Here is a brief description of the Third International Conference on Russian America, held in Irkutsk in August. Details, including a program and photos, are available at

• http://home.gci.net/~sncnuka/JSARGRA/JSARGRA-2007-Conference.html

. The next conference has been proposed for Alaska in 2010.

Third International Conference on Russian America: Irkutsk, August 2007

In a long overdue follow up to conferences held in Sitka, Alaska in 1979 and 1987, the Third International Conference on Russian America was held in the Irkutsk region of central Siberia from August 8-12, 2007. The first day of the conference was in the City of Irkutsk, the second day in the nearby city of Shelikhov, and the third day at the Taltsi (Talci) Museum of Architecture and Ethnography (30km south of Irkutsk City). The fourth day included a train trip to examine historic architectural features along a portion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The fifth day consisted of a bus journey to the village of Anga, childhood home of Saint Innocent of Alaska, in the Buriat Republic and a tour of the Shishkino Petroglyph site. The well-attended conference included participants from across Russia as well as France and the Czech Republic.

The conference organizing committee drafted seven decisions / resolutions that were placed before participants for a vote on the final day of conference activities in Anga (August 12, 2007). The decisions collectively received an affirmative vote from all present, with no objections. One of the resolutions is to hold conferences at three-year intervals alternating between Russia and the U.S. The Fourth International Conference on Russian America is tentatively planned for Alaska in 2010, with Sitka named as a likely candidate.

Details of the 2007 conference, including photos, resolutions, and program, may be found at:

• http://home.gci.net/~sncnuka/JSARGRA/JSARGRA-2007-Conference.html

.

See St Innocent of Alaska Bicentennial (Ioann Veniaminov)

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Sven Haakanson, director of the Alutiiq Museum, was honored by a MacArthur Fellowship this week, a well-deserved recognition. He credits Lydia Black with spurring his interest in anthropology and in pursuing a doctorate degree as a means to doing his life’s work.

• Alaska Public Radio News MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ awarded to Alutiiq Museum director
  http://aprn.org/2007/09/25/macarthur-genius-grant-awarded-to-alutiiq-museum-director/

• Anchorage Daily News article
  http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/rural/story/9329624p-9244769c.html

Lydia T. Black audio memorials
Alaskan author researcher Lydia Black
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Lydia T. Black 1925 to 2007
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Both of these memorials are very interesting and nicely done.

Unalaska public radio

Lydia Black, scholar of the Aleutians, dies at 81
KIAL News

UNALASKA, AK (2007-03-13) One of the most renowned scholars of Unangan culture and art has passed away. [...] Audio (mp3 file): Patty Lekanoff-Gregory knew Lydia Black for more than thirty years, since her first visit to Unalaska in 1974. She spoke with KIAL’s Charles Homans today about the anthropologist’s three-decade relationship with the Aleutian Islands.

• http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kial/ news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1053668
• http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kial/local-kial-573033.mp3

Kodiak public radio
The audio news story and partial transcript. Zöe Pierson, Lydia’s daughter is interviewed.

Anthropologist Lydia Black Dies At Age 81, [...] Length: 00:03:53 (mp3 file)
Casey Kelly, KMXT

• http://www.kmxt.org/?q=node/1950
• http://www.kmxt.org/?q=audio/download/1950

and broadcast on Alaska Public Radio, evening statewide news 13 March 2007. Available as mp3 file.

• http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/apti/news/content/1053258.html
• http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/ apti/local-apti-572852.mp3

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The following is reprinted with permission from the Kodiak Daily Mirror (thank you) and on-line at

• http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=4480

Alaskan author, researcher Lydia Black dies at age 81
Article published on Monday, March 12th, 2007, By SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN, Kodiak Daily Mirror

Dr. Lydia Black, noted anthropologist and author of several books on Alaska Native culture and Alaska history, died this morning at the age of 81 at her home in Kodiak. Black was with family and friends at the time of her death. She died of liver failure and had been ill several months.

Black was well known around the state. Her daughter, Zoë Pierson, said frequent visitors from Kodiak and around Alaska had assisted the family in caring for Black during recent weeks.

“She loved people, so when visitors were in she would visit with them and talk with them if she was awake,” Pierson said this morning.

