New Native American Studies Publications From UW Press
The University of Washington Press is pleased to announce new publications in Native American Studies.
Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather Continuity and Change on the Bering Sea Coast -- Ann Fienup-Riordan and Alice Reardon
Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather is a result of nearly ten years of gatherings among Yup'ik elders to document the qanruyutet (words of wisdom) that guide their interactions with the environment. In an effort to educate their own young people as well as people outside the community, the elders discussed the practical skills necessary to live in a harsh environment, stressing the ethical and philosophical aspects of the Yup'ik relationship with the land, ocean, snow, weather, and environmental change, among many other elements of the natural world.
Ann Fienup-Riordan is author of many books on the Native peoples of Alaska, including Yuungnaqpiallerput / The Way We Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival. Alice Rearden is a translator for the Calista Elders Council, the primary heritage association of Southwest Alaska. They also cooperated on the book Qaluyaarmiuni Nunamtenek Qanemciput / Our Nelson Island Stories: Meanings of Place on the Bering Sea Coast. You can learn more HERE.
Haa Léelk'w Hás Aaní Saax'u / Our Grandparents' Names on the Land
edited by Thomas F. Thornton
Haa Léelk'w Has Aaní Saax'u / Our Grandparents' Names on the Land presents the results of a collaborative project with Native communities of Southeast Alaska to record indigenous geographic names. Documenting and analyzing more than 3,000 Tlingit, Haida, and other Native names on the land, it highlights their descriptive force and cultural significance. With community maps, tables, and photographs, this book will be invaluable for those seeking to understand Alaska Native geographic perspectives.
Thomas F. Thornton is Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Environmental Change and Management Program at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. He is the author of Being and Place among the Tlingit. You can learn more HERE.
Is it a House?
Archaeological Excavations at English Camp, San Juan Island, Washington -- Edited by Amanda K. Taylor and Julie K. Stein
Prehistoric houses on the Northwest Coast were built from wood, often within piles of discarded shells, leaving little archaeological evidence from which to confirm their presence. Is It a House? uses multiple lines of evidence to investigate whether the U-shaped depression surrounded by shells at the English Camp site on San Juan Island was originally a house constructed by native peoples.
Amanda K. Taylor is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington. Julie K. Stein is professor of anthropology and executive director of the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. You can learn more HERE.
The Nature of Borders
Salmon, Boundaries, and Bandits on the Salish Sea -- LIssa K. Wadewitz
For centuries, borders have been central to salmon management customs on the Salish Sea, but how those borders were drawn has had very different effects on the Northwest salmon fishery. Native peoples who fished the Salish Sea drew social and cultural borders around salmon fishing locations and found ways to administer the resource in a sustainable way. Nineteenth-century Euro-Americans, who drew the Anglo-American border along the forty-ninth parallel, took a very different approach and ignored the salmon's patterns and life cycle. As the canned salmon industry grew and more people moved into the region, class and ethnic relations changed. Soon illegal fishing, broken contracts, and fish piracy were endemic - conditions that contributed to rampant overfishing, social tensions, and international mistrust. The Nature of Borders is about the ecological effects of imposing cultural and political borders on this critical West Coast salmon fishery.
Lissa K. Wadewitz is assistant professor of history and environmental studies at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. You can learn more HERE.
