Ruth Sandvik

Ruth Sandvik holding Vincent Schuerch

Photo Courtesy of: Lorry Schuerch Jr. University of Alaska, Fairbanks - Project Jukebox

Quick Facts

Significance:

Business Owner, Community Leader, Historian in Kiana, Alaska

Place of Birth:

Kotzebue, Alaska

Date of Birth:

1929

Place of Death:

Kotzebue, Alaska

Date of Death:

2014

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. Ruth described the store in the 1950s: “I mean, when I grew up, people had – it was very simple to have a store. The basic things were salt, sugar, coffee, flour, baking powder, and soda. And canned fruit was a luxury.”

In addition to running the Trading Post, Ruth was influential in local politics and an avid historian, naturalist, and adventurer. She earned a degree in Biology and was one of University of Alaska Fairbanks’ first Inupiaq graduates. Ruth and her family were a critical support for the Archaelogical work conducted in Kobuk Valley National Park by Louis Giddings and Doug Anderson. She had a passion for history and the heritage of the Iñupiat.

In 2002 she was interviewed as part of the Kiana Village History Project done by University of Alaska Fairbanks Project Jukebox and the National Park Service. Her stories about life on the Kobuk River in the late 1900s can be listened to on Project Jukebox's website.