Reverend David Salmon, Athabascan nonagenarian

The first link to the audio story is quite good. Father Salmon and Peter John (another nonagenarian) were extraordinarily accomplished.

Flags are at half-staff across Alaska today, following the death of an Athabascan elder and leader. The Reverend David Salmon died yesterday. He was the first traditional chief for the Tanana Chief’s region, and the first Athabascan ordained to the Episcopal ministry.
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
http://aprn.org/2007/10/12/alaska-remembers-tanana-elder-david-salmon/

The 95-year-old cherished Gwich’in elder has been first traditional chief since August 2003, following the passing of Chief Peter John of Minto. The position is … held in high esteem.

Last Modified: October 12, 2007 at 02:43 PM
Athabascan traditional chief Salmon dies at 95

FAIRBANKS — The first traditional chief for the Athabascan people of the Interior died Thursday at his home in Chalkyitsik. The Rev. David Salmon was 95. “He was sitting in his favorite chair when he passed,” Salmon’s granddaughter, Patricia Salmon”

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/9374481p-9287881c.html

Father Salmon’s biography is here, from the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments,

http://www.catg.org/gallery/elders/DavidSalmon.html

and another one is here, Tanana Chiefs Conference–

Chief Salmon, who was first made Chief of Chalkyitsik at the age of 29, helped shape the community and was instrumental in building a school and starting a store. He introduced the first Christmas tree and potlatch, and built the church by hauling 90 logs at the age of 70, using only a chainsaw.

Chief David Salmon – “My father saved my life”

He received an honorary degree from the University of Alaska.

“Athabascan elder Rev. David Salmon, traditional chief of Chalkyitsik and second chief of Interior Alaska villages with the Tanana Chiefs Conference, just celebrated his 90th birthday, was the first Gwich’in to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church where he served for more than 42 years.

Salmon has had a life-long interest in education and sharing his cultural knowledge with others through programs such as UAF’s Elder in Residence program and the Academy of Elders, an intense immersion program for certified teachers intent on developing K-12 curriculum and teacher training programs. Salmon has collaborated extensively with UAF’s anthropology department and has been a Geist lecturer at the University of Alaska Museum for the past five summers. Salmon is considered a master toolmaker and his tools, fish traps and canoes are on display at the museum and in other university buildings. Salmon is a founding member of Denakkanaaga nonprofit elders’ organization. In January, the David Salmon Tribal Hall was opened in Fairbanks and dedicated by TCC in recognition of a lifetime of service. Salmon will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws.”
http://www.uaf.edu/commencement/2002/hdr.html

Chief David Salmon Traditional Athabascan Tool Collection, a new art acquisition purchased jointly by Doyon, Limited and the Doyon Foundation.

“I knew that if I didn’t make the tools, that they would just stay back there to be forgotten… How can the young people learn without seeing the tool? The Athabascan way is to teach by showing you; then when you see, you will learn. That is why when I speak about a tool, it must be in my hand. That is how it always was; that is how it should be.” — Chief David Salmon

… in the summer of 1994, Chief David Salmon began to craft a collection of tools, illustrating the pre- and early post-contact technology of theAthabascans of Alaska’s Interior. Most of these tools were used in the Athabascans’ subsistence lifestyle into the 1920s.

http://www.doyon.com/pdfs/news_august04.pdf

Both Chief Salmon and Chief Peter John spoke widely about their religious faith.
“The history of this country is not known,” Salmon explains his reasons for doing that book, plus another on the oral history of his people. “Young people do not know it. Old people die with it. Well, I don’t want to die with it. I want the young people to have it.”O’Brien, Thomas A. 1997. Athabaskan implements from the skin house days as related by Reverend David Salmon. Thesis (M.A.)–University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1997. OCLC: 42066842

The Gospel according to Peter John
# Publisher: Alaska Native Knowledge Network (1996)
# Language: English
# ASIN: B000BSFGQY

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Nonagenarian archaeologist Kathleen Gilmore

