Arctic Shaman’s Seance

0 Photo credit: Ralph T. Coe Collection, Gift of Ralph T. Coe Foundation for the Arts,

The snow fell quietly, covering the settlement in a thick white blanket.  The shaman had told Okwana she’d recognize the singing hut by the large narwhal ivory which jutted up out of the roof; it whistled when the wind raced over the ice, he’d said.  The flakes flew round her in eddies, whipped up by […]

An Orthodox Tlingit in Alaska

0 Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration, Ninilchik, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.  In the distance is Redoubt Volcano on the other side of Cook Inlet. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, AK,9-NINI,1-14.

We were sitting on the steps of an orthodox church, its gold-tipped dome shimmering like a glorious crown in the sun.  It stood on a bluff above the sandy clamming beaches, overlooking Cook Inlet and from our vantage point we could see in the distance the snow-capped range of Redoubt volcano on the other side […]