska State Council on the Chickaloonies: First Frost. The symbols rising as she speaks 
Arts, they began work on making engaging educational represent the Ahtna Athabascan language. Illustration © 
resources. Together, the team aims to empower 80% Studios
Indigenous youth, and all youth, through creative 
expression and through intergenerational learning with Dimi’s story of becoming an Indigenous comic artist, 
family and cultural heritage, made relevant to their lessons from the workbook, live drawing experiences 
lives through developing their own artistic vision and and facilitated student engagement throughout. In 
voice. Their work focuses on the comic art form as a February, the team partnered with Chickaloon Village, 
way to learn about, express, and perpetuate Indigenous Kenaitze Indian tribe (Kenai) and the Cook Inlet Tribal 
heritage and Indigenous ways of learning: honoring Council (Anchorage) to host workshops and to receive 
Elders and knowledge-keepers and seeking to learn feedback for making improvements to future workshops. 
from them; experiencing the impact of storytelling and In March, the project resources—including information 
traditional values; learning multi-faceted information about the artists, museum resources and the comic art 
from heritage pieces in museum collections; and workbook with a video introduction from its makers—
creating contemporary arts inspired by historic arts. will be available online at the project Learning Lab site 
“Intergenerational Creativity and Learning through 
Based on the Chickaloonies characters and storyline, Indigenous Comic Art: Chickaloonies.” 
the project team began work in November to illustrate 
and write an in-depth instructional workbook on comic 
art and to develop a comprehensive virtual workshop. VOICES FROM CEDAR DIGITAL LEARNING 
The workbook will detail how to draw characters and PROJECT
write stories, and it will include activities inspired and By Dawn Biddison
informed by Athabascan cultural heritage pieces in the 
Smithsonian’s Living Our Cultures exhibition at the “I gained a lot from this project. It connected me 
Anchorage Museum, pieces enriched with information with a community of learners who were eager for the 
shared by Alaska Native experts during exhibition information I had to offer. It is also wonderful to know 
research and co-curation with the Center’s staff. The that the information gained through this project will live 
workshop is organized around a presentation with on forever and can be accessed by all who have interest. 
      ASC Newsletter 23
I also gained a respect for how technology can bring 
people together even living far apart in diverse parts of 
Alaska and elsewhere. I am also left with a satisfying 
feeling of giving something back to the artist community 
and staying closely connected to it.” (John Hudson, 
Tsimshian, lead artist)
“It was a great experience to be able to work on an 
Alaska Native art project and have all the necessary 
materials and tools provided. I gained from this 
experience knowledge about the traditional use of 
whistles by Tsimshian people as well as the other 
Southeast Alaska tribes. I also gained more confidence 
in my abilities to carve on my own because we had to 
move forward with the project on our own time. The 
excitement of making something that could be used 
motivated me to problem solve as I went along and then 
asked questions if I got stuck on the next step.” (Virtual 
workshop student) Voices from Cedar resources on the Smithsonian Arctic 
Studies Center in Alaska website on the Smithsonian 
The “Voices from Cedar: Digital Learning” project was Learning Lab platform. Photo by Dawn Biddison
developed to help Alaska Native artists learn about the 
Tsimshian/Tlingit/Haida whistle, an important art form how to carve a whistle from start to finish, including 
that has been dormant in Southeast Alaska. Through the tools, materials, techniques, testing, and refining. No 
contributions of Tsimshian Master artist John Hudson, such educational resources existed for this endangered 
project manager Dawn Biddison produced instructional art form prior to this project. Dawn edited twelve 
videos and additional content that was posted online and instructional videos from the footage, with reviews and 
will serve as accessible resources to facilitate making approvals of final versions by John. Printed DVDs were 
this art form for future teachers and students. DVD mailed out in July to the lead artist, workshop students, 
sets of the videos were widely distributed throughout workshop applicants, Southeast Alaska schools and 
Alaska. John also taught virtual workshops where Native organizations, statewide libraries and archives, 
Alaska Native students learned how to make their first and selected national organizations. Sending out DVDs 
whistle. In addition, a webinar was held to introduce the is an important tool for reaching more of the general 
project and its online resources to the public, as well as public and people with poor Internet service.
email announcements to an extensive mailing list and to 
Alaska list-serves. In order to make these resources more widely accessible, 
Dawn posted videos and additional content online at 
“Voices from Cedar” was built with film footage shot two Arctic Studies Center websites. The instructional 
in 2015, in which John provided cultural information videos—including an introductory webinar and trouble-
about Southeast Alaska wind instruments and taught shooting tips (described below)—are available on the 
“Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska” 
YouTube channel and Smithsonian Learning Lab site. 
Also, since the Learning Lab platform allows additional 
types of files and materials to be grouped together, that 
site was expanded to twenty-seven entries, including 
photos and diagrams of whistles representing the types 
carved in the workshops videos, and short videos of 
John with information about historic Southeast Alaska 
whistles in the National Museum of Natural History that 
John studied in person years back.
In addition to the online resources, the project offered 
whistle-making workshops taught by John to Alaska 
Native art practitioners. Students were gifted carving 
materials and tools made by John, and he taught them 
carving skills and traditions about this art form. During a 
John Hudson time when in-person workshops were not being held due 
24      ASC Newsletter
to COVID-19, the project workshops offered a special 
opportunity for students. Thirty-six people applied for 
the ten spots, even though it was held during the busy 
summer season. In order to make participation more 
accessible for people with jobs, one workshop was 
held on weekday evenings and the other on weekend 
afternoons. Prior to the classes, students were sent a 
link to the project Learning Lab site to help prepare 
them and to help them afterwards. All applicants for the 
workshops were sent the website link, and all workshop 
students and applicants were sent DVDs. Screen capture of the Conversations collection on Learning 
Along with the workshops, a virtual webinar was held to Lab site “Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska.” 
introduce the project and online resources to the general Photo by Dawn Biddison
public. The event was recorded on the Zoom platform, 
and a video file was edited to include two views and given as part of an introduction to public events. 
additional resources discussed during the event. The “Cultural Appreciation vs. Cultural Appropriation: 
webinar video was added to the “Voices from Cedar” A Conversation with Alaska Native Artists” features 
website to act as an introduction to the online resources. moderator Melissa Shaginoff (Ahtna Athabascan, Paiute) 
John also made a trouble-shooting tips video, which was and speakers Dimi Macheras (Dena’ina Athabascan), 
filmed on Zoom, edited, and posted. Vera Starbard (Tlingit, Dena’ina Athabascan) and 
Ilgavak Peter Williams (Yup’ik). The entry includes 
This project was made possible by generous support of recommended links to general information about 
The CIRI Foundation, Recovering Voices (Department the subject and two downloadable PDF resources: 
of Anthropology, NMNH), Alaska State Council on the “Avoiding Cultural Appropriation” and “Think Before 
Arts, Sealaska Heritage Institute, and supporters of the You Appropriate.” This project was made possible 
Arctic Studies Center in Alaska. through the generous support of the Open Society 
University Network, Recovering Voices (Department of 
MEDIA Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History) and supporters of the Arctic Studies Center in Alaska.
By Dawn Biddison The “Voices from Cedar” collection was added to 
In 2021, the Learning Lab site Smithsonian Arctic the “Community Videos” section, featuring twenty-
Studies in Alaska gained ten new collections.  A new seven resources about Southeast Alaska whistles 
section “Conversations” was added with eight entries. (see “Voices from Cedar” in this issue).  The 
The goal of the Conversations video series is to bring “Intergenerational Creativity and Learning through 
audiences into discussions with Indigenous peoples, Indigenous Comic Art: Chickaloonies” collection 
providing information and insights on important subjects was added to the “Distance Learning section,” and 
and issues, along with ideas and examples that can help its twenty-six resources include a downloadable PDF 
prepare people for making choices about how to act with workbook on how to draw and tell stories using comic 
regard to Indigenous peoples and their heritage. A new art (see “Chickaloonies” in this issue).
collaboration with the Inuit Art Foundation produced six 
of the Conversation collections with twenty-one Alaskan NOME CELEBRATES OUR STORIES ETCHED 
and Canadian Inuit speakers who participated (see IN IVORY
“Conversations Webinar Series” in this issue). 
By Amy Phillips-Chan
Two additional Conversations entries were produced by 
Dawn Biddison from webinars that she organized and Almost ten years ago, I was incredibly fortunate to 
hosted with Alaska Native speakers. “Conversations: begin working with community members in Alaska on 
Land Acknowledgement” features cultural advocate, a project that sought to reconnect engraved scenes of 
curator and artist Melissa Shaginoff (Athna Athabascan/ human figures hunting, dancing, and traveling on 19th 
Paiute). Along with the edited webinar video, there is a century walrus ivory drill bows with contemporary 
downloadable PDF resource “You Are On Indigenous narratives of culture and place. Summer 2021 saw 
Land,” an instructional guide discussed in the video completion of the project Our Stories Etched in 
to help readers research and write their own land Ivory / Qulip’yugut Iksiaqtuumaruat Tuugaami: The 
acknowledgements. There are also links to online Smithsonian Collections of Engraved Drill Bows with 
videos with examples of land acknowledgements Stories from the Arctic. The book was published by 
      ASC Newsletter 25
the Arctic Studies Center as Volume 10 in the series careful stewards of the land and waters of the Bering 
Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology.  Strait region for generations. I am privileged to live 
and work in Nome at the Carrie M. McLain Memorial 
Our Stories Etched in Ivory combines drill bow stories Museum and thus had the great opportunity to visit 
from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural with local contributors and hand-deliver copies of Our 
History and National Museum of the American Indian Stories Etched in Ivory on which we had all worked. 
with oral histories gathered from 40 contemporary Over 100 additional copies of the book were mailed 
Alaska Native contributors from Utqiaġvik, Point Hope, out to community contributors, schools, and cultural 
Kotzebue, Shishmaref, Nome, centers across Alaska as 
St. Michael, and Anchorage. well as other project partners 
Stories of hunting and who had assisted with the 
community life are accompanied publication and museums 
by illustrations of cultural and archives who generously 
heritage objects from the Carrie shared materials from their 
M. McLain Memorial Museum collections.
in Nome, Alaska. A foreword 
by Bernadette Y. Alvanna- The Carrie M. McLain 
Stimpfle, Yaayuk, offers insight Memorial Museum planned 
into the self-recorded world a special two-day Nome 
of walrus ivory carvers while Community Book Event with 
the introductory essay by Amy local contributors on August 
Phillips-Chan draws upon 5-6, 2021 to celebrate the A group of Nome contributors. Back row: Susan 
collection studies, oral histories, completion of Our Stories Omiak (representing father James Omiak), Janice 
and written texts to explore drill Etched in Ivory. Flyers Knowlton (representing father Francis Alvanna), 
bow technology and the history regarding the book event were Yaayuk Alvanna-Stimpfle, Sylvester Ayek, Wilfred 
of pictorial art in the Arctic. Anowlic, John Penatac Sr., and Joseph Kunnuk placed across town and shared 
The appendices offer detailed Sr. Front row: Amy Phillips-Chan, JJ Alvanna via social media. Community 
(representing father Francis Alvanna) holding members were invited to information on Smithsonian 
daughter Suluk, and Jerome Saclamana. Photo by reserve a complimentary copy collectors, a glossary of carving of the book, which they could 
materials, and a visual catalog Amy Chan pick up and have signed by 
of heritage objects engraved contributors during the event. 
with pictorial scenes. The final The KICY radio station in 
section features a dictionary of Nome invited contributor 
almost 100 engraved characters Sylvester Ayek and myself 
found on drill bows, from in to talk about the book and 
animals and objects to legends promote the community event. 
and activities. Our Stories Sylvester (Inupiat) is a King 
Etched in Ivory prioritizes Island Elder and contemporary 
Indigenous knowledge and artist who works with walrus 
language by making space ivory, wood, stone, and metals. 
for community members to His work can be found in 
share their own stories and public and private collections 
provides Inupiaq language 
names for places, animals, and Amy and Yaakut Alvanna-Stimpfle. 
across the country. Sylvester 
Photo by Amy Chan has collaborated with the objects. The publication marks Smithsonian Arctic Studies 
a collaboration between the Center on several projects including the exhibition 
Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, Carrie M. McLain Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First 
Memorial Museum, and Bering Strait communities, to Peoples of Alaska.
return Indigenous knowledge embedded within historical 
museum objects back to the Arctic. The first day of the Nome Community Book Event 
featured a public presentation on ivory carving by artist 
Freshly printed copies of Our Stories Etched in Ivory and Our Stories Etched in Ivory contributor Jerome 
arrived in Nome in July 2021. The town of Nome, Saclamana. Jerome Saclamana (Inupiat) works in 
known as Sitnasuak in Inupiaq, is located on the walrus ivory and bone and was recently recognized 
traditional homeland of the Inupiat, who have been with a 2019 Individual Artist Award from the Rasmuson 
26      ASC Newsletter
Foundation. In 2015, he participated as an Artist in NEWS
Resident for the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center 
Material Traditions: Sculpting Ivory project. Jerome flew 
in from Anchorage to offer a presentation at the Carrie SUSAN ROWLEY APPOINTED DIRECTOR 
M. McLain Memorial Museum on August 5, 2021. Over OF UBC MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY
35 people gathered around tables filled with carving By Bernadette Driscoll Engelstad
tools and materials to listen to Jerome share stories about 
learning how to carve and inspiration behind his work. The Arctic Studies 
Jerome also discussed his recent endeavor carving a Center extends 
walrus ivory drill bow in the manner of his father Mike congratulations to Dr. 
Saclamana Sr. and demonstrated a circle-and-dot etching Susan Rowley on her 
technique upon the drill bow’s surface. appointment as Director 
of the UBC Museum of 
On August 6, 2021, a crowd of over 75 visitors packed Anthropology (MOA) 
into the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum for the in October 2021. 
second day of the Nome Community Book Event. Susan brings extensive 
Our Stories Etched in Ivory contributors, Yaayuk 
Alvanna-Stimpfle, Wilfred Anowlic, Sylvester Ayek, expertise to this position 
Joseph Kunnuk Sr., and John Penatac Sr. introduced as a long-term curator 
themselves and spoke about carving and growing up on at MOA and professor 
King Island and in Nome. Descendants of contributors of Anthropology at 
James Omiak and Francis Alvanna talked about their UBC. In addition to 
fathers, including Susan Omiak (representing father Arctic archaeology, her 
James Omiak) and Janice Knowlton and J.J. Alvanna research encompasses a 
(representing their father Francis Alvanna). Members of wide range of specialties 
the public were then invited to visit with contributors and including public archaeology, material culture studies, 
have their books signed. Community members mingled oral history, repatriation, intellectual property rights, and 
with each other while checking out a display of engraved Indigenous access to cultural heritage. 
ivory carvings from the museum collection and enjoying Completing her doctoral dissertation at the University 
refreshments that included fresh aqpiq (salmonberry) of Cambridge in 1985 (Rowley 1985), Susan began 
appetizers and a cake decorated with the book cover. a post-doctoral fellowship in the Smithsonian’s 
Our Stories Etched in Ivory brings to life visual Anthropology department. Her analysis of Charles 
records of 19th century life in western Alaska that were Francis Hall’s unpublished diaries recording Inuit oral 
carefully engraved on drill bows and that have been history related to the Frobisher expeditions is described 
hidden in Smithsonian storerooms for more than a in a chapter in Archaeology of the Frobisher Voyages 
century. The Nome Community Book Event offered a (1993) edited by William W. Fitzhugh and Jacqueline 
wonderful occasion to celebrate the intellectual return S. Olin. Thereafter, she prepared a small-scale traveling 
of these remarkable “story-books” and to honor the exhibit of Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo 
rich knowledge and contributions of Elders, carvers, which was hosted at several European venues with a 
and artists. For all of our colleagues and community companion publication translated in multiple languages 
contributors outside of Nome, you were in our hearts and (Rowley et al. 1988). She also worked closely with 
thoughts. Quynaqpak. Thank you so much. Smithsonian anthropologist JoAllyn Archambault on 
exhibit projects with Hopi and Seminole knowledge-
holders, developing an early appreciation for engaging 
Indigenous voices, scholars, and communities in the 
formation of museum projects.
Throughout her career, Susan remained deeply 
committed to joint endeavors in material culture studies, 
museum work, and archaeological practice. In 1987 
she collaborated with educator Carolyn Macdonald to 
establish the Igloolik Archaeology Field School, training 
local students in archaeological field sessions from 1990 
A crowd gathered in the Carrie M. McLain Memorial through 1996. Her early interest in Inuit oral history 
Museum on August 6, 2021, to celebrate the release and to resulted in a key collaboration with John R. Bennett, 
have copies signed by contributors former editor of Inuktitut magazine, entitled Uqalurait: 
      ASC Newsletter 27
An Oral History of Nunavut (2004). The publication Rowley, S. 2013. The Reciprocal Research Network: 
brings together a compendium of quotations on Inuit The Development Process. Museum Anthropology 
identity, social life, and cultural principles recorded by Review 7(1-2):22-43.
Inuit Elders from the 1920s to contemporary times and is 
amply illustrated with drawings, prints, and sculptures by 
contemporary Inuit artists, including Kenojuak Ashevak, FURTHER NOTE ON ROWLEY FAMILY 
Helen Kalvak, Jessie Oonark, Janet Kigusiuq, and HISTORY
many others from across the Canadian Arctic. By Bernadette Driscol Engelstad
Working closely with the Musqueam community in As a second-generation Arctic scientist, Susan Rowley 
southern British Columbia, Susan served as MOA had an early familial introduction to the North, and 
representative to the Reciprocal Research Network in her parents, Graham and Diana Rowley, were 
designing a digital database enabling researchers and well-established Arctic specialists. As detailed in 
Indigenous communities to access artifact collections the memoir, Cold Comfort: My Love Affair with the 
held by museum partners, including the Canadian Arctic (1996, 2007), Graham participated in the British 
Museum of History, the American Museum of Natural Musk-ox Expedition, carrying out archaeological 
History, the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University, excavations in the Eastern Canadian Arctic in the late 
the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1930s. Receiving a small collection of Dorset period 
University of Cambridge, and the Smithsonian artifacts, unearthed by Inuit families building winter 
Institution (Rowley 2013). Of particular note, she quarters on an island in Foxe Basin from the Oblate 
served on the curatorial team for the recent exhibition missionary Father Etienne Bazin (1903–1972) in 
c̓əsnaʔəm, the city before the city, a partnership of the Igloolik, Rowley Sr. returned to the region in the 
MOA and key cultural partners in Vancouver, B.C. summer of 1939, excavating almost 1500 artifacts now 
examining the ancient village site on which part of in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and 
Vancouver was built, encompassing prehistoric, historic, Anthropology, University of Cambridge. Highlights 
and contemporary Musqueam culture and community. of this collection are described by G. Rowley in the 
Founded in 1949, MOA is housed in a stunning American Anthropologist (1940 v. 42) and Artscanada 
architectural environment designed by Canadian architect (Dec 1971/Jan 1972) and by Jorgen Meldgaard in 
Arthur Erickson which opened in 1976 and had a Eskimo Sculpture (1960). Most recently, a selection 
major recent expansion and exterior grounds designed of these ancestral objects, including human figure 
by Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. The landmark plaque carvings, amulet pendants, and a carved antler wand 
marking the entrance to the museum acknowledges with 27 incised portraits, have been illustrated in the 
the museum’s siting on the unceded territory of the exhibit publication, Arctic: Culture and Climate, by 
Musqueam people. Following a distinguished corps of Amber Lincoln, Jago Cooper, and Peter Loovers (The 
directors and internationally renowned cultural leaders British Museum, 2020).
like Michael Ames, Ruth Phillips, and Anthony 
Shelton, Susan Rowley begins a much-anticipated Following a career in northern service with the 
tenure at one of the world’s most innovative museums of Canadian government, Graham Rowley joined the 
Indigenous art and cultural history—a museum to which Anthropology department at Carleton University 
she has already made significant intellectual and curatorial in Ottawa, providing bursary assistance to many 
contributions in supporting Indigenous claims to cultural students (myself included) to undertake fieldwork 
heritage, facilitating Indigenous access to museum projects in the North. Diana Rowley (1918–2018) 
collections, ensuring Indigenous participation in museum had a long and illustrious life in Arctic affairs 
practice, and training Indigenous and non-Indigenous also, serving as the editor of the journal Arctic 
scholars, researchers, and museum staff. (1949–1955) published by the Arctic Institute of North America and as founding editor of the AINA 
Rowley, S. 1985. The Significance of Migration for the Technical Papers (1956–1970). Her life is detailed in 
Understanding of Inuit Cultural Development in the a lengthy obituary published in Arctic v.71(4):465-
Canadian Arctic. Unpublished PhD thesis, University 466 in 2018. Joining with colleagues in Ottawa, 
of Cambridge. See also: Rowley, S. 1985. Population the Rowleys created the Arctic Circle Club in the 
Movements in the Canadian Arctic. Études/Inuit/ late 1940s, a gathering of scientists, scholars, and 
Studies 9(1):3-21. government administrators which continues to this 
day. The Arctic Circular, the group’s newsletter, 
Rowley, S.D.M, W.W. Fitzhugh, and S.A. Kaplan. initiated and edited by Diana Rowley (1948–1967), 
1988. Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo. offers an exceptionally lively and well-informed 
Washington DC: Smithsonian Press. history of early Canadian Arctic research.
28      ASC Newsletter
NORSE IN NEWFOUNDLAND IN 1021 to craft iron tools. Experts consider L’Anse aux 
Meadows a base for further explorations, a site 
By Brian Handwerk where Norse might overwinter, repair their ships, 
[Excerpts from a Smithsonian Magazine B.H. article of or stockpile provisions and trade goods. Such sites 
20 October 2021, drawing on the original Kuitems et are described in the sagas as key waypoints in the 
al. 2021 publication in Nature: Evidence for European Vinland adventures of explorers like Leif Eriksson. 
presence in the Americas in ad 1021 (nature.com)] “Here we are fixing in time these somewhat legendary [Norse] sagas,” says co-author Michael 
Three rough pieces of wood—discarded sections Dee, who specializes in the study of isotope 
of branches and tree stumps found among the chronology at the University of Groningen. “We’re 
refuse Vikings left behind after their short sojourn providing some scientific evidence to say at this exact 
in Newfoundland—have turned out to be some of moment in time, this happened…”
the more important evidence of the Norse in North 
America. The scars left by iron Timber was critical for the Norse in Newfoundland. 
blades on these sections of fir Wood provided fuel for heat and cooking, as well as 
and juniper can still be seen material to construct timber 
after more than 1,000 years… and sod buildings and famous 
A new study of wooden artifacts Viking longships. Hundreds 
found at Newfoundland’s famed of wood chips, shavings and 
L’Anse aux Meadows site discarded pieces have been 
shows that Vikings lived, and found from the workshops at 
felled trees, on North American L’Anse aux Meadows. Co-
soil exactly 1,000 years ago— author Margot Kuitems…
during the year 1021 C.E. The sorted through wood scraps 
evidence, published today from L’Anse aux Meadows at 
in Nature, means that these a storage facility in Dartmouth, 
Norse seafarers accomplished A piece of wood from the Norse deposit at Nova Scotia, where the 
the earliest known crossing L'Anse aux Meadows M. Kuitems excavation’s archaeological 
of the Atlantic from Europe remains are stored. She 
to the Americas. Such incredibly precise dating of selected three wooden artifacts that she knew were produced by Vikings, not only 
the wood was possible thanks to an intriguing new because they were found in context at the site but 
method that examined growth rings for a once-in-a- also because they showed clear markings of being cut 
millennium cosmic-ray event that showered Earth and shaped with metal tools, which weren’t used by 
with high energy particles in 993 C.E. Finding that the area’s Indigenous residents….
telltale spike in the tree rings allowed scientists to 
count additional rings outside that mark to pinpoint Dendrochronological archives from around the world, 
the exact year the Vikings cut fir and juniper trees in Germany, Ireland, Arizona and Japan, provide 
here, as they lived and explored on the edge of the evidence that in 993, a cosmic radiation event, 
continent. probably an enormous solar storm, caused a huge 
spike in atmospheric carbon levels that can clearly be 
“I am impressed by the results,” says Thomas measured in tree ring samples. “On rare occasions, 
McGovern, an archaeologist at Hunter College in once or twice a millennium, you get these blips in 
New York City who was not involved in the research. the record probably from solar storms that created a 
“The site continues to provide data after all these sudden surge of radiocarbon that gets absorbed by 
years. I think the date is totally plausible and fits with that tree ring,” Dee says.
Birgitta Wallace's original idea of a fairly short, 
circa 1000 [C.E.] settlement event,” adds McGovern, After identifying the 993 anomaly in the tree ring 
who has spent some two decades studying the demise history of wood artifacts from the Viking settlement, 
of Norse settlements in Greenland. Wallace, a former it was a fairly simple matter to count each year’s 
Parks Canada archaeologist and co-author of the growth ring all the way to that critical bark layer 
research, spent many years working at the L’Anse still clinging to the wood. The team determined that 
aux Meadows site. each of the three different trees used to produce the 
wooden artifacts was felled exactly 28 years after the 
The remains of eight sod and timber buildings were major cosmic-ray spike, in 1021, an apparently busy 
found, including workshop spaces and a forge used year of woodcutting for Norse in North America. By 
      ASC Newsletter 29
examining cells on the bark edge, the group could houses the map. “There is no reasonable doubt here. 
even determine in what season of the year each tree This new analysis should put the matter to rest.” The 
was felled…. new study also uncovered evidence that the map 
deception was intentional. A Latin inscription on 
Cosmic ray events like the 993 burst are very rare its back, possibly a bookbinder’s note guiding the 
in the historical record. But because they are global assembly of the Speculum Historiale—an authentic 
in scope, their telltale signatures can be found in medieval volume and the likely source of the map’s 
trees and wood around the world. That means the calfskin parchment—is overwritten with modern ink 
innovative new dating technique Kuitems and Dee to appear like instructions for binding the map within 
used will likely be employed at archaeological sites the genuine 15th-century manuscript. “The altered 
far and wide. inscription certainly seems like an attempt to make 
[Ed: permission for this excerpt has been approved people believe the map was created at the same time 
by Smithsonian and Bryan Handwerk.] as the Speculum Historiale,” Clemens said. “It’s powerful evidence that this is a forgery, not an innocent 
creation by a third party that was co-opted by someone 
YALE ANALYSIS UNLOCKS SECRET OF THE else, although it doesn’t tell us who perpetrated the 
VINLAND MAP—IT’S A FAKE deception.”
