Uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of Glacial Lake Atna wilderness, Alaska
Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2020 The Glacial Lake Atna area, a valley between the southern Alaska and Wrangell mountain ranges in Southcentral Alaska, despite its appearance today as remote, thickly forested, and seemingly "wild" in character, has a 10,000-year history of...
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ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/11283 2023-05-15T14:20:20+02:00 Uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of Glacial Lake Atna wilderness, Alaska McLaughlin, Marley M. Coen, Ross Meek, Chanda Ehrlander, Mary F. 2020-05 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/11283 en_US eng http://hdl.handle.net/11122/11283 Arctic and Northern Studies Program wilderness areas government policy Southcentral Alaska history Lake Atna glacial lakes Ahtena Indians antiquities Thesis ma 2020 ftunivalaska 2023-02-23T21:37:39Z Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2020 The Glacial Lake Atna area, a valley between the southern Alaska and Wrangell mountain ranges in Southcentral Alaska, despite its appearance today as remote, thickly forested, and seemingly "wild" in character, has a 10,000-year history of human habitation. The first peoples in Alaska made encampments and harvested subsistence resources on the shores of the glacial lake and its margins, while today residents and visitors to the region continue to inhabit, hunt, fish, gather berries, cut firewood, and generally subsist from the land in ways remarkably similar to their prehistoric forebears. Humans and nature have a long, shared history in the thirteen million-acre Glacial Lake Atna region, and yet, since the mid-1980s, amid the modern-day conservation movement to protect so-called wild places, the region has been bordered and patrolled in ways that separate humans from nature. Wilderness policies under the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management suggest that wilderness areas are inherently pristine, devoid of human inhabitation, and without the imprint of human work. Alaska lands acts, most specifically the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, while allowing for subsistence, did not adequately address work and inhabitation. This thesis questions such policies and, through archaeological, historical, and policy analyses of humans and nature in the region, argues wilderness has never been truly uninhabited and free from work. The idea of "wilderness" lacks introspection as these areas contain quite a lot of human history, and indeed wilderness is a construct of romanticism and post-frontier ideologies. Introduction -- Research Questions -- Literature Review -- Methodology. 1. Uninhabited wilderness and the prehistoric Period -- 1.1. Geology -- 1.2. Archaeology -- 1.3. The First Peoples and work -- 1.4. Conclusions. 2. Work and wilderness and the frontier period -- 2.1. The idea of wilderness -- 2.2. Alaskan exploration and work ... Thesis Arctic Alaska University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA Fairbanks Glacial Lake ENVELOPE(-129.463,-129.463,58.259,58.259) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalaska |
language |
English |
topic |
wilderness areas government policy Southcentral Alaska history Lake Atna glacial lakes Ahtena Indians antiquities |
spellingShingle |
wilderness areas government policy Southcentral Alaska history Lake Atna glacial lakes Ahtena Indians antiquities McLaughlin, Marley M. Uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of Glacial Lake Atna wilderness, Alaska |
topic_facet |
wilderness areas government policy Southcentral Alaska history Lake Atna glacial lakes Ahtena Indians antiquities |
description |
Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2020 The Glacial Lake Atna area, a valley between the southern Alaska and Wrangell mountain ranges in Southcentral Alaska, despite its appearance today as remote, thickly forested, and seemingly "wild" in character, has a 10,000-year history of human habitation. The first peoples in Alaska made encampments and harvested subsistence resources on the shores of the glacial lake and its margins, while today residents and visitors to the region continue to inhabit, hunt, fish, gather berries, cut firewood, and generally subsist from the land in ways remarkably similar to their prehistoric forebears. Humans and nature have a long, shared history in the thirteen million-acre Glacial Lake Atna region, and yet, since the mid-1980s, amid the modern-day conservation movement to protect so-called wild places, the region has been bordered and patrolled in ways that separate humans from nature. Wilderness policies under the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management suggest that wilderness areas are inherently pristine, devoid of human inhabitation, and without the imprint of human work. Alaska lands acts, most specifically the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, while allowing for subsistence, did not adequately address work and inhabitation. This thesis questions such policies and, through archaeological, historical, and policy analyses of humans and nature in the region, argues wilderness has never been truly uninhabited and free from work. The idea of "wilderness" lacks introspection as these areas contain quite a lot of human history, and indeed wilderness is a construct of romanticism and post-frontier ideologies. Introduction -- Research Questions -- Literature Review -- Methodology. 1. Uninhabited wilderness and the prehistoric Period -- 1.1. Geology -- 1.2. Archaeology -- 1.3. The First Peoples and work -- 1.4. Conclusions. 2. Work and wilderness and the frontier period -- 2.1. The idea of wilderness -- 2.2. Alaskan exploration and work ... |
author2 |
Coen, Ross Meek, Chanda Ehrlander, Mary F. |
format |
Thesis |
author |
McLaughlin, Marley M. |
author_facet |
McLaughlin, Marley M. |
author_sort |
McLaughlin, Marley M. |
title |
Uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of Glacial Lake Atna wilderness, Alaska |
title_short |
Uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of Glacial Lake Atna wilderness, Alaska |
title_full |
Uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of Glacial Lake Atna wilderness, Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of Glacial Lake Atna wilderness, Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of Glacial Lake Atna wilderness, Alaska |
title_sort |
uninhabited and free from work: an environmental and federal land-use policy history of glacial lake atna wilderness, alaska |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/11283 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-129.463,-129.463,58.259,58.259) |
geographic |
Fairbanks Glacial Lake |
geographic_facet |
Fairbanks Glacial Lake |
genre |
Arctic Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Alaska |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/11283 Arctic and Northern Studies Program |
_version_ |
1766292158048894976 |