Burch, Jr.: a Personal Ethnohistory, 1960–2010

The 50-Year Arctic Career of Ernest S. Burch, Jr.: A Personal Ethnohistory, 1960–2010 Igor Krupnik Abstract. The paper explores the scientifi c legacy of Ernest S. Burch, Jr., 1938–2010, one of the leading experts on the social life and ethnohistory of Alaskan indigenous people. Burch’s professional career is viewed through the lenses of fi ve monumental projects (initiatives) that he accomplished over 50 years: the study of subsistence ecology in Kivalina, Alaska (1960–1985); reconstruction of the early 1800s Iñupiat nations in North Alaska (1969–1980); the National Geographic map, “Peoples of the Arctic, ca. 1825” (1979–1983); the multivolume series, Cul- tural and Natural Heritage of Northwest Alaska (1983–2003); and the history of caribou herds in Alaska (late 1990s–2010). Several projects that Burch had started but did not bring to conclusion are also discussed. Burch’s research set the highest professional standards in the discipline of arctic anthropology for over four decades, and the resulting loss of knowledge and expertise will be hard to overcome. Introduction (or not) during 50 years of active research. It re- This paper provides the fi rst and rather prelimi- veals how earlier efforts, even if aborted, infl u- nary overview of Ernest S. Burch’s professional enced his methods and vision, and how they ma- life and his many legacies. Its other objective is terialized (or not) years, even decades later. Also, to introduce a certain general framework under if, following Simmons (1988:10), we view ethno- which individual contributions to this volume history as “a form of cultural biography that draws come together as a collective tribute to our late upon as many kinds of testimony as possible over colleague. It is not an exhaustive summary, and it as long a time period as the sources allow,” this leaves many issues untouched or barely covered paper, despite its limited time frame of 50 years re- two years since Burch’s untimely passing in 2010. lies upon many testimonies (sources), including I deliberately apply the term “personal Burch’s published and unpublished writings, in- ethno history” (rather than biography) to this out- terviews, memoirs, and personal correspondence. line of Burch’s 50-year professional career. Un- I am certain Burch would be pleased that his col- like a usual biography, it reviews Burch’s life not leagues approach his life as ethnohistory, though in a chronological order or as a succession of cer- he preferred to call his research simply “history” tain phases but, rather, through the lenses of sev- or “ethnographic reconstruction.” eral major projects he initiated and accomplished Burch had a commanding presence in Igor Krupnik, Arctic Studies Center, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington DC, 20013–7012; [email protected] ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 10–28, 2012 ISSN 0066-6939 © 2012 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Krupnik: The 50-Year Arctic Career of Ernest S. Burch, Jr.: A Personal Ethnohistory, 1960–2010 11 Figure 1. Ernest S. (Tiger) Burch, Jr., June 2008 (photograph courtesy of Deanne Burch). northern anthropology for almost four decades (Fig. 1). His writing was clear and captivating, and he was a monumental fi gure in any professional setting. This is how I remember him from our fi rst encounter in 1979, which occurred at the sympo- sium on the North American–Northeast Asian cul- Figure 2. Burch during the International Congress of tural connections (Michael and VanStone 1983). Arctic Social Scientists–VI meetings in Nuuk, Green- That meeting started a professional relationship land, August 2008 (photograph by Igor Krupnik). and friendship of 31 years (Fig. 2) MacMillan was simply a realization of his dream 1938–2010: A Brief Timeline (Elsie Burch, personal communication 2011). Burch recalled his entry to the fi eld of arctic an- The decision to become an arctic anthropol- thropology twice: in writing (Burch 2002:33–34) ogist took him fi rst to Princeton (B.A. in Sociol- and in a published interview with Rachel Mason ogy 1960, cum laude) and then to the University of in 2003 (Mason 2007:147). His journey into the Chicago (Ph.D. in Anthropology 1966). In summer Arctic started in 1954, at age 16, when he became 1959, prior to his last Princeton year, he spent two a junior crewmember on Rear Admiral Donald B. months in Labrador (Burch 2002:34–35). A year MacMillan’s expedition to Labrador, Baffi n Island, later, as he started his Ph.D. program in Chicago, and Greenland (Fig. 3). In his own words, when he was hired as a fi eld assistant on an 11-month he left for the North in June 1954, he wanted to be subsistence study in Kivalina for the University of a fi eld biologist or a naturalist. When he returned Alaska Fairbanks (see below). He left several short three months later, however, he “wanted to be an accounts on his work in Kivalina as a part of the anthropologist and work in the Arctic” (Burch “Project Chariot” of the U.S. Atomic Energy Com- 2002:34).1 His mother claims that at age 13 he was mission (Burch 2002; Mason 2007) and a detailed already covering his school notebooks with the project report (Burch n.d. [1962]) covering his life drawings of Eskimos and igloos, and the trip with in the village from fall 1960 untill summer 1961. 