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For information on the Harriman Retraced Expedition e-mail: harriman2001@science.smith.edu |
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I was born June 19th, 1929 in
Yakutat, exactly 30 years after the Harriman expedition
visited Hubbard Glacier. I am of the Raven moiety, the clan
of Copper River, and from the Shaman's Owl House. Mt. St.
Elias is my clan crest. My mother, Susie Bremmer, was
born near Dragonfly Lake just west of Katella. Her father
was John Bremmer, the son of John James Bremmer from
Scotland, the guide for Lt. Allen that explored the Copper
River area. He also helped with mapping. Named in his honor
are Bremmer River, Valley, Glacier and Mine. My father was a Tlingit from
Yakutat from the Brown Bear Moiety, TeiKweidi Clan from Sea
Lion Island near Ketchikan. He was about 15 years old and
was at the Hubbard Seal Camp with his sister Jennie Abraham
when the original Harriman Expedition visited
there. Yakutat did not have a high
school so I went to boarding school at Sheldon Jackson High
School/ College. After graduating, I went to the school of
nursing at Ganado, Arizona, in the heart of the Navajo
Indian Reservation. I later worked as a nurse with the
Indian Health Service in Window Rock, Bethel, Sitka and
Anchorage. After retiring from nursing, I
graduated from Alaska Pacific University with a Bachelor in
Arts in Human Services, and a Master of Arts in Teaching in
Multi-Ethnic Education. Currently, I am a candidate for a
Doctor of Philosophy in Natural Health. I am a member of the Board of
Directors for the Yakutat Native Corporation, and past
member of the Yakutat Tlingit Tribes Council and
Commissioner of the Alaska Native Science Commission
(ANSC). On the Commission, I assist the
Native community to encourage state and federal agencies to
cooperate and dialog with Native elders and hunters so they
may use Native knowledge in areas such as conservation of
harbor seals, sea lions and environmental protection. I also
do this to give value and recognition to traditional Tlingit
laws about prohibitions on needlessly killing or molesting
animals, marine mammals, fish or birds. What I hope outside
agencies will take from Tlingit thought is the consideration
of spiritual aspects of these animals. The ANSC helps to
teach and give value to Native ways of knowing and to build
partnerships between the community, agencies and
researchers. The Alaska Native Science
Commission's Mission is to endorse and support scientific
research that enhances and perpetuates Alaska Native
cultures and ensures the protection of indigenous cultures
and intellectual prosperity. There are seven commissioners
representing six Alaskan tribes. Patricia Cochran is the
executive director with several support staff and research
staff also hired according to projects. Concerns of Native
people are addressed through traditional talking circles at
regional meetings. An Athabascan regional meeting
was held in Fairbanks, Alaska in May 2000. Representatives
from thirteen communities attended. Some of the concerns and
observations they shared had to do with the increase in
beavers they thought were due to the warmer winters. The
lakes and rivers do not freeze to the bottom and that
increased the numbers of beavers that blocked the streams,
rivers and lakes so salmon could not spawn. Another concern
was the large numbers of wolves hamstringing moose and
caribou. At another regional meeting, held in Nome,
representatives from twenty-one communities -- spanning a
region from St. Lawrence Island to Kodiak -- also spoke
about the increase in wolves and beaver populations as well
as high levels of PCBs and DDT in King Salmon. The Alaska Native Science
Commission networks and collaborates with projects such as
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP),
established in 1991, that monitored and assessed the effects
of selected anthropogen pollutants in all regions of the
Arctic. Their report covers a collaborative effort involving
national and international monitoring programs with 8 Arctic
countries: Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Finland, Iceland,
Norway, Sweden, the former USSR/Russian Federation and the
United States. One of ANSC's main aims has been
to link traditional and scientific knowledge. To resolve
concerns and issues of Native people depends on finding this
link and finding solutions. An ANSC project that has been
completed is the Survey of Living Conditions in the
Arctic, Inuit, Saame and the Indigenous People of
Chukatka. This was completed with the Institute of
Social and Economic research, University of Alaska,
Anchorage, The Environmental Protection Office, Region X,
the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air. The final report for
this project is not complete.
For information on the Harriman Retraced Expedition e-mail: harriman2001@science.smith.edu
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