Species Paper

One of the things I found interesting while writing the species paper and looking at Lloyd's rank of the top 100 species on Earth are the categories he chose to rank the species on in order to give them their overall score. His categories included:
*Evolutionary Impact
*Impact on Human History
*Impact on the Environment
*Global Reach
*Longevity
All these categories made sense to me except 1, why did he care so much about impact on human history? I was not surprised this was a category but I was disappointed. I understand that humans are in many ways the brightest species on Earth but we seem to be horrible at making good decisions. In fact, we have made many mistakes, and continue to make many mistakes, that not only effect our own species in a negative way but all other species on Earth. I am tired of people thinking humans are so great and that we are so much better than the rest of the world. If we were so great why could we not live without stable ecosystems? When it comes to wildlife management generally, it is the species at the top of the food chain that is the most disposable and humans are at the very top. If we died out I think everyone would agree that the Earth would be OK if not in a better place than it is today. Why is it so hard for humans to grasp that other species are just as important as ourselves if not more? How can people knowingly destroy the plant and not feel guilty? Where do we think we are all going to live if earth is somehow destroyed enough to not make an immediate recovery? How can we make humans see outside ourselves and begin to appreciate everything around us? If someone can answer this question than I would be forever grateful.

Alright. Sorry guys, my first blog got deleted by my lameo internet problems, and I didn't know how to save. My thoughts..my thoughts...

The fact that those little bacteria guys managed to pollute this whole planet into a place where we can survive blows my mind. I wonder if us humans will manage to do the same? The dino's got unlucky and a big chunk of rock ruined them, but we seem to be on the path to ruining ourselves.

How God fits into earth’s evolution? Well, I have no problem with seeing that God could be the reason for all this scientific process…I mean, why couldn’t He have made something as complicated as the Earth? Also, I would think time means little to Him, He is omnipresent and eternal…A billion years would mean nothing, so why couldn’t his thought of a day be our thought of millions of years passing by? It’s always interesting to think about.

I question that we can decide how to place a number of importance of a species. Everything everywhere is always changing, evolving, new species being discovered while others go extinct. We are all connected in odd little ways you don’t ever think is important until Bam, that species is gone, and we can notice the affects. Since this is so, how can we say oh, well, Plankton, you put out tons of oxygen, you are most important. (Ok, I know they do more than that, but for the sake of a little argument, just to get a new angle…) Trees are pretty big deals too…Not just oxygen, but they keep things from eroding, they are homes, heck, they help us build our homes. This isn’t even going that deep into an argument, I don’t know enough about my species, but it was what I thought after we did that talk in class the other day.

Anyway, these movies are really interesting, they give us lots of food for thought. I find that how we effect each other, and how discovering how the earth was made affecting us is interesting…But it is hard to really think about on one’s own. I like that we are being forced to give more thought about it, we can come up with our own theories, and who knows, maybe someone will be brilliant, and make a new discovery J

animals inhibating the planet

When reviewing the videos that we have been watching in class about the creation of our planet I feel like it takes my breath away. The idea that one small bacteria could have created all of the life on our planet is so phenomenal. I know it was explained in the video but I still can not help but think how in the world is that possible. I have never learned of these theories until now and I am suprised that we haven't been taught these theories when we were younger such as in high school. Why haven't we been taught this before?

What I want to know is how this bacteria specifically created all these different species? What were some of the first species created?


The idea that the planet was first filled with lava and then finally water is kind of a wierd concept, but it makes sense. How else would we have gotten the crust and the mantle?

I do not know how God fits into all these ideas. It perplexs me how then God exists or how these two ideas coinside. If God exists then what did he do exactly? I mean the bible states that God created all the plants and animals and made the universe. So if scientists find that one species was formed and then the rest of the plants and animals were formed from that then how do these two ideas fit together? It doesn't make sense. I guess you just have to believe in one idea or the other.

Was it god or was it the big bang theory?

When wondering how the world was created my mind tells me that God created it and not to believe in the big bang theory. I am a christian so i believe in most of the things that the bible tells us, mostly that it is God who created the world. So it's somewhat hard to get into the topic of how the earth was formed and later evolved. However, i do think that the big bang theory is a fairly decent explanation as to how the earth was created if it wasnt god who created it.

Just wondering???

I have never blogged before so I hope this works.

