THE WAKE OF THE UNSEEN OBJECT ...

THE WAKE OF THE UNSEEN OBJECT by Tom Kizzia (Henry Holt: $12.95). As a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Kizzia visited some of the most isolated settlements in Alaska, observing what remains of the state’s indigenous cultures. Aided by the almost unimaginable vastness of Alaska and its inhospitable climate, the native tribes were able to resist the incursions of white explorers and settlers that destroyed Amerindian cultures in the rest of the New World. But in recent years, their traditional ways have been crumbling under the onslaught of new foods, new music, new technology and new values introduced by satellite television, telecommunications and improved air transportation. Kizzia documents the struggle of these people to redefine themselves in ways that will allow their traditional mores to survive into the 21st Century. His unassuming but sympathetic book provides important background information on the growing movement toward self-determination among Alaskan natives.