Module III

Essential Question: How are landscapes formed and how, in turn, are cultures shaped by their landscapes?


I was born in Sitka, Alaska. Sitka is positioned on the Western side of Baranof Island, in Southeast Alaska and is bordered by mountains to the East, and Sitka Sound to the West, sheltered from the brunt of the Pacific Ocean by Kruzof Island.

A typical day at the beach when I was little, photo taken by my mother

The landscape in Southeastern Alaska has been formed mostly through tectonic plate movement. Most of Alaska lies on the North American plate, and as the more dense Pacific plate subducts beneath it mountains are pushed up from the ocean floor, forming Southeast and South-central Alaska. As the Pacific plate begins to melt back into the mantle it creates rising magma and volcanoes, which build up new landforms. One such volcano visible from Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe, erupted long ago, covering the area in up to twenty feet of ash, contributing to the fertile soil in the region. More recently this 3,200 foot volcano was the subject of an April Fool's day joke, when resident Porky Bickar helicoptered more than 70 old tires into the crater and lit them on fire, causing quite a ruckus in town.

Swimming this summer at John Brown's beach with a view of Mt. Edgecumbe,
photo taken by my husband Ben

Southeastern Alaska has also been shaped by erosion caused by glaciers, the ocean, rivers, wind, and rain. In the last ice age this area was covered in ice, and U- shaped valleys formed while mountains were carved and rounded. The area was depressed by the weight of the glaciers and is currently rebounding, and in some places sea level is actually retreating.

Sitka is one of the oldest and most culturally rich communities in Alaska. The word Sitka comes from the contraction of the Tlingit name "Shee-Atika" which means people on the side of the Shee (Baranof Island). Some trace the Tlingit in Sitka back 10,000 years. The Russians discovered Sitka in 1741 and the last major stand by the Tligits against the Russians occurred in 1804. Then known as "New Archangel", it became the Russian capitol in 1808. The location was so highly valued by both the Russians and Tlingits because of the abundant furs, salmon, lumber, and ice (from man-made Swan Lake near the center of town). Both cultures found it easy to live off the land as well as enriching to trade and barter the goods that could be easily acquired there. Because the land was so easy to live off of, and so accessible by the sea, the Tlingit culture had to fend off many other Alaskan native peoples long before the arrival of the Russians, and this experience helped them to hold them off for as long as they did.

A Tlingit totem in Totem Park, photo by Cat Walker

The Russian Orthodox church in the center of town, photo by Cat Walker

To this day the landscape remains hospitable to wildlife as well as the ~8,000 human inhabitants. When I was a child my sister and I would wade out into the rivers and scoop up the returning salmon with our bare hands. Sea life is still plentiful and currently Sitka is the 6th largest port by value of seafood harvest in the U.S. and has the largest harbor system in Alaska. The Japanese current runs up past Sitka, making the waters warm enough for swimming, and the volcanic ash fertilizer along with the abundant rain fall (86" per year) helps the forest grow large and green.

Living close to the land, as the Tlingit people did and to some extent still do, enables people to stay healthy as individuals and as a culture. Unless the land has been polluted, as it has been in some areas of the Arctic region by global weather patterns and bio-accumulation, the food that hunters and gatherers collect is extremely healthy. The sense of pride in providing for oneself and one's family, readily apparent in this video about the Cu'pik people of Chevak, provides a mental health that is hard to achieve in a Western Culture, where we see little connection between the work that we do and the food and shelter that sustain us.

Google Earth helps change the way I look at the world in a variety of ways. In this case, it helped me to remember the landscape I spent the first 10 years of my life surrounded by, as well as helping me to discover things about it I never would have learned due to the limits of hiking and boating. In other instances it has helped me to research areas that I have never been able to visit, and due to monetary constrictions will probably not make it to.

I have shared Google Earth with my students as an introductory lesson where we drop pins for each student in the place they consider home, and then throughout the year we revisit these places and share cultural and geologic information. I also have been able to teach an elective that focuses on GIS/GPS and we spend time learning how to construct maps of the landscape around them and derive information from maps found online. One of the lessons I plan on having the class complete is to introduce their "home" through a map they construct that has both visual and audio links to their family history. I hope this will engage students by helping them learn more about Alaskan cultures and the land around them. Perhaps some of these students who grow up with a foot in each culture will someday have careers similar to Richard Glenn where they can return to their villages and share their expertise to the benefit of their people and the world around them.