People

To learn the story of Pelagia (also spelled Palakia) Melgenak is to learn the sanctity of shared traditions, the loving bonds of kinship and the reverence of a spiritual connection to the land around you. Born in the late 1870s in the remote village of Savonoski in Alaska, Pelagia grew up learning about hunting, gathering, navigating and guiding in the area. That all changed in 1912 with the hot ash falling like a blanket covering the region with the eruption of Novarupta.

Fannie Quigley is one of Denali's most celebrated historic figures, having arrived in the early 1900's gold rush to Kantishna, and making it her home until her death in 1944. Her childhood in Nebraska helped prepared her for life on the Alaskan frontier.

Defying expectations of her era, Bessie Couture was an black entrepreneur in Skagway during the Klondike Gold Rush and beyond.

Katie John exemplified the qualities of determination and perseverance. Katie's family grew up living a subsistence lifestyle, fishing for salmon in the upper Copper River drainage, near Batzulnetas. In 1964 the newly designated state of Alaska closed this traditional fishing site. Through years of litigation, Katie John petitioned the state and the federal government to allow for traditional fishing. As a result her name is synonymous in Alaska with rural subsistence rights.

Ellen Hope Hays was the first woman to be appointed superintendent of a national park in the Pacific Northwest, Sitka National Historical Park. She is also the first Alaskan Native to be appointed superintendent in the National Park Service.

She is remembered not just for beautiful works of art, but also for her passion and dedication to learning, teaching, and passing on the traditional ways of Lingít people. She held a deep connection to her natural world, and her inspiring humility is what her friends and family cherished most deeply.

Ruth Sandvik was born in Kotzebue, Alaska and throughout her life, lived in many places across Alaska and the United States. She always considered Kiana, Alaska on the Kobuk River her home. In Kiana, she took over operation of Blankenship Trading Post in the late 1950s after her father became ill. She ran the Trading Post with her cousin Robinson Blankenship.

Mary Olympic was born and raised at a reindeer camp at Kukaklek Lake, Alaska. The Kukaklek Lake area she called home are the same lands now protected by Katmai National Park and Preserve. Her recollections illuminate the practice of reindeer herding from a time when very few other first-hand accounts exist. Her personal accounts are an important contribution to the collective memory of the land.

Harry S. Kawabe was one of Seward's most prosperous and popular businessmen.

Walter "Andy" Anderson served as a US Navy aerographer on Attu Island during the Aleutian Campaign

Ada Blackjack was an Inupiat woman hailed as a heroine and the “female Robinson Crusoe” after being stranded for two years on Wrangel Island north of Siberia. She was part of an expedition party sponsored by famed explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, but after battling food shortages, illness, and isolation, Ada and her cat were the only survivors.

Long ago before western science documented the geological history of Glacier Bay, the story of Kaasteen, an Eagle moiety, Chookaneidí Clan woman was captured in oral tradition, mournful song, and form line design. Learn more about Kaasteen and the Huna Tlingit homeland that is Glacier Bay.

As one of the last remaining persons to have completed The Long Walk - a major and permanent move to the final destination of the previously nomadic Nunamiut people - Rachel Riley was a leading advocate for the continuing knowledge and practice of the traditional Nunamiut culture. Rachel's most prominent role was as an Inupiaq language teacher.

Eva Kudrin was born in Kashega in 1928 and lived there until evacuation. Following the war she married John Tcheripanoff and settled in Unalaska. During World War II she was relocated from the Aleutian Islands by the US government. Check out her experience with this interview.

Two in the Far North,” is a biographical novel written by the “Grandmother of the Conservation Movement” Margaret Murie. It’s a story of Margaret’s adventures in more northern parts of Alaska. So why is it in Lake Clark’s museum collection? Because this particular copy of the book was given to Dick Proenneke by Murie herself.

During World War II the remote Aleutian Islands, home to the Unangax̂ (Aleut) people for over 8,000 years, became one of the fiercely contested battlegrounds of the Pacific. This thousand-mile-long archipelago saw the first invasion of American soil since the War of 1812, a mass internment of American civilians, a 15-month air war, and one of the deadliest battles in the Pacific Theatre.

Huna Tlingit women have practiced and perfected the art of weaving for centuries.

Irene Makarin was raised at Biorka and lived there until evacuation at the start of the war. She later married William Yatchmenoff of Chernofski. During World War II she was among the Alaska Natives relocated out of the Aleutian Islands. Listen to an interview as she describes her experiences.

As a mixed-heritage woman in the early days of Alaska, Mary Forgal Lowell played a key role in the development of a territory in transition.

Born in the late 1800s, Abbie Joseph lived until 1986. Interviews at the end of her life provide a window to the past, putting a personal touch to the traditional subsistence lifestyle Alaska Natives have lived for thousands of years, and which continues today.