By Mike Cummings Yale created a sensation in 1965 
when it announced the Vinland 
[Ed. note: In 1998 I inspected Map’s existence and published a 
the Vinland Map with map expert scholarly book about it by Yale 
Dr. Douglas McNaughton librarians and curators at the 
while preparing the exhibition, British Museum in London. Its 
Vikings: The North Atlantic discovery seemed to demonstrate 
Saga (Fitzhugh and Ward 2000). that Norsemen were the first 
The following excerpts from a Europeans to reach the New 
Yale News announcement on 1 World, landing in the Americas 
September, 2021, is hopefully the well before Columbus’ first 
last nail in the VM coffin.] voyage. (Archeological discoveries 
The Vinland Map, once hailed as at L’Anse aux Meadows in 
the earliest depiction of the New Newfoundland during the 1960s 
World, is awash in 20th-century confirmed that the Vikings had 
ink. A team of conservators and built settlements in the Americas 
conservation scientists at Yale has long before Columbus sailed.) 
found compelling new evidence From the beginning, however, 
for this conclusion through scholars began to question the 
the most thorough analysis yet A scanning x-ray fluorescence spectrometer map’s authenticity. And over time 
performed on the infamous hovers over the map. The instrument created an overwhelming consensus has 
parchment map. elemental maps revealing the distribution of emerged that it is indeed a 20th-elements throughout the map century forgery.
Acquired by Yale in the mid-
1960s, the purported 15th-century map depicts a pre- An In-House study
Columbian “Vinlanda Insula,” a section of North 
America’s coastline southwest of Greenland. While …[The Yale study] allowed the researchers for the first 
earlier studies had detected evidence of modern inks time to systematically examine the map alongside the 
at various points on the map, the new Yale analysis two medieval texts with which it was originally bound. 
examined the entire document’s elemental composition One is the Speculum Historiale, a popular four-volume 
using state-of-the-art tools and techniques that were medieval encyclopedia by Vincent de Beauvais….
previously unavailable. The analysis revealed that a The other manuscript, the Hystoria Tartorum, or Tartar 
titanium compound used in inks first produced in the Relation, is an account of a journey by two Polish 
1920s pervades the map’s lines and text. clerics into the lands of Genghis Khan in mid-1200s. 
“Studying the three objects together is important to 
“The Vinland Map is a fake,” said Raymond Clemens, learning their full story,” said Zyats, head of rare books 
curator of early books and manuscripts at Yale’s conservation for the Yale Library…. Radiocarbon 
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, which dating performed on both manuscripts in 2018 showed 
30      ASC Newsletter
that their parchment and paper date approximately occurring, the team performed field emission scanning 
from 1400 to 1460, which correlates with prior carbon- electron microscopy (FE-SEM) on samples from the 
dating done on the map. A watermark on a paper leaf altered text of the Tartar Relation and the map. This 
of the Speculum Historiale is traceable to a papermill process yielded highly magnified images of its ink’s 
that operated in Basel during the 1440s, corroborating components, which showed that the anatase particles 
the theory that the two manuscripts were made during closely resemble those found in pigment that was 
the Council of Basel, Zyats explained. Also, the text in commercially produced in Norway in 1923. Nothing 
both manuscripts is written in a similar style, likely by suggested that the anatase was naturally sourced…
the same scribe….
A Historical Object
The Big Picture
“….Objects like the Vinland Map soak up a lot of 
About the size of a placemat, the Vinland Map lacks intellectual air space,” Clemens said. “We don’t want 
the elaborate ornamentation of other medieval maps, this to continue to be a controversy. There are so 
such as the Beinecke Library’s collection of portolan many fun and fascinating things that we ought to be 
nautical charts. Patched wormholes dot its parchment. examining that can actually tell us something about 
Much of its ink appears faded. exploration and travel in the medieval world….The 
map has become an historical object in and of itself,” 
The members of the Yale team focused their attention he said. “It’s a great example of a forgery that had an 
on the ink used in the map. Using X-ray fluorescence international impact.”
spectroscopy (XRF), a non-destructive technique, they 
identified the distribution of elements throughout the 
map. While scientists for decades have used XRF to MEET ALLISON WILLCOX, NMNH DEPUTY 
study the elemental composition of specific points on DIRECTOR
an object, Bezur said, only recently have they been able By Kirk Johnson
to use it to scan an entire two-dimensional object in a 
laboratory setting. “With macro-XRF, we can generate a [Ed. note: On 30 August 2021 Director Kirk Johnson 
one-to-one scale elemental map of the map,” Bezur said. introduced Allison Willcox to the staff.]
“That’s huge because it allows us to share a full dataset 
of the entire map. We’re not picking and choosing I am very excited to 
individual points. We’re offering the big picture.” announce that Ms. 
Allison Willcox 
Medieval scribes typically wrote with iron gall ink, will be joining our 
which is composed of iron sulphate, powdered gall NMNH community 
nuts, and a binder (the first two are primary elemental as the museum’s new 
ingredients of iron gall ink, and the third is often Deputy Director. 
present as an impurity). The XRF analysis of the Allison joins us from 
Vinland Map showed little to no iron, sulfur, or copper. the Smithsonian’s 
Instead, the scan revealed the presence of titanium National Museum of 
throughout the map’s ink. African American 
History and Culture 
A scan of Vinlanda Insula, the portion of North where she has 
American coastline that made the map famous, held the role of 
revealed high levels of titanium and smaller amounts of Associate Director for 
barium—a key revelation as the earliest commercially Operations since 2019 and is responsible for oversight 
produced titanium-white pigments in the 1920s of the museum’s finance and budget process, human 
contained titanium dioxide and barium sulfate. Having resources, information technology, digital, facilities, 
mapped the distribution of elements, the team used and business operations functions.
Raman microscopy, a type of molecular microscopy, 
to confirm that the titanium dioxide in the map’s ink Since May, she has served as Acting Deputy 
is in the form of anatase. While an earlier study had Undersecretary for Administration under Doug Hall 
utilized Raman microscopy in analyzing nine points on and has played a key role in leading the Smithsonian 
the map, the new study found that anatase is broadly through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. A 
distributed on the document…. skilled problem solver, she has a deep understanding 
of Smithsonian processes and policies and brings 
To confirm that the map’s ink was of modern origin, over 25 years of experience in museums and federal 
and that the anatase wasn’t simply unique and naturally information technology. She’s a trusted adviser on 
      ASC Newsletter 31
museum operations and her experience in project RESEARCH
management and business process improvement will 
be an invaluable asset to NMNH as we embark on the ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE INDUSTRIAL 
implementation of our 2021–2025 strategic plan. FRONTIER IN ST. PAUL RIVER, LOWER 
NORTH SHORE, QUEBEC
Allison has a long history with the Smithsonian, joining 
NMAAHC in 2014 as its first Assistant Director for By Francisco Rivera
Information Technology, establishing the department The “industrial frontier” is the area on the periphery 
as the museum prepared for its public opening and of major industrial centers comprised of industries, 
overseeing the full range of IT and digital services, mines, factories, lumber camps, fisheries, and other 
including the museum’s web presence, interactive modern infrastructures that target regional labor 
technologies, and IT infrastructure and operations.  forces and transform resources wrested from the soil, 
Aside from serving in various information technology the forest, and the sea. Between July 24, 2021, and 
roles at the US Department of Agriculture, where she September 10, 2021, fieldwork was conducted in 
led the IT program and project management office for Rivière-Saint-Paul on Quebec's Lower North Shore for 
the Food and Nutrition Service, she has also held roles my postdoctoral project at the Arctic Studies Center 
as an Anatomical Collections Manager at the National titled “Memory, Materiality, and the Industrial Frontier 
Museum of Health and Medicine and worked as a on Quebec's Lower North Shore (1860–1960).” 
Biological Anthropologist in our very own NMNH The research in Rivière-Saint-Paul’s recent past is 
Office of Repatriation. Allison holds a BA in Classical part of Dr. William Fitzhugh’s Gateways Project 
and Near Eastern Archaeology from Haverford College conducted in collaboration with Dr. Brad Loewen 
and has conducted anthropological fieldwork and of the Anthropology Department of the Université de Montréal. The aim of my project is to develop the 
research in Egypt, Italy, England, and the United States. local industrial frontier harnessing the interdisciplinary 
Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Allison! potential of archaeology, ethnography, and history. 
It focuses on the period between the nineteenth and 
twentieth centuries and connects today’s community 
ARCTIC CRASHES VOLUME WINS NMNH interests with the region’s deep historical trajectory of 
2021 SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD human occupation and adaptation in the territory.
In November 2021, the Arctic Crashes. Peoples and 
Animals in the Changing North (Igor Krupnik and 
Aron Crowell, eds., 2020, Smithsonian Institution 
Scholarly Press—see ASC Newsletter 28) received 
the NMNH 2021 Science Achievement award. The 
book was produced as an outcome of the ASC-inspired 
Arctic Crashes project of 2014–2018; it included papers 
delivered at two symposia in 2015 and 2016, plus 
several articles specially written for this collection. The 
NMNH annual Science Achievement awards are selected 
from many submissions by a special team established 
by the NMNH Senate of Scientists; they are commonly 
announced by the end of the year with a $2,000 prize Figure 1: The remains of the Whiteley House
given to the winners’ research funds. Six awards were 
given in 2021 to NMNH scholars, as announced by 
the NMNH Associated Director and Chief Scientist, 
Rebecca Johnson; the “Arctic Crashes” award was in 
the ‘book’ category. We salute the large international 
volume team—35 contributors from the U.S., Canada, 
Greenland, and the Netherlands—as well as their 
partners at the Smithsonian SP, Meredith McQuoid-
Greason, production editor, and Ginger Minkiewicz, 
the press director—on their excellent product. The book 
has already generated several positive reviews and it is to 
serve as an insightful summary of human-animal-climate Figure 2: 3D model (left) and digital elevation model of the 
relations in the Arctic for years to come. southern part of the Bonne-Esperance Island
32      ASC Newsletter
The project’s general objective is to build knowledge 
about the industrial frontier in Rivière-Saint-Paul. 
Specifically, to: (1) understand the origin and historical 
development of the industrial guano plants and fishing 
establishments in the archipelago between 1860 and 
1960, (2) learn from the local community and share 
knowledge with its members in an inclusive manner 
at all stages of the research, and (3) develop a digital 
archaeology approach by using recording technologies 
such as drone surveys and 3D modeling of artifacts and 
museum objects.
My 2021 fieldwork surveyed and mapped two 
important historical sites: the Whiteley Fishery on 
Bonne-Esperance Island and the guano plant at Factory 
Point on Caribou Island. Interviews were conducted to 
collect oral history related to past and present Rivière- Figure 3: 3D model and digital elevation model of Factory 
Saint-Paul. These discussions were used to compare Point on the north side of Caribou Island
historical narratives with the daily lives of the people. and the lookout at the top of the hill with its inukshuk 
To complete the historical framework, one of the most were surveyed and mapped. A drone (DJI Air 2S 
important documents that guided the research is the model) helped map the island’s features and identify 
diary of Charles Carroll Carpenter (1856–1909), a the areas described by Albert Whiteley in the sketch 
local missionary who lived in the region. His diary was of the site published in his book A Century on 
used to reconstruct nineteenth-century paths, houses, Bonne Esperance (1977). The network of paths and 
and other features of the cultural landscape. The walkways that radiate from the dock and house were 
memoirs of the Whiteley family, who owned the fishing also identified. According to historic photographs, the 
establishment, also served as major sources. wharf was surrounded by a dozen one-story and two-
The Whiteley Fishery, Bonne-Esperance “Boney” story buildings that served as the living quarters for 
Island, 1860–1970 fishermen and workers. The exact locations of these features were included on the digital elevation model 
Located on a rocky coastline at the southern end (DEM). In addition, the location of the Whiteley house 
of Bonne-Esperance Island, the fishery of William with its wood remains and features was useful for 
Henry “Bossy” Whiteley (1834–1903) operated interpretating its architectural plan (Fig. 2). 
between 1860 and 1970. Originally from Newburyport, Factory Point, ca. 1860–1910
Massachusetts, Whiteley traveled to Labrador in 1850. 
Using an inheritance from England, Whiteley founded A guano (seabird excrement) factory was established 
a fishery in Bonne-Esperance ten years later. Operating at Factory Point, at the north end of Caribou Island, 
mainly in the summer, the fishery focused its activities as early as the mid-nineteenth century. According 
on salmon, cod, and mackerel and employed up to 150 to interviews with Rivière-Saint-Paul residents, the 
workers at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1869, factory was no longer in operation during the early 
Whiteley built a house on the island where his wife twentieth century and probably ceased operating during 
Louisa Thompson and their twelve children lived. the late nineteenth century. Ownership of the plant 
After he died in 1903, his sons operated the fishery is uncertain. Several interviewees indicate that the 
but experienced economic difficulties. The Great War factory may have belonged to the Job Brothers of St. 
led to a labor shortage. The workforce dropped to less John’s, while others suggest that it belonged to other 
than thirty employees, and the Whiteley family was companies based in Newfoundland or Quebec. A search 
struck by debt. In 1945, the Standard Fish Company of archives at Memorial University in St. John’s so far 
of Montreal bought the Whitely family company. has failed to clarify the ownership question.
As the interviewees explained, its operations ceased 
around 1970; the buildings fell into disrepair and some, The visible archaeological remains at Factory Point 
including the Whiteley house and wharf, were looted were surveyed and mapped. The most obvious feature 
and burned (Fig. 1). is the rock foundation of the old pier, a structure that 
extends into the water approximately 150 meters. Other 
In the area around Boney where the Whiteley fishery features include a wharf, well, water canals, wagon 
was located, the visible remains of the wharf, the tracks, storage pits, roadways, and what seems to be 
Whiteley house, the well, the drinking water pool, the negative imprints of built structures. In addition, 
      ASC Newsletter 33
there were remains of metal structures that probably residents explained its history, including the ancient 
date to the 1940s or 1950s, and a series of canals for maritime island lifestyle, the harsh environment, and 
water drainage leading to a storage pool. The east side the resiliency of the people who ventured to these 
comprises three more recently built cottages. In the islands. We also discussed the nostalgia related to a 
nineteenth century, Carpenter described this area in bygone era and lifestyle. Interviewees shared their 
his diary as the place where the school was built for perspectives regarding the inevitability of change 
the inhabitants of the region. The drone survey helped and the importance of heritage places that are often 
build a DEM of the area and identify features for future perceived as valueless and neglected. While the Old 
archaeological work (Fig. 3). Wharf is in ruins today, local memory persists about 
the original location of each building and the functions 
The Contemporary Past: The Fish Plant and the Old of the wharf’s different parts. This knowledge feeds 
Wharf a living past anchored in the ruins of a once-pivotal 
Salmon Bay and the fish plant are both important place.
contemporary sites. The small fishing village of Salmon Public Outreach
Bay has new houses and cottages built by Rivière-
Saint-Paul residents. The village also has an old As part of our public outreach, presentations were 
wooden dock that is the last one of its kind in the area. given at the local school. Due to the COVID-19 
pandemic, the school included students from other 
With fishing boats moored at its dock, the modern locations (e.g., Old Fort, Blanc-Sablon). This provided 
fish plant is also a major contemporary site. The plant a larger audience to share the project’s activities and 
opened in the early 1990s after a fish plant located on the Smithsonian’s interest in developing archaeological 
Esquimaux Island ceased operations. Plant Manager projects in the region. The presentations focused 
Bradley O’Brien kindly showed us inside the plant on the role of archaeologists, our specific project in 
where the workers process halibut that arrives on the Rivière-Saint-Paul, and the potential for archaeological 
morning boats. On the production line, workers behead development of the region’s recent history (Fig. 4). 
the large bottom fish, clean, weigh, and pack them in 
boxes with ice. It is a simple but effective process. The In addition to the school presentations, 48 heritage 
crew is comprised of approximately twenty men and assessment surveys were conducted with residents 
women who come mainly from the surrounding towns and local stakeholders, such as the employees of 
of Old Fort, Rivière-Saint-Paul, and Middle Bay. the Coastal Association, officials from the Bonne-
Esperance municipality, fishing plant workers, and 
It is interesting to note O’Brien’s perspectives of the school's teachers and students. The survey was 
the past and the historical fishing sites because they anonymous and consisted of six questions that sought 
testify to the coastal lifestyle and the many years and to assess the community's interest in archaeological 
generations associated with fishing industries. Bradley and historical heritage and options for studying and 
explained the plant’s operations, organization, and preserving this heritage. The results will be presented 
technologies. His explanations allowed us to imagine in a forthcoming article and will be used to plan future 
the industrial work at the Whiteley Fishery and to activities in Rivière-Saint-Paul.
compare contemporary and past production modes. 
O’Brien also shared his vision of tourism related to 
the cultural richness that this region offers in terms 
of economic potential. Themes surrounding the 
region’s archaeological heritage emerged from this 
conversation. These included ways to incorporate 
archaeological projects conducted on the region’s 
contemporary sites to study present-day economic and 
social dynamics, and the continuity of fishing practices.
Finally, beyond the specific objectives of the project, 
it was also important to document another relevant 
historical site in Rivière-Saint-Paul’s surroundings: the 
so-called “Old Wharf” located 5.25 km (3.3 mi) south 
of the village on the east side of Esquimaux Island. As 
this site will soon be dismantled as part of a pollution 
clean-up process, a drone survey was conducted to Figure 4. Presentation at the school in Rivière-Saint-Paul. 
map the site and it machinery and engines. Former Photo by Francisco Rivera 
34      ASC Newsletter
Conclusions and Prospects CROSS MOUNTAIN NORTH: MORE 
ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE VERMONT HILLS
The archaeological work on Rivière-Saint-Paul’s 
historic sites, such as the Whiteley Fishery and Factory By William W. Fitzhugh
Point, was supplemented by the documentation of 
contemporary winter habitation sites used by local Duplicating my covid adaptation strategy last year, 
families. This information testifies to the local mobility I returned to the hills behind my Vermont isolation 
of the residents who live between the islands and the post where, with local students in 2020 I excavated 
interior at different times of the year. Carpenter’s diary a small 1820s farm site high in the hills above the 
describes that the Whiteley, Chalker, and Goddard Connecticut River (see: Fitzhugh, 2021). An 1820s 
families, among others, had winter homes, trapping, “Farm in the Fairlee Forest”, Vermont. Journal of 
and hunting sites upstream from St. Paul village. Vermont Archaeology 15:68-94). The new site, Cross 
Visiting these places helped sketch an initial map that Mountain North (CMN), is less than a kilometer from 
provides opportunity for later surveys and excavations. last year’s and faces north above Glen Falls Brook. The 
Their localization provided an overview of mobility northern exposure suggested it might be a summer farm 
practices and a better understanding of the occupational occupied by the family who lived at CM South; the 
history and social construction of the cultural latter site, which we excavated in 2019, has a southern 
landscape. Our information will facilitate the second aspect, high sod foundation walls, and deep cellar pit, 
stage of work (i.e., the material culture approach of suggesting a winter occupation.
in situ recording including targeted excavations). There were many other interesting questions too, 
Research planned for 2022 will incorporate surveying as I set to work with 2020 veterans Kai Harris and 
and mapping of these winter sites to understand how his mother, Samantha, Cora Day (now at Wheaton 
they were related to each other. College) and her mother and father, Dartmouth 
undergraduate Sovi-Mya Wellons, Syracuse University 
The digital approach used during this first year of PhD candidate Matthew O’Leary, and my wife, 
fieldwork raised the interest of the community, who Lynne Fitzhugh, who was searching the town archives 
saw potential for the documentation heritage places for historical clues. The 2021 goal was to map and test 
and of the archaeological artifacts exhibited at the the site to determine its extent, preservation, and age. 
local Whiteley Museum. The use of computer tools to We spent two weeks working in sweltering heat and 
create 3D models of artifacts may allow the museum learned a lot but discovered CMN was a much more 
to digitally open its collections, which could increase complicated place than I had imagined.
local interest in the archaeology. However, while 
discussing these possibilities with Rivière-Saint-Paul Cross Mountain North lies on a 1,000 square meter 
residents, concerns were voiced related to follow-up hillside plateau—one of the few places in the high 
activities and the continuity of this long-term project, forest country where a small farm might survive—
which requires the commitment of different actors. albeit with much sacrifice and hard work! Unlike 
CMS’s single small house, CMN has four structures: 
In summary, this initial fieldwork has characterized and a large stone and earth foundation with a large central 
contrasted the archaeological material and examined hearth pile (S1), a small cottage with a cold storage pit 
oral and documentary sources (e.g., papers from the 
Public Archives of Canada). Rivière-Saint-Paul, as 
part of the industrial frontier of Quebec, is an ideal 
case study to conduct archaeological analysis of the 
complexities of practices and social relations at work 
in local industries during the recent past. Furthermore, 
it provides the opportunity to study the genealogy of 
historically active industries that contributed to shape 
local identities.
Acknowledgments. Thanks to William Fitzhugh, 
Brad Loewen, Eileen Schofield, Karen Fequet, 
Cindy Thomas, Brenda and Philip Nadeau, and the 
residents of Saint Paul’s who welcomed me and shared 
fragments of their lives. Special thanks go to Garland 
Nadeau, whose help and support allowed me to carry S-2 cottage dwelling with collapsed chimney to left and 
out this project. refuse hearth to right
      ASC Newsletter 35
(S2,3), and a large barn foundation (S4). We mapped because the building had a plank floor. Bricks along 
and excavated parts of these features and conducted a the west wall marked the remains of a chimney. A trash 
metal detector survey. No stone garden or fence walls dump outside the northeast corner produced early 19th 
are present, as at CMS. A small seep across CM trail century artifacts and pig and bovid bones. The small 
south of S1 may have been the site’s water source. number of finds suggests a brief occupation, possibly 
only a single year.
Unlike the previous site, CMN is really a ‘site complex’ 
since all four structures and the lands around them Structure 3. A deep pit adjacent S2 contained bricks 
appear to have been part of a single functioning from the collapsed S2 chimney but had nothing else 
farmstead. So far, no historical records have been inside. Access was through a semisubterranean entry 
found, and there may have been more than one tenant where we found an iron door latch and a burned 
and economic activity represented besides farming. ceramic plate. This feature seems to have been used as 
Artifacts suggest a date in the early 19th century, about a root cellar or cold-storage for the S2 cottage.
the same time as CMS which has similar artifacts and 
is dated ca. 1820s by three Liberty Head pennies. Structure 4. A rectangular stone foundation 80 m west 
of S1 may have been a barn. We did not have time to 
Structure 1. This structure is in a field of ferns that map this structure, but metal detector hits produced 
probably results from the soil’s organic enrichment. numerous cut iron nails, a piece of decorated white 
Its thick east and north foundation walls are made of tableware. A metal beverage can and a few large wire 
boulders and earth. Its west wall nails outside the structure 
is less well defined, and its south indicate 20th century activity.
foundation is completely missing. 
A 3x4 meter diameter hearth Stone Piles and Brick Dumps. 
pile of boulders and bricks lies Several stone piles between S1 
in the center. Excavation in the and S4 appear to be the result 
hearth produced a 19th century of clearing rocks from the site’s 
table knife, square-cut nails, infield pasture. The largest is 
ceramics, and window glass. a linear mound of rocks five 
Cut nails were also found on meters upslope from the storage 
top of the foundation walls. The pit. They probably originated 
west wall produced a large milk from rocks excavated during pit 
pan and other ceramics, an iron construction and were used to Sovi-Mya Wellons and Matthew O’Leary 
scythe blade and hoe, cut nails, divert rainwater from entering excavating a trench through the S-3 cold 
and a few decorated ceramics. the pit. Several large brick storage hut
Underlaying this surface layer concentrations around S1 may 
were mixed deposits that be chimney remains. 
contained bricks, charcoal, nails, and domestic ceramics. 
This layer was redeposited from somewhere else. A Summary
midden outside the east wall contained fragments of milk Cross Mountain North is the largest archaeological 
pans, domestic ceramics, a bone-handled table knife, a complex known in the upland Fairlee forest region. 
metal pail handle, iron barrel hoops, cut nails, window Since CMS has a northern exposure and contained 
glass, pig teeth, and large and small animal bones. farm implements and evidence of field stone clearing, 
Unlike CMS, this structure contained no decorated blue it appears to have been a summer enterprise, whereas 
transfer print tableware. CMS, with its southern exposure, may have been a 
Under a rock in the south wall we found a plastic winter site, both possibly used seasonal summer and 
early 1970s snowmobile route sign. Structure 1 had a winter locations by a single family. For a brief period 
complex history that left only its east and north walls in the early 19th century, it functioned as a small 
and hearth intact. The west side of the floor had been family farm that began as a small cottage and cold 
scraped (bull-dozed?) and replaced with clear pea- storage cellar, but soon grew into a larger farm with a 
gravel, perhaps coinciding with the snowmobile sign. larger dwelling and a barn. But it may have had other 
functions and chronology, possibly including early 
Structure 2. This structure was defined by its 4x5 meter 19th century timbering or charcoal production, and in 
rock foundation. We excavated the entire structure and the late 20th century use as a shelter during the early 
found early 19th century artifacts including domestic snowmobile era. The many questions about this site 
pottery, cut nails, and other items associated with the call for continued fieldwork and further research in 
wall foundation, but almost nothing inside, probably town records.
36      ASC Newsletter
TSHIKAPISK LABRADOR RESEARCH IN and another from Nutashkuant. The latter two were 
2021 obtained by Stiles (center photo) in 1957 and by Frank 
Speck (right) in 1927 from Innu at Unamenshipit and 
By Anthony Jenkinson Nutashkuant (Natashquan).
In January 2021 I drove from Sheshatshit to Mary's My northern fieldwork at Kamestastin did not begin 
Harbour in southern Labrador to visit relatives. I had until mid-May. By that time lake crossings involved 
heard of Jeff Martin's archaeological collections from dodging expanses of deep slush. A combination of 
Cartwight but did not know late arrival and the progressive 
I had a family connection to shrinking of the skidoo season 
the Cartwright Martins. My led to difficult logistical 
daughter and her husband, challenges in getting people 
who used to live in Cartwright, and gear from the airstrip at 
were close friends with Tracy the west end of Kamestastin to 
and Jeff Martin, so I added the Tshikapisk camp and to our 
a Cartwright side trip to my cabin at the east end narrows. 
homeward leg. That is how I For the first time in several 
found myself looking at stone years 2021-2022 has brought 
artifacts of the same types, us a winter corresponding to 
lithic material, and even color, remembered norms before 
as finds from excavations climate change became obvious.
at the large Shashish Innu/
Intermediate FjCa-51 site in Although ice conditions allowed 
the modern Innu village of for only a couple of visits to 
Sheshatshit. the south side of the narrows 
where I had hoped to continue 
Bill Fitzhugh and Jeff Martin investigating the Napeu Atik 
have expertly described site, the large Tshiash Innu 
the Cartwright North River caribou ambush site, Mistanuk 
lithic collection in the 2021 Tsheniu Katshena smoking a carved stone (GlCs-08), remained accessible 
Newfoundland Annual PAO pipe photographed by Ray Webber in 1965 at by skidoo, on foot, and later by 
Review issue. Jeff also showed Utshimassits canoe until the end of June. Like 
me a decorated bone the nearby Shak Selma site, 
object picked up many which has produced the oldest 
years ago on Dumpling dates so far from Kamestastin 
Island by his late mother- and interior Quebec/Labrador, 
in-law: a carved bone Napeu Atik has a similar pit 
Innu pipe cleaner that feature with abundant white 
was identified from quartz. However, the Napeu 
an e-mailed photo by Atik pit feature has not yet been 
Stephen Loring. Many excavated beyond exposing 
examples of these objects its palaeo-surface opening, 
exist in ethnographic signalled by a trail of quartz 
collections, including that slopes down beneath the 
13 at the Field Museum occupation floor into the sterile 
in Chicago collected by Dumpling Island pipe cleaner in the Jeff and Tracy subStrate.