In class we talked about how earth was formed by rocks sticking to other rocks. The bigger the rock the more rocks would be attracted to it. My first thought was… Why does Mars stay where it is and not collide with earth? Then if the moon is made up of earth’s crust why would the moon not come back to earth? I believe Mars is bigger than earth so if a plant the size of Mars hit earth why would it break apart instead of earth? And two plants colliding creating the moon and destroying the other planet I think that would leave a HUGE dent in the earth.

I thought this was all interesting I am not a big science person so maybe I am missing something but this just did not make a lot of since to me.

Yes, the videos were extremely interesting, but they were also missing a lot of information and facts. The scientists are doing a great job trying to guess how it happened, but i believe that they will never know for sure. The human mind just isnt advanced enough to even fathom the idea of how the universe might have started. And its time they realized that. Its a great theory that the universe was once at a single point because everything is moving away from us at light speed. But for all we know, they are just traveling past otward from us due to the fact that there isnt any friction in space. A planet or star could have become stable and a supernova could have resulted, sending millions of rocks infinite in every direction. The only reason we dont fall out of orbit and drift around aimlessly as well, is because of the orbit of the sun, gravity, and whatnot. As the video showed, rocks would collide around and form larger conjoined rocks (like the bag of salt in space) until a single rock would get big enough to create a gravitational pull. Thus pulling more rocks to its surface infinitely, so i would guess. But im not sure why all of the space matter that space shuttles have to dodge to leave our planet doesnt fall and collide into earth... Anyway, there are a ton of unanswered questions that probably will never be answered. So just use your imagination and find your own belief. As for me, i believe the universe as we know it, is just a spec in the galaxy of another, and that galaxy is just a spec in another, and so on. Our planet is so miniscule and insignificant compared to all of space and time. I believe there are other planets that harbor life more intelligent and less intelligent than ours. But we will never know for sure. It isnt possible to make a machine that can travel through space at lightspeed to explore these ideas for ourselves. We cant even make it past the moon, yet the end of our solar system. And another interesting thought is that there are areas on our own planet that we do not have the technology to visit. The deepest oceans and trenches on earth have so much crushing force that we cannot explore these places. But we know its possible, because pictures have been taken of fish who can survive in such environments. We just need to invent the technology. I just think we have a lot to figure out about our own planet before we move on to conquering others.
And on a side note, i was just thinking, if there was a "big bang" and the universe was formed, and it is infinitely traveling in all directions, could you imagine if the "big bang" was replicated in another place in empty space. Two ground-zero points shooting universes in every direction infinitely. What happens when they collide at the speed of light?

12 Hours

In Thursday's lecture, I was very interested in the idea of taking the evolution of the universe and cramming it into only 12 short hours.  Once this was done, it could be seen just how little of time was spent on what seems to us as the important things.  Out of the 12 hours, the most time was spent on the accumulation of oxygen alone.  Eight hours were spent on oxygen filling the atmosphere and rising to a high enough level for animal survival.  Now I may be going out on a limb here, but I find it fascinating that most of earth's life was spent on producing one single element, yet dinosaurs came and went in a flash.

I would really like to comment on the idea of a fraction of a second as well, but that still blows my mind.  I'm still trying to catch that fraction before it flies by my head . . .

Earth

While watching the videos in class today I got to thinking about the first second in time. I found it quite interesting how scientists have divided up the 1 second into 10^(-43) seconds. The fact that this can happen blows my mind, almost to the point where I am driven to the point of disbelief. It seems to me that since there is no solid proof that the universe was created, how do we know for sure who we can and cannot trust. The science behind the matter is always evolving into bigger and better concepts. It is also extremely hard for me to imagine that the entire universe at one point never existed, yeah, that was billion of years ago, but its still incredibly weird for me to think

I found myself thinking about the heat that this explosion would have created. In one of the videos it said that the Earth was molten and very hot while it was forming. So it must have been a warm environment, right? If it was then what made it change to become cold like it is today?

I also began thinking about how the Birth of the Earth video mentioned how it is believed that the Earth was created from a dust cloud from around the sun, that when cooled down it created minerals and the minerals eventually combined. In the video it also stated that the minerals started attracting each other until one became big enough and it would attract the other minerals. So if this is how the Earth was formed, is it the same way other planets were formed? And if it was how did the larger mineral clumps not attract each other to create one big super planet??

The Evolution of Earth

Throughout today's studies, I found myself questioning the idea of life on other planets. There are so many more galaxies out there, and we just learned an idea of how Earth was created...who's to say that hasn't happened in one of those other galaxies? Unfortunately, we may never know the answer to that question.


