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Crooked on the Stretcher Board

Craig Mishler
with Kenneth Drizhuu Frank

November 2023, 6.5 x 9.25"
436 pages
$45 cloth
ISBN 978-9-884732-2-0

"Mishler's decades of commitment, his long affiliation with the Gwich'in communities and research collaborations with [Kenneth] Frank and other Gwich'in knowledge keepers is evident throughout the text. This book clearly is written with the inspiration, tutelage, language, cultural expertise, and teaching experience of Frank, with whom Mishler has been a research and writing partner with since the mid-1990s. It is from their several scholarly publications, oral presentations, and professional papers that these essays are born. Mishler and Frank's unique, meticulously researched, pleasant writing style and ability to inform the reader about the historical connections and context to the subject, is what makes their work so important." – Leslie McCartney, from the Foreword.

Craig Mishler has been doing ethnographic field work in Alaska since 1972. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 10 books, including Dinjii Vadzaih Dhidlit: The Man Who Became a Caribou, published with Kenneth Frank in 2020 by the IPI Press. This newest book of essays marks 50 years of careful observation, reflective thought, and friendship with the Gwich'in nation.

Kenneth Drizhuu Frank is an indigenous Gwich'in elder, storyteller, and traditional drummer from Venetie and Arctic Village, Alaska. Kenneth teaches and is fully fluent and literate in the Gwich'in language. He works to keep his culture practices known.

Suntaste

Rannvá Holm Mortensen
Translated by Matthew Landrum
March 2023, 9 3/4 x 12 1/2"

112 pages
$30 paperback
ISBN 978-1-7366902-7-7

     This is the first in a series of Faroese literature in translation by IPI Press. Future editions will
include a short story anthology and collections of ballads–the sung oral tradition.
     Rannvá Holm Mortensen works in the colors of the Faroe Islands: reds, grays, black, white, and
sometimes terra cotta, flesh. Her prints, collages, woodcuts and handwritten poems—
dreamscapes and nightmares—are illuminated in this reproduction of her original artists book.
     Nature, earth mother, lifeblood of sea creatures, saltwater in our arteries, dendrites and
seaweed-shaped shape-shifters. As you read, the female body dissolves into nature. One feels
porous and pulsating. There is a cry, a plea at the core of the work—tidal longing. One hears the
cavernous echoes of Frida Kahlo’s physical and emotional howls, and, as in T.S. Eliot ‘s “The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the phylogeny of human existence recapitulating the ontology of
being. One fish, one child, one woman at a time.
     It’s a woman’s world, bloody, ventricular.

 

Archaeology of Bronze Age Mongolia:

A Deer Stone Diary
William W. Fitzhugh
February 2023, 8 x 10 1/4" 
$25, paperback

ISBN 978-1-7366902-8-4

In the 1930s the famous Smithsonian archaeologist Henry B. Collins discovered 2000 year old Eskimo cultures by excavating ancient sites in the Bering Sea region. Since then, archaeologists have pieced together a detailed history of how Eskimos spread east along the arctic coasts of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland to become the region’s Inuit peoples of today. What remained unknown is the origin of the Alaskan proto-Eskimos. Did they develop from tundra hunting peoples of northern Eurasia? from river fishermen of the Amur who learned to hunt sea mammals? or from early maritime peoples of Japan and Korea? The Bronze Age cultures and ceremonial deer stone art of Mongolia are beginning to provide answers.

Central Asia seemed like an odd place for me to search for ancient Eskimos, but many paths led me to investigate the Bronze and Iron Age cultures of Mongolia ca. 2000-0 BCE. Besides physical and genetic similarities, I was intrigued by links in art and shamanic religion as revealed in Mongolia’s mysterious, unstudied deer stone monuments. Perhaps deer stone art might provide clues about the origin of Eskimo culture and its ancient Asian heritage. This task led me to Mongolia for the decade of anthropological and archaeological studies reported in this book. 

