Monday, August 2, 2010

Papa Pilgrim

http://mccarthy-kennicott.com/MJ2003/page2.html

Alaska is known for its interesting people. This is just one link about an interesting man and his family I mentioned briefly with a couple class members. Originally he was idolized for his "family values". Eventually his ethics were brought to light and dealt with. Several of the family members continue to have problems with the justice system.

current and proposed N. Slope and Pebble Mine maps and awesome link regarding anwr

http://akcenter.org/gis/map-gallery

http://www.anwr.org/features/politics/whouse.htm

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Alaska indigenous Land Claims

http://www.unesco.org/csi/LINKS/monaco-ppts/McClintock_ppt_MonacoUNESCOarctic.pdf

I found this PDF when I was doing research for the final project.

There's some awesome pictures in this PDF, especially the picture of Kivalina.

^_^

Friday, July 30, 2010

http://www.newsminer.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Alaska+Board+of+Game+votes+to+double+permits+for+Nelchina+caribou+hunt%20&id=8939760&instance=h

This is link discussing a recent decision to increase the number of tier 1 permits in a given area. There are comments from ADF&G and the Ahtna. The discussion gets better after you get past the background part of the story. Most of the comments in response to the article are rediculous but always entertaining to read.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Preserving language

This is of course my own opinion but I do invite others to sway my thinking in another direction. Learning is a continuous experience. Feel free to flame me or educate me as appropriate. I am interested in hearing from others. Which of course is the reason to blog!

I am looking forward to hearing what Kalesha has to say. I was interested in learning the response but was discouraged when the answer was not revealed with a scholarly reason.

Kalesha's question was consistently redirected for reason of pride. Pride is not necessarily a bad thing but it is a selfish act that is defended in order to validate oneself. This in itself is neither bad nor good but it must be recognized. To ethically monitor yourself and be aware of your own identity will allow you to understand all related bias. It is this understanding that is the purpose of advancing education. It is human nature to protect and promote your own bias but it must be understood that you may be wrong even though your are being true to yourself. Different perspective is the only true understanding.

The analogy of killing a panda or an atomic bomb versus bows and arrows are analogies that do not relate. Written language has little establishment in human nature as a whole. I would offer that spoken language is part of identity but to lose it does not mean the end of a population or even individual identity. If losing the ability to speak one specific language was detrimental to identity there would be alot of lost souls in the world.

I did find the speaker and information to be interesting but knowing the "why" of preserving language over another was NOT answered. Granted, the way Alaska native language was taken is not right, however; the preservation of a language in order to justify saving a culture is not a good argument. This is especially true when it is a forced requirement. Progress is inevitable in human nature. This should be apparant to any cognitive mind.

photo essay or rural life

Here is a link to the Anchorage Daily News with a phote essay of rural life.

http://www.adn.com/2009/03/12/721082/life-in-rural-alaska.html

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Time for me is up.

It is 11:57 I am off to my Psychology class. If anyone posts a new blog between now and 2:00 I can not comment on it.