What do you think?
Rate this book
The Native People of Alaska: Traditional Living in a Northern Land
This book explains how Alaska's many different Native people have survived for more than 500 generations in one of the world's most challenging environments, long before the arrival of European technology. Topics include traditional housing, dress, food, social systems, ceremonies, beliefs, tools and more. Supplemented with seven maps, 26 illustrations, and 55 historic photos. 6 x 9 inches; 128 pages. Completely revised in 2002.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
10 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 28, 2018
I just visited Alaska for the third time, but this was my first visit to the Alaska Native Heritage Center on the outskirts of Anchorage. It's a wonderful place, with a wealth of information and a lake surrounded by replicas of the traditional homes of five Indigenous peoples. I purchased this book in the bookstore there, so I feel assured of its authenticity. This is surely a good introduction to Alaskan Native history.
Alaska's Indigenous people had to adapt to life in a harsh land. Those who lived in the northern parts built their homes of earth. All of their creation stories feature animals. For some, Raven was a creator.
Throwing away any part of an animal was disrespectful and shameful. For instance, in a Tlingit legend, a boy drops a rotting piece of salmon on the ground, which offended the Salmon People. He is turned into a salmon. The Salmon People take him away to their land and teach him respect. He swims back to his land, where his parents catch him. He is transformed back to a boy and teaches his people how to treat salmon.
The book shows great respect for Native people, but it does not shy away from unpleasant facts like slavery. Most tribes practiced some form of slavery, usually limited to people they had captured from other groups. Slavery was not always lifelong or an inherited status. It appears that only the Inupiat in the Arctic did not have slaves.
The status of women varied widely. Some peoples, like the Aleut, were traditionally matrilineal. It appears that the status of women was lower in the most northern people who lived in the harshest environments.
The history goes up to the present day. A major reason that white Alaskans wanted statehood was the desire to take land from Native peoples. After statehood, that began to happen. But Native people lobbied and, after the discovery of oil, which brought oil companies anxious for clear titles to land into the picture, won a federal settlement. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act provided $962.5 million and 44 million acres to be distributed among 12 regional and 200 village corporations. Not all villages signed on to the settlement. Those that didn't because they felt that the government had no right to take any of their land are now poor, but some Native corporations have become prosperous.
Life is still extremely hard for many Native Alaskans. Climate change threatens many peoples' way of life, and even the existence of their villages.
Alaska's Indigenous people had to adapt to life in a harsh land. Those who lived in the northern parts built their homes of earth. All of their creation stories feature animals. For some, Raven was a creator.
Throwing away any part of an animal was disrespectful and shameful. For instance, in a Tlingit legend, a boy drops a rotting piece of salmon on the ground, which offended the Salmon People. He is turned into a salmon. The Salmon People take him away to their land and teach him respect. He swims back to his land, where his parents catch him. He is transformed back to a boy and teaches his people how to treat salmon.
The book shows great respect for Native people, but it does not shy away from unpleasant facts like slavery. Most tribes practiced some form of slavery, usually limited to people they had captured from other groups. Slavery was not always lifelong or an inherited status. It appears that only the Inupiat in the Arctic did not have slaves.
The status of women varied widely. Some peoples, like the Aleut, were traditionally matrilineal. It appears that the status of women was lower in the most northern people who lived in the harshest environments.
The history goes up to the present day. A major reason that white Alaskans wanted statehood was the desire to take land from Native peoples. After statehood, that began to happen. But Native people lobbied and, after the discovery of oil, which brought oil companies anxious for clear titles to land into the picture, won a federal settlement. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act provided $962.5 million and 44 million acres to be distributed among 12 regional and 200 village corporations. Not all villages signed on to the settlement. Those that didn't because they felt that the government had no right to take any of their land are now poor, but some Native corporations have become prosperous.
Life is still extremely hard for many Native Alaskans. Climate change threatens many peoples' way of life, and even the existence of their villages.
June 30, 2018
An Excellent Primer
This is a reasonably wide ranging introduction to the native people of Alaska.
We start with a brief survey of the landscape of Alaska. Each of the six main groups of native Alaskans is identified, and placed in their traditional Alaskan homelands. There is a very brief description of prehistory and different language groups. Then each group is separately described in terms of population and settlement, housing, food and diet, technology, clothing and decoration, social organization, ceremonies, beliefs, and early contact and experience with Europeans.
All of this, of course, is rather old-fashioned and smacks of what might have been the case in the late 1800's rather than in modern times, but the point here seems to be more to capture and preserve a sense of the native peoples' traditional lives than it is an attempt to address the nature and challenges of life now. There is passing reference to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, but for more the interested reader is referred by the author to a number of other resources regarding current native issues.