     William W. Fitzhugh is an archaeologist who directs the Arctic Studies Center at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. He has researched Arctic peoples and cultures throughout the Circumpolar North and has produced exhibits and books on Eskimo, Ainu, and North Pacific cultures and art, Vikings, Genghis Khan, and other topics. He resides in Washington DC and Vermont and is affiliated with Dartmouth College. 

     This book is the second in a 2-volume study on the Mongolian deer stone phenomenon. For a study devoted specifically to deer stone art see Deer Stones of Northern Mongolia by Jamransjav Bayarsaikhan published by the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and International Polar Institute Press (2022). 

 

Marrying Mongolia
Sas Carey
February 2023, 6.5 x 9.25"
$30, paperback
ISBN 9781736690260

A child of the ’50’s, Sas Carey was raised to marry and rear children. She did that, but with the care and morals shared by her parents, along with a lust for life, learned she could follow her own path, strewn with heartache, yet leading to transcendence. Her story is one of empowerment. In overcoming expectations, Sas becomes a healer of body and soul, learning that she need not devote herself to a single person to substantiate herself. 

Sas Carey has climbed mountains, swum across lakes and rivers, and slept on the ground of three continents. She has ridden planes, trains, cars, bikes, boats, horses, camels, and reindeer. A Quaker, Sas is an award-winning documentary film director, author, spiritual healer, registered nurse, mother, and grandmother. Relaxing in her gazebo in Vermont, she dreams of her next adventure. 

 

Deer Stones of Northern Mongolia
Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan

June 2022

288 pages, 8 x 10 1/4"

$25, paperback

ISBN 978-1-7366902-4-6

When our joint Mongolian-American Deer Stone Project began there was little world-wide recognition that nomadic pastoral societies offered an alternative pathway to civilization and empire. Today we recognize the formative nature of Mongolia’s Late Bronze Age culture in the transition from chiefly societies to states and eventually to empires. Deer stones stand proudly as the monumental evidence of this shift, memorializing its leaders and attesting to its social order, artistic capabilities, and complex belief system. Two thousand years after they were erected, Genghis Khan rode among deer stones and must have marveled at the heritage they signified. Today we do the same, recognizing also that there is still much more to learn from these ancient cultural icons. Bayarsaikhan’s study provides the path toward the broader anthropological meaning of deer stone stones and their art and iconography, not as ornaments from a vanished people but as highly visible historical and cultural monuments that enrich understandings of Mongolia in the past, present, and future.

William Fitzhugh, from the Introduction

A joint publication with the Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution

  

 

Rise Up
By Nauja Lynge  

Winter 2021  
256 pages, 5 1/4 x 7 3/4"
$25, paperback

ISBN 9781736690215 

 

Rise Up is a novel about the inequalities that Greenlanders and Faroese experience in Denmark. It is a tribute to Greenlandic and Danish politicians who attempt to heal fractures and a rebuke to the part of the Danish population that still assists in perpetuating negative stereotypes.

Originally published in Denmark by Byens Forlag, and translated by Kristian Borten, this is Nauja Lynge's second novel addressing the unaccepted cultural differences continuing to plague native northern peoples within the Danish realm.

 

 

The New Perlustration of Greenland
By Hans Egede

May 2021

224 pages, 5.75 x 7.5"

$25, paperback

ISBN 978-1-7366902-0-8

In the beginning of the 18th century there still was hope of finding Norse descendants among the Eskimo in Greenland. A Norwegian clergyman, Hans Egede, having managed to persuade the authorities that such people should be converted to the Lutheran faith, arrived in the Godthåb Fjord (in the southwest) to begin a new European settlement in Greenland, but found only Eskimo.

The history of modern Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) can be traced to this voyage in 1721. He discovered no survivors of the old colonists, but stayed to found his own settlement at Godthåb (now Nuuk) and to begin the development of the country and its Inuit people.

 

The Story of Katrine

by Maliaraq Vebaek

Translated from Danish by Susan Stanley

May 2021

128 pages, 4.25 x 7.5"

$20, paperback

ISBN 978-0-9967480-9-4

The Story of Katrine tells the story of a young Greenlandic woman who falls in love with a Danish craftsman, who works in Greenland over a summer. When he returns to Denmark, Katrine follows him because she thinks they should get married, having had their child. It will be a big disappointment for her, but she stays in Denmark!

