Northern Athabascan Survival

by Fast, Phyllis Ann

• ISBN13: 9780803220171
• ISBN10: 0803220170
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

The Northern Athabascan peoples of the Alaskan interior and the Yukon have survived centuries of contact and attempted domination by outsiders. Their lives today are simultaneously rich in meaning and tradition yet also complicated by numerous challenges such as poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, suicide, and ineffective leadership.Combining scholarly analysis, first-person accounts, and her own experiences and insights as a Koyukon Athabascan artist and anthropologist, Phyllis Ann Fast illuminates the modern Athabascan world. Her conversations with Athabascan women offer revealing glimpses of their personal lives and a probing assessment of their professional opportunities and limitations. Also showcased is the crucial but ambiguous role of Athabascan leaders, who are needed to champion reform and social healing but are often undermined by conflicting notions of decision-making, personhood, and leadership in Athabascan society.A troubling observation of this study is the vast extent to which addiction-manifested as both substance abuse and economic dependency-pervades Northern Athabascan society and threatens to curtail its cohesion and aspirations. But Northern Athabascans are far from victims. As Phyllis Fast discovers, Northern Athabascan men and women are well aware of these widespread social problems and many have undertaken initiatives to deal with and heal them. Rigorous and compassionate, Northern Athabascan Survival provides an uncompromising view of a remarkable and troubled world.Phyllis Ann Fast is a Koyukon Athabascan artist and a professor in the Alaska Native Studies Department at the University of Alaska.

Author Biography

Phyllis Ann Fast is a Koyukon Athabascan artist and a professor in the Native studies department at the University of Alaska.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Map: The World of the Northern Athabascans
Contemporary Life: Caustic Bonds	p. 1
Footprints: Metaphors of Place, Mobility, and History	p. 47
Rural Economy: Whose Addict Now?	p. 84
Leadership: Just One Mind	p. 134
Women: She Who Is Ravished	p. 178
What Does the Future Hold? Prognosis in Question	p. 230
Final Comments	p. 271
Sources	p. 283
Index	p. 301
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