Frank Speck, one from a Martin collection, an elaborately carved example 
Mushuauinnu source near from Unamenshipit/La Romaine, and another from Mistanuk has been known 
Davis Inlet/Utshimassits Nutashkuant of from the earliest days of 
collected by W.D. Strong, the Tshikapisk/Smithsonian 
at least two from the Brador surveys, but its importance 
Post (now housed in the Regional Museum in Sept and extent were not as clear as now because parts 
Iles), examples from Nutashkuant and Unamenshipit were buried by downwash. After test-pitting suggested 
collected by W.F. Stiles in 1957, and many others. separate components lay on at least three different 
Pictured here are the Martins’ Dumpling Island pipe levels, excavation began at the lowest of the three, 
cleaners, an example from Unamenshipit/La Romaine, where small combustion features contained deposits of 
      ASC Newsletter 37
small to micro-Ramah debitage. The latter was found marked division. Although there are more sites with 
with red ochre and calcined bone. The first feature dates around cal. 6700 to 7000 BP than sites dating to 
produced fragments of two large Ramah chert bifaces cal. 7300 BP without Ramah, the lithic inventory of 
and was surrounded by Ramah debitage and ochre. the latter is restricted to grey chert, high quality purple 
More extensive occupations were later exposed in the smoky quartz with the appearance of fine glass, and 
upper two levels. Both appeared to feature hearths white quartz. The quartz industry involves a higher 
within structures, with the Napanakapeu Component proportion of well finished formal tools than at the 
defined not only by paired slightly later sites.
boulders but by debitage, 
calcined bone, and red The archaeological 
ochre. At the northern field season finished at 
end of Napanakapeu was Kamestastin on the first 
another buried fire pit that of July, when I returned to 
may have been part of the Sheshatshit and joined Scott 
hypothesized structure. Neilsen's crew at FjCa-51, 
the very large Shashish 
We also excavated the Innu/Intermediate/ Early 
perimeter of the Mistasuapi Woodland site. Following 
Component, the intermediate work there, I moved up 
level of GlCs-08 where we to the 33-meter terrace to 
had found a linear cobble/ work at Shukapesh 2 (FjCa-
boulder feature containing Part of Mistanuk (GlCs-08) as it appeared at the end of 79). The 2020 excavation 
a small fire pit with flakes June 2021. The Mistasuapi component can be seen on produced side-notched 
of Ramah. At the northern the left side of this photograph and the Napanakapeu projectile points, crudely 
end of this feature were Component on the right made scrapers and roughly 
two remarkable artifacts fashioned bifacial ovate 
in a deposit of ocher and knives. All the artefacts are 
crushed caribou bones. One quartzite, though there was 
was a white quartz celt-like some debitage of lightly 
end blade with a concave banded grey rhyolite or 
spoke-shave edge. The other chert. Finds were next to 
was an ulu or semi-lunar a 5.7-meter long linear 
knife flaked from Ramah combustion feature of small 
chert. The linear feature to medium sized boulders 
also produced a number of and fire-cracked rock with 
nipple-based points. Formal a fire pit at its southeastern 
scrapers were absent. end, on the rim of which was 
Ethnographic analogy burned bone identified by Art 
suggests that bone tools are Spiess as Phoca, probably 
more efficient for removing harbour seal/Inatshuk (Phoca 
hair, meat, and membranes Hill shaded Lidar image of part of Sheshatshit, showing Vitulina) or a larger than an 
because they are less prone position of Shukapesh 2 on the highest terrace in the average ringed seal (Phoca 
to tear or damage the skin. Sheshatshit series. In this image the terraces visible Hispida.) Today harbour 
below the Shukapesh 2 site steadily decrease in seals are not common in 
Research at Kamestastin has elevation. Housing platforms, roads and other modern western Lake Melville, 
concentrated on sites around disturbances are visible on the right although those once known 
the lake outlet narrows and to visit or permanently 
in a valley running from the outlet to a lowland area on inhabit Seal and Wuchusk Lakes were almost certainly 
the south shore. Sites in that area present in markedly P. vitulina, or perhaps even a sub-species akin to P. 
different ways, particularly when it comes to lithic vitulina mellonae. These freshwater harbour seals 
material. While almost all of the early sites on the south are permanent residents of the other Seal Lakes on 
side of the narrows are dominated by white quartz with the Quebec-Labrador peninsula (Les Lacs des Loups 
only trace amounts of Ramah, GlCs-57 and GlCs-08 Marins), whose waters flow into the Nastapoka River. 
on the north side have prodigious quantities of Ramah Removal by the Churchill Falls project of a sizable 
chert and sharply reduced amounts of quartz debris and part of the water volume changed the character of both 
tools. The dates from the east end sites show another these lakes visited (or perhaps inhabited) by seals.
38      ASC Newsletter
As the seal species that today frequent Lake SHELL ISLAND: A REDUCTION STATION ON 
Melville have different habits and behaviours, THE RAMAH CHERT TRAIL
species identification of the bone at Shukapesh 2 has 
implications for site interpretation. Though ringed and By William W. Fitzhugh
harbour seals are likely candidates for the Shukapesh Stephen Loring’s extensive report on Ramah chert and 
2 finds, local seal hunters recognize a freshwater its distribution throughout the greater Northeast (pp. 
favouring harbour seal variant which is smaller than 169-220 in Ramah Chert: A Lithic Odyssey, 2017) 
regular harbour seals, whose heads are broader and got me thinking about an unusual and frustrating site 
flatter and whose coats are darker than others. Harbour we found in outer Groswater Bay in 1969. Unusual 
seals are known to ascend salmon rivers and enter because of the huge amount of Ramah chert debitage, 
inland lakes, sometimes avoiding bad rapids and falls and frustrating because of the absence of diagnostic 
by hauling out and travelling overland to pass these tools to determine its cultural affiliation. At most sites 
obstructions. The construction of the Churchill Falls a test pit usually produces several diagnostic types. 
Power project is not the only factor that changed the In July, 2018, I visited Shell Island again, hoping for 
waterways in and around Sheshatshit. Before the effects better luck. 
of ca. 4500 years of isostatic rebound, now combined 
with reduced freshwater flow brought about by power Shell Island is in the Smokey archipelago in 
projects, Sheshatshit would have been a different place northeastern Groswater Bay. The site is on the largest 
hydrographically and environmentally. Where today's of a string of low skerries east of Rattler’s Bight and 
community now sits would have been an island with Winters Cove and lies at the intersection of Pottles Bay 
a view across today's narrows to another island. And and Abliuk Bight. The latter provides calm passage 
where North West Point now juts into Lake Melville from the open Labrador Sea to the north and Groswater 
would have been another island, making the location Bay to the south, by-passing the shoals and dangerous 
attractive habitat for seals both in open water and water to the east. Sheltered from wind and seas, Shell 
winter seasons. Island offers a quiet camp with fresh water, ducks, 
and seals. Heading south from Shell Island, one re-
The sample of cremated bone from beside the larger enters open sea conditions for 27 km until reaching 
fire pit at Shukapesh 2 (BETA 584983) gave a date shelter at the southeastern entrance of Groswater 
of 4180 +/-30 RCYBP or cal. 4768–4615 cal BP and Bay. This passage is the widest stretch of open ocean 
4835–4785 cal BP. The calcined bone fragments used that travelers had to navigate along 800 miles of the 
for dating were fragmented and unidentifiable, so we Labrador coast without a safe harbor.
don't know whether the dated bone is seal, though a 
strong possibility exists that it may be.
The lithic assemblage from Shukapesh 2 is somewhat 
similar to Black Island 2 (GcBk-13) and sites on the 
Quebec Lower North Shore which Jean-Yves Pintal 
places in his Bonne-Espérance Complex. Assuming 
for the moment that the 4180+/-30 RCYBP date at 
Shukapesh 2 is valid, it is interesting to note that the 
uncalibrated date from Black Island 2 in Groswater 
Bay (ca. 4200 BP), is essentially the same as the date 
we obtained on bone from Shukapesh 2. Around the 
mouth of Aisimeushipu/St Paul's River, Pintal notes 
the presence of several sites similar to Black Island 2 
which he assigns to his Complexe Bonne-Espérance. 
Pintal suggests that these sites mainly clustered close 
to St Paul's River and belong to a population with a 
more interior focus than those of coeval groups defined 
as Maritime Archaic. The use of what Pintal describes 
as whitish grey cherts, which he believes are sourced 
in Newfoundland, is characteristic. He relates these 
occupations to the populations who produced the 
Graveyard type points described at sites on the Lower 
North Shore and on both sides of the Straits of Belle Groswater Bay on the central Labrador coast, and the 
Isle. location of Shell Island
      ASC Newsletter 39
Shell Island-1 (GsBi-11) is in a Elmer Harp suspected Ramah 
small north-facing cove on the Bay as the likely source of what 
largest of the Shell Islands. The was then called ‘translucent 
beaches and soil consist mostly of quartzite’. Tony Morse did the 
deposits of tundra peat underlain first petrographic studies that 
by blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), identified Ramah chert from 
soft clam (Mya arenaria), and other similar quartzites from Mistassini 
species. In the early 20th century, in Quebec, and Brinex (British 
the shell deposits were so thick Newfoundland Exploration 
they were commercially mined. Company) confirmed sources 
GcBi-11 is at the northern end of in Ramah Bay. Fieldwork by 
a broad raised beach between low Michael Gramly and Anne 
rock ridges to the east and west. Shell Island-1 site, view north Abraham in 1976 identified the 
As soon as we stuck a shovel in ‘quarry bowl’ on the north side 
the ground in 1969, we heard the of Ramah Bay as the principal 
crunching sound of breaking chert. prehistoric quarry, and further 
Our 1969 excavation was a 2x2m studies of the quarry were done 
pit in the middle of a tent ring 4m by Colleen Lazenby, and later by 
above sea level. The turf and upper Newfoundland geologists. Since 
peat contained 19-20th century then, Stephen Loring (2017) 
creamware and square nails from has written extensively about 
the recent tent ring. The crunching the Ramah chert, its cultural 
was coming from a layer of Ramah and spiritual role in Labrador 
chert flakes beneath 30cm of peat. culture history, and its far-flung 
The chert layer produced thousands distribution in Eastern Canada, 
of Ramah flakes, a couple biface the U.S. Northeast, and the Mid-
fragments, a piece of ground slate, Atlantic coast region. Growing 
and a few flakes of brown chert. awareness of the importance of 
There were no large Ramah cores Worked slate chunk Ramah chert in Northeastern 
or quarry chucks; instead, most of North American culture 
the debitage was biface thinning history prompted the Canadian 
flakes indicating production of government to designate 
tool preforms. Lacking diagnostic “Kitjigattalik—the Ramah 
artifacts, we assigned the site to the Chert Quarries” as a National 
Daniels Rattle or Point Revenge Historic Site in 2014 (Curtis and 
Ancestral Inuu cultures ca. AD 700– Desrosiers 2017). 
1300 based on its low elevation As Loring has documented, in the 
and exclusive use of Ramah chert years since 1969 a large body of 
(Fitzhugh 1972:102, 1978). data have become available on the 
When we returned to Shell southern distribution of Ramah 
Island in 2018, we opened a chert. Stemmed and notched 
small area along the edge of the A large Ramah flake from our 2018 Shell points of Ramah have been found 
1969 excavation, hoping to find Island visit throughout Labrador and northern 
diagnostic artifacts. As luck would Quebec, in Nova Scotia and New 
have it, we recovered only more flakes, a ground slate Brunswick, in Maine and other 
celt fragment, and a Ramah flake scraper. A test pit New England states, and as far south as Maryland, 
six meters to the east produced a fragment of tan chert Delaware, and Virginia. Loring reported a Ramah chert 
resembling European ballast, and European ceramics in fluted point from the Vermont shore of the Champlain 
the turf and upper peat, but frozen ground kept us from Sea. Ramah points have been found in Late Archaic 
reaching the deeper Ramah level. burials and in the Woodland/Ceramic components of 
the Goddard site in Maine, and a corner-notched Late 
Ramah Chert Studies Woodland style arrow point of Ramah chert was found 
at a Norse cemetery in Sandness, Greenland. In addition 
In 1968 the location of the Ramah chert quarries in to finds of individual implements, caches of Ramah 
northern Labrador had not been located, although chert biface blanks have been found at Port au Choix 
40      ASC Newsletter
voyages to Ramah quarries, and at least informal 
supply and demand, middle-men, and prestige value 
attached to this distinctive material coming from the 
‘icy north’. At Rattlers Bight, only a few kilometers 
from Shell Island, 99% of the chipped stone inventory 
of more than 5000 catalogued artifacts are Ramah 
chert, and its burials contain both finished points and 
large, often ‘killed’, early-stage quarry blanks.
To date Shell Island-1 is the only site on the Labrador 
coast that could be interpreted as a way-station on the 
supply side of this vast Ramah distribution network. 
No other site has such a dense deposit of flaking 
debris accompanied by an absence of finished bifaces, 
scrapers, and even utilized flake. Use of Ramah artifacts 
Ramah chert bifaces from the Stubbert cache at Kegashka in domestic contexts, such as seen at nearby sites like 
on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. (credit: W. Rattlers Bight and Winters Cove, is missing at Shell 
Richard) Island, as are charcoal and faunal remains. Our ancient 
travelers chipping Ramah at Shell Island may have been 
taking the time to turn their quarry blocks into lighter, 
more manageable biface preforms, perhaps while waiting 
for good weather to cross Groswater Bay. Reducing 
the weight of their cargo would have been prudent 
before crossing the mouth of Groswater Bay in open 
boats, making their voyage safer and their cargo a more 
marketable commodity to southerns.
LABRADOR RADIOCARBON DATE-LIST 
UPDATE
By William W. Fitzhugh and Stephen Loring
Our multi-year project preparing the Labrador 
Mary Maisel, Halcyon Brown, Katherine Meier, and Jake radiocarbon dating files resulting over fifty years of 
Marchman at the 2018 Shell Island-1 dig Smithsonian research in Labrador (1970–2018) for 
publication is approaching completion. Recent delays 
resulted from restricted access to our office files by covid 
in western Newfoundland, at the Spingle site in L’Anse lock-downs. Nevertheless, during the past year Stephen 
au Chair, near Port Hope Simpson at Alexis Bay in Loring, Jake Marchman, and I formatted and proofed 
southern Labrador, and at the Stubbert site in Kegashka the entries that Jake assembled several years ago from 
on the Quebec Lower North Shore (Loring 2017:203- our year-by-year lab report folders, produced during the 
4). Apparently, what is known about the southern 1970s by Robert Stuckenrath’s SI radiocarbon lab, and 
distribution of Ramah chert is the proverbial ‘tip of later mostly by Beta Analytic. Proofing our site location 
the iceberg’. While many individual finds from Maine data this year revealed many discrepancies introduced 
date to the Late Archaic, ca. 3500–4000 BP, most of the when GPS data were being transferred from paper maps. 
caches date typologically to ca. AD 500–1300. None of So we turned to the magic of Google Earth touch-down, 
the caches have been dated by c14. and in the process of zooming revived old memories 
and obtained pin-point locations. Recognizing that 
In Labrador, Ramah is the dominant lithic material we wanted the final document to be more informative 
for chipped stone inventories in Late Maritime that simply a list, we are adding text descriptions of 
Archaic (4000–3600 BP) and Daniel Rattle/Point major cultural groups, photographs of key sites and 
Revenge (Ancestral Innu) (AD 600–1300) sites, and assemblages, and landscape views. Graphs will show 
its distribution in southern sites coincides with these ‘space-time’ presentations, and maps will present culture 
periods. Large amounts of Ramah must have been distributions. Discussions are currently underway to 
moving south along the Labrador coast to supply determine a suitable publication venue for our massive 
this extensive trade network. Caches imply planned chronology. 
      ASC Newsletter 41
CAPTAIN HERENDEEN AND THE and Gwich’in, and after the conclusion of the Franklin 
HERSCHEL ISLAND PARKA Search expeditions in 1854 no foreigners are known to 
have traveled any great distance along Alaska’s north 
By John R. Bockstoce1 coast. The whaling fleet comprised the next major 
In 1887 the Smithsonian acquired a fascinating external intrusion, but in the late 1870s and early1880s it 
Inuit parka (NMNH E128407) from Captain E. had only begun to probe into the Beaufort Sea.  
P. Herendeen, recorded as having originated from Trade between the Alaskan and Canadian Inuit groups 
Herschel Island. Bernadette Driscoll Engelstad has had, nevertheless, been underway for centuries, and 
identified the parka, which, although made by Siglit, one point of exchange was via a trade rendezvous near 
incorporates some Inuinnait Barter Island. There, among 
stylistic elements “including white other items, Inuinnait soapstone 
caribou chest panels, an elongated lamps and cooking pots were 
tail, and a cone-like appendage on traded onward by the Siglit to the 
the hood.”2 In the early nineteenth Inupiat of northern Alaska. These 
century the Siglit people (formerly exchanges were, however, usually 
referred to as “Mackenzie Inuit”) conducted in an air of mutual 
occupied territories surrounding suspicion and hostility. “The 
Herschel Island, ranging from Herschel Islanders [Siglit] had a 
Barter Island in Alaska to lands in very bad reputation for dishonesty 
Canada’s Northwest Territories, and even treachery among the 
including Cape Bathurst and [Inupiat] traders from Point 
Franklin Bay. To their east the Barrow,” wrote the explorer-
Inuinnait (formerly “Copper ethnographer Vilhjalmur 
Inuit”) lived on the mainland Stefansson.  
coasts of Amundsen Gulf and 
Coronation Gulf and throughout In any case, relations between 
Victoria Island. the groups must have improved 
because it was reported that 
During the second half of the about 1880 an enterprising 
nineteenth century Edward Perry group of Inupiat from the Point 
(“Ned”) Herendeen made more Barrow area undertook a unique 
than twenty whaling voyages in “venturesome journey” by umiaq 
the Western Arctic. In 1854 he had been aboard one “on what may be called a voyage of exploration” along 
of the first whaleships to reach Point Barrow. In the the Beaufort Sea coast to Herschel Island and beyond. 
1870s he was employed by the U.S. Coast Survey and This group wintered safely in the Mackenzie delta, then 
other federal agencies in Alaska, and from 1881 to moved onward to Cape Bathurst, where one of them 
1883 he served as interpreter at the U.S. Signal Corps took a wife before the party returned home. Stefansson, 
station at Point Barrow. He again lived at Point Barrow who recorded this information in 1906, noted that their 
from 1884 to 1886 as a member of the Pacific Steam journey opened trading links between the two peoples.3 
Whaling Company’s shore whaling crew. He left in It is possible that one of those Inupiat voyagers sold the 
1886 and did not return to northern Alaska until 1889. parka to Ned Herendeen at Point Barrow.
Among the assemblage that the Smithsonian acquired Ned Herendeen arrived back in northern Alaska in 
from Herendeen are two items listed as having 1889, serving as first mate aboard the small schooner 
come from “Cape Bathurst” and two (including the Nicoline in a joint whaling venture with his brother, 
parka) from “Herschel Island.”  Herschel Island lies Captain Lewis N. Herendeen. The brothers had 
approximately 400 miles (640 km) east of Point Barrow, planned a pioneering voyage to reach Herschel Island 
on the coast of what is now the Yukon Territory of before freeze up, but ice forced them to overwinter 
Canada, and Cape Bathurst is another 235 miles (380 just east of Point Barrow. Only in 1890 did they reach 
km) farther east, in the Northwest Territories (Nunavut). Herschel Island, where they were surprised to be joined 
for the winter of 1890–1891 by two whaleships from 
How did Ned Herendeen acquire these items?  In the San Francisco. 
1880s it is unlikely that he had gone very far beyond the 
Point Barrow area. For most of the nineteenth century But unfortunately for the Herendeen brothers, by 1891 
the Alaskan coastal lands from east of the Colville River the Nicoline had run very short of provisions. They 
to Barter Island were only occasionally visited by Inupiat failed to take any whales and were forced to abandon 
42      ASC Newsletter
their venture and return to San Francisco.4 Although the PRESERVING MONGOLIA’S PAST
two other whaleships enjoyed extraordinary success, 
the Herendeen brothers lost their investment. With By Bayarsaikhan Jamsranjav 
William Healey Dall’s help, Ned Herendeen became a 
security guard at the U.S. National Museum.5 Soon after being hired for my first job at the National Museum of Mongolia in 2003, I had the opportunity 
As David A. Morrison has stated, “By the historic to work with the Smithsonian’s William Fitzhugh 
period, and despite some continued trade, the and Idshinnorov Sanduijav, then director of the 
Mackenzie [Siglit] and Copper [Inuinnait] Inuit were National Museum of Mongolia. Both played a crucial 
probably the most dissimilar neighboring pair of role in my becoming an archaeologist and learning 
[Inuit] regional groups.” Bernadette Driscoll Engelstad my skills in the field. Actually, I was more interested 
explains that the Inuinnait design elements in the in biography than archaeology when I was an 
Herschel Island parka may have served “as a comic undergraduate student. I had no thought of studying 
device, suggesting that the parka was used as a costume deer stones or any other field of archaeology before 
in [Siglit] festivities, parodying the parka style of the becoming a member of the National Museum. In the 
Inuinnait” to the east.6 summer of 2003, the Joint American and Mongolian 
Deer Stone project led by Fitzhugh began, and I 
Sadly, the easternmost Siglit society, the Iglulualumiut, joined as an assistant researcher.
which occupied the area east of Cape Bathurst, was 
eliminated by epidemic disease and starvation in the I immediately fell into deer stone research. The 
mid-nineteenth century,7 severing the trade link with artistic, scenic, and mysterious deer stones captivated 
their neighbors. The Siglit, along with recent Inupiat my attention. Since then, I have nearly 20 years 
immigrants from Alaska, were steeply reduced by behind me, got my doctorate in 2016 on deer stone 
epidemics in 1900 and 1902, numbering only 400 in studies, and published my dissertation in Mongolian 
1924.8 Today they collectively refer to themselves as in 2017. It was not the first Mongolian book to 
Inuvialuit. research questions about deer stone art and culture. 
Although it allowed Mongolian readers to access my 
1 I thank Igor Krupnik, Shepard Krech, Craig George, years of research, English readers have been excluded. 
and Bernadette D. Engelstad for comments and suggestions. So I discussed the idea of translating the book into 
2 Engelstad, B.D. 2020. Inuvialuit delegation visits English with Dr. Fitzhugh, who accepted, supported, 
Smithsonian Collections, ASC Newsletter 27, pp. 55-56. and edited my book, which will be published this year 
3 Stefansson, Vilhjalmur.  1919. Anthropological Papers in the United States.
of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 14, 
Stefansson-Anderson Arctic Expedition, New York, pp. 172- I have experienced both happiness and sadness as 
173, 183-184, 194-195, 366. an archaeologist. Despite admiring the wonderful 
4 Bockstoce, John R. 1986. Whales, Ice and Men. The historical and cultural monuments of my country, I also 
History of Commercial Whaling in the Western Arctic. 
Seattle, University of Washington Press, pp. 255-262.
5 Note added by B. Driscoll Engelstad: From my earlier 
research, it seems Herendeen served as a security guard 
at NMNH. In addition to artifacts, Herendeen donated 
numerous bird specimens to SI, as well as a compilation of 
Inuit vocabulary, thereby apparently gaining Dall’s respect 
and assistance. I was in touch with his grandson (great-
grandson?) some years ago.
6 BDE comment: As noted above, the conical appendage 
on the hood may be a reference to the upright loon beak, 
typically attached to Inuinnait dance hats. In this regard, 
the garment may have been used in a shamanistic context, 
as incorporating ‘foreign’ design elements in shamanistic 
clothing can also suggest spiritual power.
7 Morrison, David A. 1990. Iglulualumiut Prehistory: The 
Lost Inuit of Franklin Bay. Hull, Quebec, Canadian Museum 
of Civilization, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury 
Series Paper 142, pp. 108-109, 117-119.
8 Rasmussen, Knud.  1942. The Mackenzie Eskimos (H. Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan with his wife Ganjiguur Dorj, 
Osterman, ed.), Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, vol. elder son Khuslen Bayarsaikhan, middle son Tergel 
10(2):49. Copenhagen, Nordisk Forlag. Bayarsaikhan, and youngest son Temuujin Bayarsaikhan
      ASC Newsletter 43
witnessed the loss of countless cultural heritages. The CLIMATE CHANGE IN OYMYAKON: 
vast territory, sparse population, and mobile life of our PERCEPTIONS, RESPONSES, AND HOW 
country limited our ability to monitor, protect, register, LOCAL KNOWLEDGE CAN INFORM 
and study cultural heritage. POLICY 
In order to develop stronger preservation policy in By Vera Solovyeva
the future, it is important to register and document 
archaeological heritage and assess the current My research explores 
situation as soon as possible. For a long time we how Indigenous 
have been trying to work with the Smithsonian and people of the Russian 
an international team of scientists to come up with North perceive, 
a clear initiative. As a result, in collaboration with understand, and 
scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the respond to climate 
Science of Human History in Germany, a proposal change in the coldest 
was developed for registering and documenting inhabited region on 
Mongolian archeological sites using remote sensing, Earth—the Oymyakon 
on-site exploration, archival sources, and identification ulus (district) of 
of endangered sites. The proposal was supported and the Republic of 
funded by the Arcadia Foundation. The project, called Sakha (Yakutia), 
the Mongolian Archaeological Project: Surveying the Russia. In my study, 
Steppes (MAPSS), will run for five years, and several I followed diverse 
experts are working together on what is turning out to threads, including 
be a massive data project. I hope its results will help us weather and seasonal calendars, sharing of oral 
manage and protect our cultural heritage generally, and tradition, cultural values, subsistence practices and 
especially our archaeological monuments. livelihoods, adaptation strategies, and others, to 
produce a coherent perspective on contemporary life 
of Indigenous people, the Sakha and the Even, in the 
Oymyakon ulus.
I selected climate change in the Oymyakon ulus 
because I had worked there some 35 years ago, 
during my field research, beginning in 1985, while 
pursuing a bachelor's degree in biology from Yakut 
State University. The Yakut Institute of Biology had 
a research station there, merely a small campground 
by the mountains made of a few “heavy canvas” tents 
and a small wooden cabin, where we kept our food 
to protect it from the roaming bears. My work was to 
collect and study plants on which the Northern pika 
(Ochotona hyperborea) feed. That summer, I met the 
Even reindeer herders for the first time when they came 
to our camp riding white reindeer. I remember how 
they suddenly appeared from the forest, which had 
already turned to golden yellow colors. After a short 
conversation, they left, but they returned the next day 
and brought some meat to share, following their nimat 
(sharing) tradition.
Already in 1985, climate change was quite visible. 