Black was born in Kiev, Ukraine, of the then-Soviet Union, and educated in Russia, Germany and the United States. She had five daughters with her husband, Igor A. Black, a thermodynamics engineer who worked for NASA contractors during the 1960s, and preceded his wife in death in 1969.

As a young widow, Black became a professor of anthropology, beginning in 1973 at Providence College in Providence, R.I. In 1984 she came to Alaska permanently and began teaching at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Throughout her career, Black traveled Southwest Alaska to research the culture and traditions of the region. She became known as the preeminent scholar of the Unangam (Aleut) of the Aleutian Islands and the Sugpiaq (Alutiiq) of the Kodiak Archipelago.

Fluent in Slavonic and Russian, Black translated many firsthand accounts of Native cultures written during the Russian colonial period.

In her writings, Black was known for emphasizing artistic and cultural accomplishments, rather than social ills of Alaska Native cultures.

“They know they have problems. My job is to remind them of their glory,” is what Black reportedly said of her work.

Family members and colleagues said Black was unapologetic for describing Alaska Native history from that perspective.

“That was the way she felt and she would tell you so if it came up,” Pierson said.

Black retired from UAF in 1998, and continued her work in Kodiak, where she helped translate and catalogue Russian archives of St. Herman’s Seminary. The Orthodox Church in Alaska recognized her contribution by awarding her the Cross of St. Herman.

Black continued to write and edit. Some of her most accessible work was published following her retirement.

One of her best-known books, “Aleut art — Unangam aguqaadangin” is a collection of beautifully photographed and carefully documented art made by Natives of the Aleutian Islands. Another, “Russians in Alaska, 1732 to 1867,” was published in 2004, the year Black turned 79.

Black was also known for continuing correspondence and cultivating friendships with many of her students, even after their professional careers began and after she had retired from teaching.

Katherine Arndt, a close friend and colleague who works in the archives at the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library at UAF, had a professional relationship with Black that blossomed into a friendship. Arndt said her own doctorate in Anthropology is the result of returning to studies at Black’s urging.

“If you know her at all, you would know that once you are her student, you would remain her student for life,” Arndt said.

In 2001, the Soviet successor state, now called the Russian Federation, awarded Black the Order of Friendship in recognition of her work documenting the Russian America colonial period.

As with her work involving Alaska Native culture, Black’s writing about Russian colonists in Alaska often confronted commonly held misconceptions head-on, and was meant to be accessible by the layperson.

“She wanted the general public to know that the Russians weren’t brutal, cruel and drunk all of the time,” Arndt said.

Pierson said that during her mother’s final days, Black was able to visit with many of the people who came to care for and visit with her.

Black remained a teacher, even while gravely ill.

“She was a born teacher, so anyone who asked for information, they would get that and more.”

A funeral service for Black is noon on Saturday, March 17, at St. Paul Lutheran Church, with a burial to follow at City Cemetery. A reception is scheduled for 4 p.m., March 17, at the Kodiak Senior Center.

Mirror writer Scott Christiansen can be reached via e-mail at schristiansen AT kodiakdailymirror DOT com.

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Additional information about | Lydia T. Black 1925 to 2007 |

| Prof Black obituary | (right click to save as MS Word document download)

| In Memoriam, Lydia T. Black | (pdf file, 480kB, right click to download and save)

Article published on Monday, March 12th, 2007, By SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN, Kodiak Daily Mirror
http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=4480

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I just received notice my friend and guide, Dr. Lydia T. Black, an anthropologist whose research restored to Alaskan peoples important features of their history and culture, has died early this morning in Kodiak, AK, with family, friends, and Orthodox services present. She was 81.

from the family (to be continued)–

Dr. Black’s research of the Russian period in Alaska revealed aspects of Alaska Native culture and history which had been lost or forgotten. Her book Aleut Art is representative of her career in this respect as it provides a comprehensive look at both the techniques used to create and the symbolic meaning of a variety of pre- and early contact Aleut arts and crafts.