As might be expected, there is a bit of emphasis on the colorful and unique. So the reader will learn about the exuberant blanket toss at the conclusion of the Inupiat summer whaling festival, (Nalukataq), and about Athabaskan dog mushing, and of course about totem poles, found only among the Tlingit and Haida of Southeast Coastal Alaska.
The upshot is that this is a fair minded and reasonably evenhanded summary survey, and it struck me as a fine jumping off point for an interested reader.
This is a reasonably wide ranging introduction to the native people of Alaska.
We start with a brief survey of the landscape of Alaska. Each of the six main groups of native Alaskans is identified, and placed in their traditional Alaskan homelands. There is a very brief description of prehistory and different language groups. Then each group is separately described in terms of population and settlement, housing, food and diet, technology, clothing and decoration, social organization, ceremonies, beliefs, and early contact and experience with Europeans.
All of this, of course, is rather old-fashioned and smacks of what might have been the case in the late 1800's rather than in modern times, but the point here seems to be more to capture and preserve a sense of the native peoples' traditional lives than it is an attempt to address the nature and challenges of life now. There is passing reference to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, but for more the interested reader is referred by the author to a number of other resources regarding current native issues.
As might be expected, there is a bit of emphasis on the colorful and unique. So the reader will learn about the exuberant blanket toss at the conclusion of the Inupiat summer whaling festival, (Nalukataq), and about Athabaskan dog mushing, and of course about totem poles, found only among the Tlingit and Haida of Southeast Coastal Alaska.
The upshot is that this is a fair minded and reasonably evenhanded summary survey, and it struck me as a fine jumping off point for an interested reader.
October 11, 2015
I'm not sure what all the other reviewers are complaining about. This book is just fine. It's a brief overview of the different native peoples of Alaska, breaking it up into linguistic/ethnic groups.
I had the hankering to read about these guys after a brief encounter with the Aleuts in a recent book on the rest of North American in 1776 and there isn't much on the subject, luckily this exists.
The peoples of the Extreme Northwest are pretty goddamn fascinating. The sheer inhospitable nature of the environment makes the fact that they've been living there for millenia even more remarkable.
It's only slightly a shame that the work isn't longer (especially the bits on contact) but there's enough here to engage. Customs and culture and all that are covered through the available evidence and the work never flags in telling you cool shit about Alaskan natives: Igloos? Lies! Dog sledding? A lie! (until the 16th century anyway). They made mummies! Evil shamans battled good shamans! Their societies were mostly matrilineal! And so on.
It only gets a little confusing when some of the names start to overlap and it takes a moment to familiarize yourself with the fact that, for example, Eskimos aren't called Eskimos, they're called Inupiat. Or the Aleuts are Unangan.
I had the hankering to read about these guys after a brief encounter with the Aleuts in a recent book on the rest of North American in 1776 and there isn't much on the subject, luckily this exists.
The peoples of the Extreme Northwest are pretty goddamn fascinating. The sheer inhospitable nature of the environment makes the fact that they've been living there for millenia even more remarkable.
It's only slightly a shame that the work isn't longer (especially the bits on contact) but there's enough here to engage. Customs and culture and all that are covered through the available evidence and the work never flags in telling you cool shit about Alaskan natives: Igloos? Lies! Dog sledding? A lie! (until the 16th century anyway). They made mummies! Evil shamans battled good shamans! Their societies were mostly matrilineal! And so on.
It only gets a little confusing when some of the names start to overlap and it takes a moment to familiarize yourself with the fact that, for example, Eskimos aren't called Eskimos, they're called Inupiat. Or the Aleuts are Unangan.
January 30, 2014
Somewhere between 3½ and 4. A very good overview, especially for someone without much knowledge of Alaska Native Culture, and, for me, this was like taking a Freshman Course when I was ready for a Junior or Senior Level. I have met Steve Langdon (I used to work with his wife), and he covered all the basics, and I would have appreciated more depth.
August 22, 2017
I'd been looking for books on Native Americans for a while. Most of the ones available at my local library unfortunately don't organize their facts very well and seem to make generalizations, grouping people into one basket who live on different sides of the continent. Then I saw this on my Grandpa's book shelf, a less than 100 page read written by a college professor who has studied the local peoples' traditions for years. It gives information on the different native people of Alaska that is very clear, to the point, and well organized. It's not really in-depth, but a good place to start for someone like me who has no knowledge of Native culture. An introduction, if you will.
There were a couple of lines in the first chapter that convinced me Langdon is a poet at heart ("A necklace of rocky islands" was one of them), but then the rest of the writing seemed to employ a lot less imagery. I'm looking for a nonfiction read, but that doesn't mean the writing has to be cold. I'm curious if the later editions allow him a bit more exploration of his writing style. I also had mixed feelings on the maps. I was glad to have them, but the editor could have picked some clearer ones. Photos of traditional living structures would have also been appreciated.
