Kotzebue Friends - Public Summary - Artifact
When she was almost fifty years old, Martha Hadley traveled for three months to arrive at the Quaker Friends Mission in Kotzebue, Alaska. It was to be her home for the next four years. During that time, she kept a diary of her life among the Inupiat people in the region. Missionaries began arriving in Northwestern Alaska in 1880. They did not earn the trust of the Natives living in the region. For various reasons, the outsiders were not liked and not trusted by the Inupiat. It was during this time that several changes took place during the later part of the 19th century that led to changes and an eventual acceptance of the Quaker Friends Mission. Originally for my project, I had considered a broad historical inquiry of how Kotzebue was influenced by the Quaker Friends Mission. During my research, I read an essay by Ernest Burch, a research associate of the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center. He asks the question, “In 1890, there probably was not a single Christian Inupiaq Eskimo. Twenty years later, there was scarcely an Inupiaq who was not a Christian” (Burke 59). That was a fascinating question, so it became the broad historical inquiry for my project.
According to Burke, a number of factors had to do with timing and changing world view. There were ecological changes such as a decreasing food supply for the Inupiat. Epidemic diseases had also led to the loss of many lives, impacting the social and political structure of the Native people (Burke 67). An Inupiat prophet lived during this time and had an influential effect on the Native people. My project does not delve into the worldview factor, but it is perhaps the more exciting component to Burch’s findings.
There was conflict over the years. The difficulties between the Native Inupiat and the missionaries in the Arctic region were significant. The Gold Rush was a constant challenge for the missions who desired to build the trust of the Inupiat. It was a tenuous period of time; the relationship between the two cultures was in constant flux. This conflict was evident in Martha Hadley’s diary as it reveals the existence of two ways of thinking taking place. One view was that of the Church and the other of the Inupiat people. These ‘Discourses’ in her diary are evident in a few ways. The extensive use of pronouns, or deictics, shows a cultural distinction between the two viewpoints in Hadley’s excerpt. The description of the activities between the two also establishes an us/them view of the world.
When the first missionaries arrived in the area known today as Kotzebue, they were met with distrust and animus. Yet, over time, they won the trust of the local people. In the next decade, the mission sponsored many changes that would make Kotzebue a permanent settlement. Today, over one hundred years later, the Friends Church is an integral part of the lives of Natives living in the Arctic region. Today, there are at least two Quaker Friends Churches in Kotzebue and at least one in every nearby village (Zibell 15).
CHRISTINA BIEGEL is a junior pursuing a Baccalaureate in English. Selected by Professor Stone.