ABSTRACT
In 1994, the author was going to conduct ethno archaeological research in the Yakutsk Republic of Siberia. He had the opportunity to work on an archaeological survey with Dr. William Fitzhugh. In 1991, the author applied to graduate school and was accepted into Harvard University's graduate program in archaeology for the fall of 1992. What anyone writes and thinks about Native histories will eventually impact the course of history in a region, and that knowledge is greatly influenced by who the writer is. Native people have long been involved in research, but their voices too often have been silenced by an interpreter the words of an academic authority. Anthropologists were sharing what they had learned about Alutiiq heritage from their studies, yet Native people were asked to discuss what it meant to be Native not their knowledge of Alutiiq history. The author's experience as a Native in the anthropological field has taught him to keep an open mind with everyone he works with.