A dramatic and sad tale of cultural unity and oppression of women. This story, which is fictionalized here,

is unfortunately not unknown for Greenlanders in Denmark.

First edition in English.

Praise for "The Man Who Became a Caribou"

Reviewed by Tok Thompson, University of Southern California, in the Journal of Folklore Research, 10 September 2020

“Caribou are how we survive and are integral to who we are and how we define ourselves. Caribou are our stories, our soul, the food on our table, our clothes, and our tools” (Gwich’in Sam Alexander, 2017, testimony before the US Senate, quoted on page 37).

One of the difficulties of reviewing this work is in giving a succinct phrase stating what, exactly, this work is. It could perhaps be described as a compendium of caribou lore from the Gwich’in people of northern Alaska and Canada. The word “lore” is useful, here, precisely because of its wide semantic range. Lore can include narratives, to be sure, such as the central story that gives the book its title, but it can also include all sorts of other knowledge—crafts, beliefs, skills, names, customs, taboos, and all the rest of the realm of folklore. This book, likewise, spans an enormous range of aspects all related to the caribou in Gwich’in culture. In this sense, though, “compendium” might be a bit misleading, as this is not simply a collection of lore on a particular topic. Rather, this book investigates a resplendent set of cultural elaborations on the most central figure of Gwich’in identity and culture, showing how Gwich’in life is entwined, practically and spiritually, with the caribou. In this sense, investigating the slippage between the human and caribou provides an emically centered ethnography of the Gwich’in, giving great insight into their culture, language, and lifeways.

Most of the material comprising the book was drawn from interviews conducted in Gwich’in, a severely endangered language. The book is largely presented bilingually, which by itself is a significant accomplishment and a wonderful addition to the limited corpus of bilingual (Gwich’in/English) materials.

The book is superbly researched and presented. The introduction by Craig Mishler is a very helpful overview of the manuscript, detailing the overall approaches in methodology as well as the Gwich’in territory, language, worldviews, and lifestyles. The work is richly illustrated, with art, artifacts, and maps, alongside photographs of the collaborators, the fieldwork process, and myriad representations of life, and caribou, in Gwich’in territory. Several appendices are dedicated to explication of the linguistic features.

Such a holistic view gives a rich perspective of the topic at hand, repeatedly demonstrating the multiple ways in which caribou lore intersects with Gwich’in identity, culture, worldviews, and community. In this way, this work acts as a culturally appropriate explication of Gwich’in culture as a whole.

For example, the story that the authors use as a title, “The Man who Became A Caribou,” is, among other things, an ethnogenesis of the Neets’it (Neets’uk) Gwich’in band. In the story, a man went to live with the caribou, who were his spirit animal, transforming himself into one, and learning of their ways. Later, the man returns to his human form, and instructs people on the proper relationship between the Neets’it Gwich’in and the caribou. Mishler states: “This ancient story, which we regard with reverence, provides a framework and underpinning for all of the other traditional knowledge about caribou,” and that “As a folktale, it serves as the emotional and spiritual center for all of the other discourses which follow” (51). While I disagree with the nomenclature (I would categorize the story—and many other stories in this work—as myth and not folktale), this recognition of the intrinsic sacredness of the story, detailing the experiences of a man who became a caribou, captures the essence of what it is to be Gwich’in.

Mishler notes that this story is part of a larger matrix found in Native American and Siberian narratives, wherein a specific relationship between one species and one group of humans is formed by experiences of a person who has spent time with both species and in both communities. Whether this should be seen as oikotypical variation, or as polygenesis resulting from similar overarching worldviews, may be difficult to discern, as there is likely a fair bit of both involved. For example, the Haida rely on salmon, and it is thus no surprise that “Salmon Boy,” the story of a boy who spent time with the salmon before returning to the people to instruct them, parallels “The Man Who Became A Caribou” in important ways.