We witnessed ‘strange’ weather events, still of small-
scale but the harbingers of significant shifts, like rapid 
temperature fluctuations, unusual wind gusts, and 
stronger than usual rainstorms. Indigenous people 
already noticed these changes by the time of my first 
fieldwork. Today, they eagerly report how they have 
Deer Stones of Northern Mongolia by Jamsranjav to adjust their livelihoods and subsistence practices, 
Bayarsaikhan book's cover as they have done over centuries. However, the scale 
44      ASC Newsletter
of oscillations has become far more prominent over COLLECTIONS
time; and in the next 100 years, climate change in 
the Arctic is expected to accelerate, contributing to 
major physical, ecological, social, and economic THE LOST SKULL FROM UNGAVA
disruptions; many have already started. This will 
produce significant impacts, and most of these are By Stephen Loring and Susan Lofthouse
likely to be negative. While scientists acknowledge 
that global climate change represents a threat to the There is a belief, surprisingly far-flung and deeply 
humanity, Indigenous communities are among the embedded, that almost everything that is lost somehow 
most vulnerable groups because they depend on ends up at the Smithsonian. Having spent nearly fifty 
renewable natural resources. Indeed, Indigenous years poking into the dusty corners of the Natural 
people in the Oymyakon area see climate change not History Museum attic, hallways, and basement, I can 
only as a physical shift in the environment but as a appreciate the sentiment, if not vouch for its veracity. 
force that affects their livelihood, history, traditions, And that’s just in the Natural History building. When 
and their future. multiplied by 21—the number of museums in the Institution—the validity of its sobriquet as “The 
Changes in weather and environment have shaken the Nations Attic” is more readily apparent and, perhaps, 
very foundations of the Sakha and Even communities justified. With such a broad expanse and reach, there 
in the Oymyakon ulus, affecting their food security, is a pretty constant trickle of inquiries about all 
use of resources, storage and sheltering practices. manner of things. And when those things pertain to 
According to people’s observations, the weather The North they almost invariably end up in our ASC 
became unpredictable, summers are colder, winters offices. And just one such was the inquiry we received 
are milder, and the land is constantly changing, from Susan Lofthouse, an archaeologist at the Avataq 
swelling in some places and collapsing in others Cultural Institute, on March 11th of this year. Her email 
because of the permafrost thawing. Floods happen contained the intriguing subject heading: Trying to 
more often, submerging houses and hayfields. More Track Down a Skull Dug Up by Thomas Lee!
wolves and bears are being seen, so that it is more 
challenging to care for horses, cattle, and reindeer. Created in 1980, Avataq Cultural Institute is a non-
Massive forest fires in the summers of 2020 and 2021 profit Inuit organization mandated to conserve the 
contributed to increasing vulnerability of Indigenous cultural heritage of Nunavimmiut (Inuit of northern 
communities. Quebec). The archaeology department was created 
in 1985 and has conducted countless excavations, 
While traditional knowledge systems, values, and field schools, surveys, and a range of educational 
community networks of sharing food and resources activities for nearly 40 years. Archaeological activities 
are all valued sources that help Indigenous people in Nunavik extend as far back as the 1930s. Needless 
manage the negative outcomes of climate change, to say, research objectives and guidelines have 
support from government agencies is crucial in changed a great deal during that time. The result is that 
mitigating the impact of climate change. Increased archaeological materials, including human remains, 
resilience and social justice are to be the most recovered from Nunavik are located in disparate 
important pillars of policies to be adopted by larger collections across North America and Europe. 
society. Adaptation strategies should be transparent 
and inclusive, with the full participation of local Repatriation of these materials is a huge undertaking 
communities, and they should rely on an ecosystem- and requires substantial resources. Avataq’s approach 
based approach. As widely accepted in other areas, is to begin with the more pressing need for the 
Indigenous people need to be included in climate recovery of human remains. The objective is to gather 
change dialog, and social scientists should advocate these remains as comprehensively and efficiently 
for, and strive to empower, Indigenous people and as possible and return them to their original resting 
their bottom-up contributions to sustainable living places. In the case of bones that were removed 
that benefit their communities and future generations. through archaeological excavation, the field plans and 
Such an applied approach to climate change research photographs provide a guide for locating the graves. 
is a way of going beyond simply collecting data Such a repatriation was undertaken in 2018 between 
from or in Indigenous communities and beyond the Avataq and Dartmouth College, facilitated by William 
boundaries of established academic guidelines. My Fitzhugh of the Smithsonian and Deborah Nichols 
dissertation research and fieldwork in the Oymyakon of Dartmouth. The remains of six individuals that had 
district in 2015–2016 was conducted with the support been collected by Elmer Harp from two graves south 
from the U.S. National Science Foundation (Award of Richmond Gulf in 1967 were turned over to Avataq. 
#1439468). A team from Avataq, led by president Josepi Padlayat 
      ASC Newsletter 45
and Executive Director Rhoda Kokkiapik, travelled to mind), it was improbable that the Ungava specimen 
Dartmouth and received the skeletons which had been might have made its way to Washington. However, as the 
previously described by the Smithsonian’s physical Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives (NAA) 
anthropologist, Bruno Frolich who at the time had also contain the papers of Carleton Coon, we wondered if 
been teaching at Dartmouth. The following summer, there might be any surviving correspondence between 
the remains were returned to their original graves by Coon and Lee that might shed light on the mystery.
Avataq’s head archaeologist Tommy Weetaluktuk.
Here is the report of that investigation. A quick trip 
Lofthouse’s email inquiry of March 11th concerned out to the Smithsonian’s NAA to look through the 
yet another incident where human remains had been papers of Carleton Coon (1904–1981), a noted physical 
removed from Nunavut, in this case by Thomas Lee, anthropologist from the universities of Pennsylvania 
an archaeologist from Laval University, in the early- and Harvard, revealed a limited correspondence 
1960’s. There were probably no other professional between Coon and Thomas Lee. Apparently, after 
archaeologists of his era as adamant, obstreperous, meeting at a professional conference, Lee accepts 
confrontational, and obdurate as Lee. His career is an invitation to travel to Gloucester, Massachusetts 
strewn with sensational claims, from excavations at (Coon’s retirement home) bringing with him 5 
Sheguiandah in Ontario purporting to be almost 30,000 (elsewhere 6) skulls from Pamiok and other sites in 
years old, to finding a lost Norse colony in Ungava, all Ungava.
of which have been disproved. The almost universal 
rejection of his interpretations was such that Lee, Letter from T. Lee to C. Coon, 27 April 1971, thanking 
argumentative to the last, perceived himself the victim Coon for his hospitality and for his opinion about the 
of an insidious attack by professional archaeologists skulls. Based on their appearance, Coon feels that some 
led, he believed, by the University of Michigan’s of the Ungava skulls appear to be more “European” than 
James B. Griffin, who Lee thought were jealous of his “Eskimo”, but he defers to his colleague, Dr. William 
discoveries and determined to disparage his reputation. Howells (1908–2005), a physical anthropologist at 
Harvard, who had perfected a mathematical method 
In conjunction with his research in Ungava, Thomas (craniometrics) for determining racial identities. 
Lee in 1966 removed human remains from several 
graves discovered on Pamiok Island in the Arnaud 
Estuary near the Inuit village of Kangirsuk. Lee was 
obsessed with identifying a Norse presence in Nunavik, 
to the degree that he reconstructed a nearby pre-Inuit 
Dorset longhouse to conform with Norse style. He 
insisted that at least one of the skulls he collected 
displayed “European traits”. Seeking confirmation of 
this belief, Lee arranged to have the human remains Figure 1. Coon letter to Lee on 28 April 1971
brought to Carlton Coon, a prominent physical 
anthropologist associated with the Peabody Museum 
at Harvard University. Eventually most, perhaps all, 
of the bones were returned to Laval University, except 
for a missing skull. Hoping to track it down, Avataq 
contacted the Peabody Museum, where the paper trail 
ends in the 1970s, and the Smithsonian Institution, 
where Coon also had ties, with the hope that the Figure 2. Draft of a letter from C. Coon to T. Lee, 1 May 
missing skull might be found. [Editor’s note: A photo 1971 stating that W. Howells visited him and took the skulls
of the skull Lee thought looked most European, from 
Tomb 1, is illustrated as Fig. 43 and discussed on p.126 Letter from C. Coon to T. Lee, 28 April 1971: Dr. 
in Lee’s 1968 monograph.] Howells coming to Gloucester, Massachusetts to 
pick-up the skulls. Coon transfers the Ungava skulls 
Bill Fitzhugh and I were surprised to receive Susan’s to Howells who takes them to his office at Harvard’s 
inquiry as to whether Lee’s Ungava skull might have Peabody Museum. (Figs.1 and 2)
somehow found its way to the Smithsonian. Given 
our familiarity with the Institution’s Arctic collections Three years go by with no word from Coon or Howells 
(together we have over 85 years combined curatorial about the racial determination of the Ungava human 
insight) we doubted very much that even despite remains. By this time Lee is firmly convinced that he 
the avaricious skull collecting of earlier times (the has discovered evidence of a Norse presence in Ungava 
Smithsonian’s “bone doctor” Aleš Hrdlicka comes to and is expecting to get confirmation from physical 
46      ASC Newsletter
anthropologists. As subsequent correspondence attests, There is a final letter from T. Lee to C. Coon dated 17 
Lee’s predisposition to paranoia and the belief that- June 1975 which basically rejects the assessment of 
-whether out of ignorance or professional jealously- the Harvard physical anthropologist before making a 
-much of the archaeological profession was out to long divergence into a discussion of the rune stones 
discredit him and refute his Norse attribution. that Barry Fell had recently publicized, lending 
credence to Lee’s assumption of a Norse presence in 
Ungava. Sadly, there is no reference to the fate of the 
skeletal material or a copy of any communications 
discussing the research results. This ends the Coon-
Lee correspondence at the NAA. About all we can say 
from this is that the Ungava human remains collected 
Figure 3. Letter from T. Lee to C. Coon, 27 February 1974. by Thomas Lee were at Harvard’s Peabody Museum in 
Lee is incredulous that he hasn’t heard anything from Cambridge in the spring of 1975. What became of them 
Howells and begins to fear professional hanky-panky thereafter is still a mystery. 
And still no news from Harvard…. As archaeologists, we are crass materialists; we have 
an abiding (alas, sometimes misplaced) faith in the 
persistence of material objects, and while we haven’t 
resolved the fate of the missing Pamiok skull, perhaps 
this story might yet be an impetus leading to its re-
emergence and subsequent return to its former place of 
Figure 4. Letter from Lee to Coon, 6 December 1974 rest.  Human skeletons are tucked away in institutional 
lamenting the passing of time with no analysis forthcoming collections around the world, relics from a time when 
grave digging/robbing was an acceptable component 
Letter from C. Coon to T. Lee, 17 December 1974. of archaeological research. These remains are restless, 
Coon will be attending Howell’s retirement party that their presence has become an embarrassment, such 
evening and will endeavor to get the matter of the that museums, government agencies, and institutions 
Ungava skulls taken care of. are reaching out to indigenous organizations and 
True to his word, Coon speaks with Stephen Williams, communities to rectify past wrongs. 
the Director of Harvard’s Peabody Museum, which This summer Avataq hopes to deliver the human 
housed the Anthropology Department where Howell’s remains repatriated from Laval to their original resting 
had worked, and with Jonathan Friedlander, a young place overlooking the waters of Ungava Bay.
physical anthropologist who promises to look into the 
matter of the skulls that Lee had entrusted to Howells: [For related readings see Lee’s account of his discovery 
and excavations at Pamiok including photographs 
of the human remains and the missing skull are in 
his 1967 monograph, Archaeological Discoveries, 
Payne Bay Region, Ungava, 1966 (Centre d’Etudes 
Nordiques, Travaux et Documents 20). See also, Daniel 
Gendron, 2015, On the “Viking” Presence in Nunavik: 
Figure 5. Letter from C. Coon to T. Lee, 27 February 1975. Much Ado About Nothing! Etudes/Inuit/Studies 
Skulls still at Harvard’s Peabody Museum 39(2):285-293, and Patrick Plumet, "Les maisons 
longues dorsétiennes de l'Ungava." Geographie 
And finally! Confirmation of a professional assessment Physique et Quaternaire (1982), p. 253]
of the racial affinities of the Ungava human remains. 
Fig. 6. Letter from T. Lee to C. Coon, 9 May 1975 in 
which he acknowledges receiving notice from Harvard 
(presumably from Friedlander) that the skulls are 
determined to be “Eskimo”. Sadly, the referenced A Dorset longhouse discovered by Lee, who thought it
“inclosure” is not with the NAA Coon papers was Norse and reconstructed to support his theory
      ASC Newsletter 47
BUILDING BIRCH BARK CANOES IN Back in Siberia, I collected all the information I could 
SIBERIA get my hands on. I read books, watched video clips, and 
interviewed older people to pick their brains. But the 
By Artem Lemberg (translated by Gaby Triess and elders in my village only remembered seeing dugout 
edited by Claire Chi and W. Fitzhugh) canoes made from a hollowed-out tree during their 
I grew up in a little village located in the middle of the childhood on the River Kasyr, and none used the bark 
Siberian Taiga near the River Kasyr. The upheavals and of birch trees. The River Kasyr flows into the River 
unrest of the early 90s made my parents leave the city in Yenisey, where birch bark canoes used to be used in the 
exchange for a secluded, humble life there. My childhood past (Luukkanen, Fitzhugh, 2020, p.115). It was not until 
and youth were shaped by simple life in the village. Soon, many years later when a friend and I came across people 
I discovered a passion for woodworking. I carved wood, from another region who were able to tell us more about 
built models of houses and ships, and when I wanted to the lost art of building Siberian birch bark canoes.
learn to play the guitar, my father and I repaired an old For the time being, I stuck to building traditional 
guitar. When I was 15, I moved to Krasnoyarsk, a large dugouts. However, the time would come for me to try my 
city in Siberia, to earn my living as hand at my first birch bark canoe. 
a carpenter. It was an exciting time The season for harvesting bark 
for me; I made lots of new friends, 
played music, was out on the town from birch trees was approaching 
at night, and built roofs during the in July, so two friends and I 
day. However, the hard work in packed our bags. With nothing but 
temperatures of up to -40 degrees a few manual tools, a tarp, and a 
Celsius (-72 Fahrenheit) and the big pot, we made our way to the 
bad air took its toll on me. A few Taiga in search of a suitable area. 
years into the job, I caught a severe We set up camp at a spot near 
case of pneumonia that I was lucky the river in a mixed forest with 
enough to survive. I realized that I plenty of birch trees. The next few 
wasn’t happy working with cheap A modern Siberian dugout canoe weeks were incredibly intense. 
and low-quality materials, which We lived in our tent, and every 
were harmful to the health of the minute when we weren‘t eating 
people living in the houses we or sleeping was spent building 
built. At the same time I became our birch bark canoe. Since we 
inspired by some of my oldest barely had any information about 
friends and started questioning Siberian birch bark canoes, we 
the habits of our society, our followed sources from Northern 
relationships with resources, the America and Canada. We had no 
production and quality of our idea that the northern white cedar 
everyday objects, and the resulting (Thuja occidentalis), often used in 
effects on the environment. America and Canada, is actually a completely different type of tree 
I felt it was time for change. I My first birch bark canoe construction in from the tree we knew as simply 
met a German guy who led a Siberia cedar (Pinus sibirica) in Siberia 
youth club in Germany and was running international (Adney, Chappelle 1983:17). Luckily, this tree turned out 
wilderness and adventure projects for young adults to be rather useful for the production of ribs, sheating, 
in Siberia. We clicked immediately and I started and gunwales. The particular tree we felled had a terrible 
working with him. My German improved quickly twisted grain and was difficult to split, making the task 
as I studied a lot and ended up spending two years very laborious. However, it was all worth it in the end; 
in Germany. That’s where I made an encounter that three weeks later, we left the taiga in our very own birch 
would profoundly change my life. I was invited to bark canoe.
take part in a workshop organized by a boat builder 
named André Rissler. He told me about canoes made In the following years, I built many more birch bark 
from birch bark that used to be produced in the region canoes based on the American and Canadian models. 
where I came from. I started exploring the topic and While I could use resources from those two regions to 
I could not stop thinking about it. I knew that birch teach myself the artisanal skills necessary, the choice of 
bark had been used for the production of storage suitable materials was something I could only approach 
containers, buckets, bags, and floats for fishing nets— through trial and error. I spent weeks in the woods, 
but canoes? observing and analyzing trees.
48      ASC Newsletter
As mentioned, we discovered by chance that the making it more susceptible to tears and leaks. The 
Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica) is well suited for building best type of local birch has thick, stable bark without 
birch bark canoe frames. Siberian spruce (Picea knotted grain and is hard to split. Paper birch trees 
obovata) is also excellent, as it is slightly lighter than (Betula papyrifera) only exist in Northern America, but 
Siberian pine. Its roots are suitable for sewing the bark, I have seen trees in Siberia that are similar, though I 
just like the roots of other types of spruce. Not only is have not been able to identify the exact species yet.
the type of tree critical, but its growth is also of major 
importance. The greatest challenge was assessing the When deciding on the right time for harvest, I consult 
tree before felling it. It would be a huge waste to fell with  the local folks who make containers and bags 
a tree that took many years to grow without being using bark. The first weeks of July, when the flow of 
able to actually use it. Ideally, the tree should have as sap is slowing down, is the best time to harvest this 
little twisted growth and as few branches at the trunk species in my region. The exact point in time depends 
as possible. With Siberian spruce trees and Siberian on the weather and location; even just a few miles can 
pine trees, this demands an make a significant difference.
expert eye, as the root flares 
at the trunk are not always For the last few years, I’ve 
pronounced, making the been living with my wife in 
amount of twist hard to see. Germany, where we run a small workshop for birch bark 
Given that the wooden parts for canoes. A little while ago, I 
the birch bark canoe are being received a note from a member 
split by hand rather than sawn, of the Anishinaabe, a group 
trees with narrower annual of indigenous peoples native 
rings produce more stable and to the Great Lakes region in 
light parts. The slower a tree Northern America. He was 
grows, the narrower its annual very upset that I was building 
rings. Having grown up in a birch bark canoes modeled on 
family of musicians worked Finishing canoe lashings in my workshop the American and Canadian 
in my favour here. After many style and accused me of cultural 
attempts, I realized that tapping appropriation. There was so 
on the bark of the tree and much anger and pain in his 
hearing the resulting pitch of writing that I was taken aback. 
the sound helped me make a Was I doing something wrong? 
conclusion about its growth. Was I taking something away 
A high pitched sound means from others? It was not his fury 
the wood has a high density. that gave my work a new sense 
From this, I was able to tell that of direction towards my own 
the tree had grown slowly and people’s culture, but a quote 
had narrow annual rings. The from Marcel Labelle, a maker 
location and direction of the of birch bark canoes, whom he 
wind are also important factors My latest project: An American Indian canoe built mentioned.
when choosing a tree. from Tappan Adley’s design drawings “According to Labelle, the 
Another challenge I encountered was finding the skin of the human body 
right type of birch tree. Where I come from south of is represented by the birch bark on the canoe. The 
Krasnoyarsk, there are many different types of birch, muscles are represented by cedar sheathing. The ribs 
but not all are suited for building canoes. For instance, and sternum are represented by the spruce cross pieces. 
birch that is used for weaving bags or containers is The tendons that hold things together are the spruce 
not ideal for making canoes. At first sight, the bark is roots, and the blood that flows and holds everything 
wonderfully elastic and stable. What makes it so perfect together is the spruce gum. ‘The blueprint for the canoe 
for basket weaving is that it’s easily split. However, is our body. The passengers represent the spirit. A birch 
when this birch is used for making canoes, it creates bark canoe represents our connection and dependence 
blisters and makes the canoe prone to damage. Another on Mother Earth,’ he says” (MacColl, 2011).
type of birch I experimented with seemed to have 
stable bark at first, but when I looked closer, I could see This quote really touched me and brought a plethora 
that the grain was growing through the different layers, of new questions and thoughts. If the blueprint is contained in the human body, it is within me, too. But 
      ASC Newsletter 49
what is my individual blueprint? My parents identified turn this special cultural asset back into a common 
as Soviet citizens and no one was really interested in good of the Siberian people.
where exactly we came from. All I know is that my 
ancestors came from several Siberian regions, with my Luukkanen, Harri, and William W. Fitzhugh. 2020. 
paternal grandmother being Tatar, but all traces beyond The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of Northern Eurasia. 
the generation before her had been lost. How did the Washington DC: Smithsonian Books.
‘blueprint’ of the people in my home region manifest 
itself? If you consider this ‘blueprint of the inner Adney, Edwin Tappan, and Howard I. Chappelle. 1983. 
workings’ a holistic construct, then it goes beyond just The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. 
the body, I think, and contains everything that makes up Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 
culture. But it’s also the individual personality of each MacColl, Lisa. 2011. Building Cultural Bridges. Grand 
person building the canoe that influences the work. How Magazine.
should I conduct my quest for the birch bark canoes of 
my region in a way that all these aspects are considered?
A JAPANESE MYSTERY OBJECT SOLVED BY 
After spending lots of time studying suitable materials in TEAM EFFORT
Siberia, the types of local canoes from my region became 
more important to my current work. I began to study By Aubrey MacKenzie
the cultures and birch bark canoes of Siberian people. 
The more I studied the topic, the more my passion grew [Editor's note: The Smithsonian receives hundreds of 
to take on this new challenge. Slowly, a plan began to communications from the public asking curators to 
emerge. I am going to return to my home country in identify unknown objects. Aubrey’s ‘what is it?’ inquiry 
search of the birch bark canoes of Siberia. For this reason, piqued my interest because of its similarity to Siberian 
I bought a plot of land in the region of Krasnoyarsk. I Nenets reindeer training bridles and grew into a 
will set up a workshop there, which I will use as a base fascinating piece of material culture research.]  
to travel around the country, bit by bit, to find existing I didn’t know what it was. But I wanted to find out. 
canoes and people who can tell me about them. Over the past eleven months, it took the efforts of 
Based on the size of Siberia and the vast number of people in ten countries and four continents, plus a 
tribes who used to build birch bark canoes, I am fully stroke of luck, to figure out what my grandfather and 
aware that this is going to be a lifelong commitment. I had found. Shortly after dinner in January 2021, my 
I want to find the birch bark canoes that are still in grandpa called to tell me about an auction listing on 
existence and analyze them thoroughly to see what Yahoo! Japan Auctions, Japan’s largest online auction 
techniques and materials were used. I would also like platform. Throughout his life my grandpa has been an 
to get in contact with the respective local people to avid antique collector, and for the last year he had been 
involve them in this project. I am hopeful that I’ll teaching me about Japanese folk art called mingei. In 
be able to reconstruct the various types of canoes of return, I was teaching him how to use the internet to 
the region and build smaller, accurate models before find antiques all over the world. He was a quick learner.
tackling canoes in original size. The auction was for a carved bone, roughly 21 
I see the disappearance of birch bark canoes from the centimeters in length, with a heavy patina from years of 
rivers of Siberia as a huge cultural loss. My biggest use. It had two holes carved in the middle and open holes 
dream is to bring back the birch bark canoe to where at both ends. The piece was decorated with crosshatching 
I’m from. I dream of setting up a workshop and a and a simple motif in the middle, consisting of one 
school on my land, where people from Siberia and all central dot connected to six outer dots via straight lines.
over the world can re-learn the old methods of building 
Siberian birch bark canoes. They will experience what The seller noted the object was of Ainu origin (Japan’s 
it is like to create something unique with their own indigenous group), but it didn’t look like anything I had 
hands, using ancient techniques that connect them to seen while researching the Ainu, and the Ainu are not 
past generations and to the nature around them. This especially known for fashioning tools from bone—they 
is not only completely sustainable; it also helps them typically use wood. My grandfather and I were the 
detach from the stressful lifestyle of living in the north. only ones to bid on the item. We began to ponder its 
function even before the object arrived. Our first guess 
This project will require many people’s involvement was that it was some sort of perforated baton, a tool 
along with their knowledge and financial help. I used to straighten arrows, or perhaps to throw arrow-
am currently in the process of creating a non-profit darts. My grandfather recalled seeing similar objects in 
association in order to, with the help of the community, museum collections.
