On "History" and James W. VanstoneAuthor(s): Margaret LantisSource: Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 35, No. 2, No Boundaries: Papers in Honor of James W.Vanstone (1998), pp. 6-7Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316481 .

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ON "HISTORY" AND JAMES W. VANSTONE

MARGARET LANTIS

My first contact with James VanStone occurred prior to the summer of 1953 when he wrote me a letter concerning Nunivak Island, in southwestern Alaska, where he was preparing to conduct ar- chaeological fieldwork. I eventually met Jim in person on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the summer of 1955, at which time he was teaching in the Department of Anthropology.

Jim and I have maintained regular contact with one another now for 45 years, through letters, telephone calls, personal visits when one of us happened to be in the city of residence of the other, or simply by seeing each other at various professional meetings (Fig.l). The close friendship and mutual respect we share eased the many diffi- culties Jim encountered in writing up a great many of the field notes I had taken on Nunivak Island, beginning in 1939, to produce the monograph, Nunivak Island Eskimo (Yuit) Technology and Ma- terial Culture (VanStone 1989). But in his remark- able career, Jim has overcome far greater obstacles than having to sift through, interpret, and compile a colleague's personal notes for publication.

To understand Jim's interests and accom- plishments one must begin with his early life. A debilitating illness, poliomyelitis, put him evi- dently flat on his back for a long period in early adolescence. In the 1930s and 1940s, the epidemic disease and how to deal with it was not well known. During his convalescence, Jim had his mother's constant attention, and music; so he prin- cipally listened to music and read. (Long after- ward, classical music was present in his home and in his office). It was in this difficult period of his life that he developed an interest in history. Al- though Jim recovered from his illness enough to be able to attend Oberlin College, in his home state of Ohio, he could not participate in most activities. His undergraduate major, Art History, reflected his ever-growing interest in history. Then as now, broader cultural movements in other times and

places interested him more than local economic and political developments.

In graduate work at the University of Penn- sylvania, Jim became attracted to the potential the field of archaeology held for contributing to the understanding of prehistory and history. In his much later work at the Field Museum of Natural History, Jim's attention centered on a variety of topics; but throughout his career he has remained most interested in historic movements and the people and forces responsible for them. The im- portance of this interest to Jim is suggested by his participation with a group of anthropologists (none of whom was a northern specialist) having a shared interest in the use of history in anthropol- ogy, and by his learning and use of the Russian language. Given this interest, it is not surprising that Jim has had such a major role in shaping the methodology of Alaskan "ethnohistory."

Among the more noteworthy of VanStone's contributions to the knowledge and interest of those not so well equipped are the "Preface" and "Intro- duction" to V. S. Khromchenko's Coastal Explo- rations in Southwestern Alaska, 1822 (VanStone 1973), and the "Introduction" to Russian Explo- ration in Southwestern Alaska: The Journals ofPetr Korsakovskiy (1818) and Ivan Ya. Vasilev (1829) (VanStone 1988). Jim has also paid tribute to his predecessors in anthropology. For example, see E. W. Nelson's Notes on the Indians of the Yukon and Innoko Rivers, Alaska (VanStone 1978), especially its "Introduction" reviewing previous interior Alaska exploration, as well as Nelson's. These works exemplify Jim's desire to know and appreciate what was done in the past, in Alaska and elsewhere.

But VanStone also appreciates his one exten- sive field ethnography experience, at Point Hope in 1955-1956, which resulted in his well-written American Ethnological Society monograph, Point Hope: An Eskimo Village in Transition (VanStone 1962). This outstanding monograph does not, and

Margaret Lantis, 155 Jesselin Drive, Lexington, KY 40503

ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 6-7, 1998

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Lantis: On "History" and James W. VanStone 7

could not, fully convey the personal satisfaction Jim experienced when participating in sea ice hunting and other communal activities with local residents. It should be noted that, by the mid- 1950s, the prehistory of Point Hope was already better known than was the prehistory for most of Alaska. Jim's knowledge of the area's past en- hanced his ethnographic work in the community, making the subsequent monograph that much richer. Just as Point Hope was special for Jim, his accounts of it can be special to us.

It proved to be a bittersweet experience for Jim when he returned to Point Hope some 30 years later and saw how much the village had changed. His return was made possible when a private firm under contract with the U.S. Minerals Manage- ment Service hired Jim as a consultant in connec- tion with impact assessment studies in several northwest Alaska communities. Today, such work is commonly called "applied anthropology." This combination of currently intensive and histori- cally extended knowledge about Point Hope has been unique in Jim's career.

Other aspects of Jim's lifelong interest in his- tory are seen in the very large exhibit on northern peoples that he supervised at the Field Museum. As in most ethnographic exhibits, the past is em- phasized. Yet, Jim's combined expertise in prehis- toric and historic archaeology, ethnography, and ethnohistory contributed to the exhibit's notable success. That breadth of knowledge has also en- abled him to write cogent and insightful mono- graphs on an impressive variety of subjects.

In his long and productive career, Jim Van- Stone has significantly expanded our knowledge of northern history and the traditional life of northern peoples.

Figure 1. James W. VanStone, June, 1977. (Photo courtesy of Charles Lucier.)

References VanStone, James W. 1962 Point Hope: An Eskimo Village in Transition.

University of Washington Press, Seattle.

1989 Nunivak Island Eskimo (Yuit) Technology and Material Culture. Fieldiana: Anthropol- ogy (n.s.) 12. Chicago.

James W. VanStone (editor) 1973 V. S. Khromchenko's Coastal Explorations in

Southwestern Alaska, 1822. Introduction by James W. VanStone; translated by David H. Kraus. Fieldiana: Anthropology 64. Chicago.

1978 E. W. Nelson's Notes on the Indians of the Yukon and Innoko Rivers, Alaska. Fieldiana: Anthropology 70. Chicago.

1988 Russian Exploration in Southwest Alaska: The Travel Journals of Petr Korsakovskiy (1818) and Ivan Ya. Vasilev (1829). Introduc- tion by James W. VanStone; translated by David H. Kraus. Rasmuson Library Historical Translation Series, No. 4. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks.

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