UA Press' latest titles explore turn-of-the-century Alaska

The University of Alaska Press recently announced the release of two new titles: Seventeen Years in Alaska: A Depiction of Life Among the Indians of Yakutat by Albin Johnson, edited and translated by Mary Ehrlander; and Harnessed to the Pole: Sledge Dogs in Service to American Explorers of the Arctic, 1853-1909 by Sheila Nickerson.

Seventeen Years in Alaska: A Depiction of Life Among the Indians of Yakutat Swedish Covenant missionary Albin Johnson's memoir of his seventeen years among the Tlingit people of Yakutat offers an eyewitness account of an indigenous people in transition as migrants poured into Alaska seeking economic opportunities. At the turn of the twentieth century, gold seekers, other migrants and tourists brought with them western values, vices and diseases, leaving devastation in their wake. Swedish Covenant and other missionaries sought to mitigate the negative effects of western influences on Alaska Natives, while they engendered profound change themselves. The narrative captures encounters between Tlingit people and Swedish missionaries at a dynamic time in Alaska's history.

Harnessed to the Pole: Sledge Dogs in Service to American Explorers of the Arctic, 1853-1909 Harnessed to the Pole is a unique study of the nineteenth-century sledge dogs that led American explorers to the North Pole. Almost totally ignored in their exploits, these dogs made possible what never could have occurred otherwise: an American claim on the Pole. Even if we do not know their names, we know that they pulled with all their hearts, though fed little and driven hard, and sometimes left to die along the trail. Often referred to as "meat on the paw," they were also referred to as "little camels of the north"-courageous partners who provided transportation and movement of freight through extremely difficult conditions, protected against wolves and polar bears, helped in the hunt, found their way through storms, provided warmth in extreme cold, meat in times of starvation and even skins for clothes. Most importantly, they provided companionship in a hostile world poised on the edge of death and madness. Here is the untold story of these extraordinary dogs, truly man's best but least known friend in the race to reach the Pole.

For more information, please visit www.uapress.alaska.edu or call (800) 621-2736.

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