Project Jukebox

Digital Branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program

Project Jukebox Survey

Help us redesign the Project Jukebox website by taking a very short survey!

Dennis Schmitt

Dennis Schmitt

Originally from California, Dennis Schmitt first came to Alaska in late summer 1965 as a volunteer with the OEO program, what eventually became the VISTA program, and was assigned to Anaktuvuk Pass. He got a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied linguistics with Noam Chomsky. Schmitt speaks ten languages, including Russian, Norwegian, Danish, and French. Given his aptitude for languages and previous experience in Alaska, at age 19, Schmitt was recruited by Chomsky to travel to Alaska's Brooks Range and attempt to learn the Nunamiut dialect of the Inupiaq language. He lived in Anaktuvuk Pass for four years in the late 1960s, where he mastered their language and lived the same subsistence lifestyle of his Nunamiut neighbors. Given his background as a mountaineer, Dennis went on to explore and lead expeditions in the north. For more information about Dennis Schmitt.
Dennis Schmitt appears in the following new Jukebox projects:
Interview Title Abstract Archive #: Oral History Project Date of Interview
Dennis Schmitt, Part 1

This interview with Dennis Schmitt took place on September 26, 1992 with Steve Ulvi in the clapboard Naval Arctic Research Lab building next to the airstrip in Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska, which has served for several years as a ranger station. There were steaming cups of tea and a brisk north wind under the building's eaves during the interview. Dennis had not visited Anaktuvuk Pass for a number of years. He was awed but not surprised by the tremendous development and pace of town life. His mastery of the Nunamiut language startled people as he renewed old acquaintances. As Dennis recalled his experiences living with the Nunamiut in the mid to late 1960s who were then on the brink of tumultuous change, snowmachines roared by outside, bearing hunters off to intercept the migrating caribou as they always have in this windswept mountain pass.

 93-15-08 Gates of the Arctic National Park Sep 26, 1992
Dennis Schmitt, Part 2

This is a continuation of an interview with Dennis Schmitt on September 26, 1992 in Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska with Steve Ulvi. This is a continuation from tape number Oral History 93-15-08. In this part of the interview, Dennis talks about living with the Nunamiut in Anaktuvuk Pass in the mid to late 1960s, hunting of grizzly bears and dependence upon subsistence resources, the transportation used, and impact from establishment of Gates of the Arctic National Park.

 93-15-09 Gates of the Arctic National Park Sep 26, 1992