Diary & Unalakleet Monthly, ca. 1913
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GUEST:
Well, this is a sort of a diary that my grandfather had written. He was a teacher, missionary, educator in Unalakleet, Alaska, back around the turn of the...
APPRAISER:
Unalakleet?
GUEST:
Unalakleet. My grandmother had sort of chased him down to Alaska, decided that she wanted to marry him, and she tracked him down.
APPRAISER:
She went pretty far, right?
GUEST:
She went to the end of the earth. He couldn't go any further, so she kind of had him. This is a diary that he wrote when my grandmother and mother and two brothers had left him for a while. So he's recounting his time alone. He writes some text, and then he even drew some pictures to amuse them. Here's a picture of Daddy with my Uncle Bill, my mom, Ruth, and Elmer, the youngest one.
APPRAISER:
Incredible. And he's named who they are, and you can see your mom there, your uncles. And what brought him to Alaska? Was he...
GUEST:
He was a minister, and I think he just thought it was something that he should do. I'm certain it was a government program, because some of the documents suggest that he was on the government payroll for a while.
APPRAISER:
So he was working, teaching. This other item is a magazine that he edited, correct, when he was up there?
GUEST:
Yes. I think he created it and everything.
APPRAISER:
He created it, edited it, probably illustrated it. Called Northern Lights. And the very interesting thing here is the fact that, to establish any kind of printing in Alaska, this remote area that you talked about, is... would not be an easy undertaking. And to get the equipment to do it was quite a commitment. And he brought it to the Eskimo children, and he had them actually publish the magazine. So he actually taught them to publish and produce this magazine, this newspaper, for themselves, and to educate them. It says, "It is our plan, by the help of the pupils, to publish the paper monthly at Unalakleet, in the interest of the schools of Alaska." There's about two years worth of them bound in here. It's only a few pages each, but it gives interesting talk of what's going on, recipes, local news, school news. But it is a really... a very professionally done and organized newspaper. And again, something like this is very ephemeral and would disappear and not likely be seen if you hadn't brought it here to the Roadshow. It even says in there that this is the only Eskimo newspaper in existence.
GUEST:
I saw that.
APPRAISER:
And that may very well be true. And that with the diary, and you also had some other papers related to his travels.
GUEST:
He had kept detailed expenses, so you can find out what reindeer meat cost on June 13, 1913.
APPRAISER:
The cost of reindeer meat. Altogether, for insurance value, I would easily put this at $5,000 to $10,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
The combination, I mean, it's such a fabulous story, very interesting man, and you're very lucky to have that history in your family.
GUEST:
It's wonderful to have in our heritage.
APPRAISER:
Thank you for bringing it in.
GUEST:
Well, thank you very much.
APPRAISER:
Thank you.
Appraisal Details
In particular, "Eskimo" has various connotations depending on where you live in the Northern Hemisphere, but many Alaska Natives consider the term offensive.
In Canada and Greenland, "Eskimo" has negative connotations and is no longer an accepted term. "Inuit" is preferred, but that term is not as commonly used in the United States.
To the extent it is still used, "Eskimo" only properly refers to two main indigenous cultural groups collectively: Yupik (a culture group from Western Alaska) and Inupiat (a culture group from Northern Alaska and St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea). When one of these groups is being referenced, however, the more specific terms "Yupik" and "Inupiat" are preferred by Alaska Natives.
The term "Alaska Natives" includes all indigenous peoples of Alaska.
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