2011-08-17 Dr Gilmore’s death was npt widely known, unfortunately, in the news media. She would have been someone to have known. Kathleen Kirk Gilmore | Visit Guest Book Gilmore, Kathleen Kirk Kathleen Kirk Gilmore, born Nov. 12, 1914, in Altus, OK. Passed away March 18, 2010. She was the daughter of Jessie Horton Kirk and Rufus Patrick Kirk and wife of late Robert Beattie Gilmore. She worked since Junior High at various jobs while going to school to earn her BS in Geology from Oklahoma University. After raising 4 daughters, she returned to school earning her PhD in anthropology in 1973 from SMU and she has been working as an archaeologist since. She was an adjunct professor at North Texas University from 1974 to 1990 and led many archaeology digs in Texas and elsewhere. Past contributions in her field include the first female President of the Society for Historical Archaeology, President of the Texas Archaeological Society, President of the Council of Texas Archaeologists, served on the Texas Board of Review, Board of Directors of the Texas Historical Foundation. In 1995 she was the first woman to receive the Harrington Medal in Historical Archaeology and in 2008 she received the Governor’s Award for Historical Preservation. She was the first archaeologist to prove the location of La Salle’s Fort St. Lewis settlement. Survived by daughters Judy Gilmore Lepthien, Pat Gilmore, 5 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchild-ren. Donations can be made to Texas Historical Commission, Texas Archeological Society, or the Society for Historical Preservation. Services will be held at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home at 4 pm on Tuesday March 23, 2010 and following the services will be a celebration of her life at the house.

Archaeologist Kathleen Gilmore has unlocked some of the most elusive mysteries of Texas history.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/082807dnmetarc.3157d1e.html
By ALLEN HOUSTON, The Dallas Morning News, 05:01 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 28, 2007

VICTORIA, Texas –
Kathleen Gilmore, the first archaeologist to prove the location of explorer La Salle’s Fort St. Louis, returned to the site near Victoria, Texas, earlier this year with a French documentary film crew.

She spent decades hunting down the location of the French explorer La Salle’s lost fort before discovering it near the Gulf Coast. She also excavated a number of Spanish colonial forts in Texas, including Mission Rosario, near Goliad.

At age 92, the Preston Hollow resident will visit Spain in December to study a recently discovered cache of documents sent from early Texas missions.

But her greatest accomplishment may have been digging the way for other women to follow in her footsteps….

[Now, why would she need to dig her/our way forward? for example,

Jeff Durst, an archaeologist with the Texas Historical Commission, added: "She's got an incredible amount of spirit and spunk for her age."

Time's passage hasn't slowed Dr. Gilmore.]

Dr. Gilmore grew up in Tulsa and in the 1930s attended the University of Oklahoma, where she studied geology, believing that it would be easier to help support her family during the Depression.

Instead, the only work she could find was as a secretary for a geologist in Houston.

“That’s the way it was at the time, and me and a lot of women were forced to accept that,” she said.

In the early 1940s, Dr. Gilmore married her husband, Bob, and moved to Dallas, where they had four children. She didn’t go back to school until she was 49, enrolling in the archaeology program at Southern Methodist University.

… Dr. Gilmore became the first female president of the Society for Historical Archaeology and was an adjunct professor at the University of North Texas for 15 years. She also was the first archaeologist to prove the location of La Salle’s Fort St. Louis, according to the Texas Historical Commission….

Fort St. Louis lasted from 1685 to 1689 before its last inhabitants were killed by Indians, according to the Texas Historical Commission. By the camp’s end, La Salle had been murdered by some of his men while trying to make his way to French settlements in Canada.

Dr. Gilmore’s search for the fort began in the early 1970s when she helped analyze some ceramic fragments found in a field near Victoria. The shards turned out to be from the Saintonge area of France…. “One of the great what-ifs of Texas history is, ‘What would our state be like today if the French had been successful with their colony?’ ” Dr. Bruseth said, laughing….

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Dr. Lydia T. Black

Dr. Black survived Stalin, forced labor under the Nazis, refugee status, and never suffered fools, the pompous, the bully, nor laziness or sloppy scholarship. She was fond of cats, dogs, children, and those needing a friend in a strange land.

The following is summarized from documents at Lydia T. Black 1925 to 2007 and from the Kodiak Daily Mirror

Widowed with young children at 44, she went to college and finished her BA and MA in two years and her Ph.D. in another two years.

She studied at Northeastern University and Brandeis University in the Boston area before receiving her doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She joined the faculty of anthropology in 1973 at Providence College in Rhode Island. She moved to Alaska in 1984 as Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks, whence she “retired” in 1998.

She continued her work in Kodiak, where she helped translate and catalogue Russian archives of St. Herman’s Seminary. The Orthodox Church in Alaska recognized her contribution by awarding her the Cross of St. Herman.

