Hospital and Haven

The Life and Work of Grafton and Clara Burke in Northern Alaska

Mary F. Ehrlander, Hild M. Peters (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

360 Seiten

2023
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-1-4962-3618-0 (ISBN)

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Hospital and Haven tells the story of an Episcopal missionary couple who lived their entire married life, from 1910 to 1938, among the Gwich’in peoples of northern Alaska, devoting themselves to the peoples’ physical, social, and spiritual well-being. The era was marked by great social disruption within Alaska Native communities and high disease and death rates, owing to the influx of non-Natives in the region, inadequate sanitation and hygiene, minimal law enforcement, and insufficient government funding for Alaska Native health care. Hospital and Haven reveals the sometimes contentious yet promising relationship between missionaries, Alaska Natives, other migrants, and Progressive Era medicine.

St. Stephen’s Mission stood at the center of community life and formed a bulwark against the forces that threatened the Native peoples’ lifeways and lives. Dr. Grafton (Happy or Hap) Burke directed the Hudson Stuck Memorial Hospital, the only hospital to serve Alaska Natives within a several-hundred-mile radius. Clara Burke focused on orphaned, needy, and convalescing children, raising hundreds in St. Stephen’s Mission Home. The Gwich’in in turn embraced and engaged in the church and hospital work, making them community institutions. Bishop Peter Trimble Rowe came to recognize the hospital and orphanage work at Fort Yukon as the church’s most important work in Alaska.

Mary F. Ehrlander is a professor emeritus of history and Arctic and northern studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is the winner of the 2018 Alaska Historical Society James H. Drucker Alaska Historian of the Year Award and is the author of Walter Harper, Alaska Native Son (Nebraska, 2017), winner of the Alaska Library Association’s 2018 Alaskana Award. Hild M. Peters holds an MA in Arctic and northern studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research includes Indigenous and Alaskan history, and she is an active participant in numerous historical societies. After thirty years of service at UAF, Peters recently retired and launched a career with the Fairbanks Native Association. She is a member of the Koyukon Athabascan community through marriage and resides with her husband and two sons in Fairbanks.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. Early Life and Arrival in Alaska, 1907–8
2. Fort Yukon, Courtship, and Marriage, 1908–10
3. Settling into Married Life at Fort Yukon, 1910–12
4. Hap’s Term as Commissioner, 1912–14
5. Opening St. Stephen’s Hospital and Closing a Chapter, 1916–21
6. Deepening Resolve amid Increased Responsibilities and Challenges, 1921–25
7. St. Stephen’s Mission Work Expands as Support Declines Nationally, 1926–30
8. Struggling Yet Expanding during the Depression Years, 1930–35
9. The End of an Era, 1936–38
Epilogue
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	26.08.2023
Zusatzinfo	27 photographs, 2 maps, 1 glossary, index
Verlagsort	Lincoln
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-10	1-4962-3618-1 / 1496236181
ISBN-13	978-1-4962-3618-0 / 9781496236180
Zustand	Neuware