Social Studies LV 8B. This is the 2nd semester of SS LV 8. It is worth .50 credits and is an Alaska State requirement for Alaska HS students to pass in order to obtain an Alaska high school diploma.
CORE RESOURCE: ALASKA HISTORY AND CULTURAL STUDIES COURSE (AK Humanities Forum): https://akhistory.lpsd.com/. This site is no longer living. LPSD's IT department took pictures of the articles for our students to read and answer the questions on these WebQuest.
Optional Alaska Maps: Link to Student Gallery of Maps & PDF AK Geography Treasure Hunt List
Optional Geography Resource LINK
Additional Geography Resource LINK
Unit 1 Alaska's Cultures
Syllabus 1: Start Here
Webquest 1 : Pre-Western Contact
Webquest 2: Land Ownership
Land Ownership Optional Activity LINK
Optional Alaska Native Cultures Resource LINK
Additional Alaska Cultures Resource LINK
Unit 2 Russian Colony
Syllabus 2: Start Here
Webquest 3: Seeking Natural Resources
Webquest 4: Colonial Russia's Impact
Webquest 5: Russian Alaska
Optional Russian Alaska Resource LINK
Optional Russian Unit Resources LINK
Unit 3 Alaska Territory
Syllabus 3: Start Here
Webquest 6: Gold Rushes
Webquest 7: Alaska's Economy
Webquest 8: Alaska's Oil
Optional Mining Resource LINK
Additional Alaska Territory Resource LINK
Unit 4 Governing Alaska
Syllabus 4: Start Here
Webquest 9: Landmark Legislature
Webquest 10: Becoming the 49th State
Optional Biography Posters of Significant People in AK History* LINK to Poster Examples
Unit 5 Modern Alaska
Syllabus 5: Start Here
Webquest 13: Military in Alaska
ANCSA Who Got What Optional Activity LINK
Webquest 15: Modern AK Timeline*
*Optional Key Figures and Modern AK Timeline Project LINK
Optional Modern Alaska Resource LINK
Optional AK History Overview Final Project LINK
UKSUUM CAUYAI: THE DRUMS OF WINTER - 90 minutes
Dance was once at the heart of Yup'ik spiritual, social and economic life. It was the bridge between the ancient and the present, the living and the dead and a person's own power and the greater powers of the unseen world. Uksuum Cauyai: The Drums of Winter presents the spiritual world of Yup'ik dance, music and reciprocal gift giving. The Yup'ik people speak about how their history, social values and spiritual beliefs are woven around the songs and dances that have been handed down to them through the generations. Named to the
National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006. In Yup’ik and English, with English subtitles
ON THE SPRING ICE - 45 minutes
Gambel elder, Lloyd Oovie, recounts the mysteries of sea ice, "Long ago, people were drifted by the pack ice. It took them far away and they were never seen again. Nothing is too big for the ice to move. When seen for the first time, it is a mysterious thing to watch”. A cluster of men stand on a rooftop scanning the sea. A walrus hunting party is in distress far out on the ice.
The weather is bad and they are being drifted towards Siberia. Long ago, there was nothing that could have been done to save them. Now they have options. The men discuss the situation and finally decide to call the Coast Guard. A rescue helicopter is dispatched from Kodiak, 650 miles away. The next day, the men prepare for another walrus hunt. They travel through leads in the pack ice where they spot walrus sunning themselves on the ice. Back in the village, the meat is cut, distributed and hung to dry. In Siberian Yupik with English subtitles
AT THE TIME OF WHALING - 40 minutes
“When our ancestors hunted the whale,” Gambell elder Lincoln Blasi tells us, "they harpooned it right on each cheek. Attached to the harpoon was a walrus skin rope and at the end of each rope was a small bag of water. If the whale went to the right, they shook the bag on that side and he would go to the left, turning away from the sound of the water. Those big whales, just like dogs they would steer them to the land. This is how it was done.” From the roof of a snow covered house on St. Lawrence Island, men with binoculars scan the ocean for signs of whales. It is April and the Bowhead whales are beginning their summer migration to Arctic waters. For generations, St. Lawrence Island hunters have waited in this very same place for their arrival. The hunters launch their skin boats under sail. Soon, an exuberant voice on the CB radio shouts the news of a strike. The boats power-up their motors and join the others to help corral and tow the whale back to shore where the three-day task of butchering and distributing the meat begins. In Siberian Yupik with English subtitles
FROM THE FIRST PEOPLE - 45 minutes
Iñupiak elder, Joe Sun, reflects on the enormous changes that have come to Kobuk River communities within the memories of its oldest people: "Long ago, before school teachers, before they knew the white man, the first people used to talk about strangers coming from out of nowhere. The prophet Manillaq spoke of people who would come with a different language, who would live easy. He said that from that time on, everything would be changed.” From the First People is about change and contemporary life in the village of Shugnak. Life in this inland community is linked to the seasons and the flow of the Kobuk River. The film closely observes the subsistence rounds as the Kobuk freezes in October and the sun gets lower each day. Change is always in the foreground as old and new subsistence technology intermingles. “Most things these days are much easier than in the past,” Elder George Cleveland says, “You turn the knob on the stove for heat, you pull the string for light. Now my wife and I argue about who will plug in the coffee pot.” George and his wife Sofie laugh. Popcorn is cooking on the stove as their children make masks for Halloween. In Iñupiaq with English subtitles. https://vimeo.com/257071742
TUNUNERIMIUT: THE PEOPLE OF TUNUNAK - 30 minutes
This is the first community collaborative film produced by Leonard Kamerling in 1972. It was an original experiment in “shared anthropology”, an effort to make ethnographic film more egalitarian, more accessible and authentic. Tununerimiut presents four events: the evacuation of the village during the Amchitka Island nuclear test for fear of it causing a possible tidal wave, a trip over the tundra to place blackfish nets under the ice, a sudden ocean storm that hits the village from the Bering Sea, and a community gathering for traditional dancing. Tununerimiut paved the way for the ten film series produced by Sarah Elder and Leonard Kamerling in collaboration with Alaska Native communities, between 1972 and 1992.
In Yup’ik and English with English subtitles. https://vimeo.com/257067591