Hosley, Edward

English

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REVIEWS • 95of health care in Alaska and the health status of its people,both Native and non-Native. Fortuine recounts the storiesof the medical pioneers in the PHS against a backdrop ofmajor historical events in Alaska, such as the Gold Rush,the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands, and theGood Friday earthquake.This book is a useful resource and guide for anyonewishing to investigate the institutional history of the PHSand its personnel and the broader health history of theUnited States’ only Arctic region.T. Kue YoungProfessor and TransCanada Pipelines ChairDepartment of Public Health SciencesFaculty of MedicineUniversity of TorontoToronto, Ontario, CanadaM5T 3M7kue.young@utoronto.caTANANA AND CHANDALAR: THE ALASKA FIELDJOURNALS OF ROBERT A. McKENNAN. Edited byCRAIG MISHLER and WILLIAM E. SIMEONE. Calgary: TheArctic Institute of North America and University ofCalgary Press, 2006. ISBN 1-55238-201-X. Fairbanks:University of Alaska Press, 2006. ISBN 1-889963-77-1. xxix + 266 p., maps, b&w and colour illus., appendi-ces, references, McKennan bibliography, index.Hardbound. Cdn$49.95.Bob McKennan was a significant figure in Alaska anthro-pology, serving as teacher, mentor, friend, and colleagueto many others who did fieldwork there, including thisreviewer. Beginning in 1929, and continuing over a periodof nearly 50 years, he conducted extensive ethnographicfieldwork, primarily among Athapaskans, as well as someimportant archeological work. One of the best-knownanthropologists to conduct research in Alaska, he was alsoamong the earliest to do so.This book includes a useful biographical sketch ofMcKennan by Mishler, which provides a good understand-ing of the sources of the various skills he brought to thefield, his educational background, the course of his profes-sional career, and his interactions with colleagues. Theintroduction by Mishler and Simeone provides additionalinformation on McKennan’s training, research, and asso-ciates in anthropology, and on the nature of the disciplineat the time he did his early fieldwork. The editors’ bio-graphical sketch and introduction are very well done, andtogether they provide an excellent basis for approachingthe materials in McKennan’s field journals.Traditionally, ethnographers such as McKennan re-corded their observations and the results of interviewswith informants as field notes. These notes normally fo-cused on the Native culture, including observations onsocial organization, political structure, kinship, traditionalstories, religion, and material culture. This informationwas subsequently compiled into an ethnography, whichput it into a structured format as a description of thatsociety. McKennan eventually published formal studies ofthe two groups discussed here: The Upper Tanana Indians(1959) and The Chandalar Kutchin (1965). But he alsocompiled field journals written in a more personal, reflec-tive manner, in the form of letters to his parents and hiswife. In these, he gave a first-person account of the eventsof the day, including interactions with whites, huntingexperiences, meal preparation, travels between communi-ties, and some critical observations of Native behavior thatwould not be appropriate to record in an ethnography.Subsequently transcribed, these journals remained in theDartmouth College collections after McKennan’s death in1982. They were rediscovered by McKennan’s formerstudent, John Cook, and later used by editors Mishler andSimeone as the basis for this volume.McKennan was born in Helena, Montana, in 1903, theeldest son of a wealthy banker. Exposure to an outdoorenvironment helped him develop the hunting and fishingskills that are frequently displayed on the pages of hisjournals—skills that undoubtedly contributed to his appar-ent ease in establishing rapport with the subsistence-basedAlaska Natives he worked among. His undergraduatestudies at Dartmouth College were followed by graduatework in anthropology at Harvard University, where hereceived his doctorate in 1933. McKennan returned toDartmouth as an instructor in 1930, and except for militaryservice during World War II, spent the next 40 years there.The majority of this book is devoted to the presentationof McKennan’s field journals for his work among theUpper Tanana Natives of Alaska over the winter of 1929 –30 and the Chandalar Gwich’in (Kutchin) in the summer of1933. The journals are accompanied by numerous andoften detailed annotations by the editors, which add greatlyto our understanding of the natural and social environmentin which McKennan worked. Also useful are maps of theregion and numerous photographs, many taken byMcKennan. The field journals give the reader an excellentoverview of anthropological fieldwork as it was conductedin the first half of the 20th century—when there was lesssensitivity to the concerns of Native informants or theownership of ethnographic and archeological materials.Noteworthy are two appendices that detail correspond-ence and an interview with informants that took place longafter McKennan’s fieldwork. They reflect the rapport hewas able to establish with his field informants and thedegree to which they respected him.There is a great deal here for the historian, sinceMcKennan’s fieldwork in the early 1930s put him incontact not only with Native peoples not far removed frompre-contact subsistence patterns, but also with Americansand Europeans who had come to the Alaska gold fields inthe late 19th century and remained there. Most travel inthat period was by dog sled and boat, with only the verybeginnings of airplane transport. Commercial tradersBOOKS RECEIVEDALASKA CRAB STOCK ENHANCEMENT ANDREHABILITATION: WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS.Edited by BRADLEY G. STEVENS. Fairbanks: Alaska SeaGrant College Program, 2006. ISBN 1-56612-112-4. iv +89 p., agenda, 11 contributed papers. Softbound. US$10.00.APOLLO’S ARROW: THE SCIENCE OF PREDICTIONAND THE FUTURE OF EVERYTHING. By DAVIDORRELL. Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007. ISBN0002007401. 449 p., notes, glossary, bib., index.Hardbound. Cdn$34.95.APOSTLE TO THE INUIT: THE JOURNALS ANDETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES OF EDMUND JAMESPECK—THE BAFFIN YEARS, 1894–1905. Edited byFRÉDÉRIC LAUGRAND, JARICH OOSTEN, and FRANÇOISTRUDEL. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.ISBN-13: 978-0-8020-9042-3. xiii + 498 p., map, b&willus., chronology, notes, bib., index. Hardbound.Cdn$75.00; £48.00.CAPTAIN FRANCIS CROZIER: LAST MAN STANDING?By MICHAEL SMITH. Cork, Ireland: The Collins Press,2006. ISBN-13: 978-1905172092. xiv + 242 p., maps,b&w illus., chronology, bib., index. Hardbound. £17.99;Euro23.95.CARVING FACES, CARVING LIVES: PEOPLE OF THEBOREAL FOREST. By TERRY GARVIN. Edmonton:Heritage Community Foundation, 2005. ISBN 0-9739892-1-1. 239 p., map, colour illus., glossary, appendix, index.Softbound. Cdn$40.00.brought their goods in overland and set up small tradingposts at the Native villages. The primary sources of in-come for the Chandalar Gwich’in and Upper Tanana at thistime were the fur trade and occasional wage employment.It is also noteworthy that this period came after the wide-spread use of fences for hunting caribou had ended, but whilecaribou and mountain sheep still remained plentiful. Through-out these journals, the reader is struck by the large numbersof these animals that were killed to feed dogs and humans.Of particular interest to students of ethnography will bethe chance to look back some 75 years and see howanthropological fieldwork was conducted at that time.From his field journals, it is clear that Bob McKennan felthe was on a mission and that it was very important tocollect as much information as possible. His data includeda series of anthropometric measurements he took pride incompleting. At times McKennan was somewhat peremp-tory in his dealings with the Natives, alluding to the factthe government would be grateful for their cooperation.The field journals also contain comments about Nativehabits and cultural traits he found objectionable. On thewhole, however, he was remarkably objective and clearlyenjoyed fieldwork, displaying a rich sense of humor, a drywit, and occasional frustration with some of its moretedious aspects.On a couple of occasions, McKennan mentions collect-ing human remains—in one case, a skull—from cremationand burial sites. As the editors are careful to note, this wasnot an unusual practice at the time, though it is condemnedat present. McKennan was clearly interested in materialculture items and collected them vigorously while in thefield, in some cases paying to have items made. Oneinstance I recall occurred when Bob was visiting me at afield site in interior Alaska in the early 1960s: he climbedthrough the window of a cabin belonging to an elderlyIndian shaman in order to retrieve ceremonial items for hiscollections. His explanation was that they were going towaste and not serving any useful purpose where they were.This proprietary type of behavior was not uncommonamong anthropologists of the early to mid 20th century,who saw themselves as salvaging the final remnants, bothmaterial and social, of Native cultures.The objective of the editors in bringing McKennan’sfield journals into print was to complement his moreformal publications on these two groups. In this, they aresuccessful: the journals provide us with a more completepicture of Native life, including interactions between Na-tives and whites, than is found in the traditional ethnogra-phy.  Mishler and Simeone are commended for presentingthese materials in such readable and useful form. I foundnothing to criticize in this book and consider it very welldocumented, edited, and produced. The numerous notesfound at the end of each major section are particularlyhelpful and interesting.Individuals from many disciplines will find this workuseful and highly enjoyable. It touches on the early historyof Alaska, the impact of white contact and the fur trade onNative cultures, the consequences of over-hunting andtrapping, and many other facets of early 20th-centuryAlaska. Above all, it is a vivid picture of a dedicatedethnographer endeavoring to capture the details of a wayof life he felt was fast disappearing. This work is highlyrecommended, especially to students and practitioners ofAlaskan anthropology and the history of Alaska.REFERENCESMcKENNAN, R.A. 1959. The Upper Tanana Indians. YaleUniversity Publications in Anthropology No. 55. New Haven:Yale University Press.———. 1965. The Chandalar Kutchin. Technical Paper No. 17.Montreal: Arctic Institute of North America.Edward HosleyProfessor of Anthropologyand Associate Vice President EmeritusState University of New YorkResidence: PO Box 940Spirit Lake, Idaho, USA83869-0940ehosley@gmail.com96 • REVIEWS

Tanana and Chandalar: The Alaska Field Journals of Robert A. McKennan, edited by Craig Mishler and William E. Simeone

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Tanana and Chandalar: The Alaska Field Journals of Robert A. McKennan, edited by Craig Mishler and William E. Simeone

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