Secondly, according to the information learned today, water got to Earth via comets containing ice. I studied this a little deeper and discovered that if water arrived by comets alone, MILLIONS of comet impacts would be required. Though this is not an unreasonable number, I can't help but wonder....is it possible that we will experience MILLIONS of comets impacting Earth again? If so, how long will it be until that day comes?


Lastly, I enjoyed hearing about the creation of the moon. I didn't realize that the composition of the moon was so abnormal. After further studying, I see that some believe that the impact made on Earth after the crash caused the large tilt in the axis, which is responsible for Earth's different seasons. Just something to think about!

Expedition Earth: UAF Fall 2010: Evolution of Earth

Expedition Earth: UAF Fall 2010: Evolution of Earth: "While watching the videos today in class I thought of how we were talking about how theories have been disproven and are, basically, forever..."

I think you have a very good point about the earth and theories. I think that we as humans are always trying to answer questions that we do not know the answer to. It is in our natural curiousity to try to answer such questions. Theories are great and all but sometimes I feel like they are pointless because some questions you are never going to find the answer to such as how the earth began, when it began etc.

Evolution of Earth

While watching the videos today in class I thought of how we were talking about how theories have been disproven and are, basically, forever changing. For example, the video said just 80 years ago the universe was thought to have been around forever and now there is the “Big Bang” theory. So I started looking, further, into earlier theories of the creation of Earth and earlier methods of dating the Earth.

First I found information about John Philips calculating, in the 17th century, the Earth’s age using stratigraphic concepts (which I still don’t really understand) and finding that the Earth was about 96 million years old. Mikhail Lomonosov thought that the Earth had been created on its own in the 18th century. There were a few other people who tried to date the Earth in different ways and found it to be 75,000 years old, but we get the idea that these old naturalists seemed to be way off.

In my research, William Thomson, seemed to be a big name that kept coming up. He found the Earth to be near 20 million years old. He was also the person who introduced the theory that the Earth was created of completely molten rock.

Overall, what I took from this class and this research is that scientists can come up with as many ideas as they want, about how Earth was created or how old Earth is, but in a matter of minutes these theories can be disproved. While looking through these different theories I kept thinking these same questions over and over: Is it worth it to come up with such theories or is it more for personal fulfillment that we seek these answers? Is it really relevant to find answers that may be incorrect or is it just a waste of time?

The good and the bad

I personally believe that everyone has a good/bad side to them that defines who they are. The Russians had some good and bad in them and definitley showed it upon their arrival to Alaska. Their good intentions involved teaching the Natives how to adapt to their environment in new ways, bringing along technology with them, etc... It just so happens that they did some harm as well. They brought diseases with them, diminished the spirit world, took over the way that the Natives ran their lives, and ultimately caused a 60% decrease in the Native population. It's sad that the Natives couldnt do anything about it although they tried to. "It is historical fact that they resisted Russian efforts to colonize them" says Napolean (Yuuyaraq pg. 9). But the Natives had to give in when 60% of their population was loss.

Spirit

Napoleon talks about how important the spirits of the animals are, and the spirits of the body are. As soon as someone/something dies, it starts the process all over again of being a baby animal or person. When a person or animal died the people would have a feast to honor them in hopes that the spirit would come back. Was there any feasts after the Great Death? I don't know if someone mentioned this already. Just curious.

Correctional Facilities

I'm having a hard time understanding the time frame of the book. I mean, for the most part, the recent years. I wonder if any of Napoleons ideas have been used. I like how he points out that instead of the governemnt handing out money to the Natives for the them to live off of, instead for some of that money to be used to make correctional facilities (like for alcoholism) and have those facilites run by Natives who understand what is going on, who know a lot about their culuture and more about how the Great Death affected their people as a whole. I don't know if I understand what he is saying when these facilities should run for only a span of 20 years. And maybe there should be more thought on facilities for juveniles also because they are being largely affect now.

Silence

After reading Yuuyaraq I still don't understand why Yup'ik people stayed silent after the Great Death. I get that it was thought to be easier to not talk about the pain, but if they saw their people suffering and dealing with what was happening why wouldn't they stand together and defend everything they new? Why would they just not speak of the old ways and let the Christians take over their lives? This doesn't seem easier to me. This seems as though it would just add to the pain. Not only did they lose their communities, but now they're losing their whole way of being. They were losing everything they knew. How is this easier than talking and staying united as a community (or what was left of the community)?

Famine

So I started rereading the part about the Great Death and before I hadn't really realized that afterwards they had famine and drought. This must have had an even bigger efftect after the trauma of seeing so many dead. How could they recover from so many blows? I mean, the Great Death wiped out 60% of the Eskimo and Athabaskan. How many where wiped out from the famine and drought? Just a thought.

Are you kidding me?!

I CAN NOT believe that survivors of the Great Death would turn over the educations of their children to the missionaries. I mean really?! Yeah sure, you can beat my kids and put soap in their mouths if they speak in yup'ik. And they were threatened to serve in hell if the danced or followed old ways. They taught them to be ashamed of the old ways and that they were evil. What is this going to solve?! What an outrage! These people died! They should be celebrated, not frowned upon.

An interesting thought..

I was just thinking, if one believes in reincarnation and being reborn in a new life after this one, would someone take their life in search for a new beginning? In other words, the native belief is that when one dies due to illness or injury, the spirit leaves the body and it is reborn when a newborn baby is given its name. So if someone is displeased with their current life, would it occur to them to take their life so they could start a new, maybe more enjoyable life? Maybe their beliefs could be the cause for several suicides. Just an interesting thought..

Respecting Animals

Reading Innruq was extremely interesting. I wish everyone would treat animals and their "spirits" with the respect that the natives do. When animals are everything to your peoples survival, you treat them with great respect, and take their lives only when nessesary. There are a lot of people that mistreat animals and illegally poach them. It REALLY gets to me when i am out hunting, and i find a carcas killed earlier that day, with lots of meat left on it. Wasting game is a shame. My family lives a very subsistance lifestyle. We hunt and fish lots. And my dad has taught me everything his dad did about respecting animals.

Napoleon made a statement on page 23 that I thought was worth commenting on. He was discussing today's young Alaska Natives and the problems that they are facing still as a result of the Great Death. The sense that they have failed, that they should be ashamed of who they are has overwhelmed them, and this is showing itself in the villages with the rates of suicides, violent crimes, alcoholism etc. "These are the numbers we hear in reports," Napoleon stated, "They are living human beings...the ones we pay no attention to until they become numbers." I thought it was interesting and disturbingly true that he said this. There is always a public outcry about situations like these after they have happened, after some study is reported or someone makes a movie or some horrific event unfolds. But up until that happens, the people involved feel ignored. These feelings fester in them until they reach a breaking point and do something that demands attention. Just look at what happened at Columbine, or Virginia Tech. It's basically the same thing. The young men who were involved felt ignored and what they did was a huge cry for attention. This can be seen all across America, and certainly the world, in the classic plight of the angry teenager feeling ignored, bored and useless in the suburbs of some city. And while that is a bit of a stereotype, it certainly rings true in many cases.

Great Death

I found Napoleon’s reading quite interesting. The Great Death section of the essay got my attention the most. I realized that the Great Death of the Yup’ik people brought on much sorrow, heartbreak, grief, and anger. As would any pandemic, however, the Yup’ik people were so connected that they had silently agreed not to talk about the sorrows that were brought to their clan. The survivors were traumatized, scared, leaderless, and confused. They were left with no other option than to follow the missionaries and the school teachers. The survivors began to embrace Christianity and disregarded Yup’ik. They stopped their cultural traditions with the spirit world and other ceremonies. It seems to me like people would have stood up for their children and want to pass on even though they were going through difficult times; even if it made it harder.In a sense they buried the old culture with the deaths of their people. The missionaries had no problem taking over. They helped to make the Yup’ik people completely Christian. In schools the teachers would punish the children for speaking in Yup’ik or dancing. The parents of these children just let it happen. The young children were lead to believe that their ancestor’s beliefs and traditions were evil and had no value for life. The children were told that they went to hell. The survivors just let this happen. They watched as the missionaries completely changed their children’s beliefs and education.

I don’t know… Just something I noticed/thought…

The 7 Rights

I find Napoleans list of the 7 rights interesting. It seems like it would be hard for the American Government to accept, because we are all supposed to be one nation and all that, we all have the right to vote, we pick who our leaders are, so the Natives should be able to accept that. It's not like they can't vote. But, the 7 rights is exactly what they need. Other people have been taking care of them for so long, whether it was the missionaries harshly telling them to do, or in later years the government trying to compensate that with money and phsycologists and whatnot. If the Natives have a real reason to live again, like working for their money, like working for the substitence by hunting, fishing, berry picking, they need to have the chance to do that. There is a whole different life style they could be living if there wheren't laws saying they could only hunt in this way, they can only fish here...They are people who were meant to live off the land. And if they do so as they have done so would there really be a shortage of bears? or moose? or fish? When they were still their own people, no, they only took what they needed to survive and they didn't waste. If they had a chance to do that and use the new technology that has come with the advance of humanity, then maybe they could revive their culture in such a way, that the native culture and the white man culture could blend together even better, and they would have a chance to recover from the blows the Great Death left.

Shoot

So I thought I've posted at least 4 blogs on this thing but I don't know if I didn't it right hte first time because I didn't use this thing but they were on the sight before?? Well..here are some of my views anyway.
As I first started reading this book, and it described the Native culture, when they honored the spirits, then when they let the white men watch and they thought it was devil worship, why didn't the "white men" try to learn more about their culture? And I suppose some of them must have, and I can't be sure because this is only one side of the story, but why would you just assume, oh here's a new culture, why, they worship the devil! Lets fix it by telling them they are evil devil worshipers and they are all going to burn in hell....Ok, so thats a bit of an exaggeration because they weren't told that as harshly until after the Great Death. But still, why did no one try to understand what they are doing? It made sense for them to honor the spirits of the animals they killed, the animals were their way of life, without them they wouldn't be able to survive. And why would they worship the devil? Do we just assume that of any new culture we come across? Now I understand that ways have changed since then and I think that people are starting to become more understanding and accepting of each other, but its crazy to think that a whole culture was almost wiped out because "white men" or missionaries, however you want to put it, wanted Natives to be like them.

Tainted Past

I just got done reading the first chapter of the book, i could have finished earlier but i had way to much homework to do and classes that i needed to catch up in. Napolean's book was really hard to put down at times when i really needed to go something else, because of how much one can learn about the Alaskan natives of the past. I seriously never knew that it's the westerners who are pretty much at blame for there being so many alcoholics within the "native" society today. The Alaskan natives lived in peace and harmony until the westerners showed up. If it wasnt for there arrival there most likley wouldnt have been a great death resulting in PTSD and further resulting in the use of alcohol to calm one's nerves. But then again, the Natives we're free to make there own decisons when it came to drinking or not. They could have escaped the pain and sorrow that the Great Death brought upon them by simply coming closer together. Instead of letting it get to their system with all of the liqour that they consumed.

Harold Napolean

Harold Napoleon’s letter is incredibly brave. It’s not easy to expose your personal wounds. He not only did this, but he also exposed the wounds of his culture, his people. What the “white man” did to not only the Yupik, but many other Alaska Natives, was a tragedy. In his letter, he talks about the whites wanting to “help” the Yupik. I do not believe this to be true. The whites helped wound a culture. They took the things that benefited themselves and made the natives change to what best suited them.

With that being said, it is now up to the Yupik to rebuild their culture. Alcoholism and depression are terrible diseases. However, with the right leadership, they can regain what they once had. It will never be the same, but they can at least recover something. This has to be done soon before the few who still remember are gone.

Finsished reading and have mixed emotions.

I finally finished reading the book and I had mixed emotions. I found that the first part was ok and was easy to make connections to and then he has a total turn around and ends up in jail. I can't really say that I can understand where he is coming from but the points that he brings up were interesting and were valid. I have experienced or gone through a few things that he talked about such as PTSD and that was when my sister was going to school when hurricane Katrina hit and it took a toll on her as well as the whole family. Not knowing where she was and if she was safe and getting a call from her once a week was scary. We knew she had left but that was as much information as we knew and she jumped around to multiple states with her roomate that she just meet and she finally ended up in Wisconsin and she went to Marquett for a semester and was in good hands with my uncle. I have also experienced death recently when my grandma died from health complications and it is still hard to reflect back and when I talk about it I start to get a little shaken up. She was young but she had gone through many surgeries and she pulled through but a few days later she died. I would have really liked to have seen her before she passed away since the last time I saw her was about 5 years ago at a family reunion. I could keep going but then I would end up writing my whole paper on this one blog.

Interesting...but feels incomplete

This was an interesting insight into the native culture of interior Alaska. Thinking about history from Napoleon's point of view does seem to give a good case for PTSD to be linked to alcoholism in his people. His writing is quite introspective especially since, at the time of his writing, he was in prison for some un-named similar offense. Many posts have focused on this issue of PTSD but seem to miss the larger problem Napoleon addresses at the end of his essay...and that is what to do about it.

Statehood intervened and policy makers began to address the issues of native peoples. If disease and death began the loss of the culture of his people, then statehood completed it. I would have liked to read more about what he proposes to do about the problem of alcoholism specifically and how the government should go about redressing the greater broad expanse of grievances of his people. Napoleon was a leader for his people in the 70's and 80's when the government was trying to fix some of the issues left over from statehood. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act attempted with much input from native leaders and individuals to set up a fair system of subsistence and ownership of lands for native and rural Alaska. There is no doubt that ANILCA and ANCSA still need work but these are now the laws of the land so to speak which were shaped by both policy makers AND native leaders. I agree that the only way for native communities to address many of the problems faced in the villages is to confront them in an open and honest way. Alaska and especially rural Alaska is tied together at the hip to the Federal Government...grants, subsidies, dividends, welfare, or whatever you choose to call them, are a way of life for most Alaskans. I would be interested to hear Napoleons view now as to what should be done in today's Alaska.

His essay feels incomplete and needs a part two. I would love to hear him expand upon his ideas in the later part of his essay and focus on the ways for rural Alaska to move forward.

PTSD

I never understood what PTSD was untell I read this book. Now I realize how it can tear people apart from the inside. I mean there's been stuff that eats at me from time to time, that i though was bad. I couldn't even imagine how painful it is to watch your family die right in front of you. It makes sence to me that they just want to forget everything they saw.

Epidemic for Alaskan Natives

Napoleon asks how can the epidemic for alaskan natives be contained. In my opinion it all depends on how the people in that society can come as a whole and come to a consensus that they as a society have problems relating to alcohol. They have to be willing to take the steps to control the problem. The problem is that it is very difficult to get the majority of the people to all of a sudden stop their addiction to alcohol especially if they have been alcoholics for years. Those people can go into withdrawal which can complicate the people further. Also with all the alcohol related crimes, it can cause the younger people to get influenced in a negative way which can cause more problems for future generations unless they have enough common sense to quit before they start.

Question about PTSD

I'm not sure i fully understand the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He explains that it happens when one sees something horrific and then suppresses it inside to the point where it drives you to insanity from guilt. I guess I'm not really understanding how this is being classified as a reason for current drinking problems. I understand how drinking can be a result of PTSD but how do the children get PTSD? He says it's passed down to the children from the parents, is PTSD a disease that can be passed genetically? Or is he saying that because the parents suffer they cause the kids to unconsciously? Please help me understand :)

Transition From Old Ways to New Ways

In Napoleons Book, when he began to talk about all of the diseases and problems that had spread across Alaska, killing a large percentage of the people, I began to realize how controlling the white people were. I may only be on page 17, but I already have began to feel differently about the history of Alaska, and upset. All the events leading up to Alaska as we now know it, were traumatizing to many of the Native Alaskans who knew Alaska before any white settlers. But what I questioned most about his writing, was how would things have been different if the white man never interrupted the Alaskans way, would the Alaskan Natives eventually have explored the world anyways? And would they be exposed to the rest of the world eventually, or would they have stayed in the barren land of Alaska for good. I believe that the white man could have been way more respectful of the Alaskan ways, but I believe they had the intention of "helping" the native Alaskans to move forward in the fast paced world. This whole story is sad and, and I am excited to finish it.

Opinion/question

Way to go Harold for voicing what you believe. After tragic events most people don't know what to expect let alone react to it. People use and abuse alcohol and drugs to think they are running away from their problems but it actually digs the holes deeper for them while they should try to solve the problems they face. The missionaries were there to help out with what they believe in a better way of life but they should of respected the Native ways of life and not completely change it. The missionaries enforced their rules harsher than they should of. The technology we have today is improved then what we had in the past and of course you have to except little changes here and there. I believe the Native cultures are coming back slowly by the elders and people that want to reshape the Native life to what it used to be but up to date in this century. So in other words, I am saying after the Great Death, the missionaries tried to help out and got carried away with their rules. Who knows what else would of happened to the survivors if the missionaries weren't there to help?

two births

In the book Napolean says "They were born not only into the physical world... But into a spirit world as well" when talking about Yuuyaraq. When talking about the survivors of the Great Death he says "They woke to a world in shambles, many of their people and their beliefs strewn around them, dead." There's such a contrast to the two worlds described from before the great death to after it. It really opens my eyes to the destruction disease and death can have on a culture and a way of life. I feel as though Napoleon is telling us these two different births as a way of painting a picture of the repercussions of the "white man" coming into Alaska and exploring. Still reading...