12 Arctic Anthropology 49:2 lous performance tabs that listed his professional activities for every year. He compiled these two- page annual summaries, starting from his fi rst ap- pointment in 1966 at the University of Manitoba through to 2010. They were originally organized by university academic year, from September until August, and then shifted to “performance” (fi s- cal?) year, starting July 1 and ending June 30 of the next year.4 By checking these annual professional activ- ity charts, as well as the full bibliography of his publications (Krupnik 2010; Stern, this volume), I was able to compile a list of more than 20 major projects he had pursued during his research career (Table 1). From that list, I selected fi ve of his Figure 3. “Tiger Burch playing accordion aboard most formative undertakings, described in more Bowdoin, 1954.” Photograph taken during Donald detail below. These include: (1) a study of subsis- MacMillan’s expedition to Labrador, Baffi n Island and tence ecology in Kivalina in the early 1960s and in Greenland (AM1994.5.3981; courtesy of the Peary- 1982–1985; (2) reconstruction of the 19th-century MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College). social groupings (societies or nations) in North Alaska, 1969–1980; (3) circumpolar map, “Peo- ples of the Arctic ca. 1825,” 1979–1983; (4) multi- Burch returned to Kivalina with his wife volume series, Cultural and Natural Heritage of Deanne in 1964 for a year-long doctoral fi eld study Northwest Alaska, 1983–2003; and (5) an unfi n- of changing social organization and human ecol- ished manuscript on caribou herds in Northwest ogy. It was during that fi eldwork, in December Alaska, 2006–2010 (Burch 2012). Three lesser 1964, when he was burned terribly trying to save known efforts are reviewed in another section his fi eld notes; nonetheless, he and Deanne re- (The Unknown Burch). Several of his initiatives, turned to the village the next spring for three more both fi nished and not, are also addressed in other months to complete the work (Burch 1985:128– papers (Bockstoce, Correll, Mishler, Wheelersburg, 129). After graduating from Chicago in 1966, he this volume). Cumulatively, these works cover the taught for eight years in the Department of Anthro- greater part of his research career. pology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg (Correll, this volume). In June 1975, he resigned Subsistence Ecology in Kivalina, from a tenured university position and moved with his family to central Pennsylvania to become 1960–1985 a self-employed anthropologist.2 In 1979, he se- We know from Burch’s writings and recollections cured a nonpaid affi liation with the Smithsonian that he was greatly infl uenced by his early fi eld Institution and served as its Research Associate for experience of living in Kivalina, a small Alaskan 31 years until his passing (Fitzhugh, this volume). rural community of 160 at the age of 22 (Burch Working for decades out of his basement in n.d. [1962], 1985, 2002:36; Mason 2007:147–149) suburban Pennsylvania and missing daily commu- (Fig. 4). As a fi eld assistant on a long-term project nication with his peers, Burch took it upon him- run by Doris Saario from the University of Alaska self to attend major professional meetings. He did Fairbanks, he had to report on village hunting ac- it diligently, often at his personal expense. He also tivities, people’s movements, and daily life. He maintained intensive correspondence with doz- also had to learn to hunt, fi sh, drive his own dog ens of his colleagues, which he painstakingly pre- sled, and process his catch for himself. It was a served in his personal archives that is now open to fi eld school that few anthropologists of today’s students interested in his research and his many generation could replicate. Even though the data professional connections.3 he collected were later published by others (Saario 1962; Saario and Kessel 1966), he underwent priceless training, and he also secured a friendly One Man’s Ethnohistory community setting for his next study when he be- My overview of Burch’s legacy is structured by came a researcher in his own standing.

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