The authors are careful to point out, too, that this feature is by no means confined to, or by, the past. Rather, the practices, narratives, and knowledge persist today as vibrant, dynamic traditions, enmeshed in change (guns, snow machines) as well as constancy (most vividly, the role of the caribou themselves: the average hunter harvests about thirteen caribou per year, with caribou remaining the predominant foodstuff for Gwich’in people (37).

It should also be pointed out that this way of life is now under constant threat, as petroleum interests in particular clamor to carve up more and more of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for petroleum extraction, which the Gwich’in see as threatening the caribou—and especially their summer calving grounds. The Gwich’in spend much of their time fighting such interests in legal and political battles, a far cry from their preferred lifestyle of subsistence hunting, yet once again they display their advocacy for the safety and sacredness of the Porcupine caribou herd, as shown throughout this book.

The Man Who Became A Caribou is truly a standout, stellar work: a book which succeeds on all sorts of levels, from its careful bilingual presentation to its insightful emic analyses. Beyond those interested in Gwich’in people, this work should be of interest to anyone interested in indigenous rights, Native conceptions of ethical and spiritual lives, and the ongoing tensions between global capitalism and the sustainability of life on earth. In terms of theory, this work sets a high standard for folklore research with indigenous communities, and it also opens up new ways of conceptualizing the presentation of non-Western cultures. The authors should be roundly congratulated for such an achievement, and I hope that this book gains the national and international recognition it so justly deserves.

The Native Greenlander
Illustrated by Aron of Kangeq

Translated from Danish by Susan Stanley
192 pages
11 illustrations and 2 maps

5 1/2 x 6 7/8"
December 2019

ISBN 9780996748087
$20, paperback

This volume of tales, collected from native Greenlanders by Heinrich Rink, is the translation of the first book printed in Greenland. Over a five year span, Rink collected these tales from throughout Greenland, although mainly in the southern area.

The remarkable oral tradition of the Inuit, affected by few outside influences, is traced through their history on the land. Many of the stories describe the clashes between the Norse and the Inuit. Rink recognized that some of the tales existed in the realm of pure myth, but that others represented recollections, passed from one generation to the next, of events many centuries earlier.

Translated from Danish, this is the first English translation of these stories. Illustrations are by Aron of Kangeq, a sealer and walrus hunter who lived at the Moravian mission at the small trading station of Kangeq. His illustrations of the oral storytelling tradition have gained status as a symbol of the new artistic tradition developed in Greenland in the mid-19th century.

The Man Who Became a Caribou
by Craig Mishler and Kenneth Frank

480 pages
16 pages color photographs
Illustrations throughout

6 5/8 x 9 1/2"
October 2019

ISBN 9780996748070
$37.50, paperback





Dinjii Vadzaih Dhidlit: The Man Who Became a Caribou is a new bilingual volume based on a series of oral interviews with Gwich'in elders living in rural northeast Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Richly illustrated, the book covers a wide range of topics based on traditional harvesting and use of caribou from ancient to contemporary times. It also reveals traditional beliefs and taboos about caribou and includes a detailed naming system for caribou anatomy.

Recording the traditional ethnoscientific knowledge Gwich’in elders have about caribou in their oral narratives and in their hunting lexicon has far-reaching implications for zooarchaeology, for applied linguistics, for wildlife co-management, and for folklore and cultural anthropology. It is an empirical approach which essentially weds natural science with the humanities, osteology with verbal art. The topics included herein form a nucleus of many specialized study areas such as linguistic anthropology, zoosemiotics, ethnoscience, ethnozoology, osteology, and cultural ecology. And the Gwich’in ways of hunting, butchering and processing, preserving, storing, cooking, serving, tasting, and sharing food from the caribou, are all key elements in an ecological knowledge system. 
--from the Introduction