nallunguarluku with regard to the missionaries

I find the teaching nallunguarluku," to pretend it didn't happen" to be a very troubling teaching and the fact that the missionaries used it as a way of gaining control over the natives even more troubling. The whole idea behind bottling up emotions and pretending something didn't happen is very unhealthy and leads to all kinds of suppressed anger and inner turmoil. Beings a Christian myself I find it unsettling that the Christian missionaries promoted this bottling up of and said that their ancestors were in hell and to not speak of them. I feel as though the missionaries should have been promoting them talking about their issues and using companionship and god as a way to work through them. This is a very eye opening read. Still reading...

New Begining

After the Great Death the culture became suppressed by the incoming culture of the missionaries. Then they became depressed by adapting the nallinguaq pretending it did'nt happen way of life. This life led to generational depression of a proud culture. So now to get out of the cultural distruction they are in, they need to do as they should have after the great death, they need to do as Harold says and "talk" talk their circles of stories good or bad. Bring the families together for understanding of generations of what got them where they are today and how they can become a better Native community. And yes they need to govern themselves. As long as a group of people are dependent on another then they will never thrive. They will always be dependent. But to be the leader of their own culture brings on a independent proud nature. That is not to say that they should not abide by the laws of the state. But to sustain their culture inherint laws and ways of life to be respected by the citizens of the state.

The Great Death and the Holocaust

I found similarities in what I've read so far between what the Alaska Natives had to go through and the Holocaust. Both the Natives and the Jews were made to believe that it was shameful to be who they were. They were forced to hide their culture in both instances, whether the punishment be ridicule and your mouth getting washed with soap, or concentration camps and death. Napoleon even said himself on page 19 that "some villages were ruled autocratically by a single priest." This was basically just totalitarianism, with the people in the villages simply keeping quiet and keeping order. That's not to say that the missionaries were purely to blame for this though, but that is a whole other issue. The missionaries apparently did try to help when their diseases began wiping out the Natives, but I think they also then took advantage of them later when they were at their weakest. The Natives did not know what to believe in anymore after the Great Death, and everything they knew had fallen apart around them. It is in this vulnerable state that one is most likely to look to a leader for guidance, no matter what the cost. The missionaries provided assistance in education, healthcare etc., but they also took this to their advantage and began to instill their beliefs on the Natives. They took the opportunity to spread their beliefs and way of life, but this turned out to be an irresponsible act. Anyways, while I am aware that what the Natives went through was not the same as what the Jews endured, I think it is important to note the similarities and the lasting effects that they both had on the people involved.

Current Events - intolerance and desecration

To the explorer or missionary witnessing the dancing in a dimly lit, crowded, stiflingly hot qasgiq (men's house), the men, stripped of their clothing, and the women dancing naked to the waist, must have seemed like heathen savages. The kass'aqs (white men) thought they were witnessing a form of devil worship and might have been frightened by it.

It is clear that the human kind’s tolerance of the differences between people’s beliefs still divide and separates us today. The quote above struck me when I read it and as I was reading an article on the news regarding a church intending to burn the Koran (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11223457) makes me the similarities and differences between the two. Something I notice is very similar to the two is the word “devil worship” and the misunderstandings of another belief system/religion. History seems to repeat itself... numerous times with these things.... What do you guys think?

I am angered by the proposed action because it goes against the values that this country was built upon. I know this is completely out of topic, but there’s a subtle similarity between these two articles about the intolerances we have just because we don’t understand it. It’s something I might want to write about.

"Nallunguaq"

I quote from the book,

"The survivors of the Great Death had to face it alone."

The author mentions that no psychological or physical relief was available, and referenced to the "Red Cross" that is available today. He continues in the next passage to say that the survivors just held in their feelings and didn't choose to talk about them. The survivors were not alone...they had each other!!

Keeping feelings bottled up does NOT help in any situation. I definitely understand that the situation was unpleasant and hurtful, but talking about it seems to be a better solution than ignoring it. When people talk about things, they can find ways to overcome.

Mixed Up!

I think that natives people don't have that tendency of being biologically able to abuse the alcohol is just that ( in my own point of view) their spiritual ways and way of live have been mixed up with the modern culture, causing that native people to get lost in their own path. For me is is the introduction of a new culture that is affecting the ways of native people to behave normally taking the alcohol as a relive or escape of the situation.For me people that actually has been able to preserve the pureness of the culture but at the same time explore an live in the actual world for me thats something to be rewarded.