50      ASC Newsletter
When the item arrived, we had to revise our William Fitzhugh, the Ainu expert at the Smithsonian 
hypothesis. From its appearance, it was not as old referred me to William Taylor, an assistant professor 
as perforated batons we saw in research databases, and curator of archaeology at the University of 
and the wear between the two middle holes could Colorado. He explained that this was like a type of 
only have been caused by a bitless bridle called a hackamore. 
significant amount of friction. Hackamores have early origins, going 
We now guessed it was either a back to about 4,000 BC, and have 
toggle, possibly used to pull a shown up in a variety of cultures.
seal, or perhaps a tool used to 
make twisted-strand rope. We Like the seller in the first auction, 
purchased a few books on Bering the seller in the second auction also 
Strait cultures where such tools claimed this object was of Ainu 
might be found but couldn’t make origin. Still skeptical, I decided to 
any matches. investigate. In William Fitzhugh’s 
Ainu, Spirit of a Northern People, the 
I decided to change my research most comprehensive English text on 
approach. Over the next several the history of the Ainu (my grandpa 
months I contacted academics, and I call it The Bible), horses are 
museum curators, and antique seldom mentioned, and never in the 
collectors. None had seen anything context of the Ainu riding them. 
like the peculiar object. Anytime But I did stumble across one source 
friends visited, I asked them to that lends credibility to the Ainu 
hypothesize about the object’s hypothesis, A.H. Savage Landor’s 
function. Guesses ranged from 1893 work Alone with the Hairy Ainu 
fire-starting implement to a bottle [an egregious title-ed.!]. In his travels 
opener. It was a backwards he remarks that the Ainu method for 
treasure hunt; the object was in The mystery bone item my grandfather directing a horse is “as simple as it 
front of me, I just couldn’t figure found in Japan. Note the wear between is ingenious”. On page 111, Landor 
it out. what it was. the two center holes in the middle image writes:
In December of 2021, just as “The necessary "bit" by which we 
my research efforts were losing control our horses is dispensed with, 
momentum, I got a lucky break. and it is replaced by two wooden 
I received another call from wands about twelve inches long and 
my grandpa, telling me about two inches wide, tied together at one 
a new auction. I logged onto end, allowing a distance of three 
my computer and could hardly inches between them. In the middle of 
believe it: in the picture was not these wands a rope is passed which 
one, but two mysterious bone goes over the pony's head behind its 
items connected by a woven ears; while the wands themselves, 
piece of cloth. In the center thus supported by it, rest one on each 
were the same two holes and side of the pony's nose. Another rope, 
similar dot motifs. We purchased five or six feet in length, and acting as 
the item, and I expedited a rein, is fastened at the lower end of 
the shipping to continue the one of the wands, and passes through 
research. a hole in the other, thus allowing 
this simple contrivance, based on the 
With this new item, I retraced lever principle, to be worked exactly 
my steps, soliciting insight from in the same way as a nut-cracker, the 
people who had seen the first pony's nose being the nut.”
bone item. This time, my network The second mystery bone item
lit up with answers. Most people While Landor’s description doesn’t 
I asked said the same thing: perfectly match the objects I have, it 
the object in my possession was a horse bridle. I supports that the Ainu did ride horses and used a bitless 
googled Japanese horse bridles. It didn’t take long to bridle similar in size and shape to mine. Curiously, 
make a near match with a 19th century drawing from the two bridles in my possession are not made from 
Okinawa. the same type of bone, according to anatomists at 
      ASC Newsletter 51
the University of THE ARTIC VIEWED FROM FLORENCE, 
Washington. The first ITALY 
bone is an ulna, indicated 
by the trochlear notch By Elisa Palomino and John Cloud
(the C-shape depression) 
near one end. The We had an opportunity in 2021 to explore the world’s 
second two bones are first museum of anthropology, which was founded 
either humeri or femurs in 1869 by Paolo Mantegazza (1831–1910), in 
because of the structure Florence, in the context of many centuries of previous 
of the epicondyles (the ethnographic and philosophical work that converged 
dual protrusions near the there. That same year Mantegazza also established the Okinawan Horse bit “Muge” 
large holes). world’s first university professorship of anthropology. from the book Ryukyu Fuzoku His museum, now lodged in the wonderfully named 
Ezu This difference presents Palazzo Nonfinito, in the center of Florence, appears at 
more questions: Why first glance to be a relic of a now distant past, marooned 
st
not carve both bridles from the same type of bone? in the 21  century—but it is not. The story of how 
How could the open end on the ulna bone hold a rope this happened illuminates much about the history of 
without having it slip out when the horse moves? And anthropology.
there are other unanswered questions, too. How old 
are the bones?  Do the dot motifs mean anything? Why Museums of anthropology are based on collections 
choose bone when wood would have sufficed? I suspect of materials, and in the case of Florence, the era of 
I will spend the next year or so (maybe longer) trying collections began in the time of the great Crusades 
to answer these questions. (1095–1291) which were attempts to free “the Holy Land” from the Islamic kingdoms that controlled the 
I am grateful for all the individuals—academics, ancient territories described in the Bible. The many 
curators, and collectors alike—who welcomed my campaigns never succeeded, but every Crusade offered 
questions, and, if unable to answer them, pointed me many opportunities for pillaging and looting on route. 
in the right direction. Without their willingness to The resultant hordes of relics, and bones of supposed 
help, I would not have made much progress. I found saints, as well as whole forests of Middle Eastern 
both objects in mainland Japan, but it’s possible— trees cut down to provide wooden fragments of “The 
maybe even likely—that they originated elsewhere, True Cross” that Jesus was crucified upon, were the 
given the amount of trade that occurred. The Okinawa foundational collections of what we now call museums.
drawing and Landor’s diagrams are good pieces of 
evidence, but not enough to declare the bridles’ origins In the centuries after the Crusades, changes in 
with conviction. Bitless bridles appear in a variety of technology and social structures vastly expanded the 
cultures, and I’ll need to do more research before I can collections. Europeans developed ocean-crossing cargo 
say for certain where these came from. For now, I am ships, coupled to the structures of modern banking, 
happy to have answered the question I started with. so that goods and money could move and circulate in ways never before possible. This brings up the history 
of the Medici family, integral to the history of Florence 
and much else. The Medici were smart and assertive 
commoners, from the region of Mugello, north of 
Florence. They started as wool merchants and ended 
as rich and powerful nobility. The family coat of arms 
proudly displays their origins: a shield with six three-
dimensional balls of woolen yarn, protruding from the 
shield, a symbol still visible everywhere in Florence.
Illustration from A.H. Savage Landor’s 1893 book Bering Sea Kayak from the Cook expedition
52      ASC Newsletter
Over centuries, the disparate collections that the Medici atlas, from 1596. His partner and successor Hondius 
had gathered in their home, the Palazzo di Medici, published a revised and refined version of the polar map 
were eventually assembled in a chamber in the Palazzo in 1606, a foundational map of the history of the Arctic.
Vecchio, the great medieval fortress in the city center, 
which is still the seat of government of the city-state, Il In the Mercator/Hondius map, the Arctic Ocean 
Comune di Firenze. In 1563 is open, and surrounded 
Duke Cosimo I de Medici, by four large lands. This 
newly proclaimed to royalty concept evolved centuries 
(by himself) commissioned before Mercator. The later 
the artist, art historian and introduction and distribution 
architect Giorgio Vasari of magnetic compasses, 
(1511–1574) to create a from China, required some 
study chamber or ‘cabinet of explanatory mechanism for 
curiosities. Up long flights how the compasses worked. 
of stairs is the Guardaroba, Mercator proposed a giant 
a secure chamber where black rock of magnetic iron, 
cloaks and coats and swords the Rupes Nigra, at the North 
were stored. The Guardaroba Pole. When the British scientist 
became the first public site John Dee wrote Mercator 
for display of the vast Medici about the sources of the map, Guardaroba globe surrounded by artifact cabinets
collections. Duke Cosimo Mercator wrote back: “In the 
referred to “the cosmography midst of the four countries is 
in the Guardaroba”, reinforced a whirl-pool, into which there empty these four indrawing 
by a set of beautiful painted seas which divide the North. 
maps hung on the doors of And the water rushes round 
dozens of cabinets and rooms and descends into the Earth 
around the Guardaroba. just as if one were pouring it 
Behind each door was through a filter funnel. It is four 
collections of diverse treasures degrees wide on every side of 
from the area mapped. the Pole, that is to say eight 
Starting about 1564, teams of degrees altogether. Except that 
mathematicians, geographers, right under the Pole there lies 
and wonderfully skilled artists a bare Rock in the midst of 
created the major series of the Sea. Its circumference is 
maps, which presented the almost 33 French miles, and it 
cosmography of the known is all of magnetic stone”.
world (i.e., as known in If we now examine the four 
Florence). As the maps were 1606 North Pole Mercator and Hondius map maps of the Polar Lands, it 
fitted to the doors of the is clear they map the four 
cabinets of the collections, organized by region, the “indrawing seas”, with the Rupes Nigra presented 
maps were essentially the finding aids to the collection. at the top of each map. Details of the four lands that 
There are nine maps of the Americas and one map of frame them are suitably vague (given that they didn’t 
Greenland. These maps are foundational to the history exist) but the maps’ text notes the lands were north of 
of Arctic Studies. very real places: above Greenland; above Hudson Bay; 
above the Bering Strait; and above Siberia. If ships 
There were also a unique set of four maps, done could navigate to the indrawing Seas, but could avoid 
separately, and apparently somewhat later, of “Polar the polar whirl-pool, then they could navigate out on 
Lands”. These maps were clearly derived from the work the other side: the fabled Northwest (or Northeast) 
of the celebrated cartographer/mathematician Gerardus Passage.
Mercator. In 1569, he published his world map, the first 
presentation of his Mercator projection. The distortions The maps are embellished with a myriad of gilded 
of the projection mean the north and south poles cannot inscriptions, providing a most revealing body of text 
be represented. Mercator made a separate, azimuthal annotating the history of places and regions and the 
projection of the region of the north pole in the corner characteristics of the inhabitants, listing the natural 
of the map. He repeated this polar map in his first resources and agricultural and livestock farming, mining, 
      ASC Newsletter 53
craft-industrial and artistic were developed, in Florence and elsewhere. The rise of 
products. The scroll of the disciplinary specialists in botany, geology, ethnology, 
polar lands imagined above etc. led eventually to the fission of the Medici mega-
Greenland reads: “This collections, into more focused thematic assemblages. 
channel has three accesses, These collections were moved to different Florentine 
every year it remains frozen palaces. In the 1860s, Italy as a nation-state was invented, 
for about three months" with Florence as the first national capitol, while at the 
and "Here are the pygmy same time new major specialized museums in Florence 
who are four feet tall, as were invented, including Mantegazza’s museum, the first 
those that in Greenland in the world to call its domain “anthropology”.
are called Screlirgi”. The 
lands above Hudson Bay Mantegazza perceived the fundamental unity of 
state: “This channel has human societies, and his collections are organized by 
five accesses and due to its geographical regions, without reference to conceptions 
narrowness and the rapidity of a spectrum between “primitive” to “advanced”. He 
of its flow it never freezes” was ahead of his times in various ways, particularly as to 
and “The Northern parts the psychology and science of sex. His position became 
are so far from us that few ever more marginal with the rise of fascism. After his 
are those who wrote about death in 1910, in 1925 his collections were moved to the 
them. They say the King of Palazzo Nonfinito, where they remain displayed in wood 
Norway having heard about and glass cases which have changed little in a century. Lands above Greenland
it, sent people there to The displays are dense, yet elegant, still marvels of the 
live”. For lands above the varieties of human cultures and their arts.
Bering Strait: “In the northern parts there are the islands The Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology was 
of Bargu that Marco Polo states are looking north so “founded in poverty”, with a contribution of only 1,000 
much that the pole star is seen to go down towards Italian lire provided by the Italian Ministry of Public 
the south”. For the lands above Siberia, “The Ocean, Education, a tiny and symbolic sum when compared 
entering these islands with 19 accesses, creates four with the costs of Italy’s cultural patrimony. In the current 
channels flowing north without interruption and here it ordering and funding of the arts and sciences in Italy, the 
gets absorbed by the bowels of the earth.” Museum, along with the other major Florentine science 
The Medici never wanted a terrestrial empire—they museums, is funded through the Sistema Museale di 
were content financing others’ empires and collecting Aterneo, the Museum System of the University of 
compound interest on their loans. The Medici collections Florence. The University prioritizes the education of its students, and rightly so, which limits resources 
of artworks, rarities, and anthropological artifacts available to the museums. Nevertheless, the Museum 
outgrew the Guardaroba. They were later transferred of Anthropology and Ethnology persists, with a current 
to the Uffizi Gallery, the Palazzo Pitti, etc. The idea of emphasis on revealing the sub-structures of historical 
gathering together in one place the “natural productions” anthropology as it evolved, particularly the myriad ways 
present in the Guardaroba dates back to 1763, when the that disparate humans were quantified and measured, and 
Florentine naturalist and scientist Giovanni Targioni then partitioned.
Tozzetti, on behalf of the Grand Ducal government, 
drew up the first catalogue of all the naturalistic exhibits These events in a city built on the banks of the River 
in the Gallery. In 1765, with the arrival in Florence of Arno, over half a millennium, are directly relevant to 
the young Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian system 
(who was also a Medici), the museum project came to of thematically defined museums, in large stately 
life, leading to the construction of the 'Palazzo della buildings, with an organizational structure of staff in 
Scienza', at the noble Palazzo Torrigiani where 'La departments and institutes, was not invented by the 
Specola' Museum is still housed today. Substantial new Smithsonian, but rather adopted. And thus, much about 
collections were added, particularly artifacts secured “the Arctic” can be experienced and learned from a 
from the three global voyages of Capt. James Cook place known for olive oil and wine, gelato and art, in 
in the late 18th century, which introduced many salient Florence, which is “the city of flowers” on many levels.
Arctic artifacts to modern Europe.
We would like to thank Prof. Monica Zavattaro and 
Meanwhile, Florence continued to endure episodic Prof. Gloria Roselli from the Museum of Natural 
wars, plagues, and revolutions. In the midst of all this, History: Anthropological and Ethnological Collections 
the structures and disciplines of the modern sciences in Florence for our warm welcome to the museum.
54      ASC Newsletter
UP-DATING “POLAR OBSERVER: THE amount of currently hidden Arctic data available to 
ARCTIC DIGITAL LIBRARY” researchers, Indigenous groups, and the world at large. 
By William W. Fitzhugh
RE-PRESENTING ARCHIVAL AND LIBRARY 
Last year, in March 2021, the SI and Dartmouth College COLLECTIONS THROUGH THE VOICES 
submitted a three-year proposal to NSF’s Navigating AND LANGUAGES OF FIRST NATIONS, 
the New Arctic Program to initiate a pilot project for INUIT, AND THE MĖTIS NATION IN AN 
our Arctic digital library infrastructure network. Jesse INTERCTIVE EBOOK
Casana joined me as co-PI, David Nordlander as 
project director, and Nana Naisbett as project manager. By Beth Greenhorn
Sealaska Heritage Institute directed by Rosita Worl and 
Kitikmeot Heritage Society of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut Author acknowledgment: I am a settler living on the 
(Canada), represented by Brendan Griebel, joined as unceded and traditional territory of the Anishinabeg 
Indigenous partners. Records to form the experimental (Algonquin)—the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg and 
database will come from Smithsonian Anthropology and the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation. I 
Library collections and from Dartmouth’s Vilhjalmur acknowledge that they are the first and rightful 
Stefansson archives. Search algorithms for discovering inhabitants of the lands and waters now called 
information from the database will be borrowed, and southeastern Ontario and southwestern Quebec.
enhanced for the social sciences and humanities, from As part of two Indigenous heritage initiatives, We Are 
the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), a primarily Here: Sharing Stories and Listen, Hear Our Voices, the 
biological-based network developed initially at Harvard Library and Archives Canada (LAC) published Nations 
which the Smithsonian Library recently joined as a to Nations: Indigenous Voices at Library and Archives 
partner. Our PO-ADL network focusing primarily Canada, a multilingual and multimedia e-book 
on early historical, anthropological, and humanities featuring essays by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis 
data, would also pull data from the BHL platform. Nation authors. The content is based on their personal 
Building on BHL will ensure inter-operability and connections to the archival and published material from 
allow PO to efficiently expand search procedures into the collections at LAC. 
the more taxonomically complex social and historical 
fields where subject terms and categories have more Historically, the Canadian government forced First 
fuzzy edges. The goal of the pilot is to determine Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation children to attend 
the feasibility of expanding PO into a full-fledged church-run residential schools. The schools were 
infrastructure into which data could be contributed part of a broader Federal policy to Christianize and 
from institutions holding Arctic region data, making a assimilate these children into the dominant society. 
vast sea of inaccessible information available for users Students were punished for speaking their languages, 
across the globe. Our Indigenous partners joined the and many individuals have not maintained fluency in 
project not only to provide testable data but to assist those languages. Some are considered vulnerable, while 
the development of protocols suitable for Indigenous others are severely to critically endangered.(1)
information sharing and use-rights.
In August we learned that the grant was not approved, 
and we began working on a re-submission. In addition 
to sharpening the discussion of search mechanisms, 
clarifying the roles of Indigenous partners, and 
organizing yearly workshops, we added the Anchorage 
Museum as partner, and Aron Crowell, ASC 
Anchorage office director, joined as a second co-PI. 
Sensitive to fraught terminology, we changed the 
project name from ‘Polar Explorer’ to ‘Polar Observer’. 
To provide another potential source of funding that 
might allow us to start the pilot before NSF funding 
might be available, we also applied for an NMNH 
grant for a period of 18 months. If approved, NMNH 
funds would enable PO-ADL to begin as early as May 
or June 2022. The success of the SI-BHL partnership 
assures us that the establishment of an Arctic Digital Title page of Nations to Nations: Indigenous Voices at 
Library would work technically and would make a vast Library and Archives Canada
      ASC Newsletter 55
Page from First Nations Cradleboards: An Enduring 
Pre-contact map of what is now called North America with Heritage, written by Elizabeth Kawenaa Montour and 
Icons linked to each author’s essays and biography translated into Kanien'kéha by Hilda Kanerahtenhá:wi 
Nicholas
The revitalization of Indigenous languages has 
been identified as a human right by international Canada includes the following First Nations languages 
organizations, including the United Nations. The and dialects: Anishinaabemowin, Anishinabemowin, 
Canadian government has received calls to action from Denesųłiné, Kanien’kéha, Mi’kmaq, nêhiyawêwin and 
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Nishnaabemowin. Inuit content is presented in Inuttut 
to rectify the colonial harms caused to Indigenous and Inuktitut (Roman orthography and syllabics). A 
languages.(2) Work on the eBook began soon after the selection of images in texts about the Métis Nation is 
United Nations declared 2019 the International Year accompanied by audio recordings in Heritage Michif.  
of Indigenous Languages. The original eBook plan 
was to feature archival and published documents held The stories are often personal. Describing her research 
in LAC’s collections in various Indigenous languages on cradleboards, Elizabeth Kawenaa Montour 
and dialects. Several months in, we recognized there reflected: “It really made me connect to cradleboards 
is little in LAC holdings written in First Nations and and understand them as a mother.” Her hope is to pass 
Inuit languages or dialects. The Métis Nation records the knowledge she learned onto future generations.(3) 
presented an even greater challenge, as there are no Younger citizens of the Métis Nation, including author 
known records in Michif. Delia Chartrand, cannot speak Michif. Recalling 
her childhood, she writes “I did not grow up on my 
How could LAC support efforts in the reclamation traditional territory… I did not grow up speaking my 
of Indigenous languages and challenge dominant traditional language. Michif was not an option in our 
narratives of mainstream society?  In time, we had a household as my father had long forgotten how to 
strategy. Each author would choose documents that speak what he called ‘Bush French’.”(4)
held personal relevance to them or their communities, 
and interpret them from their point of view. Where Inuit in Nunatsiavut learned to read and write in Inuttut 
possible, we hired language speakers in communities until 1949, when it was cut from the curriculum. 
to translate the texts into the languages or dialects of According to Inuk author Heather Campbell, there 
the people represented in the records featured in each is only one speaker left in her community of Rigolet. 
essay. The Indigenous languages would be presented In her words: “Seeing the damage done in just one 
as the main text, accompanied by English and French generation makes you realize how fragile these 
versions through popovers. languages are.”(5) In “Inuktut Publications,” Heather 
looks at language revitalization in Inuit Nunangat (Inuit 
Pre-contact map of what is now called North America Homeland in Canada) through a selection of books 
with Icons linked to each author’s essays and biography written in different dialects of Inuktut.
The ebook launched September 30, 2021, the While each essay is unique, they are connected. They 
inaugural National Day of Truth and Reconciliation are about truth telling and the sharing of culturally 
acknowledging the lost children and survivors of distinctive knowledge. They deconstruct colonial 
Residential Schools in Canada. This edition of Nations ideologies that privilege Western approaches and 
to Nations: Indigenous Voices at Library and Archives interpretations to the historical records. Ultimately, the 
56      ASC Newsletter
OUTREACH
KNOWING NATURE: STORIES OF THE 
BOREAL FOREST
By William Fitzhugh and Stephen Loring
Almost a decade in the making, the Arctic Studies 
Center’s exhibition originally titled Boreal: Visions 
of the World’s Largest Forest (among other title 
favorites) has been designed and is scheduled to begin 
its North American tour in April 2023. Produced by a 
committee coordinated by SITES project director Carol 
Bossert, the exhibition focuses on the biodiversity 
and global importance of the our northern-most 
Page from Linguistic Diversity in the Métis Nation written forests through first-person stories, authentic objects, 
by Delia Chartrand, featuring an audio recording describing interactive experiences, and exquisite photography and 
the photograph in Michif by Elder Verna De Montigny videography. Besides Loring and Fitzhugh, the core 
team included Rob Mullen, Kevin Brownlee, Gary 
essays demonstrate the diversity of histories, languages and Joanie McGuffin, Jeff Wells, and several others. 
and cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation. As the SITES promotional blurb says: 
Nations to Nations: Indigenous Voices at Library “In a carbon-conscious world, boreal forests are 
and Archives Canada is free of charge and can be significant, storing three times the amount of carbon as 
downloaded from Apple Books (iBooks format), or from tropical forests. Boreal forests provide nesting habitat 
Library and Archives Canada’s website (EPUB format). for over fifty percent of migratory bird species. Many 
An online version can be viewed on a desktop, tablet or of our most familiar back-yard birds started their lives 
mobile web browser without requiring a plug-in. in the boreal. Indigenous Peoples have lived in these 
forests for thousands of years and today, their knowledge 
1. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, offers a vision for a sustainable future. This timely 
Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part I, exhibition integrates the themes of climate change, 
Origins to 1939. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Indigenous perspectives and the relationship between 
Press, 2015. people and nature. It takes audiences on a learning 
journey that starts with curiosity, builds empathy, 
2. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of and leads to action. Knowing Nature offers stories of 
Canada, Truth and Reconciliation of Canada: Calls resilience, strength, and hope in a changing world.” 
to Action, 2015. Actions 13 and 14 address the 
preservation and revitalization of languages, p. 2. 
https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/
uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf 
3. Elizabeth Kawenaa Montour, “Nations to Nations: 
Indigenous Voices at Library and Archives Canada 
panel discussion”, Frankfurt Book Fair, aired 
October 20, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=p1GIr6B9oko
4. Delia Chartrand, “Centuries of Kinship-Exploring 
Métis Identity through Genealogy,” Library and 
Archives Canada Discover Blog, October 11, 2020, 
https://thediscoverblog.com/2020/10/11/centuries-of-
kinship-exploring-metis-identity-through-genealogy 
Once but for rivers the nearly inaccessible forests at the 
5. Heather Campbell, “Nations to Nations: top of the world face increasing pressures from resource 
Indigenous Voices at Library and Archives Canada extraction as roads and infrastructure threaten their 
panel discussion”, Frankfurt Book Fair, aired viability and integrity. (The trans-Labrador "highway" 
October 20, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/ north of the Manicouagan, west of the Ashuanipi. Photo by 
watch?v=p1GIr6B9oko Stephen Loring).
      ASC Newsletter 57
NATIVE AND AMERICAN ETHNO-
MEDICINE AT LEBANON SPRINGS, N.Y.
By Ted Timreck
The Lebanon Valley southeast of Albany near the 
Massachusetts border has been a source of healing 
waters and medicinal plants since the end of the Ice 
Age. The interactions between the Native American 
and Shaker spiritual and secular communities that 
developed around the New Lebanon Hot Springs and 
the wetlands in the valley below profoundly influenced 
the history of American medicine. The Lebanon Hot Springs were deeded by the local Indians 
A few years ago, I received a request from a member with the written stipulation that the healing waters would 
of the Select Board of New Lebanon, N.Y. asking if I always be made available to the public
could find a way to connect the town of New Lebanon 
with the Shaker Museum which is located at the 
original site of the Shaker spiritual community on the 
slope of Mt. Lebanon. The Select Board was interested 
in linking the town and the Shaker Museum to better 
share their combined histories and attract tourism. 
It didn't take long to recognize that the town and the 
historical Shaker site were both connected to a wetland 
which the early USGS topo maps referred to as The 
Shaker Swamp. I thought of this as a communication 
design problem that could make a contribution to my 
local community. But with more research, I began to 
discover that the environmental and historical record of 
the wetland extending back to the region’s Indigenous 
peoples was one of the most interesting anthropological Shaker Swamp 
stories I had ever encountered.
The Shaker Swamp Crossroads plants. This is known because after the Shaker 
religious community settled here in the late 1700's 
The hills surrounding Lebanon Valley draining into they invited the Indians to harvest the plants and trade 
The Shaker Swamp are honeycombed with limestone their medicinal knowledge with the Shakers, who in 
outcrops and caves. Water travels through the limestone return shared medicines from their European tradition. 
underground and surfaces in places like the famous A record of these interactions was written down in the 
Hot Springs of New Lebanon--a calcium healing spring Shaker documents of the time and is preserved today in 
known from Indian times. The water becomes calcium- the Shaker Museum. 
enriched as it seeps through the limestone, emerging 
at the hot spring at a constant 74 degrees and into It is widely held as urban legend that Native 
Shaker Swamp where NY routes 20 and 22 cross. Rt Americans taught early European settlers about their 
20 is the longest east/west road in North America and medicinal practices, but it is extremely rare to have 
extends from Boston to the Oregon coast. I suspect that any contemporary, written documentation of an actual 
many parts of the highway may have been Indian trails cultural exchange preserved in an archive. Certainly, 
before European contact. Route 22 is the longest, well this is testament to what may have been a rare event, 
known Indian trail in New England and runs from the a mutual appreciation between the two cultures during 
tip of Manhattan north to Canada. These two ancient the early 1800's, at a time when this kind of behavior 
highways cross in the middle of Shaker Swamp— in the eyes of most Americans might have been 
perhaps not by coincidence. viewed as inappropriate, or even as seditious during 
the Indian Wars of the early and mid-19th century. This 
The calcium rich waters that collect in the swamp documentation about a cross-cultural connection to a 
encourage the growth of rare medicinal plants. Native specific environmental situation points to the scientific 
American tribes would visit the wetland regularly and and historical importance of preserving the New 
understood how to harvest and prepare its medicinal Lebanon wetland site and its unique American story.
58      ASC Newsletter
and the Tildens utilized to make their formulas. There 
are extensive records of the plants, along with how 
to harvest and prepare them, and the listings of the 
ailments they help cure in the Shaker and Tilden 
records. The story of this still existing ecological 
situation connected to the saga of medical information 
being passed from the Indigenous population to the 
first settlers and on to corporate entrepreneurs of 
early America is a history that requires an integrated, 
interdisciplinary approach.
When I began to see this story unfold, I enquired 
about the swamp from people in New Lebanon, only 
A Tilden Company advertisement ca. 1900 to discover that hardly anyone was aware of the rich, 
ecological and cultural history of the area, and in 
particular, the documented connections between Native 
medicinals and today's pharma-industry. Working 
with the Shaker Swamp Conservancy and the Darrow 
School which now exists on the site of the old Shaker 
community, our goal is to preserve this diverse, natural 
habitat, offer the public a chance to experience the 
beautiful interior of the swamp through paths and 
boardwalks, and to build an information center for 
the town, the Shaker Museum, and the Darrow school 
that offers visitors the full chronicle of this remarkable 
story about an unrecognized foundation of American 
pharmaceutical medicine.
Narragansett Tribal Preservation officer Doug Harris 
inspecting stone ruins found at the edge of the Shaker Swamp For a visual introduction to the Medicinal Wetlands 
please go to: https://vimeo.com/683562236
The Shakers began to harvest the medicinal wetland 
in earnest, and by the mid-19th century scholars say INTEGRATING INUGHUIT AND 
the Mt. Lebanon Shaker community was harvesting, GREENLANDIC TRADITIONAL 
packaging, and shipping up to 25 tons of herbal KNOWLEDGE WITH ECOTOURISM 
medicine per year to the rest of the United States, and DEVELOPMENT IN GREENLAND
even beyond, to Europe. Also by the mid-19th century, By Martin T. Nweeia
the Tilden family who had settled in New Lebanon, 
worked with the Shakers learning the medicinal Research objectives for the project described below 
secrets of the Swamp. At a time long before the official focus on finding pathways to integrate Inughuit and 
patenting of medicines in America, the Tildens split Greenlandic community members in the growing 
from the Shakers and started their own enterprise, Greenland eco-tourism market.  Prior work by the 
eventually building the first pharmaceutical factory author were focused on collecting Inughuit knowledge 
in America at the northeast corner of the swamp. about the narwhal for biologic and ecologic studies of 
For the next hundred years, the Tilden Company this elusive and legendary Arctic whale (1).
was a premiere supplier of natural medicines until 
they were eventually hounded out of business by the Despite COVID-19 travel restrictions, our team was 
Federal government in the early 1960's for making able to visit Greenland during November of 2020 
“unsubstantiated” claims for their medicinal products. and June of 2021. With support from the Ocean 
It's interesting that the long history of the discovery, Foundation through USAID, we met key stakeholders 
development, and manufacture of American 'natural' in Greenlandic government, business, academia, 
medicines began to fade out in the 60's just as the new media, and education to develop ideas and projects that 
cultural wave of 'alternative' medicine was beginning to would harness local Greenlandic knowledge for the 
emerge. development of eco-tourism. Our partnerships between 
the Inughuit and Greenland community members 
Today Shaker Swamp still contains many of the follows USAID guidelines promoting the rights of 
original medicinal plants that the Indians, the Shakers, Indigenous peoples. 
