AHS Keynote Speaker: Jacqueline Johnson Pata

Join us in beautiful Haines, Alaska, September 25-28th, for the Joint Annual Conference of Museums Alaska and The Alaska Historical Society.

http://www.sheldonmuseum.org/Conference/conference.htm

http://www.sheldonmuseum.org/Conference/program_schedule.pdf

Jacqueline Johnson Pata is the AHS keynote speaker. She is the Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and Sealaska Board Member. She is a member of the Raven/Sockeye Clan of the Tlingit Tribe and a member of the Central Council of the Tlingit-Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Pata was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Native American Programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the Clinton Administration.

http://www.ncai.org/about-ncai/ncai-leadership/jacqueline-johnson-executive-director

Satchel and Stepovich

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, ‘Hmmm, I wonder if there is a photograph somewhere of Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige and Alaska territorial governor Mike Stepovich’…

Well, wonder no more:

 

Leroy "Satchel" Paige and Mike Stepovch, June (?) 1958 (Stepovich Family
Papers, Box 3, Folder 39, Alaska and Polar Regions, UAF Rasmuson Library)

This photo, archived with the rest of Stepovich’s papers at the UAF Rasmuson Library, was taken in summer 1958 when Stepovich and his wife Matilda took in a Miami Marlins game. The Marlins were a minor league affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies and one of many teams the itinerant Paige played for as he pitched well into his fifties.

Fans of Alaska baseball know Paige made a highly publicized visit to Anchorage in August 1965 for a series of exhibition games. By then in his late fifties, his prime pitching days well behind him, Paige still threw blistering fastballs and a mix of curves and sliders delivered with sidearm and submarine arm motions. At the time of his Alaska visit he claimed to have not walked a batter in twenty years, and he held true to form. Paige walked not a single batter he faced, and struck out more than a few. In one game against a team from Fort Richardson, Paige needed only twenty-two pitches to shut the batters down over three innings. He then switched teams—and shut out the other squad as well.

Dena’inaq’ Huch’ulyeshi at the Anchorage Museum

Folks in Anchorage please take note of a couple great events coming up at the Anchorage Museum.

“Then It’s for Winter: An Exploration of Dena’ina History and Culture,” a one-day symposium will be held on Saturday, September 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The program is available online at: www.anchoragemuseum.org/galleries/Denaina/events. Please register online by September 10; cost is $20 member/$25 non-member.

 

The following day, Sunday, September 15, marks the opening of Dena’inaq’ Huch’ulyeshi: The Dena’ina Way of Living, the first major exhibition ever presented about the Dena’ina Athabascan people. The opening celebration will take place from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., and the exhibition will run through January 12, 2014.

The opening celebration is free to the public and will feature performances by the Jabila’ina Dancers from Kenai, Ida’ina K’eljeshna Dancers from Anchorage, and Nondalton Shadow Dancers.

More information about the exhibition is available here:

http://www.anchoragemuseum.org/galleries/Denaina/overview.aspx

International Map Collectors Society / Sept. 8-10 in Fairbanks

Bowles’s New Pocket Map of the Discoveries Made by the Russians

on the Northwest Coast of America (1750), UAF Alaska and Polar Regions

“Frozen Dreams and Delusions: 400 Years of Arctic Cartography,” the 31st annual meeting of the International Map Collectors’ Society, is happening in Fairbanks next week. More info available here:

http://www.uaf.edu/imcos2013/

The program features presentations by many Alaska historians, geographers, and scientists including Terrence Cole, Dee Longenbaugh, Marvin Falk, Dennis Moser, Dirk Tordoff, Ross Coen, Mike Sfraga, Matthew Sturm, and Ned Rozell. September is a great time to visit Fairbanks, and we hope to see you here. The conference is sponsored by the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library and the UAF departments of Geography and Northern Studies.