Over all, Langdon gives an excellent introduction for beginners on the Native People of Alaska. I'd be interested in books by him that focused in on the different groups of people even more, or on one aspect of their cultures such as clothing.
There were a couple of lines in the first chapter that convinced me Langdon is a poet at heart ("A necklace of rocky islands" was one of them), but then the rest of the writing seemed to employ a lot less imagery. I'm looking for a nonfiction read, but that doesn't mean the writing has to be cold. I'm curious if the later editions allow him a bit more exploration of his writing style. I also had mixed feelings on the maps. I was glad to have them, but the editor could have picked some clearer ones. Photos of traditional living structures would have also been appreciated.
Over all, Langdon gives an excellent introduction for beginners on the Native People of Alaska. I'd be interested in books by him that focused in on the different groups of people even more, or on one aspect of their cultures such as clothing.
October 2, 2019
This is divided into sections detailing each of a number of native Alaskan cultures, each different like the characters in a quest novel, and alike enough to be on the journey together.
I wish it weren't so expensive to travel to Alaska! Now I want to see all of these places, and the museums that Langdon mentions.
For those interested in HarnStuff, this book would immeasurably enrich HarnMaster Barbarians.
I wish it weren't so expensive to travel to Alaska! Now I want to see all of these places, and the museums that Langdon mentions.
For those interested in HarnStuff, this book would immeasurably enrich HarnMaster Barbarians.
October 26, 2025
A decent enough primer but very dated in some ways… lots of very interesting facts I could have seen myself bringing up at the dinner table as a ten year old (ie: Aleut whale hunters would pretend to be ill at home to try and spiritually lure whales in to shore and the Yuit believed the soul of seals was stored in the bladder). Overall a fun and relaxed read but neither seriously academic nor wholly a leisure read either
Read
March 29, 2020I was hoping to find a book about the Indigenous people of Alaska when I visited Denali, but disappointingly the national park store didn’t carry any. I picked this book up to get a brief intro but will do more research into Indigenous authors. I am not giving the book a rating.
February 21, 2025
Very good intro, but suffers from some typos as well as lack of explaining the clear differences between cultural groups. Ignore reviews claiming that this is dated, as a Fifth Edition was just published in 2024 and if you buy a new copy that's the edition you'll get
July 3, 2025
A great overview of the regional and cultural adaptations by Alaskan Native peoples. I enjoyed the insets and stories, the photos, and the description. At places, it was lacking in depth and reasoning but a wonderful read overall.
December 13, 2025
I think this is a really solid book. You could read it with no knowledge of Alaska Natives and come away with a solid, 10,000 foot, understanding. It’s not perfect, and I would have preferred more details at times, but I still learned a lot.
January 3, 2021
A valuable but dated historical and anthropological overview of the indigenous communities of Alaska.
June 14, 2017
I bought this book on my first full day in Alaska after visiting the Alaska Native Heritage Center, where I got a very brief introduction to the main groups of native peoples. I wanted to know more, and reading this was a good way to go to the next level. Anthropologist Steve Langdon provides a primer on the six groups. I wouldn't call it an engaging work of nonfiction...he applies a textbook approach rather than a narrative one. Each chapter has the same types of subheadings, which include things like archaeology, houses, food and diet, social organization, ceremonies, and so on.
The sections on the interior Athabascans and the southeast coastal Tlingit and Haida were of special interest, since we visited those areas. I was also eager to review the section on the Iñupiat of the far north, which is where Julie of the Wolves is set. I happily reread that book (and then the rest of the trilogy) a couple of years ago. Someday I'd like to visit that part of Alaska, too.
The sections on the interior Athabascans and the southeast coastal Tlingit and Haida were of special interest, since we visited those areas. I was also eager to review the section on the Iñupiat of the far north, which is where Julie of the Wolves is set. I happily reread that book (and then the rest of the trilogy) a couple of years ago. Someday I'd like to visit that part of Alaska, too.
September 11, 2013
There are some interesting information about native Alaskan culture. However, all of pictures is black & white and you can see only a few charts, so it was sometimes difficult to imagine or understand what it explains about. I know we have the Internet now so we can google pics we wanna see, but I wanted to read articles with colored pics and simple charts. If it had more good pics and charts, it would be much earlier to understand and more interesting.
August 28, 2014
I bought this when I was in Alaska, and I wish I'd started reading it before I bought it. It read too much like a dull textbook. As a history teacher, I'm always looking for fun information to share with my students. This had a couple of good things in it, but it was really not an enjoyable read.
June 5, 2017
Pretty engaging and well organized, but it read sometimes too much like a curiosity shop for me to be entirely unoffended.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews