UA Press releases 'The Tanana Chiefs: Native Rights and Western Law'

The University of Alaska Press has released The Tanana Chiefs: Native Rights and Western Law edited by William Schneider, in collaboration with Will Mayo, Natasha Singh, Kevin Illingworth and Tom Alton.

In 1915, Native Athabascan leaders met with government officials in Fairbanks, Alaska to discuss the impact of prospectors and settlers on their subsistence way of life. In this historic meeting, Native leaders sought education and medical assistance from the state, and they wanted to know what to expect from the federal government that might help preserve their way of life and allow them to take advantage of new opportunities.

It had been forty-eight years since the United States agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia. Not much changed until the gold rushes. Then things really changed. This is the story of Native leaders working to understand and prepare for that change.

William Schneider is professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he ran the Oral History Program and taught anthropology. His thirty-four year career in Alaska was devoted to documentation of the history and cultures of Alaska Natives. Contributors to this volume include Thomas Alton, a historian of the Progressive Era in Alaskan history; Will Mayo, past president of the Tanana Chiefs Conference and a national leader in Native American affairs; Kevin Illingworth, associate professor of tribal management at the Interior Alaska Campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks; and Natasha Singh, legal counsel for the Tanana Chiefs Conference, which represents Native villagers in the Interior of Alaska.

For more information about this title and many more, please visit uapress.alaska.edu or call (800) 621-2736.

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