Anchored Histories

Library of Congress grant supports Alaska educators in telling stories through film By Debra McKinney

laska history is an eclectic stew of stories: stories of booms and busts, of Indigenous oppression and resilience, of invaders, explorers, missionaries, fortune seekers, heroes, scoundrels, politicians, justice, and injustice. Alaska educators from St. Michael to Hydaburg learned new ways of exploring, researching, and sharing such stories while negotiating the uncharted territory of this pandemic school year.

Through the professional development workshop Anchored Histories, 14 participants learned how to access the gold mine of primary sources available through the Library of Congress, as well as other national, regional, state, and local archives. They learned how to research, script, narrate, film, and edit short digital documentaries while gaining new skills to bring to their classrooms.

Topics they took on include the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, the life of a Yup’ik linguist, Dena’ina storytelling, the Alaska Railroad, the Matanuska Valley colonists, and the revival of Haida totem poles and Yup’ik dance, once shamed to the brink of extinction.

Created by Marie Acemah in partnership with the Alaska Humanities Forum and the UAA Professional and Continuing Education Program, Anchored Histories was a free, two-credit graduate-level course funded by a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant.

As founder and director of the nonprofit storytelling organization See Stories, Acemah is, as she puts it, a “story midwife.” Her award-winning work with youth and adults has taken her to Uganda, Liberia, and elsewhere around the globe. Recently, Acemah, Iñupiaq filmmaker Howdice Brown III, and Iñupiaq podcast host Alice Qannik Glenn collaborated with the Southern Poverty Law Center to produce a documentary on the enslavement of Indigenous peoples called, “The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors.”

In the past decade, Acemah has worked mostly in Alaska, leading documentary film and teacher-training projects in cities and villages throughout the state, working primarily with Indigenous, immigrant, and refugee youth to build inclusive communities through storytelling and film.

“Film, especially when working with young people, it’s the medium they’re already engaged with,” she said. “You don’t have to sell the idea. Look at TikTok, look at all the social media platforms; they are hooked. So it’s taking that natural interest and combining it with the humanities in a deeper way. It’s almost like tricking students into loving school. I’ve found that the students who are struggling to succeed really connect with digital storytelling. They often have the most tremendous outcomes and gratifying results.” “Students who are struggling to succeed really connect with digital storytelling. They often have the most tremendous outcomes and gratifying results.”

Faith Revell, curator of educational programs for the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive, produced a 10-minute documentary on prospector and adventurer Lillian Moore.

Originally, Anchored Histories was designed to support Alaska History Day, the state affiliate of National History Day, the science fair of history and culture. Coordinated by the Forum, Alaska History Day is a statewide competition encouraging middle and high school students to dive into, research, and present work in any of five categories—paper, performance, exhibit, website, and film.

Also originally, Anchored Histories participants were to gather in Anchorage. Then along came that virus.

GOING VIRTUAL

“Marie never imagined it being over Zoom—like so many things,” said co-instructor Emily Lucy, Youth Program Coordinator at the Forum. “We wondered if people, especially educators at the beginning of the craziest school year of all time, would have time for this sort of professional development and be engaged. And, how do you create a community over Zoom? At that point in the school year most of them were in and out of lockdown. Some had seen their students, some hadn’t. So we were really anxious about that.”

Initially, they could earn an additional credit by teaching their students to make documentaries for Alaska History Day.

“Due to COVID, we backed off on that,” Lucy said. “We wanted their participation for the extra credit but it didn’t have to translate into entering the contest.”

Teaching virtually was a whole new world for Acemah. Her film workshops have always been hands-on. When she taught in villages, for instance, she would go there for two weeks.

As it turned out, teaching by Zoom had its upside. Educators, especially in remote villages, can have a hard time getting enough time off with travel factored in. Zoom opened the course to a wider range of participants.

Faith Revell, curator of educational programs for the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive, appreciates the connections she made.

“Valdez is on the road system; it’s got planes, it’s got boats, all those things coming in and out, but we’re still pretty isolated, especially in winter months—unless you’re a really brave soul and willing to drive over the pass and venture out in wild and wooly weather. So, this was a great opportunity to connect with teachers throughout the state. There are teachers on the western edge of Alaska, some in small Native villages, I probably would never have had a chance to meet otherwise.”

Revell produced a 10-minute documentary on prospector and adventurer Lillian Moore, who embarked on an arduous journey in 1898 with the Capt. William Abercrombie party, climbing over Valdez Glacier en route to Copper River country. Heading out from Valdez after 41 days of rain, rain, and more rain, the party faced even more rain, disorienting fog, rebellious horses, precarious footing, and near drownings. Revell’s 10-minute documentary, “Lillian Moore’s Letter Home from Alaska,” weaves her story with that of Valdez as a hub for mail service and as a gateway to the Interior.

“A woman’s account of gold rush history in Alaska is pretty rare,” she said. “I wanted a story that was going to help local people understand their community’s history better.”

Her film incorporates Moore’s letter to her sister in Massachusetts, another prospector’s diary, and other primary sources. As a museum educator, Revell works with original materials all the time.