      ASC Newsletter 59
The International Ecotourism Society defines commercial venues like ecotourism shops that provide 
ecotourism as “responsible travel to natural areas economic benefits to tour operators and Greenlandic 
that conserves the environment, sustains the well- artisans and shop owners.
being of local people, and involves interpretation and 
education.” Programs to develop ecotourism with Ecotourism (sustainable tourism) incorporates the United 
input from Inughuit and Greenlandic representatives Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5). 
have been initiated by a team including the author Ideally, goals 3–17 can be incorporated in ecotourism 
and Pamela Peeters, an programs American enterprises 
environmental economist and can invest in. Prospective tour 
sustainability strategist, during guide owners can incorporate 
meetings with Greenland more unifying messaging and 
partners in November 2020 sensitivity about sustainability 
and June 2021. Community related to cultural aspects of 
consultations were held in Greenlandic Inuit communities.
Nuuk, Kangerlussuaq, and 
Ilulissat, and will continue in Other types of ecotourism 
Ilulissat and Sisimuit. COVID operate in isolation and do not 
restrictions limited access to include cultural integration. 
Narsarsuaq, Uummannaq, Some focus more on the 
and Qaanaaq. We added USAID Sustainable Development Goals landscape and biodiversity 
visits to Hunde Ejland and than on Inuit culture. Offshore 
Disko Island since these are cruises and yachts are 
communities with strong eco- becoming more common, with 
tourism potential. some, or no onshore cultural events. Because of the wide 
The primary objective was to variety of approaches, many 
establish programs that include solutions for success need to 
Inughuit and Greenlandic be considered. A social impact 
views about the environment, assessment should be done 
conservation, culture, music, to record efforts from these 
and art. Greenlandic Inuit myriad approaches.
compose songs and create 
artwork inspired by nature Several challenges are 
that inform and teach about Visit Greenland leads Hjörtur Smárason, Chief presented in finding ways 
their relationship with the Executive Officer, and Mads Daniel Skifte, Deputy to bridge American and Greenlandic ecotourism 
land, which is why they are Director with Dr. Nweeia. Photo by P. Peeters perspectives. First is the sheer 
essential to integrate with cost of visiting and working 
oral knowledge. Program in Greenland, which can be 
development highlights prohibitive. Though American 
Greenlandic Inuit knowledge investment may offer solutions, 
that can be introduced to cultural differences need 
broad international audiences. to be considered. Second, 
Existing ecotourism offerings cultural insights and historical 
will be evaluated to identify perspective, balanced with 
market opportunities. A economic opportunity, can 
rich experience involving provide a more balanced 
interpretation and education approach. Though Greenland 
depends on community has ceased being a formal 
inclusion, integration, and Danish colony in 1953, 
collaboration. We explore autonomy is still rooted in 
ecotourism opportunities with L-R: Sakiko Daorana ,Erik Bjerregaard (Founding Danish colonization. Hunting 
an open eye, mind and heart, Manager of Arctic Hotel), Pamela Peeters, Martin grounds were taken away, and 
to seek ways of incorporating Nweeia and Suzanne Bjerregaard, owner of Glacier the Thule American airbase 
Inuit heritage. This can be Shop in Ilulissat. Photo by P. Peeters was built after an existing 
accomplished through cultural Inuit community was given 
programs in the arts, and just a few days to move. Past 
60      ASC Newsletter
and current commissions to investigate wrong-doing Bell 212 helicopter was worth all of the five flights 
still find expression. International financial interests in and three days from Stafford Air Base in the USA to 
mining exemplify ongoing motives. If ecotourism is Kangerlussuaq to Ilulissat to Qaarsut to Uummannaq 
to be seen as a potential economic opportunity, it must and now to Illorsuit.  I was as excited as a kid in a 
be balanced with cultural sensitivity. A brief historical candy store as we boarded the full flight with eight 
perspective should be part of investor orientation so other passengers jockeying for the prime window seats 
that economic opportunity is met with understanding. for the flight north to Illorsuit. Our helicopter lifted off, 
Acknowledgment of this history gives context to the whipped around Uummannaq Island, and headed north 
socio-economic approach recommended for establishing as we entered the widest stretch of the Uummannaq 
stronger relationships with Greenlandic Inuit partners. Fjord. The stark white contrast of the massive sculpted 
Success will depend on mutual respect and consideration icebergs spotted the deep cobalt blue of the fjord. Off in 
of social consciousness incorporated at every phase of the distance the mountainous snowcapped range of the 
development. Greenland mainland could be seen to the east along with 
the seemingly infinite Greenland icecap, and to the west 
Results of this work, conducted in partnership Pamela the southern tip of Ubekendt Ejland came into view. 
Peeters, Founding Director of the Institute for a 
Sustainable Planet, have so far included: [From Rockwell Kent]: “Its seagirt isolation along 
with the grandeur of its stark, snow-covered tableland 
1. A website that celebrates Greenland, including and higher peaks, the dark cliff barrier that forms its 
written descriptions, original photographs, and western shore—there is a glamour of imponderable 
video vignettes produced by business, cultural and mystery about the island which dignifies it even at the 
educational leaders; gateway of a region of stupendous grandeur. Its cliffs, 
2. Relationship building with business, government proclaiming inaccessibility, preclude the thought of 
and education leaders to foster reinforcement for human settlements.”
Inughuit and Greenlandic perspectives; As we sweep around the headlands into Illorsuit on the 
3. Creation of a white paper that describes historical northeast end of island, the broad mile-long horseshoe-
context and current issues to help foster positive and shaped black sand beach of Illorsuit came into view with 
respectful opportunities in developing ecotourism its colorful homes of blue, red, yellow, and green boarder 
platforms; the beach and fjord. The settlement of Illorsuit occupies a sloping narrow spot of land between the Illorsuit Sound 
4. Supporting cross-cultural exchange, social media and the rugged black mountain walls that surround 
campaigns showcasing Greenlandic-American the community. My colleague called the settlement 
collaborations and exhibitions; claustrophobic as homes nestle into the crescent 
community of Illorsuit. The only way out is by boat, dog 
5. Demonstrations of visual learning through sledge, or snowmobile via the Sound. And by helicopter 
Microsoft HoloLens. Ongoing efforts to foster on Monday or Wednesday, weather permitting. 
exchange and insights will assist future business, 
government, and education efforts to approach We landed some 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle 
programs with a cross-cultural, integrative, and on barren headlands that lack any structures. The 
collaborative objective. helipad is a flat dirt surface surrounded by orange 
barrels. Beside the helipad is the cemetery, located 
Reference
1. Nweeia, M. T., and P. Peeters. 2021. 
Isumaqatigingniq: Building a Transformational Science 
Education Model to Engage the Next Generation of 
Inuit and Western Scientific Investigators. Arctic 74(5), 
Supplement 1 https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic73779
NORTH BY NUUK: GREENLAND AFTER 
ROCKWELL KENT
By Denis Defibaugh
My anticipation of the short 30 minute flight into 
Illorsuit for my first time in the classic Air Greenland Iceberg with people and vehicle
      ASC Newsletter 61
provided an oral history of contemporary Greenland. 
Photography workshops offered for students provided 
cameras and presented exhibitions that highlighted 
student photography of their families, communities, 
and dreams. 
Research also included the communities of Nuuk, 
Sisimiut, and Uummannaq. The book and exhibition, 
North by Nuuk, Greenland after Rockwell Kent, 
provides an engaging and revealing view of change 
and continuity in Greenland. The future of Greenland 
is unclear. As climate change and global warming 
continue to dramatically affect the ice cap, settlements 
Defibaugh in snow are slowly being abandoned, and population continues 
to decline. Separated by eighty-five years of change, 
100 meters to the east, and the dump 400 meters to the my photography and writing documents the modernity 
south. Town managers Jarte Kornellieson and Kasper of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, the primal and social 
Kornellieson met the helicopter on arrival, and Jarte landscape, traditions, culture, and people of relatively 
led us to our sleeping quarters for the next ten days. My untouched remote arctic communities. 
colleagues, Axel Jeremiassen, Susan B. Vanek, Jette 
Rygaard, and I took up residence in the community The exhibition of North by Nuuk, Greenland after 
center’s exercise room and kitchen. Conveniently, the Rockwell Kent will be on view in February and March 
building housed the community showers and the only 2022 at the Plattsburgh NY State Art Museum, Burke 
running water in the settlement. This first trip began Gallery and Slatkin Gallery, and at the Fenimore 
three extended visits to Illorsuit that lasted on and Art Museum from April thru December. The book is 
off from June 1, 2016, until leaving for the last time available at RITPress, www.ritpress.rit.edu .
on March 21, 2017 in a snowstorm with me trudging 
through snow drifts to get to the helicopter. INUIT TIK-TOKERS: SPREADING 
KNOWLEDGE IN 60 SECONDS OR LESS
A very different experience was had by Rockwell Kent 
in July 1931 as he entered the bay by boat and seeing By Fiona Steiwer
Illorsuit, a remote settlement of 150 inhabitants of hunters 
and their families. Kent described, “nine interminable The past two years of confinement have led to many 
hours of our trip from Uummannaq,”  into Illorsuit creative ways of communicating. The app TikTok has 
Sound, and past the steep inaccessible cliffs of Eastern stood at the forefront of this wave of social media-
Ubekjendt Island. Kent described the locals’ “cry going based interaction. The app, which gained popularity 
up” as women residents wearing their brightly-colored with Gen Z just before the COVID-19 pandemic, has 
native clothing and men in their seal skin pants and revolutionized the way users interact, with meme and 
anorak tops come out of the numerous little mounds of musical trends that take over the internet within mere 
earth that dotted the settlement to greet the newcomers. moments of their creation. But the app isn’t just for 
Gen Z anymore, users of all ages have carved out niche 
Kent’s 1931 goal was “to experience the Far North communities on the forum that create an addicting void 
at its spectacular ‘worst’.” Inspired by Kent, and that draws individuals of all backgrounds to the shiny 
supported by a National Science Foundation award, I surfaces of their smartphones.
followed eighty-five years later in 2016 to experience 
this extreme environment, image its sublime splendor,  During the extensive amounts of my personal time 
and to explore the Inuit’s culture and relationship that I myself spend on the app, I found myself on the 
with the land. Illorsuit, the remote settlement today of Anthropology side of TikTok. This is a wonderful 
70 people with no cars or roads, can be very quiet at place, where Indigenous content creators have created 
times but it is a perfect background for a comparative a community where they are able to share music, art, 
exploration in the long history of Arctic photography. recipes, and their daily personal lives with the world. 
Such as the Inuk creator Shina Nova, who gained her 
This flight was the beginning of an 18-month following by posting katajjaq throat singing videos 
Greenlandic immersion to photographically detail with her mother and OOTD (Outfit of the Day Videos) 
Inuit culture and Greenland environment. The project wearing traditional clothing like the amautiit parkas 
research included video interviews with elders, that her mother sews. She recently documented the 
teachers, hunters, and various Greenlanders which process of getting her kakiniit facial tattoos and is the 
62      ASC Newsletter
first in her family to do so in a generation. In a series of 
videos Shina documents the four hour journey the pair 
made across Canada to complete the procedure. 
In the wave of her TikTok fame, Shina was made 
the face of French Sephora, along with several other 
Indigenous influencers.
This forum not only allows for content creators to send 
their product out into the wide world but provides 
opportunity for discussion through the comment 
feature. The TikTok algorithm creates each user’s 
custom FYP (“For You Page”) that compiles videos 
from across the app based on their previous likes, 
comments and interactions on the app. This allows 
people who normally may not seek out Indigenous 
content to gain a greater understanding of the 
Indigenous lived experience. With the current standing 
of education surrounding Indigenous people and their 
cultural practices, such as in the United States, this 
may be more informative than many of their school 
courses—especially when showing the public that 
Indigenous people are not a thing of the past but a 
community with young people who desire to continue 
their cultural traditions with their families. Shina with her kakiniit, image sourced from her Instagram
The social media giant allows for Indigenous content 
creators to have an active say in how they are view their response. It also allows young Indigenous 
represented in the media and to respond to how other people to connect with their elders and communities 
content creators and corporations (which have a large no matter if they live near them or across the world. 
presence on the app as well) who may attempt to profit While many may critique Gen Z for being “chronically 
from the stereotypical image of a Native American or online,” in this case, social media has fostered space 
First Nations Person. This dichotomy was highlighted for a thriving community that should be celebrated, 
during the discussion surrounding the naming of the which gives me hope for the future of anthropological 
Washington Football Team in 2020. research and discussion amongst my peers and I as we 
rise in the ranks of the field. 
Content creators have also facilitated discussions 
surrounding topics such as Cultural Appropriation, 
Cost of Living on Reservations, and Land Back, to SOUNDS OF THE ARCTIC
name a few. However, the holding of this forum on an By Charlie Morrow
app does create accessibility concerns, especially for 
individuals who may not have access to the internet This story begins with a headline from Physics Today: 
or a smartphone, which disproportionately affects “Ocean acoustics in the changing Arctic. Recent 
Indigenous communities. ADA accessibility for blind changes in ice cover and ocean stratification have been 
and deaf individuals was a large concern at the onset so large that acoustic measurements made during the 
of the app; now closed captions, voice overs and added Cold War no longer reflect current conditions.”* and 
features help to provide content access to all. a note from New England poet, Robert Frost: “Mr. 
Browne has alluded to the seeing eye. I want to call 
The app serves as an incredible feature for young your attention to the function of the imagining ear.”
people to connect with anthropological and 
archeological content and serves to combat the leagues Arctic sound has been on my mind for a long time, 
of misinformation that exist on other servers as young long before I saw this headline or read Robert Frosts’ 
archaeologists are able to directly confront those who note, Frost a resident of early 20th century cold New 
spread misinformation using the “stitch” feature, which Hampshire. The weather records of his life span show 
allows for them to attach a video to the content of the that Frost knew very cold winters. My full body arctic 
creator spreading misinformation, allowing for their sound experience happened when I first travelled 
followers and the followers of the original creator to to Lappland in the 1980s to record sound for P.A. 
      ASC Newsletter 63
of focus and signal processing. Remember the 
cocktail party sound model. Even in densely noisy 
situations, we can focus on the voice of someone 
talking and understand what was said. A microphone 
placed where party ears are located captures an 
undifferentiated, blended sound. It takes police grade 
software to reveal embedded conversations which our 
ears and minds manage routinely.
In the Arctic open spaces and absence of human noise, 
we can try to hear the complex and varying languages 
of the winds. To be decoded are sounds of ice and snow, 
from the surfaces to deep below grade, in the spectrum 
between total motion-and-flux to resolutely calm and 
Arctic sound room, from Stephan Andreae’s Arktis Antarktis, frozen. Because environmental sounds relate to danger, 
Bonn Kunst und Austellungshalle safety, wellbeing, our bodies auditory systems have no earlids and very fast responses at diverse sound levels 
for reception and identification of their sources. 
Simma’s dramatic film, “Beyond Night and Day” and Notable in the Arctic is the need to balance internal and 
WDR Klaus Schoening’s “Metropolis Arctic.” external pressures on the ears, on the body, and on the 
My audio studio experience of extraordinary arctic psyche. In the Arctic and Subarctic, one can experience 
sound first was on a 1979 visit to the Helsinki radio being enveloped by the local quiet. And totally raging 
studios of state broadcaster, YLE Finland, when I winds and some of the loudest sounds on earth from the 
swapped my conch horn sounds for a collection of Arctic ice and snowscape.
sounds made by YLE location recordists for productions. One is immersed and entranced in the way sound 
Those recordings were by local recordists, who had travels long distances. Near and far hearing skills are 
access to both first class audio gear and paid projects. essential. It is some balance between zoom-in focus 
They had developed arctic hearing as a part of living in and balancing the overall signal to noise. The ear 
the region and techniques for capturing the sounds as seems to both focus to localize sound direction and 
they heard them. I spent my adult life working in sound have broadband attention for taking in the soundscape 
studios in New York as part of art and business media wedded to the landscape and atmosphere. Composer 
production, so their work was quite different from my Pauline Oliveros coined the word sonosphere. 
location sound work. To start with, they knew how to 
keep their sound and image equipment and their batteries Humans have to dynamically balance external 
warm enough to function in sustained cold. pressures with internal changes. Robert Frost’s imaging 
ear is connected to the alertness and calm needed to 
In YLE, for the first time, I heard tiny splinters of just be here. There are ever present dangers of ice, 
ice blown across a hard ice ground cover. It is spine water, wind, and living predators of our own and other 
tingling. For the first time, I heard calving icebergs, species. There is a kind of local, quiet personal style 
vast and unforgettable. The slosh of pack ice pieces laced with ways of winding up from silence to intense 
makes clattering sounds like an enormous ice soup, chattering, which can keep going for hours.
during freezing times and again in the warming times. 
Deep down are grumbles and talking sounds, under As well, it is essential to have understanding of the 
your feet on frozen sea surfaces and iced lakes, you landscape and local lifeforms in every season. Sight 
hear and feel them. At the moon of the breakup, of lines are long. There is a traditional of surveilling, 
ice and in preludes to it long before is the breaking up curiosity and gossiping. I was out on frozen tundra 
of ice, there are physically long tearing sounds from on a snow scooter and ignorantly almost drove into a 
cracks stretching out over horizontal distances. One’s dangerous hidden ravine. When I was back in the small 
ears’ measuring capacity is instantly on. Humans have a town, I was publicly laughed at by the folks in the local 
hyper audio alertness. Locals seem to hear and interpret bar as an idiot who could have perished. Eyes and ears 
sounds spontaneously, sounds close by and sound from are beaming everywhere. Gossip rules.
great distances. 
For almost 20 years now I am commuting between 
Humans hear directionality in 360 degrees, near Finland and Vermont. In early March, I negotiated 
and far. It is a combination of hearing and listening, the rospuutista, slippery ice on the sidewalks and 
64      ASC Newsletter
roads of Helsinki. That Finnish word is derived from INTERNS AND FELLOWS
the Russian term for “two seasons of the year, spring 
and autumn, when travel on unpaved roads or across USING MEDIA TO ENHANCE AND 
country becomes difficult, owing to muddy conditions COMMUNICATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND 
from rain or melting snow” (Wikipedia). Slipperiness ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
and the slipping sounds fill the air.  
By Alex Jansen
The sound cycle in the Arctic is driven by the light 
cycle. The light cycle includes rapidly changing springs While at the Smithsonian Institution’s Artic Studies 
and autumns, totally dark months when the stars and Center, I worked on the photo-documentation and 
moon can light up the snow cover, and totally light digitization of museum collections, including the 
months with intense light from above challenges the Koliktalik archaeological site finds from Labrador, 
eyes, the skin and the mind. Canada. I engaged with these objects not only from 
a scientific-point-of view, but also an aesthetic one. 
Here are some Arctic features with sonic components: While using side lighting and a copy stand to highlight 
At the equator, the earth and one’s ear is spinning flake scars on chipped stone artifacts and textures 
at more than a 1000 miles and hour, whereas in the on ground stone artifacts, I was able to illustrate 
arctic, the spin is inches per hour. // The distance the processes involved in the production of these 
between earth segments, between longitudes, works its artifacts. The use of these technologies built upon my 
way to zero at each of the two poles. // The seasonal understanding of these objects as an archaeologist 
change in spring and fall is faster than anywhere on 
earth with sudden and dramatic growth of plant life. by allowing me to engage with them on a more 
// The light cycle and temperature swing is at the creative level. This work demonstrated the ability of 
most extreme on the continuous oscillation between photography, illustration, and other media to enhance 
dark months and fully light months. // Directional our understanding of archaeological collections through 
hearing and body balance are processed via the ear’s close inspection with objects in addition to traditional 
mechanism, in relationship to atmospheric pressure, methods of analysis and observation. This work also 
temperature and gravity. // The populations of humans showed that we can enhance our understanding of past 
in the Arctic are small compared to the built world’s cultures by experiencing their technologies through the 
denser population areas. // The combination of long sensation of direct touch, which is usually not possible 
cultural memory, telling of the past is side by side with with the public’s exposure to museum collections. I 
use of the latest technologies with instant contact and also worked on the photo-documentation of museum 
deep databases. Arctic languages are rich with words events, bringing these experiences to the public and 
describing the diversity of weather, light and darkness larger academic community.
and have sonic components that permit understanding In recent years, I have used photography, illustration, 
in Arctic sound environments. // In the continuous video, hydrophone recordings, and other media to 
and most ancient culture of Sami people there are 
ways of talking with animals, with spirits and with 
the physical world. // There is joiking vocalizing that 
contains family sound marks, much as the ears of 
reindeer have family cut marks, and there are traditions 
of respect for ownership and permission to use them. // 
There are unique nonverbal articulations and physical 
gestures to communicate unique content. // During the 
past centuries, Arctic indigenous communication and 
expression has been suppressed and even punished. 
Recently, these ancient practises are being allowed 
to live and grow. Such freedoms can be fleeting. // 
21st century technology for recording images and 
sound has made it possible to capture and archive, to 
communicate over long distances. Such technologies 
have changed ones relationship to the all environments. 
With climate change and increased social instability, 
we should consciously record and cherish what is and 
what may not happen the same way again in the Arctic.
* Physics Today 73, 12, 44 (2020) Alex Jansen collecting sound
      ASC Newsletter 65
engage with cultural and natural environments. I 
worked with Chesapeake Bay Foundation documenting shared, and I increasingly felt myself pulled towards 
oyster growth using photo-documentation, underwater communicating science to the public. I freelanced 
photography, video, and hydrophones and documented for science and environmental outlets like JSTOR 
over two dozen species native to Chesapeake oyster Daily Blog, The Counter, and Northern Woodlands. 
reefs. I was able to capture the relationship between Throughout graduate school I had jumped at any 
oyster growth, water quality events, and biodiversity, opportunity to write about science or nature. I have 
which provided considerable information on human- always loved to write, but science writing blended the 
environmental impacts and  oyster restoration. This two things I was most passionate about. After perusing 
research demonstrates how these technologies enhance many job forums, I saw that the Smithsonian Arctic 
our understanding of coastal and marine environments Newsletter had previously taken interns. I cold-emailed 
and explore issues of ocean conservation. Bill Fitzhugh, who graciously responded and asked if I would like to help with an editing project. 
I have also combined these technologies with my 
archaeological background. I have utilized my This past year, I worked remotely with Dr. J. 
archaeology training to research and document native Bayarsaikhan and Dr. Fitzhugh editing Bayaraa’s 
and ancient drinks and other cultural traditions to PhD dissertation, analyzing Mongolian deer stones 
show how the cultural and natural world can be and examining their historical significance, current 
experienced through the senses. I have utilized discoveries, and theories. As someone with a keen 
photography and other media to bring this process interest in science writing, the editing experience 
to the public through the development of sensory I obtained was unmatched. Getting to edit a book 
experiences and exhibitions that engage the viewer manuscript was a unique experience for me—it was 
through sound, smell, touch, sight, and taste. I amazing to see how a field study of this magnitude 
recently had a collaborative sound installation with came together and was refined for an audience. I had a 
Platform1 Gallery in London, England, in which writing professor who once told me that the more you 
viewers were able to engage with coastal and marine edit someone else’s work, the better you become at 
environments through a soundscape of hydrophone writing. After this experience, I definitely agree with 
recordings from my research in Chesapeake Bay. this statement. What I like most about editing is making 
These field recordings of polluted underwater a story clearer and even more compelling. Not only 
environments captured a soundscape never did I learn about deer stones and anthropological field 
experienced by the public. Exploring this soundscape methods, I also got to see how Bayara and Bill joined 
gave people a way to directly experience human forces to tell an engaging story. I feel lucky to have 
impacts like engine noise. This project included a been a part of helping this narrative come to life, and I 
companion audio album, Tracing Earth, allowing look forward to seeing the final product!
people to experience the installation outside the 
gallery.
This work serves as a foundation for my future research 
and demonstrates how these technologies help create 
exhibitions and sensory experiences that bring cultural 
and natural environments to the public in ways that 
affect them on a personal and emotional level.
EDITING A DEER STONE BOOK
By Olivia Box
As I was coming to the end of my master’s degree 
in forest ecology at the University of Vermont, I 
was looking for more ways to build my science 
communication skills. At UVM, I was researching the 
impacts of Asian longhorned beetle, an invasive pest 
that attacks maple trees, on forests in southern New 
England. My favorite part of the project was getting to 
collaborate with stakeholders, other researchers, and 
citizens. Science is stronger and more effective when Olivia Box
66      ASC Newsletter
BOOK REVIEWS
WATER—A BIOGRAPHY, by Giulio Bocaletti— A point of confusion may arise in terms of social 
Pantheon Books, New York, 2021 organization, which is central to the ability of a 
population to manage its water resources. Themed 
Reviewed by Wilfred Richard by chapter title, the author variously cites water 
management throughout human history, referring to 
Giulio Bocaletti, the Chief Strategy the Hydraulic State, Res Publica, Water Sovereignty, 
Officer and Global Ambassador of Empire, Revolution, and Discontent. Throughout, 
Water at The Nature Conservancy, 
has produced a revelatory history, political and social infrastructure must efficaciously 
spanning continents and millennia, manage its water resources for the public good. Both 
of how the distribution of water Europe and China “…demonstrated how command of 
has shaped human civilization. landscape could define the use of water resources in 
Although somewhat of a pretentious the national interest” (p.101). “The modification of the 
title, Water is a compilation of how landscape to manage water and increase agricultural 
water as vapor, liquid, and ice has configured human productivity…was a political act” (p.109). “By 
culture through its dependency for sustenance in becoming the dominant unit of social organization, the 
various conditions of land, water, and air. He identifies territorial nation-state became the pre-eminent human 
agriculture as the integrating cultural mechanism of institution to wrestle with water’s power” (p.120). “By 
these three physical states. the time the nineteenth century was over, the United 
States had set itself up to become the most radical 
For life to occur, the galactic-wide array of planets in architect of water geography in human history” (p.135).
our galaxy is dependent on solar gain and water. “…
Water vapor acts as an enormous blanket trapping But not all continents and nation states have been 
outgoing heat: it is the principal greenhouse gas” that blessed in terms of land and water. For example, Russia 
makes Earth habitable” (p.5). Instead of the more- “…much further north than the United States…has 
or-less random acts of hunting and gathering, human about one-third of its land covered by permanent ice 
settlement “was the true Faustian bargain that society and frozen terrain” (p.155). Further south were arid 
made when it transitioned to stationary farming: it landscapes.   “With the exception of the Volga River, 
chose to tame an unstable, dynamic environment” over 80 percent of the water of Russia flowed in the 
(p.8). That diaspora occurred over a disparate planet large Russian rivers that emptied into the Arctic Sea….
subject to a multitude of climate factors, temperatures, Seventy percent of people and economic activity were 
and soils: “…water transfers vast amounts of further south with less than 20m percent of the water 
energy from the surface of the planet, warming it. resources of the country” (p.155).  
