Indigenous Emotional Economies In Alaska: Surviving Youth In The Village Item Type Thesis Authors Rasmus, Stacy Michelle Download date 04/10/2021 15:00:05 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8994 INDIGENOUS EMOTIONAL ECONOMIES IN ALASKA: SURVIVING YOUTH IN THE VILLAGE A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Stacy Michelle Rasmus, B.A., M.A. Fairbanks, Alaska August 2008 UMI Number: 3337648 Copyright 2009 by Rasmus, Stacy Michelle All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3337648 Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway PO Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 INDIGENOUS EMOTIONAL ECONOMIES IN ALASKA: SURVIVING YOUTH IN THE VILLAGE By Stacy Michelle Rasmus RECOMMENDED: Advisory Committee Chair APPROVED: Dean, College of Liberal Arts <^Dean of the Graduate Scho 2 L ~ 7 / ______________ Date Abstract According to the Status of Alaska Natives Report 2004 produced by the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage, Native youth in rural Alaska experience significant mental health disparity. Suicide rates for Alaska Native youth are the highest in the nation, and substance abuse, social misconduct and teenage pregnancy rates are also much higher among the rural, indigenous population in Alaska. These disparate rates have caused many to ask; what is going on with the youth in the villages today? This dissertation reports on research conducted to help answer that question, and identify local intervention strategies for youth growing up today in the villages. The research for this dissertation was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (1R34MH073601-01), and supported by the University of Alaska Fairbanks at the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, Institute of Arctic Biology. The study used a community-based participatory research approach and ethnographic methods to explore the affective lives of youth in Athabascan villages in Alaska. This dissertation is a contemporary ethnography of life in “the vill” from a youth perspective. Findings from the research demonstrate a model of Athabascan mental health based on the concept of an indigenous emotional economy. Athabascan survival has always required both technical skills to provide for the material necessities of life and emotional skills to support social life. In that sense the economy has also always been an emotional economy. As the balance between the need for technical and emotional survival skills shifted, the lives of young people have become increasingly focused on their relationships in the village. The contemporary social problems that youth experience growing up in the village reflect the changed and changing nature of their emotional decision-making in the context of the relationships that contribute most directly to their social status and survival. In an emotional economy individuals must adapt strategies for surviving feelings. This study provides information that could be used to create or tailor intervention strategies in the rural villages to the local models of emotion, behavior and mental health. Table of Contents Page SIGNATURE PAGE:.................................................................................................................. i TITLE PAGE................................................................................................................................ ii Abstract................................................................................................................. '.......................iii Table of Contents ........................................................................ iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vii Preface.........................................................................................................................................viii Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Youth................................................................ 1 1.2 The Village........................................................................................................................6 1.3 Surviving Youth ............................................................................................................. 15 1.4 Surviving Emotions .................................. 24 1.5 Surviving the Anthropology of Youth and Emotions ................................................ 35 1.5.1 Relationships in the Field ...... .................................... 46 1.5.2 Gossip and Social Control .............................................................................................49 1.5.3 Drinking and Socializing ..............................................................................................51 1.5.4 Sex and Sexuality ................................................................ 52 1.5.5 Insider/Outsider Identity ..............................................................................................55 1.6 Writing Feeling Worlds ...............................................................................................58 Chapter 1 Yookkene ...................................................................................................................62 1.1 Village on the Yukon .................................................................................................... 61 1.2 Contemporary Generational Borderlands ....................................................................68 1.2.1 Elders ............................................................................................................................69 1.2.2 A dults ...........................................................................................................................78 1.2.3 Youth............................................................................................................................85 1.3 Athabascan Adapatations, Revisited ............................................................................94 V Chapter 2 Chillin in the Vill..................................................................................................... 103 2.1 Playing O ut ....................................................................................................................105 2.2 Hanging Out and Riding Around ...............................................................................110 2.3 Sports .............................................................................................................................. 116 2.4 School .............................................................................................................................121 2.5 Hunting, Fishing and Berry-Picking .......................................................................... 127 2.6 Camp........................................................................ 136 2.7 Travel ..............................................................................................................................138 2.8 Fun, Boredom and Mischief ........................................................................................141 Chapter 3 Partying .....................................................................................................................153 3.1 Culture and Drink ......................................................................................................... 153 3.2 "False Spirits": Natives and Alcohol ..........................................................................163 3.3 Partying in Yookkene ...................................................................................................175 3.3.1 Drug use in Yookkene .................................................................................................186 3.4 Excitement, Drama and Partying ................................................................................191 Chapter 4 Relationships....................................... 196 4.1 Relatives ........................................................................................................................ 198 4.2 Siblings .......................................................................................................................... 207 4.3 Friends ........................................................................................................................... 214 4.4 Girlfriends and Boyfriends ............................................................................ 226 4.5 Love, Jealousy and Hooking-up .................................................................................232 Chapter 5 Loss...........................................................................................................................237