While there has been attention to caribou, I do not know of any work that looks at caribou in this way, drawing on the knowledge of the Gwich’in (or any other northern group) in such a deep and first-hand way. The book spans many important areas, including what in western science would be identified as natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. It makes outstanding contributions in these areas. It also still stands out in the overt recognition of the importance of the unfiltered voices of those who live with the caribou.
--Keren Rice, University of Toronto

This manuscript is an extensive collection of narratives. It presents an abundance of new data on an endangered language with extraordinary detail, grammatical and discursive. It also makes a critical contribution to the resources indigenous communities have for developing curriculum materials and institutionalizing indigenous studies in schools and elsewhere. Finally, it provides an amazing compendium of knowledge for resource management in the subarctic. 
--Barbra Meek, University of Michigan

Between Sea and Glacier:
Greenland in a Changing World
By Wilfred E. Richard

228 pages, 8 x 12"
April 2019

ISBN 978-0-9967480-5-6
$45, hardcover




The story of finding a people in possession of a spirit which reminds all of us that the world we inhabit is both larger and more fragile than we could have imagined.

"The people of Greenland possess a robust spirit, born of the land, which speaks to
me. At this time of the Age of Man, the Anthropocene, of human-induced climate
change, I recognize that a tradition of respect for the land prevails in Greenland. With
all the community dependent on the land, a spirit of cooperation has evolved through a
melding of Inuit communal culture with Scandinavian social democracy. I write of
Greenland, of its culture and people in possession of an existence, which is based on
hunter-gatherer knowledge of the land." From the introduction.

Wilfred Richard's spiritual journey to his new found second home culminates in a passionate recounting of his adventures through spectacular photographs and compassionate text.

A co-publication with with the Arctic Studies Center-Smithsonian Institution.

On Their Way
By Juaaka Lyberth

256 pages, 6 x 8.5"
Translated from Danish by Kristian Borten

November 2018

ISBN 978-0-9967480-4-9
$20 paperback

Paul Erik returns to Nuuk after spending the summer in his hometown of Uummannaq, Greenland. In Nuuk he attends high school where people from all over the country are housed in dormitories. But the school systems are Danish–not adapted to the life and circumstances in Greenland– and the young grow increasingly frustrated. The story takes place in 1969, and we gain an insight into a significant

period of Greenlandic history, as well as the dominating worldly cultural influences of the times.

First English translation.

Nominated for the Nordic Council

Literature Award, 2014

Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend
wins Mills Prize for Arctic literature

Polar Libraries Colloquy 

Media Release 

July 11, 2018 

Winner of the 2018 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books Announced 

Rovaniemi - The Polar Libraries Colloquy is pleased to announce the winner of the 2018 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books is Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend edited by William W. Fitzhugh and Martin T. Nweeia (International Polar Institute). This comprehensive, multi-disciplinary book is the companion to a special exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History that unites what is known and erroneous about the medium-sized toothed whales uniquely identifiable by their spiral tusks. 

The prize winner was announced at an awards ceremony on June 14, 2018, in Rovaniemi, Finland, at the Polar Library Colloquy's biennial conference. The Polar Libraries Colloquy is an international organization of librarians and others interested in the collection, preservation and dissemination of polar information. 

Two other nominations were awarded Honorary Mentions. 

The Arctic Guide: Wildlife of the Far North by Sharon Chester (Princeton University Press) is a beautifully illustrated field guide to more than 800 species of plants and animals found across the entire Holarctic region. 

Lessons from the Arctic – How Roald Amundsen Won the Race to the South Pole by Geir O. Kløver (The Fram Museum) offers a detailed analysis of the 1911-1912 South Pole Expeditions of Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott. 

The William Mills Book Prize is awarded every two years and honours the best Arctic or Antarctic non-fiction books published throughout the world. The prize was first presented in 2006. It is named in honour of William Mills, a polar librarian and author, and a core member of the Polar Libraries Colloquy during its formative years. 

Twenty-six nominations qualified for consideration this year, the most ever since the inception of the prize. A full list of all titles nominated for the 2018 William Mills Prize, including those titles that were shortlisted, is available on the Polar Libraries Colloquy website. 

