ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at concepts of indigeneity through the lens of local knowledge, in a setting where such knowledge is seemingly gaining ground yet received and adjudicated largely within scientific norms of universalism. It outlines some old and some new stories that show how themes of environmental change, human encounters, and local knowledge are central to struggles in places depicted as “remote” despite long entanglements with world markets. The Saint Elias Mountains include some of North America’s highest peaks and support the world’s largest nonpolar icefields. Subsequent research revealed evidence of ancient caribou harvesting on the mountain named Thandlat in Southern Tutchone language. Stories about glaciers in the Saint Elias Mountains, in constant and uneasy interplay, contribute to a two-century debate about humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Successive visions of Saint Elias Mountains, continuously recast to serve present purposes, become entangled with those of contemporary First Nations whose visions deserve more space in such schema.
