William L. Iggiagruk Hensley
Auteur van Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People
Over de Auteur
Werken van William L. Iggiagruk Hensley
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- USA (Inuit)
- Woonplaatsen
- Washington, D.C., USA
Leden
Besprekingen
Lijsten
Statistieken
- Werken
- 1
- Leden
- 134
- Populariteit
- #151,727
- Waardering
- 3.6
- Besprekingen
- 3
- ISBNs
- 4
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As a child he and his sister were taken from their alcoholic mother in Nome by her cousin--who took them back to his parents in Kotzebue. They raised these two children--in addition to their own large family--as their own. In many ways this book is a paean to his great aunt and uncle. They raised all of their children in the traditional Inupiat ways--in Kotzebue for the winter, and out in the bush for the summer. They trapped, hunted, fished, and gathered to put away food for the long winter. They dried, smoked, and fermented everything. They ate traditional delicacies like whale skin and walrus. He had a wonderful childhood.
Hensley himself wanted to go to school, so he went. And he loved it, and went on to boarding school in Tennessee and then college. He served in the Alaska legislature, and worked in DC. He was instrumental in the Alaskan Native Claims, helped found NANA, and worked for an Inuit corporation. He helped found the Alaska Federation of Natives, and helped found/fun high schools in the far north so students no longer have to go to boarding school. Later in life, he came to the realization that as much as he loved school and education, a standard American education (let alone a boarding school education) has helped (intentionally) destroy native cultures, and he convinced the Inupiak to work to collect and share and educate the younger generations before the language and culture was lost.… (meer)