Ivar Skarland (1899-1965)

• Published in: ARCTIC
• Main Author: Irving, Laurence
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1965
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Giddings; Lawrence Island; Norway; Point Hope; Skarland; Brooks Range; Kukulik; St Lawrence Island; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic3462; http://arctic.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/arctic/index.php/arctic/article/viewFile/3462/3437

Many people who mourn the loss of Ivar Skarland who died 1 January 1965, are grateful for his friendship and influence during the development of science and society in Alaska. Ivar Skarland was born in 1899 and grew up in Norway. After graduating from the School of Forestry at Steinkjer, Norway, he worked in the forests of Canada and reached Alaska in 1928. As an undergraduate at the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines (now the University of Alaska) he took part in the Biological Survey investigations into the food habits of large northern herbivores. While at the school, he met Otto Geist who induced him to join in excavations at Kukulik, St. Lawrence Island, which led to important archaeological discoveries and a lifelong friendship and association. After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Alaska he studied anthropology at Harvard, spending summers in the field in Alaska. He obtained his M.A. in 1942, and that year became associate professor at the University of Alaska. He was soon, however, diverted to Army service in the Aleutian Islands. In 1945 he returned to the University where he remained, except while studying at Harvard for his Ph.D. which he received in 1949. Before the War, Skarland was a powerful supporter of the able and venturesome expeditionary workers who developed the important sites of ancient cultures on Lawrence Island and at Point Hope. After the War these field studies in archaeology continued to progress during his collaboration with Otto Geist and J. L. Giddings and in the company of a sequence of distinguished visitors; important archaeological explorations along the Kobuk River, in the Brooks Range, and on the Arctic coast resulted. Skarland encouraged and supported scientists in their explorations, and although his name did not appear often on publications, he exerted a guiding influence through his firm friendship and wide acquaintance with the land and people of Alaska. As host to the scientists who were developing knowledge of Alaska he was at the ...