Ehrlander receives Pathfinder Award

October 7, 2015

Marmian Grimes

Mary Ehrlander, director of Arctic and northern studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has received the Barbara S. Smith Pathfinder Award from the Alaska Historical Society for her book "Seventeen Years in Alaska:  A Depiction of Life Among the Indians of Yakutat."

The award recognizes contributions to the discovery and description of resources relating to Alaska history. Last year, the Alaska Historical Society named the award for Barbara Smith, a historian, archivist, exhibit curator and colleague who contributed so much to Alaska history and the society.

To create the book, Ehrlander, a UAF history professor, edited and translated the writings of Albin Johnson, a Swedish missionary who arrived in the Southeast Alaska village of Yakutat in 1889. Ehrlander's book adds considerably to our understanding of the roles missionaries played in Alaska Native communities.