Notebook 
Author unknown 
1933 
Iñupiaq 
Arctic 
Qikiqtaġruk (Kotzebue), Alaska, United States 
Leather, paper

This notebook belonged to a female student at a school funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Qikiqtaġruk (Kotzebue), Alaska in 1933. The text is written in English, Iñupiaq, and a pictographic script that is no longer used. Archive materials, such as this notebook, provide first hand perspectives of significant cultural shifts in indigenous communities and shines a light on the effects of changes that occur when cultures meet.

Quote from Beverly Faye Hugo, a contemporary of the unknown author, places perspective on the notebook:

“I was a child during the Bureau of Indian Affairs era, when we were punished for speaking Iñupiaq in school. My first day in class was the saddest one of my young life. I had to learn English, and that was important, but my own language is something that I value dearly and have always guarded.”

from Living our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska, edited by Crowell et al. 2010.