UA Press publishes a missionary's diary and a study of expedition dogs
April 15, 2014
The University of Alaska Press has released two new titles, Seventeen Years in Alaska: A Depiction of Life Among the Indians of Yakutat, by Albin Johnson and 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.
Swedish Covenant missionary Albin Johnson's memoir of his 17 years among the Tlingit
people of Yakutat offers an eye-witness account of an indigenous people in transition
as migrants poured into Alaska seeking economic opportunities. At the turn of the
20th 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 soften the damage to Alaska Natives, even while engendering
profound change. The narrative captures encounters between Tlingit people and Swedish
missionaries at a dynamic time in Alaska's history.
Harnessed to the Pole is a unique study of the 19th-century sledge dogs who 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,
driven hard and sometimes left to die along the trail. Often referred to as "meat
on the paw" and "little camels of the north," they were 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,
and 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. This 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 about these titles and many more, please visit www.uapress.alaska.edu
or call 800-621-2736.