The Right to a Father

The letters of Anne Sofie Hardenberg

Annotated by Pia Christensen Bang

144 pages, 5.5 x 7.75"

16 pages of color and black and white photographs

Translated by Susan Stanley

May 2018

ISBN 978-0-9967480-3-2

$25 paperback

In the 40's and 50's many men travelled to Greenland from Denmark to work. Here they met Greenlandic women – which more than once resulted in pregnancies. Many of these men then returned to Denmark, which meant that the children grew up as illegitimate children without ever knowing their fathers. One of these children was Anne Sofie Hardenberg, who was teased all through her childhood for having a Danish father – and an absent one at that. By the age of 17 she gathered the courage to write to her father. To her surprise he was very glad to hear from her, and wished to make her part of his family. Unfortunately they only got three weeks together – then he died in a car accident . . .

This is Anne Sofie's memoir accompanied by photos and letters between her and her Danish family.

The Meaning of Ice awarded the inaugural Mohn Prize

The Mohn Prize was established in collaboration between Academia Borealis, The Academy of Sciences and Letters of Northern Norway (NNVA), the Tromsø Research Foundation (TFS) and UiT, The Arctic University of Norway (UiT). 

The objective of the prize is to recognize research related to the Arctic. Furthermore, it aims to put issues of particular relevance to the future development of the Arctic on the national and international agenda. 

From the press release:

The research group behind the Meaning of Ice consists of 13 researchers and indigenous experts from Alaska, Canada and Greenland. The project The Dynamics of Human-Sea Ice Relations: Comparing Changing Environments in Alaska, Nunavut and Greenland was implemented from 2006-2011. The project involved more than 40 participants, an overwhelming majority of which were indigenous experts with unrivaled experience-based knowledge of the Arctic.

About The Meaning of Ice

Excellent research and groundbreaking knowledge
An excerpt from the award justification states that: “This project made groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of Arctic ice-dominated systems via a highly innovative combination of natural science, social science and indigenous knowledge.”

A leader in his/her/their field
An excerpt from the award justification concludes that: “This project exemplifies a major development in Arctic science that will stimulate others to make use of similar procedures to address a wide range of topics in the coming years.”

Relevance to the future development of the Arctic
An excerpt from the award justification states that: “Changes in the Arctic environment are now verified independently by both scientific methods and observations of the Arctic residents. Inherent to a sustainable Arctic is resilient local communities continuing their use of ice-dominated environment based on established knowledge systems, culture-based values, and indigenous languages.”

Based on these three criteria, the Scientific Committee strongly recommended that The Meaning of Ice should be honored as one of the laureates because the consortium is a unique example of “collaboration between academics and indigenous experts which has given us new knowledge of and understanding about the Arctic, and has developed an advanced understanding of the dynamics of the Arctic sea ice”.

The importance of an Arctic prize

The term ‘High North’ (or alternatively ‘Circumpolar North’) is often used to describe the area between the North Pole and the Arctic Circle. Through the Mohn Prize, NNVA, TFS and UiT wish to honour knowledge builders who have contributed groundbreaking new insights in the Arctic and the High North. The Scientific Committee believes the Mohn Prize has the potential to set the standard for outstanding research connected to the Arctic and the High North. Arctic research has been taking place in, and based out of Tromsø, for more than a century. For nearly 50 years, the research environments in Tromsø have developed world leading competence in Arctic natural and social sciences. The international interest in the Arctic is largely motivated by climate changes that are clearly expressed in the region, and by the rich natural resources found here.

The Will of the Unseen
by Hans Lynge

160 pages, 6 x 8.25"
Illustrated by the author
Translated by Susan Stanley
Afterword by Kirsten Thisted

October 2017

ISBN 978-0-9967480-2-5
$20.00 paperback

Two brothers learn their father was murdered by their step-father. Upon learning this, they both depart on journeys of self discovery leading them to the extremes of traditional Greenlandic culture and finally, transcendence.

Hans Lynge was born in Nuuk, Greenland in 1906 and died in 1988. He was an author, dramatist, painter, politician, printmaker, and sculptor.