The energy involved with weather associated with 
those cycles of water can overwhelm all human Utilizing scientific methods, producing food and 
activity” (p.10). But, as “…Homo sapiens, late in managing land and water have been orchestrated to 
its history, decided to stay in one place, surrounded a significant magnitude in the relatively short period 
by a changing environment, it began to wrestle with of time our species has resided on this planet.…and 
water, an agent capable of destruction and life-giving by 2000, over six billion people lived on the planet, a 
gifts” (p.13). Fixed-in-place agri-cultures become fourfold increase in a single century” (p.168). Indeed, 
established only where temperature, moisture, Bocaletti‘s Water: A Biography is an excellent record 
and soil conditions permit. Agricultural success of of global integration of land, water and the political 
political states varies around the planet. Early on in which (so far) continues to sustain our world’s growing 
the evolution of the state, “Farmers had to do a lot human population. But, I wonder, just how long do you 
of work to transform the Mesopotamian Plain into suppose this will last?
[the first] viable environment for agriculture” (p. 
19). “Water was the only real source of power aside After-thought: There are two waste products which 
from human and animal force” (p.98). Continuing have become encumbered in our food chain. Soiling 
evolution of economic and political systems supplied land and water, Earth constitutes s closed ecosystem. 
the infrastructure for intensive agriculture to flourish. But look at how modern civilization is abusing them. 
“The collision of finance and republicanism had led In the 1967 film, The Graduate, local community 
to state development strategies that framed decisions leader Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton) tells a young 
in economic rather in just legal terms” (p. 99). The graduate Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) 
course that was chosen pursued water as a public that “the wave of the future is plastics”. Last week I 
good. was watching television and a quote was offered by 
      ASC Newsletter 67
of IPI Press. But the real message here is a plea for 
Canada’s Federal Environment Minister, Catherine improving stewardship of the planet, especially as seen 
McKenna: “If we don't act, plastics will outweigh through the lens of northern indigenous peoples and 
fish in our oceans by 2050.” This is certainly not what their beliefs and practices. As Richard notes,
Mr. Robinson had in mind. Today, plastic certainly 
constitutes a primary threat to Earth’s ecology. In my lifetime, global population has more than 
tripled. In 1940 the human population was 2.3 
NORTHERN LIGHT: MY LIFE BEHIND A billion; now it’s more than 7.8 billion. We have 
LENS, by Wilfred E. Richard—Smithsonian Arctic converted Planet Earth into a goods and services 
Studies Center and IPI Press, 2021, 201pp. rendering machine. The value of that product has increased from 4.5 to 90 trillion dollars with a 
Reviewed by William Fitzhugh three-fold increase in population and a twenty-fold 
increase in consumption. We are depleting Earth’s 
For nearly fifteen years environment and its life-support mechanisms. Now 
I worked with Will that we are digitally empowered to act as a single 
Richard as a partner on global community it is imperative we redress our 
archaeological expeditions desultory impact on our global home.
to the Quebec Lower 
North shore, researching 
Basque-Inuit contacts in ORDER OUR NEWEST ASC CCA 
the 16-17th centuries. PUBLICATION!
Will volunteered to be the 
expedition photographer, OUR STORIES ETCHED IN IVORY / 
but he was much more, QULIP’YUGUT IKSIAQTUUMARUAT 
and together we have TUUGAAMI. THE SMITHSONIAN 
published three books, COLLECTIONS OF ENGRAVED DRILL 
the latest being this BOWS WITH STORIES FROM THE 
autobiography, which ARCTIC. Edited by Amy Phillips-Chan—Arctic 
is a handsome volume Studies Center, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution. 
describing his life and experiences around the globe, Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology Vol. 10. 
but mostly ‘up north’ in what we have come to call Washington, DC. 2021. ISBN: 978-0-578-90679-9. 
‘The Far Northeast’—from Maine to Greenland. List Price: $19.95
Northern Light documents his early years growing up 
in northern New Hampshire, his stint in the Marine 
Corps in the Philippines, in the Peace Corps in 
Mauritius, as an economic development officer for the 
state of Maine. His life’s calling, however, grew out of 
adventure tourism company he started, which led him 
to kayaking in Quebec and expeditions to the Torngat 
Mountains in Labrador.
Will’s association with the Smithsonian began in 2001 
on the Quebec Lower North Shore, and from there 
he launched his own projects exploring Baffin Island 
and Greenland, where he became associated with Ann 
Andreasen, René Kristensen, Erik Torm, and others 
as research scholars of the Uummannaq Polar Institute. 
Will’s relationship with Uummannaq’s Children’s 
Home resulted in many student exchanges between 
Maine and Greenland, including visits and student 
performances at the Smithsonian.
Northern Light documents all these events in words Carved drill bows made from walrus tusks illustrating 
and ‘behind the lens’, drawing the reader into the pictorial scenes of human figures hunting, dancing, 
vibrant life of northern peoples and its magnificent and travelling, provide unique visual records of 19th 
landscapes, all of which are delightfully designed into century life in western Alaska. Combining history 
this small book by designer-publisher Peter Mittenthal and art, these beautiful objects have been hidden in 
68      ASC Newsletter
Smithsonian storerooms for more than a century. responsibilities. Mainly we were just curious about 
Our Stories Etched in Ivory brings these remarkable how the new archaeological evidence that had been 
‘story-books’ to life in a richly illustrated and building up for the last thirty years might change 
elegantly designed book. The publication combines our notions of early human history, especially the 
drill bow stories from the Smithsonian National parts bound up with debates on the origins of social 
Museum of Natural History and National Museum inequality”. (p.521)
of the American Indian with oral histories gathered 
from 40 contemporary Alaska Native contributors What eventually 
from Point Hope, Kotzebue, Shishmaref, Nome, emerged was a 
St. Michael, and Anchorage. Stories of hunting and doorstopper (692 pp.) 
community life are accompanied by illustrations of that attempts to test 
cultural heritage objects from the Carrie M. McLain historical and novel 
Memorial Museum in Nome, Alaska. A foreword by models of human 
Bernadette Y. Alvanna-Stimpfle, Yaayuk, offers social history against 
insight into the self-recorded world of walrus ivory the cascades of 
carvers while the introductory essay by Amy Phillips- recent archaeological 
Chan draws upon collections studies, oral histories, research from every 
and written texts to explore drill bow technology and continent and a 
the history of pictorial art in Arctic. The appendices myriad of islands 
offer detailed information on Smithsonian collectors, in every ocean. The 
a glossary of carving materials, and a visual catalog foundational model 
of heritage objects engraved with pictorial scenes. they test is at the 
The final section features a dictionary of almost 100 heart of myths of 
engraved characters found on drill bows, from animals western civilization: 
and objects to legends and activities. Our Stories the prehistoric realm 
Etched in Ivory prioritizes Indigenous knowledge and of humans living in 
language by making space for community members to a ‘state of nature’, a 
share their own stories and provides Inupiaq language state of innocence, but somehow, across many cultures 
names for places, animals, and objects. The publication that tell the story, that state was contaminated by sin, 
marks a collaboration between the Smithsonian Arctic and innocence was lost. The more benign version of 
Studies Center, Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum, the story descends from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 
and Bering Strait communities, to return Indigenous in his “Discourse on the Origin and the Foundation 
knowledge embedded within historical museum objects of Inequality”, published in 1754. In his telling, all 
back to the Arctic. humans were originally hunter-gatherers, living in 
very small bands, The members were egalitarian, 
[See Amy Phillips-Chan’s report on presenting this solely because the bands were small enough that they 
collaborative publication to the Nome community in could be egalitarian. There was also a much darker 
our Alaska reports section.] version of the model, particularly associated with 
Thomas Hobbes’ treatise “Leviathan”, published in 
THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING: A NEW 1651. Hobbes’ bands were also small, and not at all 
HISTORY OF HUMANITY, by David Graeber egalitarians; instead, their lives were: “solitary, poor, 
and David Wengrow—New York: Farrar, Strauss nasty, brutish, and short”. 
and Giroux 2021 These social models of the Enlightenment developed 
Reviewed by John Cloud and Elisa Palomino in parallel with ever expanding European Imperialism. This brought Europeans in contact with a myriad of 
From the book’s title, the ambition of the authors “others”, and the others had social models of their 
was vast. The project began when the authors own. The authors condense and convey much of this 
were professors of anthropology and archaeology, encounter in the story of a Wendat (Huron) American 
respectively, at the London School of Economics and philosopher-stateman, Kandiaronk, who travelled 
University College, London. As they note: extensively in the 1690s as a key strategist of the 
Wendat Confederacy, a coalition of four Iroquoian-
“The research that culminated in this book began speaking people at the southern end of the Great Lakes. 
almost a decade ago, essentially as a form of play. We Kandiaronk traveled to Montreal, New York, and Paris, 
pursued it at first, it would be fair to say, in a spirit of and he had a nuanced take on the societies of Europe. 
mild defiance towards our more ‘serious’ academic Back in North America, Kandiaronk was a participant 
      ASC Newsletter 69
in a series of bicultural salons in Montreal, which also environmental, social, and economic justice and against 
included Louis-Armand de Lom d’Arce, Baron de the downsides of globalization. Graeber had explored 
la Hontan, a poor aristocrat who had become fluent how indigenous cultures contributed greatly to the so-
in Algonkian and Wendat. Returning to Europe at called Western ideas of democracy and equality, and 
the turn of the 18th century, Lahontan (as he became how these contributions have been erased from history. 
known) published a series of books on his American The anticipated multiple doorstopper sequels that “the 
adventures. Then he wrote “Curious Dialogues with a two Davids” planned will never be written—at least by 
Savage of Good Sense Who Has Travelled” (1703). them.
The Savage’s name was fictional but was based on One final example from the extant volume is 
the observations of Kandiaronk. It created a sensation particularly relevant in this perilous moment in 
across Europe, as a very intelligent and incisive critique Ukraine. Only in the 1970s did archeologists discover 
of Europeans and their entire social order. Eventually the neolithic “mega-sites” of Ukraine and Moldova, 
many members of the French Enlightenment which were occupied from roughly 4,100 to 3,300 
published their own critiques, using different “others”: BCE.  The sites are large rings, almost entirely made 
Montesquieu chose a Persian; Diderot a Tahitian; of houses, without centralized government buildings 
Chateaubriand a Natchez; Voltaire’s L’Ingenue was or defensive structures or obvious sites for rituals. 
Wendat and French. In1747, the Parisian saloniste The large centers of the rings were empty, at least 
Madame de Graffigny published Letters of a Peruvian with regard to archaeological remains. Excavation 
Woman—France as perceived by a captured Inca of the houses reveal that people had rich and varied 
princess. It was a feminist landmark, noted by the foodwebs, but, as the authors note: “over the eight 
authors, “in that it may well be the first European novel centuries we find little evidence for warfare or the rise 
about a woman which does not end with the protagonist of social elites”. (p.294). Several of the mega-sites are 
either marrying or dying”. (p. 59) Madame de now battlefields of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Graffigny, preparing a later revised edition, asked the 
young economist A.R.J. Turgot to suggest changes. He 
replied that the natural freedom and equality of savages KNUD RASMUSSEN: AMBASSADOR ON DOG 
was illusory, as it could happen only when households SLED, by Knud Michelsen—Federation of Danish 
were self-sufficient and hence all were equally poor. Associations in Canada, Ottawa, 2021
Progress could arise only through selective inequality. 
Eventually this led to Turgot’s four stages of economic Reviewed by Igor Krupnik
development the world over: starting with hunters, then We have been longing 
pastoralists, then farming, and finally urban commercial for this publication 
civilization. The impact of Turgot was profound. “In for quite some time 
this way, theories of social evolution—now so familiar and particularly for its 
that we rarely dwell on their origins—first came to be appearance during the 
articulated in Europe: as a direct response to the power centennial of the Fifth 
of indigenous critique.” (p. 61) Thule Expedition (FTE) 
This is the barest skeleton of the authors’ argument, of 1921–1924, led by 
upon which they hang hundreds of pages of examples Knud Rasmussen. 
and analysis, ranging from the Paleolithic to the We have partnered 
Anthropocene, in cultures and cultural clashes all over with its author, a 
the planet. The writing style is deliberately discursive, Danish historian 
and arguments and additions resurface continually. and Rasmussen’s 
There is much to be extracted from this volume, but it great-nephew from 
takes work. But we do note that, if you try to buy the Copenhagen, Knud 
book online, you will also find at least a half dozen Michelsen, since the 
publications purporting to be briefer summaries of the beginning of our FTE 
major arguments. centennial program 
in 2017. Michelsen has been a crucial driver of 
At this point in the review, we note what shows up FTE centennial efforts, now in its fifth year, and he 
in the first paragraphs of most reviews so far.  Three contributed to both the FTE centennial session held 
weeks after the manuscript was finally completed, in Nome in February 2019 and to the collection of its 
in 2020, David Graeber contracted a pancreatic proceedings published in 2021 (see ASC Newsletter 
infection, and within hours he was gone. Graeber was 2019, 2020). Over the past 15 years, Michelsen has 
regarded as a leader in the protest movements for been meticulously researching the life and works of 
70      ASC Newsletter
his famous relative and then duly publishing books generate a lot of attention across North America and 
covering the subsequent phases of his life and career: hopefully will quickly find a publisher for an English 
his childhood years (Michelsen 2011), his early translation. We will review it in the next issue of the 
explorations in Greenland (Michelsen 2014), and later ASC Newsletter. Stay tuned, as Michelsen’s journey in 
exploits, from the establishment of the Thule station in the footsteps of his great-uncle and the saga of the Fifth 
1910 to the beginning of the FTE in 1921 (Michelsen Thule Expedition continue. 
2018). Alas, these wonderfully rich volumes based on 
careful reading of Rasmussen’s letters, diaries, and 
other written sources were all produced in Danish, MENSCH UND NATUR IN SIBIRIEN (MAN 
making their use by North America readers limited to AND NATURE IN SIBERIA), Erich Kasten, ed.—
those with Danish fluency. Kulturstiftung Sibirien, 2021
Rasmussen is of course a well-known figure to a Reviewed by Igor Krupnik
broad swath of the North American public, thanks to Erich Kasten, our 
the English translation of his book, Fra Grөnland till German colleague and 
Stillehavet (1925) that was published as Across Arctic a one-person research 
America. Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition, first powerhouse, continues 
in 1927 and later, in 1999, as well as to the monumental his string of successful 
series, the Reports of the Fifth Thule Expedition. Yet, publications on 
his many English-language biographies, including the ethnology, indigenous 
most recent one by Stephen Bown (White Eskimo 2015) cultures, and languages 
are mostly hagiographies aimed at general readers. of the people of 
Few are based on original research or veer beyond the 
familiar tropes and images of Rasmussen found in many Siberia and the Arctic. 
publications. Having a new English-language overview His “Kulturstiftung 
of Rasmussen’s life based on his diaries, letters, and Sibirien,” (Foundation 
writings is truly a big deal, particularly for this FTE for Siberian Cultures) 
centennial year. We thank Michelsen’s Canadian features an impressive 
publishers for releasing the book for this occasion. list of books, collected volumes, catalogs, 
Michelsen knows his subject perfectly; he also studied scholarly materials, 
various archival sources in many countries, including and CDs on its 
Denmark, UK, Canada, and the U.S. His narrative of website https://dh-north.org/themen/kulturstiftung-
Rasmussen’s diverse endeavors is engaging. It flows sibirien/en. Over the past decade, the Foundation 
easily and is illustrated by more than 70 historical launched a slew of publication series. Its Bibliotheca 
photographs from the Danish Arctic Institute, the Kamtschatica offers reprints of major historical sources 
Danish National Museum, the Royal Library, and the on Kamchatka. Another series, Bibliotheca Sibiro-
author’s personal and family archives. Many images Pacifica, produced new English reprints of all Siberian 
have never been published before; they create a volumes from the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 
remarkable visual ‘portfolio’ of Rasmussen in various series, including the Chukchee, the Koryak, the Yakut, 
stages of his illustrious life. Almost a third of the 192- the Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus, with 
page book is dedicated to the planning and works of new introductions written by contemporary Siberian 
the FTE, starting from its very first outlines in the scholars. Most of the Foundation’s books are published 
early 1900s through the team’s return to Denmark and in English and German, but several cultural and 
Greenland in 1924. This book is a highly valuable language materials for Siberian Indigenous users are 
resource to everyone interested in the FTE origin and produced in Russian.
its implementation, even if it lacks dozens of academic 
references and footnotes. The volume reviewed here is a German-language collection compiled and edited by Kasten; its full 
We are looking forward to seeing the next installment translated title is Man and Nature in Siberia. Ecological 
in Michelsen’s monumental venture, his fourth volume Knowledge and Sustainable Environmental Relations 
in the series, Rejsen til det oprindelige folk. Knud in the Time of Climate Change. The 330-page book 
Rasmussens 5. Thule-ekspedition (“The journey to contains 11 chapters (papers) and short Introduction by 
the original people. Knud Rasmussen's 5th Thule Kasten. The volume’s geography and the spectrum of 
expedition”) which has been advertised for release by Siberian Indigenous people it covers is rather broad—
Aarhus University Press (Aarhus Universitetsforlag) from the Nenets in Yamal to the Sakha, Evenk, Even, 
in the last months of 2021. This new book is certain to and the Yukaghir in the Sakha Republic-Yakutia to the 
      ASC Newsletter 71
Koryak in Kamchatka, and the Yupik and Chukchi in Yukaghir, a small 
Chukotka. Several papers address the more general aboriginal nation 
issues of life in Siberia under climate change, from in Northeast Arctic 
hydrocarbon extraction and trade to ecological blogging Siberia. The word 
on Indigenous social networks. Even more diverse is tos literally means 
the list of volume authors—anthropologists, biologists, ‘birchbark’ in the 
climatologists, local cultural activists, and subsistence Yukaghir language, 
users—who come from Russia, France, Germany, Japan, while the drawings 
Finland, and USA, including Indigenous scholars, like are called shangar 
Vyacheslav Shadrin (Yukaghir), Semen Gabyshev shorile (‘writings on 
(Evenk), and Vera Solovyeva (Sakha). the skin of a tree’). 
They first became 
Some volume papers are German translations of the known in 1894–
earlier English or Russian publications; but many 1895; the 30-some 
present new studies of drastic changes observed in existing samples 
Siberian ecosystems, as well as their interpretations are preserved in 
and adaptation strategies pursued by local people in various museum 
several regions of Siberia. Japanese anthropologist collections and have 
Hiroki Takakura offers the first-ever assessment of the been published and reprinted numerous times over the 
Sakha people views about extreme floods on the Lena past 125 years. The largest sample of these birchbark 
River (with the glossary of 50+ Sakha terms). Yukaghir drawings, 25 altogether, was collected by Waldemar 
cultural leader, Vyacheslav Shadrin presents a concise Jochelson (1855–1937) during his two major fieldwork 
overview of the modern Yukaghir interpretations of periods in Northeast Siberia, on the Russian Sibiryakov 
climate change in their native area, under the striking expedition of 1894–1897 and, shortly after, on the 
title, “Nature Stopped Trusting Us.” Alexander Jesup North Pacific Expedition (JNPE) of the American 
Volkovitsky and Alexandra Tereokhina, both from Museum of Natural History in 1900–1902. The JNPE 
the Labytnangi Research Station in the Yamal-Nenets tosy ended up in the American Museum collections 
area, review the new risks to the Yamal Nenets herding and were used as illustrations to Jochelson’s famous 
economy from the rapidly transforming snow and ice monograph on the Yukaghir (1926) published under the 
regime. Vera Solovyeva, a recent Sakha Ph.D. graduate editorship of Franz Boas, the JNPE scientific leader. 
from George Mason University, introduces her study 
of the impact of climate change on the Sakha and Even Nikolai Vakhtin, Russian linguist and cultural 
subsistence practices in the Oymyakon ulus (district) of historian at the European University in St. Petersburg 
the northeastern Sakha Republic. In his paper about the and our partner on the Jesup-2 project in 1992–2003, 
Koryak perspectives on sustainable reindeer herding first encountered the tosy, as well as people who could 
and fishing practices, Kasten assesses local knowledge read and produce them 90+ years after Yochelson, 
he collected over 25 years among several dozen elders during his own fieldwork in the Yukaghir community 
from many Indigenous communities in Kamchatka. of Nelemnoe. By that time, the skill of reading and 
making tosy was considered extinct. To Vakhtin’s and 
These and other studies in the new collection offer much his peers’ surprise, one of the local Yukaghir residents 
needed local perspectives on the impact of climate named Vasilii Shalugin (1934–2002) demonstrated his 
change on Indigenous people across Siberia. The ability to ‘read’ the tosy reproduced in Jochelson’s and 
Russian version of the book is due to be released in early other publications and even produced two new ones for 
2022; it would be a valuable source to environmentalists, the visiting scientists. The memory of that encounter 
educators, and local cultural activists working across the had to wait for 33 years, until Vakhtin turned to his 
Siberian regions covered in the volume. new book, an overview of all the information on the 
Yukaghir pictographs available in published sources, 
YUKAGIRSKIE TOSY (“THE YUKAGHIR archival records, and museum collections.
TOS’ES”), by Nikolai Vakhtin—European 
University, St. Petersburg, 2021 Besides carefully reviewing the existing data on the Yukaghir and their tosy, Vakhtin—always a meticulous 
Reviewed by Igor Krupnik researcher—offers his analysis of their structure, 
meaning, main graphic elements (“glossary” of the 
This book is a long-awaited study of the Yukaghir tosy images), and the full list of all known tos-writings in the 
(plural, sing. tos), mysterious pictographic writings or form of small black-and-white drawings in the Appendix 
drawings (?) on pieces of birchbark produced by the to his book. It was already known from earlier studies 
72      ASC Newsletter
that tosy existed in two versions—the ‘male’ ones, TRANSITIONS
mostly graphic representations of hunters’ trips and maps 
of their subsistence grounds, and the ‘female’ ones that 
could be compared to pictographic ‘love letters’ drawn LYUDMILA AINANA, YUPIK EDUCATOR 
by young Yukaghir women to express their feelings AND ACTIVIST (1934–2021)
to their soul mates and peers. According to Vakhtin’s 
analysis, these were two different forms of graphic By Igor Krupnik
representations; each used their distinctive graphic 
elements and symbols. He illustrated his arguments by a Lyudmila Ainana, renown Russian Yupik educator, 
careful assessment of each element in his ‘glossary’ that cultural and political activist, and keeper of the Siberian 
can be also viewed as a ’primer’ to those who attempt Yupik knowledge and language traditions passed away 
to read and understand the meaning of the known on July 2, 2021, in her home town of Provideniya in 
tosy. His glossary is based on the information received Chukotka, Russia. She was 86. Ainana—widely known 
from Shalugin in 1987, as well as on bits and pieces of by her Yupik name Aynganga—was the founder and 
explanations by earlier explorers and collectors. the first president of the first-ever Siberian Yupik civic 
organization called “The Yupik Society” (1990–1999), 
Overall, the book delivers a punching message. Not until it was closed by the decree of the area authorities. 
only was the knowledge of the key elements of the tosy She spent most of her childhood years in a small Yupik 
writing preserved as unique pictographic ‘language’ hamlet, a hunting camp near Cape Chaplin, and in the 
much longer than it was believed (at least until the large Yupik community of Ungaziq. Without knowing 
passing of Shalugin in 2002), but it turned out to be a single word of Russian, she entered the village school 
recoverable for the analysis, classification, and thus for at Ungaziq, where most classes were taught by Russian 
reproduction long after the passing of the supposedly teachers, then the boarding school at the Russian area 
last people who knew how to use it. Like an ‘extinct’ hub of Provideniya. A dedicated and gifted student, 
language, the skills of the tosy reading and writing can she moved on to attend five-year training at the 
be re-learned and recreated as an element of modern Hertzen’s Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad (now St. 
Yukaghir cultural heritage even if not as an authentic Petersburg), the most prestigious Soviet teaching hub 
means of Indigenous communication. The story I heard for Indigenous educators and cultural workers from 
from Vakhtin after his book was published was that across Siberia.
some modern Yukaghir demonstrated their familiarity 
with the tosy drawings, as well as their ability to make After graduation, Aynganga taught at several local 
such drawings themselves. Those heritage enthusiasts, schools in Chukotka before joining the staff of the 
but also researchers worldwide, will be forever grateful Russian Institute ‘of the national issues in education,’ 
to a professor in St. Petersburg who took upon himself a rather cryptic title for an agency tasked to develop 
to summarize what has been known about this unique school curricula and teaching materials for myriad 
cultural practice and made it available for today’s schools with non-Russian students across the former 
readers to enjoy and replicate.  Soviet Union. For 15 years, she composed Yupik 
primers and language curricula, together with her few 
educated Yupik peers, until her life shifted dramatically 
with the advent of the so-called perestroika (re-
structuring) movement in the late 1980s. Following 
the founding meeting of the “Yupik Society” in 
Provideniya in August 1990 (which I attended), she 
never returned to her schoolwork, even though she 
always kept her passion for the Yupik language, 
literacy, and printed materials.
Aynganga’s ‘second life’ as a Yupik intellectual, 
political, and cultural leader, eventually the leader of 
her small nation lasted for 30 years. Since the 1960s, 
she interacted with almost every researcher who 
studied culture, language, and ecological knowledge 
Ayngaga (right) interviews Yupik Elder, Beda Slwooko of her native Siberian Yupik, including linguists 
Avalaq in Gambell about the former connections between Georgii Menovshchikov, Nikolai Vakhtin and 
Chukotka and St. Lawrence Island Yupik. May 1999. Photo Michael Krauss, archaeologists Sergei Arutyunov 
by Igor Krupnik and Michael Bronshtein, biologists Lyudmila 
      ASC Newsletter 73
Bogoslovskaya, Igor Zagrebin, and Tom Albert, 
and ethnologists like Michael Chlenov, Dmitrii 
Oparin, and myself. Her exceptional role as a partner 
and knowledge expert was in her ability to personally 
relate to the many ‘cultural layers’ of her complex 
international network of Indigenous activists, more 
traditionally oriented Yupik hunters and Elders, as 
well as academics, journalists, and public figures of 
all stripes. Yet she remained a researcher herself, a 
thoughtful person, insightful about the mission of 
science in documenting and assisting Indigenous 
people in the preservation of their languages, cultures, 
and oral traditions.
I met Aynganga and worked with her on my first 
fieldwork among the Yupik of Chukotka in 1975; but 
our most extended partnership took place in 1998- Robert Petersen at home in Odense, May 2013. 
