Alaska Natives: Between Past and Future

This thesis concerns cultural difficulties and conflicts facing native Eskimos in the Bering Strait region of western Alaska. The question addressed was, what is the state and future of traditional native culture? This photojournalism project was filmed in the villages of Brevig Mission, Teller, Golovin, Nome, and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. It includes photographs and interviews with elders and youth, and research from Indian Health Service. I discovered a sense of hopelessness and purposelessness in the rural communities, and that underlying issue is demonstrated in my multimedia documentary and community engagement. This project has changed our common view of the traditional Eskimo ways; they live in modern housing, but lead a subsistence lifestyle. The documentary film explores the factors that led up to present-day lifestyle of the Native Alaskans, such as missionaries, whalers, defective public schools and the Molly Hootch case, inbreeding, and alcoholism in native communities.

Author

• Lincoln, Rachel Dawn

Language

• en

Keyword

• alaskan eskimos
• subsistence
• nome
• molly hootch case
• missionaries
• bering strait

Date created

• 2013

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• New Media Photojournalism

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Sterner, Susan

Committee Member(s)

• Beasley, Toren
• Bulisova, Gabriela
• Turner, Tyrone
• Elfers, Steve

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/q811kj852