New indie bookstore hosts local Indigenous authors

By Britany Adorno-Alicea

Photos by Luz Serrano

Leasi Vanessa Lee Raymond, left and Anamaq Margaret Rudolf, right, speaking about their part in their book.

Wednesday’s event at Solstice Books hosted three local authors who discussed their books that focused on the Indigenous communities, and the stories and histories within them. Authors Leasi Vanessa Lee Raymond, Anamaq Margaret Rudolf, and Ch’igiioonta’ She Holds a Child all came with important messages about their works.

Solstice bookstores popped up in the heart of Downtown during the summer and has been gaining popularity as our local indie place to get books. Owned and operated by Savannah Fletcher, a former English undergraduate, she felt there had been an absence of an indie bookstore in town since the closing of Guilliver’s Books in 2017.

Fletcher said there had been a sense of community that was missing in Fairbanks that you couldn’t find in name brand stores like Barnes and Nobles. She sought to build a place where the community could come together and express a love of reading and be able to have somewhere they can enjoy themselves. 

Part of Fletcher’s mission with Solstice Bookstore is to also give a space for authors and readers alike to connect and discuss literature. She hosts events where authors come and speak about their books and get to hear first-hand feedback from the community.

Deputy director for strategic initiatives Leasi Vanessa Lee Raymond and international Arctic researcher Anamaq Margaret Rudolf, featured authors in Indigenous Critical Reflections on Traditional Ecological Knowledge. They came to Wednesday’s event as guests to speak on behalf of their chapters. 

Photos by Luz Serrano

Ch’igiioonta’ She Holds a Child telling a story about the trade routes in Alaska.

Indigenous Critical Reflections on Traditional Ecological Knowledge was a passion project between 50 different Indigenous scholars and storytellers. The book is unique because all editors and authors involved in the writing and publication process are themselves Indigenous. 

The two authors brought four questions and their answers to express their book’s message. The four questions were: what was our process, what we felt was urgent, what did we risk, and who did we write for?

Rudolf spoke at length about why she wrote her chapter, which she stated had a lot to do with the initial title of the book, particularly “traditional ecological research;” she explained how the term is used differently in Alaska than the Lower 48.

The term TEK, the abbreviation for traditional ecological knowledge, according to Rudolf, is not a term used in Alaskan research because of its outdated method of research that is rooted in collecting Indigenous knowledge before they are gone and aims to separate ecology from culture. 

“I wrote the chapter to critically think about whether it is just repacking the harm that traditional ecological research was doing,” Rudolf said about the research style and process she currently uses to include Indigenous ideologies.

Rudolf’s chapter focused primarily on her research and went into a lot of detail tying different concepts together, which was a slight contrast to Raymond’s chapter. Raymond’s chapter takes a more narrative-focused approach.

Photos by Luz Serrano

Solstice Books at 721 2nd Ave.

“I felt a great sense of urgency to write this chapter because I’ve never heard anyone write about Samoa and data management,” said Raymond, “I’ve spent a long time working on Indigenous data, but I’ve never seen myself reflected in the work from a culturally specific way.”

Raymond’s goal in writing her chapter was to be able to talk and share knowledge about her own culture, but deep down she was nervous that she would get something wrong and leaned on her family’s help and support.

“This chapter explores data, culture, and the sacred.” She went on to say, “the other risky topic to talk about sacredness and spirituality in the context of research. Yet, I don’t know how to talk about Samoa data management without talking about our whole knowledge system.”

The final guest of Wednesday’s author showcase is author Ch’igiioonta’ She Holds a Child, and her book Ïyaġaaġmiut People Who Live Among the Rock Caches. The book focuses on the history of the Nendaaghe Dena’ina people and the forced relocation they experienced across the Western Brooks Range of Alaska.

Ch’igiioonta’s book is a history book about Alaska’s history precolonial days, across much of North America and Canada.

“There isn’t precolonial history for Indigenous communities, and this is an intent to get the ball rolling in Alaska,” she said during her presentation.

Photos by Luz Serrano

Indigenous Critical Reflections on Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Ïyaġaaġmiut People Who Live Among the Rock Caches on display for purchase and signing.

Ch’igiioonta’ focuses on the history of two particular communities in her book, one being the Nendaaghe hut’aane Denaa. Much of the history that is covered in this book are from stories that have been passed down from family members who know people who had lived through or knew someone who had lived through these experiences.

When asked about what inspired her to want to write this book and bring awareness to the history of the land's precolonialism, Ch’igiioonta’ had a lot to say about her dad.

“My father, he said to me, it would be nice if someone wrote this down,” she said. “My father was a genealogist and I told myself, I need to start getting to know him. And during the process, we really got into the genealogies.”

Getting into the genealogies that her father was so passionate about took Ch’igiioonta’ on a journey to researching church records and genealogies so that she could better put together the families from the different tribes in a way that was coherent for her and acceptable to him.

Ch’igiioonta’ book is deeply rooted in the past of precolonial history, but she is still excited about its future, hoping people from other tribes not deeply discussed in her book are able to come forth and fill in the missing pieces in history and in the map she has made of all the tribes.

Many copies of these authors' books were sold that night, helping to spread the message these wonderful ladies wish to share as well as supporting Solstice Books with every purchase.