2002 during the NSF-funded project on Beringia Photo by Igor Krupnik
(St. Lawrence Island-Siberian Yupik) heritage 
documentation. It brought us together to the Yupik 
communities of Gambell and Savoonga on St. Greenland), originally as the Inuit Institute, he moved 
Lawrence Island in spring 1999. She was a remarkable to Nuuk to become its first Director (1983) and then 
cultural interpreter and mediator, a passionate its first Rector (1987), until his retirement in 1995. He 
speaker, with deep knowledge of her native culture spent his last years in the city of Odense in Denmark.
and language but eager to explore new venues to 
benefit her people, like agency-funded environmental Behind his quiet and humble appearance, was a man 
monitoring, heritage and language documentation, of remarkable scholarly prowess, who was universally 
community surveys, hunters’ observation of marine admired by his many Greenlandic and Danish 
mammals, and much more. In her boundless energy colleagues and students, as well as by Arctic scholars 
and resourcefulness, she was the ‘army of one’ and worldwide. He published numerous papers and several 
the power to recon with. Her many friends mourn her books, including Subsistence Hunting: the Greenland 
passing; but it is an irrecoverable loss to her Yupik Case (1982) and Settlements, Kinship and Hunting 
nation of 1800 people and to a small crop of Indigenous Grounds in Traditional Greenland: A Comparative 
intellectuals across Siberia. Study of Local Experiences from Upernavik and Ammassalik (2003). He conducted research in many 
areas in Greenland, also in Arctic Canada, and he was 
ROBERT PETERSEN (1928–2021) an internationally recognized authority on Greenlandic 
Inuit (Kalallit) history, literacy, orthography of 
By Igor Krupnik the Greenlandic language (Kalallisut), cultural 
Robert Karl Frederik Petersen, Greenlandic development, and Indigenous education. He received 
Inuit scholar, dialectologist, anthropologist, and the numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate 
first rector of the Ilisimatusarfik, the University of from the Université Laval (1992) and Ilisimatusarfik 
Greenland, passed away on October 24, 2021. He was (2010), the Greenland Culture Award (1993), and was 
93. Robert was born in the town of Maniitsoq, formerly elected to the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for 
Sukkertoppen in West Greenland (Kitaa) and was Swedish Folk Culture.
trained as a schoolteacher at the Greenland seminary in Although Robert did not participate in ASC activities, 
Nuuk (Ilinniarfissuaq) and then in Denmark. In 1954– we knew him well and interacted regularly at many 
1956 he taught at the same seminary but then changed Arctic venues. He was the only Inuit contributor to 
his course to become a Greenlandic historian and, later, the Handbook of North American Indians “Arctic” 
linguist and anthropologist. In 1967 he received the volume (Damas 1984), for which he authored 
M.A degree at the University of Copenhagen, where four chapters: East Greenland Before 1950; East 
he continued teaching Eskimo/Inuit language, history, Greenland After 1950; Greenlandic Written Literature; 
and literature, and in 1975 he ascended to the position and The Pan-Eskimo Movement. Sixty-five years 
of professor of Eskimology at the same university, prior to our Fifth Thule Expedition (FTE) centennial 
the first Greenlander to hold a professorship. With venue, he went with the H.J. Rink Expedition of 
the establishment of Ilisimatusarfik (University of 1956 to Baffin Island, on the first organized exchange 
74      ASC Newsletter
between Greenlandic and Canadian Inuit, and in 1957 in the regional hub, the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. 
he worked on an archaeological survey in Igloolik In 1988 she joined the staff of the Sakhalin Regional 
with Jørgen Meldgaard, thus re-tracking the FTE Museum, eventually serving as its director from 2003 
routes. In 1979, he published an overview of the FTE to 2015. While leading that institution, she traveled 
activities in a special issue of the journal Inuktitut widely to advance the museum’s collections, building 
dedicated to Knud Rasmussen that appeared in three a dynamic and robust international network. She 
languages—English, Greenlandic, and Canadian modernized the museum’s physical space in a landmark 
Inuktitut. building erected by the Japanese in the 1930s, upgraded 
its collections, and founded an open-air ethnographic 
I first met Robert at the 6th Inuit Studies Conference museum on its territory. Prior to serving as director, 
in Copenhagen in 1988, then at the 7th conference she spent a postdoctoral year at the American Museum 
in Fairbanks, where the International Arctic Social of Natural History in New York, working closely with 
Sciences Association (IASSA) was born. At the IASSA the collections from the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 
6th congress in Nuuk in summer 2008, Petersen from a century earlier.
received the association’s highest lifetime award, 
together with Tiger Burch and Ludger Müller- An avid fieldworker, Roon’s regular and collaborative 
Wille. I last saw Robert in May 2013, when I traveled engagements with the Sakhalin Indigenous Uil’ta 
to visit with him in his residence in Odense and to (Orok) people led to her most prominent Russian-
talk about his work with Tiger Burch in 1982 on language work, The Uilt’a of Sakhalin: An 
the map of traditional Inuit ‘societies’ in Greenland Ethnohistorical Study of Traditional Economy and 
in the early 1800s. That story, together with a more Material Culture (1996). That book served as the 
focused overview of Robert’s many contributions basis for her (full) doctoral dissertation in 1997. 
by Søren Thuesen, were published in our collection She followed in 2010 with a broader monograph on 
volume, Early Inuit Studies. Themes and Transitions, Indigenous life across Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, 
1850s–1980s (Krupnik 2016), where Robert’s name together with essays on the history of Russian and 
is cited in almost every chapter. He will be missed by Soviet anthropology. These were among her many 
his many international colleagues, but even more so articles, translations, edited volumes, and a coauthored 
by his people in Greenland, to whom he dedicated his Russian-Uil’ta dictionary that reflected the very best 
illustrious life. of the longstanding Russian fieldwork tradition. 
From 2001 onwards, she gave her time generously 
TATIANA P. ROON (1961–2021)* to coordinate negotiations between Indigenous 
communities in the face of Sakhalin’s vast oil 
By Bruce Grant and Anna Sirina development. She is already much missed.
Scholars of Siberian [Igor Krupnik]: We knew Tatiana Roon from many 
ethnography and joint meetings in the 1990s and 2000s, when ASC 
history of the Russian scholars worked with their Russian partners on the 
Far East mourn a Jesup-2 program (1992–2002) and on the Mini-
friend and colleague, Crossroads traveling venues in four cities of the 
Dr. Tatiana Roon, Russian Far East in 1996–1997. In 2000, Roon 
who passed away in visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural 
June 2021, just one History and studied our ethnographic collections from 
month shy of her the Russian Pacific region and also historical photo 
sixtieth birthday. Born collections, including the now famous Sakhalin Ainu 
in 1961 in the Soviet photographs taken by Polish anthropologist Bronislaw 
port town of Kholmsk Pilsudski in the early 1900s, now at the National 
on Sakhalin Island, just north of Japan, she went Anthropological Archives (NAA). Her Russian paper 
on to become one of the leading anthropologists of on these collections published in 2000 remains the sole 
contemporary Indigenous life in the country’s eastern assessment of substantial ethnographic holdings at 
reaches, as well as one of its most prominent museum NMNH from this part of the world.  
leaders.
*Adapted with authors’ permission from: Grant, Bruce 
Roon received her B.S. degree in history and and Anna Sirina. 2022. “Tatiana Petrovna Roon.” 
anthropology in 1986 from Leningrad University’s Anthropology News website, March 2, 2022. https://
Department of Ethnography, then returned to Sakhalin www.anthropology-news.org/articles/tatiana-petrovna-
to take up lecturing at the local Pedagogical Institute roon/ 
      ASC Newsletter 75
JACQUES CINQ-MARS (1942–2021) FLOYD KUPTANA (1964–2021)
[Ed. note. This piece is By Richard D. Mohr
adapted from CBC News 
Dec. 7, 2021. Jacques Carver, painter, and 
Cinq-Mars was one collage artist, Floyd 
of the first Canadian Kuptana, 57, died on 
archaeologists to question the streets of Toronto in 
the “Clovis First” dogma the early hours of May 
that dominated North 27, 2021. His social 
American archaeology worker with Toronto’s 
until the 1970s, when he, Street Survivors 
Dennis Stanford, Robson Program reports that the 
Bonnichson, and others police say they found no 
began to argue for pre-Clovis. His work followed in evidence of violence or 
the footsteps of Richard MacNeish, famous for his suspicious activity. His current gallerist reported that 
Engigstciak Yukon research, and his University of he had been drinking more heavily than usual the last 
Toronto mentor, Bill Irving. Controversy still exists few days. He was often in and out of hospitals, police 
about whether the bones he found record human vans, and rehab centers. He was known to have heart 
activity. Jacques’ son Eric contributed to this profile.] problems. His life and art were as unusual and untidy 
as they were intense.
Jacques Cinq-Mars was a man known for his research 
in some of the more remote parts of the Yukon, where He was born in 1964 at the Cape Parry DEW Line 
he found evidence of humans in Yukon's Bluefish Caves station, where, in 1959, the settlement of Paulatuk, 
indicating that human beings set foot in North America NWT, moved lock, stock, and priest for a decade. His 
much earlier than originally thought, possibly as early as father worked at the station; his mother taught English 
24,000 years ago, twice as old as the accepted age. in the hamlet school. English was spoken in the home. 
His ancestors were Yupik and Inupiat who had move 
Cinq-Mars worked for the Canadian Museum of east from Alaska in the late 19th century with the last 
History and began his many research trips in the vestiges of the whaling industry. 
Old Crow area beginning in the early 1970s. That's 
when Elder William Josie of the Vuntut Gwitchin Born into a family of carvers, he was carving on his 
First Nation in Old Crow, Yukon, first met him. Josie own as early as 1991. He displayed carvings in Toronto 
was around 12 or 13 years old at the time. Josie said in 1993, before moving there for good in 1996. In an 
Cinq-Mars got along well with the locals he met and interview with Toronto’s ‘That Channel’, he reported the 
that his research helped his community's land claim reason he moved south was to avoid family violence. 
negotiations. “It really helped us, you know,” he said. He was raped by a family member and had also been 
“Our people, we took less money for more land, and abused in the Catholic residential school in Inuvik. His 
that means a lot to us. And, you know, the elders of relations with friends, gallerist, and ‘saviors’ were often 
that time said, we won't regret it. And we definitely fraught. Though many people were repulsed by him and 
don't today.” Josie described him as a “very passionate his work, others loved him, but he found that difficult 
guy…He sort of took us under his wing and he taught to register. His social worker reports sadly that “He was 
us a lot. I really appreciate that.” never given an opportunity to be loved or show affection 
to himself.” Still, he was prolific.
A colleague of Cinq-Mars, Yukon archaeologist Ruth 
Gotthardt, said she first met Cinq-Mars in 1975, In spring 2008 he snagged the cover of Inuit Art 
while she was an undergraduate at the University of Quarterly as part of a portfolio presentation of his 
Toronto. Cinq-Mars and Bill Irving had just started up carvings to date—an unsettling mix of whimsy and 
the Northern Yukon Research Program. Gotthardt said horror. His carving can be found at the Museum 
she wasn't surprised when Cinq-Mars announced the Cerny in Bern, Switzerland. In 2010, he began a 
findings at Bluefish dated to 24,000 years ago. “We were long but rocky association, as a satellite artist, with 
all thinking, this is really worth entertaining that human Toronto’s noncommercial Gallery Arcturus, which 
beings came not after the last ice age, but you know, would always provide him coffee, food, and a few 
during the last ice age at some point, and we figured, bucks, and, if he showed up at least partially sober, 
well, why not?...He had the kind of scholarly energy studio space. There, that year, while continuing to 
that encourages others to do research and expand the carve, he began painting in acrylics. In 2012, he 
research, that’s what I remember about him.” added collage to his toolkit. 
76      ASC Newsletter
Many of the two-dimensional works move into the she enrolled in nursing school through the Bavarian 
realm of the uncanny and the grotesque, a realm made Red Cross. She met and fell in love with Dr. Claus 
all the more disconcerting with brash colors and Jochen Dietze at the hospital where they both worked. 
allusions to pop culture and art history. Van Gogh was They were married in Munich in 1949 and gave birth to 
his favorite artist, as much for that artist’s life as his their first son, Holger, in 1950.
works. Kuptana’s own graphic work seamlessly fused 
traditional Inuit themes of shamanistic transformation In 1952, they emigrated to Norfolk, Virginia. Edith 
with graphic techniques of the cubists. Both his life and learned to speak English by going to the same movies 
work bear strong family resemblances to Outsider Art over and over. She gave birth to twins, Ralph and 
and artists. Monika Dietze, in 1954 in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Soon 
after, they moved to Winchester, Massachusetts, where 
The paintings and collages were gradually beginning she combined her love of people and entertaining 
to gain critical recognition, with articles on them to start a cooking class at the International Student 
appearing in Inuit Art Quarterly (Toronto), The Center in Cambridge. They finally settled in Vienna, 
Outsider (Chicago) and Kolaj (Montreal). He is Virginia, where they raised their family. Edith was 
survived by three famous cousins, all also urban Inuit passionate about ancient history and art, and in 1966 
carvers: Bill Nasogaluak; Abraham Anghik Ruben, she began taking classes at the Corcoran School of Art 
OC; and David Ruben Piqtoukun, Kuptana’s principal in Washington D.C. 
mentor.
She graduated from George Washington University 
Kuptana would often go panhandling outside five-star with a master’s in Museum Studies in 1978 at age 
hotels in Toronto, even when he didn’t need the money. 54. Inspired by the Smithsonian’s Carolyn Rose, 
Eron Boyd, Gallery Arcturus’ manager, says that who modernized Anthropology’s Conservation 
Kuptana called it “urban hunting.” Laboratory, she then began an illustrious 30-year 
career as a conservator at the Smithsonian National 
EDITH DIETZ, SMITHSONIAN Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Edith spent a 
CONSERVATOR (1924–2022) summer in Siena, Italy, working on Etruscan material. She supported the conservation of ceramics from 
By The Dietz Family, Michele Austin-Dennehy, and Gus Van Beek’s Tell Jemmah, Syria. In 1976, along 
David Rosenthal with other staff and volunteers,she conserved a 6 x 
9 foot polychrome floor mosaic from a first century 
Beloved Mother, Carthaginian temple that was severely damaged 
Granny, Aunt, and during moving. The conservation began in June, 
Friend Editha “Edith” 1976, and took more than 16 months. Edith also 
Sophia Maria Piesch did field work conserving mosaics in Carthage with 
Dietze passed away Margaret Alexander. While at NMNH, she worked 
on exhibitions including Magnificent Voyagers: The 
March 3, 2022, at US Exploring Expedition (1985), Crossroads of 
age 97. Born on July Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska (1996), 
6, 1924, in Bielsko- Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People (1999), Vikings: 
Biala, Poland (formerly The North Atlantic Saga (2000), Hawaiian Treasures: 
Bielitz), Edith was the Celebrating the Indigenous Peoples of Hawaii (2004). 
epitome of the Greatest Generation. A life-long lover of She also conserved many Egyptian objects including 
learning, she began her education at the Catholic school a full-sized bull mummy. Edith worked on many 
of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in her small Polish NMNH exhibit hall projects and SITES traveling 
town. Her tendency towards mischief resulted in her exhibits over the years helping to bring conservation 
dismissal from French class after an incident involving into the consciousness of NMNH staff—all of which 
a spitball and a nun. she did with intelligence and unbounded wit. You did 
The onset of World War II changed the trajectory of not leave a conversation with Edith without a smile on 
her life forever. At 17, she became a nurse for the your face!  
International Red Cross and worked in field hospitals Edith Dietze was resilient, poised, and one-of-a-kind. 
throughout Poland. The oldest of four siblings, at the She had an insatiable enthusiasm for knowledge and 
end of the war she had no idea of her family’s fate. She learning. Her surviving family will miss her and her 
was able to escape the Russian invasion of Poland, but unwavering sense of humor. She was an  inspiration to 
later found out that her father perished in a Russian all. Her extraordinary life will forever be cherished by 
gulag in Siberia. She traveled alone to Munich where her family.
      ASC Newsletter 77
SERGEI SEROTETTO: REINDEER I guess his principal motivation for such openness 
NOMADISM AS PROFESSION, LIFESTYLE, to outsiders was his curiosity for the world, his 
PASSION AND LOVE (1954–2021) intellectual drive to learn about different environments 
and people, in combination with his personal warmth 
By Florian Stammler and a never-ending hospitality. He also thought that a 
The news coming from positive publicity about the Nenets way of life would 
Arctic Russia was a help make the case for preserving Nenets reindeer 
shock: It was last year nomadism amid active industrial development of 
when we celebrated his home Yamal area. As a professional, he always 
Sergei Serotetto’s 66th maintained that everyone should attend to the job one 
birthday in his nomadic did best and thus was reluctant to serve as a co-author 
camp in the Yamal on scholarly publications even when invited. “You can 
Peninsula, surrounded do that writing and I am good at reindeer herding.” And 
by his family of three he was so good at his professional job! For decades, 
generations. Sergei, he has been the head of the world’s largest reindeer 
who unexpectedly passed away in May 2021 was herding team, the Yar-Sale herding ‘brigade’ No.8 that 
one of the best-known Nenets reindeer herders in included a camp of 8 nomadic tents (chums) and up to 
the former Soviet Union, in post-Soviet Russia, and 8,000 reindeer in peak years. 
maybe across the Arctic. He was once among the Sergei was convinced that a combination of traditional 
very few herders invited to the All-union congress tundra skills acquired by a living teaching by wise 
of the Communist Party, but he declined. He let the 
Communist bosses know that he was too busy herding Elders and formal education in town was the right mix 
his reindeer. A decade later, he was among the first needed to lead a successful nomadic way of life. He 
Indigenous herders who hosted international visitors, continued to pursue this approach for his own children 
including the Smithsonian-led team of Bill Fitzhugh, and grandchildren. In his large extended family, all 
Sven Haakanson, Andrey Golovnev, Natalya children are well educated, including his son Lev, a 
Fedorova, and others. He became known worldwide certified veterinarian, who now inherits the big herd 
thanks to the beautiful photographs taken by famous and his father’s camp. Those of us honored by his 
Arctic photographer Bryan Alexander. He was at friendship may confirm that in his family you would 
the founding congress of the World Reindeer Herders never feel that the Nenets nomadic life would ever 
Association in Nadym, Russia in 1998 and, in his cease. Sergei has taught his extended family how to 
active position within the Association travelled to many weather almost any adverse effects—be it icing of the 
other reindeer herding areas across the Eurasian Arctic, tundra pastures, industrialization, political change, 
including in Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. reindeer disease, or social pressure. 
As an ‘exemplary Arctic herder,’ Sergei also turned into 
a TV star. A joint Irish and the National Geographic In this way, Sergei Serotetto also made a lasting 
documentary, with him as a principal character won contribution to deconstructing the image of 
the “Spirit of the Festival Award” at the Celtic Film ‘marginalized’ and ‘vulnerable’ Indigenous people, the 
Festival in 2003. In 2006, I chose him and his family as perceived victims of external stressors, such as climate 
the ambassadors of the Arctic nomadic way of life for change, oil and gas development or new Russian state 
the BBC/Discovery series Tribe that was watched by capitalism. Staying with his family, joining it on its 
more than 40 million people worldwide. Intellectually, nomadic routes, and listening to Sergei’s stories offered 
Sergei shaped research and careers of many a scholar a very different narrative, one of enthusiasm, passion, 
of his native Yamal Nenets people, and thus made a love for this way of life, toughness and stamina, but 
significant impact on studies of nomadic pastoralism, also of wisdom to change things that you can and 
Arctic indigenous people, and Arctic anthropology, in accept those you cannot. Sergei was buried at his clan 
general. The doctoral theses by Andrei Golovnev, Sven 
Haakanson, myself, Ellen Inga Turi, Roza Laptander, cemetery in the Yamal tundra. His departure is a big 
and others would have never been as rich in detail if not loss for the Nenets reindeer nomadism, the scholarly 
for the input from Sergei and his family. He was a great community interested in Yamal, but first and foremost 
supporter of our research, both practically by hosting for his extended family. May Sergei’s energy and spirit 
many of us in his nomadic camp, and theoretically live on through them in continuing his legacy.
via rich and insightful conversations, and sharing his 
wisdom in narratives that helped make Nenets culture [Adapted from ‘Arctic Anthropology’ website; See also 
understandable to the non-Nenets visitors. Arctic 2021 74(3):405-6]
78      ASC Newsletter
2021 ASC STAFF PUBLICATIONS
Crowell, Aron L. SI/ASC, 2021. https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/
Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789 
Preface: A Western Arctic Perspective on the Fifth 
Thule Expedition. Alaska Journal of Anthropology Land Acknowledgement: A Conversation with Melissa 
19(1-2):3-5. Shaginoff (video). Directed and edited by Dawn 
Biddison. SI/ASC, 2021. https://learninglab.si.edu/q/
Whaling and Whale Spirits in the Western Arctic: Notes ll-c/ZmA0LJFow4xHjk7d#r/41137.
from the Fifth Thule Expedition. Alaska Journal of 
Anthropology 19(1-2):108-126. Driscoll Engelstad, Bernadette 
Crowell, Aron and Krupnik, Igor, eds. 2020 Averting Animal Crashes: Function and 
Symbolism in Arctic Clothing Design. Arctic Crashes: 
From Greenland to the Pacific: Celebrating the People and Animals in the Changing North, edited 
Centennial of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–1924. 
Special issue, Alaska Journal of Anthropology 19 by Igor Krupnik and Aron L. Crowell, pp. 235-253. 
(1–2): vi+269 p Washington, DC: Smithsonian Scholarly Press, 
Biddison, Dawn Inuit Cultural Heritage: Museum Collecting before the Fifth Thule Expedition. Alaska Journal of 
Material Traditions: Voices from Cedar (12-part Anthropology 19(1-2): 70-90.
DVD set). Directed and edited by Dawn Biddison. 
Filmed by Anna Hoover and Dawn Biddison. SI/ Art et symbolisme: la parka des femmes inuit de 
ASC, 2015/2021. https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/ l'Arctique oriental americain. Les Fils de Sanna: Inuit 
nc0613FJwtEe94ga#r/45139  de l'Arctique, eds. Mélanie Moreau et Céline Petit, La Rochelle, FR : musée du Nouveau Monde.
Conversations: Challenges to Inuit Art Sovereignty 
(video). Directed and edited by Dawn Biddison. Harry Egotak. Inuit Art Quarterly, Winter 2021: 
SI/ASC, 2021. https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/ 34(4):60-61.
Clw3cYbEU4OHtTQJ.  Qaumajuq at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. https://www.
Conversations: Activating Inuit Art Sovereignty smithsonianmag.com/travel/groundbreaking-new-
(video). Directed and edited by Dawn Biddison. center-unveils-worlds-largest-collection-of-inuit-
SI/ASC, 2021. https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/ art-180977469/
AoO8Ze3hYucQstFN Fitzhugh, William W.
Conversations: Learning Across Generations and 
Back (video). Directed and edited by Dawn Biddison. From Adaptation to Niche Construction: Weather as a 
SI/ASC, 2021. https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/ Winter Site Selection Factor in Northern Mongolia, the 
H87ZA0Bl6iPdvynu Quebec Lower North Shore, and the Southern Urals. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 61:101258. 
Conversations: Music within Inuit Cultures and (by I. Chechushkov, I. Valiakhmetov, W. Fitzhugh)
Languages (video). Directed and edited by Dawn 
Biddison. SI/ASC, 2021. https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ An 1820s Farm in the Fairlee Forest, Vermont. Journal 
ll-c/TcV50KdP2njsMgFi#r/56851 of Vermont Archaeology 15:68-94. 2021.
Conversations: Inuit Identities and Vitalization (video). Reflections on the Fifth Thule Expedition Centennial. 
Directed and edited by Dawn Biddison. SI/ASC, 2021. In “From Greenland to the Pacific: Centennial of the 
https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/tOxzN1DgfXlBI528 Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921-1924,” a double issue of Alaska Journal of Anthropology 19(1-2):264-269. 
Conversations: Queer Inuit Art (video). Directed 2021.
and edited by Dawn Biddison. SI/ASC, 2021. https://
learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/vmlZQ5gsYh4ER1r3 Khyadag and Zunii Gol: Animal Art and the Bronze to 
Iron Age Transition in Mongolia. Vestnik 66(3):908-
Cultural Appreciation vs. Cultural Appropriation: 933. St. Petersburg. 2021. (with co-author J.A. 
A Conversation with Alaska Native Artists Bayarsaikhan)
(video). Directed and edited by Dawn Biddison. 
      ASC Newsletter 79
Northern Light: My Life Behind a Lens, by Wilfred E. Vedenin and Yu. Badenkov, eds. pp.44–57. Moscow (in 
Richard. Edited by W. Fitzhugh and Gracie Ramsfield. Russian).
201 pp. Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and IPI 
Press. 2021. Harper, Kenn and Igor Krupnik
The Martin North River Site and the Saunders Phase From Greenland to the Pacific: Celebrating the 
in Labrador. Provincial Archaeology Office Annual Centennial of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–1924 
Review 19:62-74. St. Johns, Newfoundland. 2021. (Introduction). Alaska Journal of Anthropology 19 (1–2):6–22
Notes on a Siberian Museum Tour, 12-26 March, 1990. 
Reprinted from Frame of Reference 2(1):25-33 (1991) Krupnik, Igor and Martin Schultz
as “Crossroads Siberia,” in Forum, Journal of the Dispersal and Reunion: The Saga of the “Vega” 
Alaska Humanities Foundation 5:25-33, Winter 2021- Expedition Chukchi Collection, 1878–2020. Archiv fur 
2022. 2021. Weltmuseen vol.69, pp.106–137.
Editor: Arctic Studies Center Newsletter, 28. 2021. Krupnik, Igor and Ljudmila Bogoslovskaja
Krupnik, Igor Unser Eis, unsere Schnee und unsere Winde: Von 
Competing Arctic Paths: “Cohort” Approach to the Wissens-“Integration” zur Wissend-“Korpoduktion” in 
Fifth Thule Expedition Legacy. Alaska Journal of russischen SIKU-Projekt, 2007–2013 [Our Ice, Snow, 
Anthropology 19 (1–2): 91–106. and Winds: From Knowledge Integration to Knowledge 
Co-Production in the Russian SIKU Project, 2007–
Smithsonian Arctic ethnographic collections: Gateways 2013]. In Mensch und Natur in Siberien, Erich Kasten, 
to the Arctic or a path to its people? Vestink AGIKI ed. Verlag der Kulturstiftung Sibirien, pp.175–198 
[Proceedings of the Arctic Institute of Culture and (German translation).
Arts]. 10(1):78–84. Yakutsk, Sakha Republic (in 
Russian) Pratt, Kenneth L.
Running Up the Arctic Information Highway A 1925 Epidemic in the Lower Yukon, Alaska. Arctic 
(Foreword). In Library and Information Studies for Studies Center Newsletter 28:7-11. Smithsonian 
Arctic Social Sciences and Humanities. Spencer Acadia Institution, National Museum of Natural History, 
and Marthe Fjellestad, eds. London and New York: Washington, DC.
Routledge, pp.xxxiv-xxxix.
Tracking Nayagnir: A Shaman's Encounters with 
Arctic Sea Ice as cultural “scape”—In Geografiia i Murder, Western Law, the Lomen Brothers Company, 
ekologiia kultury. Sokhranenie naslediia. [Geography and Knud Rasmussen. Alaska Journal of Anthropology 
and Ecology of Culture. Heritage Preservation]. Yu. 19(1&2):141-159.
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