“Students with whom I work, they’re really transformed when they get to touch or see or get up close to authentic items,” she said. “It’s really transformative.

“I now have a deeper array of tools I can work with. I learned a lot about, I guess I would say, orchestration. You’re writing a script, you’re figuring out how music plays into this, and then you’re integrating the visuals and learning a lot about timing. I have a music background, and so how you synch sound with narration and imagery is really important to me.

“It was just a remarkably rewarding experience.”

CULTURAL GROUNDING

Yup’ik Athabascan Alberta Demantle, who teaches in Akiak, decided partway through the course that she wasn’t tech savvy enough to pull off a documentary. It was just too foreign to her, she said.

“I called to quit. I said, ‘It’s really not for me, it’s not going to work out.’ And the next thing I know Marie’s telling me how to do things and I’m working on it again. I would get her on the phone and she’d tell me to click this, click that. And, you know, I learned a lot because she “A woman’s account was willing to talk me through it. Anytime I needed something, she was right there.” of gold rush history Not only did Demantle make her film— on the revival of Yup’ik dance—she be- in Alaska is pretty came a guest presenter on her culture for another of Acemah’s professional developrare. I wanted a ment courses, this one on podcasting and digital storytelling with an emphasis on story that was cultural respect and values. going to help local

A grounding in Alaska Native history was a priority for Anchored Histories, as people understand well. Guest presenter, Jim LaBelle, Sr., retired UAA professor of Alaska Native their community’s Studies, gave a crash course over Zoom that left the cohort deeply moved. history better.”

LaBelle told his personal story of being shipped off to boarding school when he was eight and his brother six. He talked of multiple abuses, of being tethered by a rope to his brother and other terrified children, of their possessions being taken, of being stripped naked, having their heads shaved and bodies scrubbed with harsh brushes. That was just upon arrival.

“The process of educating us slowly created a point where we would barely associate with our own

The documentary Lillian Moore’s Letter Home from Alaska weaves a woman’s account of gold rush history with that of Valdez as a gateway to the

Interior. PHOTO FROM THE VALDEZ MUSEUM & HISTORICAL ARCHIVE COLLECTION. Darlene Kawennano:ron Johnson filming

PHOTO COURTESY OF DARLENE KAWENNANO:RON JOHNSON

relatives or parents,” he said. “It was drilled into us to be ashamed of them. We were told their practices were evil, satanic ways—traditional singing, dancing and drumming, and speaking our language. After ten years I knew everything about world history, American history, math, science, civics, but I didn’t know anything about myself as an Indigenous person.”

“When I heard Jim LaBelle that first day, it just went to the core of my being,” said Darlene Kawennano:ron Johnson, a member of the Kahnawake/Akwesasne Mohawk Nation. Her eight-minute documentary, Historical Trauma & Boarding Schools, features his story.

Johnson, perhaps best known as Diamond Dar, host of KNBA’s Diamond Dar’s Traveling Medicine Show, teaches part time at PAIDEIA Cooperative School in Anchorage. Eager to share what she’d learned with her history students, she assigned them five-minute documentaries as final projects and held a mini-film festival online at the end.

“I taught them everything I was taught in Anchored Histories,” she said. “They preferred doing this over a paper. What they didn’t realize was, they do more research than for a paper. They use all their senses. They have to find those primary sources. Then they have to figure out how they’re going to shoot this, use historical images, write a script, and narrate the whole thing. Make it exciting, make it knowledgeable, throw some sound in there, throw music in there, make sure you don’t violate copyright laws.

“I really wanted them to see history come alive.”

Oscar Lilley, who teaches middle and high school in Hydaburg, receives a ton of professional development pitches, most of which go straight into the trash.

“I’m always looking to develop skills I don’t have, especially technical skills,” he said. “So I jumped at the chance and it was just wonderful. It was wonderful developing a cohort with fellow educators and building a bond with people I’m still connected with.”

The course came at a difficult time for him following the sudden death of one of his students. He ended up missing one of the main Zoom sessions because he was helping dig his grave.

Lilley’s documentary on the history of the totem pole taps into the community’s grief. As background music, he used the Haida spirit song mourners sang as they walked with the young man’s body from his home to the church. To Lilley, it spoke to the loss of the art form, but also its revival.

“It has this kind of mournful tone but at the same time resilient.” “Totem: What They Carve,” posed ethical questions for him.

“I’m an outsider,” he said. “I’m a white person. What’s appropriate and what needs to stay within the community? Those were some tough issues I worked out with Marie.”

Lilley’s students are now working on documentaries of their own, with topics ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to missing and murdered Indigenous women.

“Today I had a student say, ‘I hate research; I just find something I love and dive in.’ And I said, ‘Kid, that’s research.’ And she said, ‘Oh. Yeah.’

“We’re getting a handful of ah-has here and there. The kids are definitely getting a lot from this.” ■

Debra McKinney is a frequent contributor to FORUM magazine. She is the author of Beyond the Bear.