Frank G. Johnson on Tlingit Education – A Researcher’s Work

The Sealaska Heritage Institute’s research library receives many visitors, each with their own set of research objectives. Sealaska’s library collects rare books, archival documents and recordings, and ethnographic objects that document the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people. Current intern at and regular researcher of Sealaska’s library, Ishmael Hope, discussed some of his research online, which serves as a type of demonstration and/or example of what type of research individuals using Sealaska’s library are doing.

For a recent presentation Ishmael Hope gave in Seattle on Tlingit culture and history, he researched the late Tlingit elder Frank G. Johnson (1894-1982). From this research effort Ishmael Hope’s blog, Alaska Native Storyteller, featured a post about some rare Tlingit educational materials developed between 1976 and 1980, in part by Frank Johnson, which Hope studied in our library. Click here to read Hope’s writing on Frank Johnson, along with text from Johnson’s Tlingit Family Life (1980).

Photograph Credit: Frank Johnson, photo by Dick Dauenhauer, from SHI's Dauenhauer Photograph Collection.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a regional nonprofit representing the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures. Sealaska Heritage Institute seeks to promote cross cultural understanding.