Beaver, Alaska: The story of a multi-ethnic community

Abstract

This work addresses itself to the role that ethno-historical research can play in understanding the present day life of Indians and Eskimos living in a multi-ethnic community in the interior of Alaska. To do this, an attempt has been made to write and analyze the history of the community in a manner that reflects the separate tribal, ethnic, and individual differences of the various people who settled there. Documentation of cultural patterning by different groups enables the researcher to understand the dynamics of cultural persistence and change throughout time in land use, social relations, economic pursuits, attitudes and values. This research does not presuppose that individuals and groups who are influenced by outside intrusions will necessarily respond by changing their ways of life. Instead, the problem has been to investigate the nature of the outside influences and the manner in which these intrusions are perceived by members of the community and the nature of the responses made to them. Written documentation is employed to set an order to the events, but my main reliance is on personal recollections of past events to discern the feelings and associations that people today hold for those forces that have affected their lives in the past and that are now operating