Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage ─ The First Peoples of Alaska

"Richly illustrated and beautifully written, this book embraces Alaska Native art and design masterworks with insight from Alaska Native elders, artists, and scholars. It is a communal welcome, an acknowledgment of the spiritual and social meaning of traditional objects and their importance to Alaskans' lives today and to our future." - --Fran Ulmer, Chancellor, University of Alaska Anchorage

"Likoodz! (fantastic) yaa x'￡x' (this book). Tlingit is my first language, so these were the words in my mind. Haa Shaagoon aya haa eet x'eiwat?n--it is as if our Ancestors have spoken to us. When community experts viewed these objects for the first time, the sacred objects awakened in them the ancestors' spirits."--Elaine Chewshaa Abraham, Chairperson of the Board, Alaska Native Science Commission

"Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska is a fine example of the new collaborative work that brings together Native Americans and anthropologists as equal partners. One learns so much about Alaska Native lives, beliefs, and values."--Sergei Kan, Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies, Dartmouth College

Aron L. Crowell is an anthropologist who works with indigenous communities of the north in the fields of cultural research, archaeology, oral history, and collaborative heritage. As Alaska Director for the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center, he has curated or co-led major exhibitions including Looking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq People, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, and Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait. Crowell lives in Anchorage, Alaska.