Dr. Black was born in Kiev, USSR, on December 16, 1925. She completed her B.A., M.A. (Brandeis University, 1971) and Ph.D. (University of Massachusetts – Amherst) by 1973, when she accepted her first academic post at Providence College. While teaching at Providence College, she also served as part of the staff of Brown University’s Arctic Institute. She moved to Alaska in 1984 in order to be closer to her research interests, accepting a position at University of Alaska-Fairbanks, whence she retired in 1998 in order to contribute her skills to St. Herman’s Theological Seminary in Kodiak, AK.

From 2001, she devoted her time to writing and lending her expertise to a variety of individual and collective projects and volunteered as a teacher of Russian history at Saint Innocent’s Academy.

Dr. Black is survived by her four daughters, Anna Treiber of Appleton, WI; Maria McEvoy of Houston, TX; Elena Black of Dennis, MA; Zoë Pierson of Kodiak, AK and by six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A funeral service of Orthodox rite will take place at Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Kodiak, Alaska at 12:00 p.m., Saturday, March 17 2007. Burial, will take place at the City of Kodiak cemetery and will be followed by a repast at the Kodiak Senior Center at 4:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that memorial contributions be made to | Saint Innocent’s Academy |, P.O. Box 1517, Kodiak, AK 99615.
( | St Innocent’s Academy | older website)

See | St Innocent of Alaska Bicentennial (Ioann Veniaminov) |

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Yekaterinburg Alaskan Icon Exhibition for 200th Anniversary of American-Russian Diplomatic Relations

Prof. Lydia Black has asked that I publicize the evident need for Orthodox icons made by Alaska Natives and other Native Americans for a special bicentennial exhibit. These could be contemporary examples or historic. I’m guessing icons by unknown Native artists or iconographers would be of interest, as well.

The only information I have is what is listed below. Please contact Dr. Strohmeyer directly. However, it would be interesting, eventually, to know more about the exhibit and especially about the iconographers uncovered.

Pam

The new year– the 200th Anniversary of American-Russian Diplomatic Relations– has begun and we do not have sufficient photographs of Orthodox icons created by Native-American artists.

Yekaterinburg is the site of the Church of the Blood and is an especially sympathetic venue for iconography and for the cultural significance of the creation of icons.

For the exhibit to be a success we need to have at least 30 exemplars ranging from the period of Russian rule to the present. Please send anything that you have to us as soon as possible so that we can start the mundane work of mounting and annotation.

Sincerely,

Dr. Virgil Strohmeyer, PAO
US Consulate General, Yekaterinburg, Russia
+7 (343) 379.4760
+7 (343) 379.4515

• http://usa.ural.ru

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2007-12-26
Dec 03, 2007 Alaska’s Orthodox legacy celebrated in Russia. An art and cultural exhibition highlighting 200 years of Russian-American relations opened this week in Chelyabinsk, reports the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. Virgil Stromeyer, the U.S. vice consul in Ekaterinburg, said the show was designed to “remember the contribution of Russian missionaries” to the development of relations between the two countries. The exhibit features photos and reproductions of icons painted by Native Alaskan artists. Blogger Matushka Elizabeth has a Web page about the exhibit with links to Alaskan Orthodox texts, and programs by Alaska priest Father Michael Oleksa.

Here’s the link to Matushka Elizabeth’s post, “Alaska’s Orthodox Legacy”
http://matushkaelizabeth.vox.com/library/post/alaskas-orthodox-legacy.html

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St Innocent of Alaska Bicentennial (Ioann Veniaminov)

I had a chance to help Prof. Lydia Black with her organizing of the Veniaminov Bicentennial, 1997, by acting as a digital translator.

• St Innocent of Alaska Bicentennial (Ioann Veniaminov)
  http://13c4.wordpress.com/2006/08/01/ st-innocent-of-alaska-bicentennial-ioann-veniaminov/

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
The Alaska – Russia connection. We talk to the Samovar Cafe, eat pieroshki made of salmon, find out about the old Russian capitol in Sitka, and find out about polar bears.”

http://akradio.org/archive/

(MP 3, 1 HR)

http://akradio.org/archive/AK%2008-26-2006.mp3
08/26/2006 broadcast

Dr. Lydia Black

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I had a chance to help Prof. Lydia Black with her organizing of the Veniaminov Bicentennial, 1997, by acting as a digital translator.

