"Across the North: Alaskan Sámi Visual History in Archival Photographs." Research with archival photographs, circa 1894-1930s, Alaska, USA

In 1894 and 1898, mostly Northern Sámi individuals from Finnmark (Norway) arrived in Alaska. They were hired by the United States government and tasked to instruct Alaska Natives in the art of reindeer herding. The introduction of domestic reindeer into Alaska started as an attempt to bolster the food security of Alaska Native communities and assimilate them into the United States. Reindeer herding brought together Alaska Natives, Sámi families, and non-Indigenous individuals. Photographers captured parts of this multicultural history, but contextual information regarding the photographs (names, dates, places) is often partial or lacking. My research involved visual elicitation, a method in which these photographs were used as a basis for ethnographic interviews and a lens for (re-)examining ethnohistorical sources. The outcome of this collaborative work is submitted to the Arctic Data Center as a booklet that draws insights from both field and archival research. The booklet is also meant for sharing some of the knowledge that was created through this process.