Trained as a catechist, tuberculosis forced him to abandon his calling in 1931, beginning a new career as artist and author, while also becoming involved in the political forum. He participated in the delegation for negotiations with the Greenlandic Parliamentary Committee.

Hans Lynge’s writing claims its motifs from the ancient Inuit world and expresses a strong admiration for traditional indigenous life, but also the need for Greenland to modernize to the world around it. Emphasizing the importance of including the Greenlandic people in this process was his primary concern. As a visual artist, Lynge work also belongs to the country's finest. His work helped contribute to the formation of Greenlandic Folk Art.

Narwhal:
Revealing an Arctic Legend
By William Fitzhugh and Martin Nweeia

260 pages, 8.5 x 11.25"
Illustrated thoughout
Available November 2017

ISBN 978-0-9967480-1-8
$30.00 paperback

Few animals on the planet inspire the sense of wonder evoked by the narwhal. The ‘Arctic unicorn’ is everyone’s version of “awesome” and “cool.”  Explorers, aristocrats, artists and scientists celebrate this elusive whale and its extraordinary tusk. From Flemish unicorn tapestries, Inuit legends and traditional knowledge, and the research of devoted scientists, comes a tale of discovery reported here from  the top of the world, a place where climate change is rapidly transforming one of the harshest environments on earth.  How did the narwhal tusk become the horn of the fabled unicorn? What treasures do the Inuit hold about this majestic but elusive denizen? What have scientists discovered about the function of its tusk?

Explore with whale biologists as they capture live narwhals to answer questions of narwhal biology, migration, population and behavior. Ponder the evolutionary history of the narwhal through paleontology and genetic science. Contemplate the fate of northern regions, animals, and peoples in a rapidly warming Arctic. Experience the insights and observations of Inuit hunters who have lived with the narwhal for thousands of years. The following pages present their views along with the latest research in narwhal biology, art, and climate science illustrated by more than a dozen photographers and graphic artists. 

William W. Fitzhugh is a Smithsonian anthropologist who directs the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center and serves as a visiting professor at Dartmouth College. His archaeological research investigates the history of Arctic peoples and cultures and the impacts of climate change and European contacts throughout northern Eurasia and North America. Recent research includes studies of Basque-Inuit contact and Mongolian Bronze Age art.

Dr. Martin Nweeia has devoted 18 years to studies of narwhal tusk function discovering its sensory ability.  The Harvard-Case Western Reserve-Smithsonian affiliated scientist worked with Inuit elders and hunters, and over 78 collaborating scientists in 8 countries in an effort that brought together Inuit traditional knowledge and scientific applications that led to his discoveries.

A co-publication with the Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Ivalu's Color
By Nauja Lynge

Afterword by Iben Bjørnsson
224 pages, 5.25 x 8.25"
Available June 2017

ISBN 978-0-9967480-0-1
$24.95

Nauja Lynge’s novel is a call for temperance in Greenland's rush for independence from Denmark.

Greenland, circa 2015. Three women are found murdered in the capital city Nuuk. Ongoing issues in the country involving the desire for independence from the Kingdom of Denmark are redirected, as race and gender recolor the scene, and the mystery unravels in clashing graphic detail. An intertwined story of corruption, greed, domination, and sovereignty reveals itself through the discoveries of three investigators— Russian, Chinese, and a Danish Greenlander. The politics at hand are reenacted in the very act of investigating the murders, revealing the Inuit of Greenland as the true and only victims of this crime. 

Nauja Lynge is the great granddaughter of Henrik Lund, author of Greenland’s national anthem, and granddaughter of Hans Lynge, who promoted increased Greenlandic independence in a time before the Home Rule government. She left Greenland for Denmark as a child, but returned to reclaim her native identity as a Danish Greenlander. Through this journey home, Nauja has seen the effects of cultural stereotypes affecting the economy, language, and very heart of those torn between two worlds. She continues to actively work towards helping Greenlanders gain their due rights. This is her first novel.