Alaska Natives who express a strong ethnic identity identify more strongly with clans they belong to than with their home communities, two researchers said Monday, sharing their preliminary findings at a meeting at the public library.
Researchers Caitlin Stern and Jessie Barker said the findings weren’t especially surprising. George Thornton Emmons, who studied Tlingit culture in the 1800s found that villages were aggregations of clans that happened to live together, Stern said.
Stern and Barker said their preliminary results are based on written and online surveys they conducted with 171 Alaska Natives, including 137 Tlingits plus some Tsimshians, Haidas and members of other groups.
More than 100 surveys were collected at Juneau’s Celebration, a regional cultural celebration for Natives from Southeast. Respondents were asked to answer about 60 questions and were paid $15 for participating.
Stern and Barker said 70 survey respondents identified more closely with clans than with home communities, 52 identified more closely with communities and 48 said they identified equally with both.
Neither age nor gender appeared to be a factor in clan or community identification, they said. They acknowledged that participants at Celebration may have been thinking more about their Native identity than Natives elsewhere.
Participants in the survey identified themselves as Natives. Several respondents also mentioned affiliations to Native corporations or tribes, they said.
Responding to a question from the audience, Barker said she wouldn’t expect that material success would influence clan or community identification. Much of identity is individual specific due to life and family experiences.
The pair said final results would include findings on how feelings of identity affects who people help and from whom they receive help.
Klukwan elder Marvin Willard said he thought the researchers were doing an “awesome job.” He encouraged other Natives to participate in the survey. “It would help us know what they’re all about.”