Bridging Tradition and Modernity

ALB Graduate’s Research Aims to Foster Development, Preserve Culture in Her Alaskan Community

by Louise Miller

Instructor Malinda Maynor Lowery and Cana Crosby, ALB ’06

Cana Uluak Crosby, ALB ’06, was looking for a launching point for future graduate study when she stumbled upon the reading and research option near the end of her time in the Bachelor of Liberal Arts (ALB) Program. The option, which enables a student to work with a teaching member of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences on a research project, was a great way for Crosby to develop skills that would serve her well in future academic work.

As it turned out, it was also an endeavor that reconnected Crosby to her Iñupiaq Eskimo heritage. In 2005, after four years at Harvard Extension School, the 29-year-old from Kotzebue in Northwest Alaska was homesick, and it was that state of mind that inspired the project’s focus. Crosby decided to research the viability of a dynamic web community that could bridge the modern and traditional aspects of her Iñupiaq culture and foster economic development in a region with minimal opportunity.

“I wanted to create a place to collect information about the culture,” says Crosby, “and to keep people of the NANA [Northwest Alaska Native Association] region connected and focused. I wanted to rejuvenate our energy and its potential on our community needs.”

With a background in environmental studies, Crosby has always been interested in the resource-rich region. The inhabitants rely greatly on mining for sustenance, which Crosby says is as hard on the survival of the community as it is on the land: the mines are remote and, thus, take people away from their families and cultural activities. The Iñupiaq are traditional people: they hunt for food; Crosby’s grandfather was a migratory reindeer herder, and her mother was born on a caribou-skin rug in a sod house. But they are also modern. So Crosby used qualitative research and empirical data to determine how the Iñupiaq people might capitalize on a website that allowed them to build relationships with businesses and entrepreneurs throughout the region. In addition, Crosby wanted to see if the website could be used as a vehicle for preserving the rapidly changing culture.

This rural arctic area is roughly the size of Maine and comprises Kotzebue, ten villages, and numerous camps. The communities are isolated, with no roads in or out. Yet Internet use is common. Many homes that don’t have running water or sewers are equipped with high-speed DSL Internet service and cable television (cable being easier to install than plumbing).

When Crosby was growing up, she didn’t have access to the outside world; she had no idea how different her life was from other Americans. Today, with cable television and popular media, Iñupiaq children are exposed to other lifestyles that they’d like to connect to. “To be a teenager in 2006 in Kansas and to be a teenager in 2006 in Alaska—where your parents are hunters but you’re wearing Fila shoes—are very different,” Crosby says. “Using new media is one way to reconcile the current culture that is there, one way to contribute as well as extract and learn.”

Malinda Maynor Lowery, an assistant professor of history at Harvard University, was Crosby’s research advisor. Lowery says that Crosby’s attachment to the community is what makes the project special. “She has seen a situation in a community that she has been a part of and allowed that situation to influence her work,” Lowery says. “She’s inserted herself into a project that is living and has made it into something that is going to really work for the whole community. It represents a paradigm of learning that is important, and it is also really important to Native American studies as a discipline.”

Crosby conducted a feasibility study in which people in the 11 communities filled out an online survey. The survey asked whether people would contribute to a web-based community and what they expected from one. The most resounding response came from teens, who expressed a desire for a place where their voices could be heard in the community.

Thus, a teen center is the first area slated for development. With a proposed website launch date of January 1, Crosby is busy with web development and with recruiting sponsors and securing grants. She has contacted the NANA region school district about getting students from different villages involved in the creation of the online teen forum. Crosby hopes that such a project will help keep students active and engaged. Among the Iñupiaq, high school graduation rates are low and the risk of suicide and teen pregnancy high. By improving these students’ prospects, Crosby aims to help ensure not only their well being but their future contribution to the community.

Lowery says that Crosby’s project is something many communities can learn from and use. “The connection between economic development and wellness issues is something that people all over the country need to be aware of,” she says. “A lot of businesses or governments see these issues as separate, but they are connected.”

Crosby just hopes the website will have a positive impact on the NANA region. She is proud of her heritage. “The culture is built around humor, humility, strength, and the ability to survive in such a stark landscape,” she says. “And maybe it’s because of the stark landscape that the community is so strong. The way the community bands together through triumph and tragedy is poetic, and it is beautiful.”