St Innocent of Alaska Bicentennial (Ioann Veniaminov)

I had a chance to help Prof. Lydia Black with her organizing of the Veniaminov Bicentennial, by acting as a digital translator. 2007-03-13 Lydia T. Black 1925 to 2007

Ioann Veniaminov is the world’s most famous Alaskan, except in Alaska and the USA.

http://www.uaf.edu/univrel/media/FY98/026.html

I was fortunate to find the Orthodox Church in America
http://www.oca.org which hosted the Internet exhibitions and related conference materials. The original website is no longer extant, but some parts are available from the Wayback Machine. I have some additional photos posted here, St Innocent Bicentennial

Veniaminov Bicentennial Year (1997)

Proclamation by Tony Knowles, Governor of the State of Alaska, September 9, 1996

1997 marks the bicentennial of the birth of Ioann (John) Veniaminov, the distinguished Russian Orthodox missionary, teacher, administrator, linguist, ethnographer, and architect. John Veniaminov served as the first priest at Unalaska, the first Orthodox bishop in Alaska, and head of the Orthodox Church of Russia. In 1977 he was canonized a saint — St. Innocent, Apostle to North America and Siberia.

Communities throughout the United States, Russia, and England are observing Veniaminov’s contributions to Alaskan, Russian, and American history by presenting exhibitions and conferences, and the publishing of new books of his writings. Such observances will be prominent in Alaska where Veniaminov served as missionary priest and bishop from 1825 through 1852. A major exhibition featuring the life and legacy of Veniaminov will travel to many communities in the state.

John Veniaminov (Bishop Innocent) is honored by Alaska Natives for his dedication to preserving Native languages, for his development of the Aleut orthography, for many translations into Aleut, and for his pioneering development of a Tlingit Alphabet. He is also honored as a teacher, founder of the first school at Unalaska and of the first Orthodox school, seminary, and orphanage at Sitka.

John Veniaminov was an accomplished builder, having designed and constructed the National Historic Landmark Cathedral of St. Michael in Sitka. He also built the first Church of the Holy Ascension at Unalaska. State, federal, and private monies are presently restoring this National Historic Landmark which contains many of the architectural features from the original church of 1825.

The occasion of the rededication of the historic Unalaska church is an appropriate time to proclaim the Veniaminov Bicentennial.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Tony Knowles, Governor of the State of Alaska, do hereby proclaim 1997: The Veniaminov Bicentennial Year in Alaska, and encourage all Alaskans to join in recognizing the contributions to Alaska of this great Russian missionary, scholar, and statesman.

DATED: September 9, 1996

Introductory page—

http://web.archive.org/web/19970812043126/www.oca.org/whats-new/

http://web.archive.org/web/19970812043134/www.oca.org/Celebrations/ Year-of-St-Innocent/UAF-Exhibition/

• Alaska Native Culture
• Year of St. Innocent
• http://web.archive.org/web/19970812043144/www.oca.org/ Celebrations/Year-of-St-Innocent/

On-line Exhibit

• Residences & Churches
• Portraits
• Translations / Title Pages

http://web.archive.org/web/19971028124412/www.oca.org/whats-new/ Announcements/1997-0208-UAF.html

Ioann Veniaminov in Alaska and Siberia and his Contribution to Arctic Social Science (University of Alaska Fairbanks, December 5-7, 1997)

Prof. Lydia Black, Ph.D. at the conference

St Gabriel Orthodox Church, Kongiganak, Alaska

Orthodox Churches in Alaska

1997 —

http://web.archive.org/web/19971028124531/www.oca.org/OCA/AK/ pim-index.html

2006 — Parishes in Alaska

http://www.oca.org/DIRlists.parish.state.asp? location=AK&x=22&y=16&SID=9&CLASS=P&TYPE=STATE

or http://tinyurl.com/kgwqf

Biography
Biography of St. Innocent of Alaska
http://www.oca.org/HSbioinnocent.asp?SID=7

“Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven,” written by “the Apostle of. Alaska” — Saint Innokenty Veniaminov. …

http://www.stvladimiraami.org/pamphlets/wayintokingdomofheaven.pdf

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