From June of 1941 through the following summer, Fredricka Martin lived with her husband, Dr. Samuel Berenberg, on remote St. Paul Island in Alaska. During that time, Martin delved into the complex history of the Unangan people, and this book draws from her personal accounts of that year and her research to present a fascinating portrait of a time and a people facing radical change. A government ordered evacuation of all Aleuts from the island in the face of World War II, which Martin recounts in her journal, proved but the first step in a long struggle by Native peoples to gain independence, and, as editor Raymond Hudson explains, Martin came to play a significant role in the effort.
Ray Hudson lived in the Aleutian Islands from 1964 to 1992, and there his heart remains even though he now lives in Middlebury, Vermont, with his wife Shelly. In Vermont, Hudson continues to write on topics related to the islands. Raised in Yakima, Washington, and a graduate of the University of Washington, Hudson studied woodblock printing with Lu Fang at the Zhejiang Fine Arts Academy, Hangzhou. He is the recipient of the National Education Association’s Leo Reano Award for his work with First Americans. In 1990, he received the Governor’s Award for the Arts from the Alaska State Council on the Arts.