She wrote at least 66 more books and articles appearing in publications as diverse as Natural History, Arctic Anthropology and Studies in Soviet Thought and was a contributor to various exhibits and conferences on the Arctic, including the Library of Congress’ Meeting of the Frontiers, the New York Museum of Natural History’s Jesup Centenary Congress and the Smithsonian Institution’s Crossroads of the Continents.

One of her best-known books, “Aleut art — Unangam aguqaadangin” is a collection of beautifully photographed and carefully documented art made by Alaska Natives of the Aleutian Islands. Another, “Russians in Alaska, 1732 to 1867,” was published in 2004, the year Lydia turned 79.

In 2001, Russia awarded her the Order of Friendship, honoring her contribution to promoting cross-cultural understanding between Russia and America. She received the Alaska Anthropological Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and the Alaska Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award for the Humanities in 2005.

Lydia was born in Kiev, where her grandmother came to live with the family. Her grandmother instituted an educational regimen for her which included two days per week of speaking Russian, two days per week of speaking French and two days per week of speaking German. On Sundays, the family could relax and speak Ukrainian. It was decreed that Lydia would study English in school. Lydia’s grandmother would take her to the ‘secret church’, hosted by three elderly women – the KGB eventually did arrive to arrest them.

Lydia’s father was executed when she was eight years old. At 16 (1941) her mother died of TB. Lydia was picked up into forced labor for Germany. At war’s end, Lydia was in Munich and got a job scrubbing toilets in American officers’ quarters. They realized Lydia could speak six languages (she had learned Polish during the war) so she became a translator at the UNRRA’s displaced children’s camp.

Lydia met and married Igor A. Black. They then emigrated to the U.S. in 1950. Igor became a thermodynamics engineer whose work on the Apollo Mission was officially commemorated by NASA. Lydia was a full-time wife and mother. Suddenly Igor died in 1969, leaving Lydia alone with three teen-aged daughters and a toddler. With her older daughters’ consent, Lydia returned to school as a full-time college student.

Dr Black died in Kodiak, AK, with family, friends, Orthodox services, and the feline sibling companions Masia and Vasia present.
Masia, faithful guardian during Lydia’s illness would wake Lydia in the middle of the night, to great complaint. However, Masia seemed to be sensing something physically awry in Lydia’s breathing while asleep and was waking her to “reset” her. Masia would reach over and: Slap-slap-slap, at which point Lydia would sputter and tell the cat to stop it. [Click on small picture to enlarge.]

Anthropologist Lydia Black Dead at 81
Casey Kelly, KMXT

KODIAK, AK (2007-03-13) Anthropologist Lydia Black, author of many books on Alaska Native culture and Alaska history, died Monday morning of liver failure at her home in Kodiak. She was 81. © Copyright 2007, apti

• http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/apti/news.newsmain?action= article&ARTICLE_ID=1053258

audio file (mp3 format), click to play or right click to download and save.

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M Catherine Bateson

The Indigent Scholar to the Unorganized Borough (a.k.a., tech support for us here) went walkabout on the world-wide web to locate a former co-author and ran across Mary Catherine Bateson’s website

• http://www.marycatherinebateson.com/

Dr. Bateson is an anthropologist with scholarly and general audience publications. Her first memoir was quite interesting and I’ve been meaning to get to her other books. With A Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson [1984]. HarperCollins, 2001 ISBN: 0060975733

She has several items on-line that might interest the readers from here.

During the past few years Mary Catherine Bateson has been particularly involved with three projects: finishing and bringing out her most recent book, Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery; wrapping up the 2004 Gregory Bateson Centennial (as well as a few loose ends from the 2001 Mead Centennial) which, even after its official period passed, continues to stimulate activity and interest; and building on the experience with Granny Voters as a means to encourage trustee voting in future electoral seasons and to empower older adults to claim a voice for the future. This project has developed into a further exploration of intergenerational communication and changing ways of experiencing time and will probably lead to a book on the contributions and improvisations of engaged older adults experiencing a second adulthood of what MCB has identified as active wisdom.

GrannyVoters— grandparents who believe our political voice is part of our legacy and want to use it to give our grandchildren a say in the America they will inherit.

• http://www.grannyvoter.org/

You can find some of her current thinking at

• What’s On My Mind
  http://mcatherinebateson.blogspot.com/

and on the International Leadership Forum, such as

• THINK YOUR ISSUE IV: AGING
  http://ilfpost.org/?p=134

Currently, Visiting Scholar at Boston College’s Center on Aging and Work

• http://agingandwork.bc.edu/template_index

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