Where the Echo Began
and Other Oral Traditions from Southwestern Alaska Recorded by Hans Himmelheber
"A model for how oral historians can deal effectively with complex material involving multiple narrators, and it contributes substantively to the body of oral history work that explores the lives of people who call Alaska home."
—Oral History Review
Mission of Change in Southwest Alaska is an oral history describing various types of change—political, social, cultural, and religious—as seen through the eyes of Father Astruc and Paul Dixon, non-Natives who dedicated their lives to working with the Yup'ik people. Their stories are framed by the author's analytic history of regional changes, together with current anthropological theory on the nature of cultural change and the formation of cultural identity. The book presents a subtle and emotionally moving account of the region and the roles of two men, both of whom view issues from a Catholic perspective yet are closely attuned to and involved with changes in the Yup'ik community.