The way of the human being

I started reading the book assigned to us, I was really judgemental at first about what Napoleon had to say. I totally do not agree with him that one culture could be more susceptible to becoming to alcohol or any other drug than another culture. I do believe however that yes there is a spiritual or mental component to drug addiction which is almost worse than the physical addiction. It always a person's choice to decide to drink so you can not blame alcohol on your problems or on your cultures problems. I have not finished reading the book yet but I will this weekend.

My Opinion

At first, I kind of felt the author was trying to blame everything on the "white man." While I fully believe that Euroamerican culture HEAVILY influenced the state native Alaskans are in today I feel that blaming the white man for everything is a cop out and that this issue is obviously way more complex than that. The spread of influenza which started the Great Death did not seem an intentional action of the white man and massive death due to disease introduction has been something all early societies had to deal with at some point in their history. Take a look at the black plague. It was inevitable that the Alaskan natives would one day come into contact with another culture and as unfortuneate as it is the culture with more power and advanced technology usually wins. I am not saying this is right or fair but it is a part of human evolution. Not to mention, I am sure native Alaskans were in some way naturally curious of these new people and the technology that they had which aided in contact and disease spread. So, basically I view it as nobody's blame just a result of human evolution and nature.

I think the unfortunate part of this history is the introduction of alcohol and intense Euroamerican pressure during the period of the Great Death as it provided a cheap "escape" from what was going on and did not allow native Alaskans a natural grieving period. It is completely understandable how Alaskan natives went through post traumatic stress disorder and shut off from the world which unfortunately resulted in them following European guidance without any question since it seemed as if it would provide their people with some stability. Unfortunately, even after leaving their old culture behind and adopting Euroamerican ways they began to see they would never be equals in this new culture either, creating a greater loss of identity and heightened frustration.

I would like to end by saying that I think native Alaskans should be proud of their culture and should have the opportunity to uncover and practice the ways of their ancestors if they want to, but I also feel they need to be accepted as equals into this society as equals regardless of their choice. White people and even Native elders expect individuals of native descent to act like their ancestors and adopt more primitive ways when many young people from indigenous backgrounds were not taught that way and feel more connected to the modern world they grew up in. Therefore, they feel pressured in all directions. I am Polish descent but people do not expect me to understand Polish traditions or still practice ancient Polish customs so I do not understand why it is so different for people of native cultures. It is a personal choice to explore your heritage, and we need to stop separating ourselves from native people and expecting them to know more about themselves than we do about ourselves. Cultures change and adopt new practices and everyone needs to accept that. However, hopefully through opening up about the past (as Napolean suggests) and embracing new changes to their culture, native Alaskans can once again be proud to be who they are and relinquish their identity as a people.

Continuation of my other post.

I also find it interesting how the author dedicates his life to others. I am enjoying this book and find that having taken a previous class it seems to tie together well. I am trying hard not to comment and spoil anything for anybody since I am probably farther along then most of the class.

First thoughts

Firstly I am excited to be reading a perspective from an Alaska Native culture foreign to me. I was slightly exposed of another Alaska Native culture in Southeast Alaska with the Tlingit. It is interesting to make connections and see similarities/differences between other cultures. Here are initial my thoughts below...


Yuuyaraq = Yupik’s beliefs = their Bible = Eithfold Path = Law etc. Interesting...

I particularly thought the Yup'ik’s beliefs in spirits and the afterlife very interesting because of the similarities between theirs and other cultures in the world. The idea of how iinruq taking another body is similar to other religion’s beliefs of reincarnation and rebirth. The Yup’ik’s respect towards animals, their land, and their people is also fascinating because it is similar to many tribal beliefs in North America. Something that really captured me was the importance of the Spirit World to the Yup’iks which i’ve never realized before.


More to come soon.... I have writer’s block!

first post on a blog

I started reading will finish this weekend.
After just reading the intro of the Author, I find it rather curious that he dedicates his life to his people but forgets who he need to be. That is true to himself first. I presume that he finds who he is while in prison. More reading to go
Debbie B

Be the First !!

OK Everyone ...  Time to Blog.  Extra credit for the first 10 people to post MEANINGFUL comments
As an example of what I would like to see go to:  http://akgeography302.blogspot.com/ to find writings from my Alaska Geography course this summer.

Just Click on the link at the top right that says "new post" and have at it.