Documents

Andrew Isaac. Compiled and edited by Yvonne Yarber, and Curt Madison. Portions translated by Alice Brean with Jeff Leer and Irene Reed. Fairbanks, AK: Central Alaska Curriculum Consortium, 1988. Based on interviews with Chief Andrew Isaac in November 1983, and June 1985, in Dot Lake, Alaska. Hard copy available at the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks (http://catalog.library.uaf.edu).

Contested Ground: An Administrative History of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 1978-2001 by Geoffrey T. Bleakley. National Park Service, Alaska System Support Office, 2002.

"Environmental Assessment to Add the Village of Healy Lake to the Resident Zone for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park," prepared by Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, October 8, 1999.

"Historic Archeology and Ethnohistory at Healy Lake, Alaska" by John P. Cook. Arctic, Vol. 42, No. 2 (June 1989), pp 109-118.

"Mendees Cheeg Nalstiin Keey': An Oral History of the People of Healy Lake Village," annotated and edited by Donald G. Callaway and Constance A. Friend, Revised June 2007.

For The Love of Freedom: Miners, Trappers, Hunting Guides, and Homesteaders. An Ethnographic Overview and Assessment, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve by Karen Brewster (2018).

This overview documents the culture and traditions of non-native communities and occupational groups traditionally associated with what is now Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and demonstrates their use of park resources or occupying lands within park boundaries. These communities and occupational groups include, but are not limited to, small-scale miners, trappers, hunting guides, and homesteaders. Drawing upon existing ethnographic and historical documentation and oral history recordings along with some new oral history interviews conducted for this project, this study discusses what brought these groups of people to the region, why they chose to stay, and how they were able to make a living. It illustrates the adaptation, determination, flexibility, independence, and devotion of people who were once outsiders to transform a new and wild place into their home. Recommendations are made for future historical and ethnographic research to address identified data gaps.

"The Early Prehistory of Healy Lake, Alaska." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation by John P. Cook, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, 1969. Available on microform at Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Click here for the library's catalog record.

Walter Northway. Edited by Yvonne Yarber and Curt Madison. Interviewers: Shirley Jimerson and Yvonne Yarber. Fairbanks, AK: Alaska Native Language Center, College of Liberal Arts, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 1987. Includes interviews with Walter Northway and others, some translated from Upper Tanana. Hard copy available at the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Yakutat Tlingit and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve: An Ethnographic Overview and Assessment by Douglas Deur, Thomas Thornton, Rachel Lahoff, and Jamie Hebert (2015).

Tlingit people have traditionally occupied and used the southern part of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in the vicinity of Icy Bay and Disenchantment Bay, the Malaspina Glacier and Forelands, and the present-day community of Yakutat. This baseline ethnographic report provides an overview of Yakutat Tlingit connections to Wrangell-St. Elias based on existing ethnographic and historical sources along with new interviews conducted for this project. The report focuses on cultural practices of the Yakutat Tlingit and Eyak that were well established at the time of European contact and have direct bearing on park lands and resources; historical forces that affected life for the Yakutat Tlingit and Eyak and some of the implications of those changes as they relate to the park; and enduring Yakutat Tlingit and Eyak connections to lands and resources in Wrangell-St. Elias since roughly the time of park creation. A conclusion section summarizes findings, but also points in the direction of additional research questions and needs for the future.