Traditional Athabascan Law Ways and Their Relationship to Contemporary Problems of "Bush Justice": Some Preliminary Observations on Structure and Function.

This paper is directed toward helping achieve a better understanding of traditional law ways among Alaska's Athabascan Indians and of the present state of the administration of law in the "bush"-village Alaska. An outgrowth of the 1970 Bush Justice Conference sponsored by the Alaska Judicial Council, the paper's primary purpose is to help facilitate establishment of more appropriate delivery and administration of legal services for ethnically distinct populations of Alaska.Introduction / Traditional Athabascan Culture / Social Organization and Leadership / Values and Their Relationship to Law Ways / Athabascan Law Ways — The Philosophical Basis / The Pragmatic Structure and Operation of Athabascan Law Ways / Major Offenses and Their Resolution (Adultery, Theft, Murder) / Summary of Athabascan Law Ways / Law Ways and Culture Change / Past and Present Law Ways: Some Disjunctions / Reference

Northern Eskimo Law Ways and Their Relationship to Contemporary Problems of "Bush Justice": Some Preliminary Observations on Structure and Function

This paper describes the how the basic values, personality, and culture of Northern (Inupiat) Eskimos contribute to attitudes toward conflict and their society’s capacity to resolve conflict. The paper analyzes the influence of Anglo-American agents of change on that capacity and, especially, the legal system and procedures that developed in the post-contact use of the village council to resolve disputes. It discusses the formal intervention of state law through the magisterial system and its interaction with Eskimo law ways that the village council encouraged. A comparison of village councils and magistrate courts points out the apparent success of the councils due to their unique fit with Eskimo values and expectations. Finally, shortcomings of .the current magistrate system are analyzed with recommendations for policy adaptations.Introduction / The Genesis of Eskimo Law Ways in Aboriginal Conflict Resolution / Aboriginal Eskimo Conflict Resolution: An Overview / American Intervention and Eskimo Law Ways / The Village Council / The Contemporary Period: The Magistrate System / Implications for Bush Justice / Conclusion / Bibliograph

Some Observations on Witchcraft: The Case of the Aivilik Eskimos

Cultural and psychological theories of witchcraft are related in order to develop a more comprehensive theory. The proposed integrative schema is applied to witchcraft among the Aivilik Eskimos. Using a theoretical approach, continuities in pre- with post-contact witchcraft are related to Eskimo "cultural personality." Changes are shown to be more illusory than real, and when real, to be related to new social and cultural circumstances in which the continuing personality pattern must operate

An Alaskan Athabascan Technique For Overcoming Alcohol Abuse

It is proposed that the basic tactics used by members of a distinct ethnic group to overcome alcohol abuse will be in part determined by culturally accepted methods of social control. These methods themselves will be based in large part upon the modal psychodynamic organizations of members of that group. In the case presented the Athabascans of interior Alaska tend to overcome alcohol abuse by adhering to fundamentalist Christianity which reflects their need for an external superego; that in the past took the form of a nearly absolute chieftainship

Notes on Representation of Native Clients

Native people, whether influenced by traditional approaches to dispute resolution or by their pragmatic experience with local courts and dispute resolution or by their pragmatic experience with local courts and law enforcement, do not see justice as being done within the forum offered by the state. In search of an authoritative locale for rational dispute resolution, they find arbitrary and apparently irrational treatment in magistrate courts. Conversely, they have found in conciliation before the village council a forum where misconduct is measured against the world that the defendant immediately affects. They find a comprehensible forum in the village to solve their problems or no forum at all. Can participation in a functioning advocacy and adversary system be taught and utilized along with continued functioning of a sub-legal conciliatory system that handles de minimus matters effectively? This paper offers guidance to public defenders and legal services attorneys in representing Alaska Native clients.Alaska Public Defender AgencyThe Problem / Public Defenders with Native Clients – Some Approaches / The Authority of Law and the Meaning of Guilt / Appendi

Staff Paper on Village Councils

Excerpted from: Hippler, Arthur E.; & Conn, Stephen. (1975). "The Village Council and Its Offspring: A Reform for Bush Justice." UCLA-Alaska Law Review 5(1): 22–57 (Fall 1975). (https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/uclaak5&i=28).This excerpt from the forthcoming UCLA-Alaska Law Review article "The Village Council and Its Offspring: A Reform for Bush Justice" describes techniques used historically by Alaska Native village councils to resolve disputes. All of these techniques were observed in 1975 in villages where councils still aid in dispute adjustment.Rule Making, Rule Enforcing, and Conciliation / Council Techniques – Scolding and Probation / Village Councils and the Modern Legal System / The Council as a Forum for Dispute Resolutio

From Village to Town: An Intermediate Step in the Acculturation of Alaska Eskimos.

Distributed by the Office of Community Programs, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota

Patterns of Sexual Behavior: The Athabascans of Interior Alaska

The State of Alask

Eskimo Acculturation A Selected, Annotated Bibliography of Alaskan and Other Eskimo Acculturation Studies

The State of Alask