What are the Indigenous names of important places in our area? — I’ve previously written about 10 Tlingit Words We Should All Be Using in Southeast Alaska and made a Comprehensive List of Tlingit Names for All the Present-Day Communities in Lingít Aaní. These are good starting points for everyone to start learning a little bit of Lingít yoo x̲ʼatángi (the Tlingit…

Let’s get real about how politics should and should not show up in the classroom. — Teachers are authority figures, and public schools are government-run institutions where children are (in most cases) legally obligated to spend thousands of hours of their lives. It‘s only natural, then, that parents and other concerned citizens should care what teachers talk about in schools, especially when it comes to sensitive…

This is a great point. I disagree with the use of the term "nation of immigrants," (because out of Indigenous nations, enslaved Africans, and European colonists, none of those groups were actually "immigrants"), but I completely agree that "diversity" has never really been America's problem. As you explain, the real…

This article is a slightly updated version of a presentation I gave in February as part of the Friday Night Insight program hosted by the U.S. Forest Service and sponsored by the Cape Fox Cultural Foundation in Kichx̱áan, the town commonly known as Ketchikan, which is located on the lands…

How far is what you and your students believe about your teaching from what your teaching actually is? — I’m on sabbatical this year, so that means as of now, in March, I’ve been away from teaching for nearly nine months—the longest amount of time I haven’t been teaching since I started my career almost ten years ago. Needless to say, I do miss my students, I miss my…

The following is a slightly-modified version of a speech I gave yesterday, February 16th, 2023, as part of celebrations honoring Ḵaax̱gal.aat Yagiyee, Elizabeth Peratrovich Day. The speech was given at Ketchikan High School in Kichx̱áan, the town commonly known as Ketchikan, which is located on the lands of the Taantʼa…

Two Remarkably Different Novels Set on the Same Remarkable Island — Note: There are NO SPOILERS in the first part of this review, and I will include a warning when spoilers are coming. “So, a veteran novelist and a debut novelist walk into a publishing house…” I was amazed when I first realized that Lisa See and Sumi Hahn published novels…

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Growing Older — I hadn’t been back to visit my alma mater in nearly ten years. This fall, I finally returned. I stayed on campus for little over an hour, and I saw everything I needed to. In nine and a half years since I graduated, I’ve spent plenty of time looking back…

Remember What the Day Commemorates, and Consider If You Really Want to Celebrate It — Given that I am: a historian who focuses on the 19th century, and a proud Alaskan, people might be forgiven for assuming that I would care about Alaska Day, and that I might even celebrate it. I do not. Every year, I can’t even remember what day Alaska Day is…