Walking in Two Worlds: A Tale of Alaska's Tongass

Gr 9 Up—How does a Native Alaskan industrialist manage North America's largest forest? On Alaska's southern spur stands Tongass National Forest. The area's vast resources have enriched the spiritual identity of Tlingit, Haida, and other native clans for millennia. President Theodore Roosevelt declared Tongass a national forest in 1907. However, the U.S. Forest Service ordered Tlingits out of the region and burned their log homes and gardens, displacing indigenous life that was thousands of years old. Later came Richard Nixon's Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, turning tribes into corporations. Sealaska Corporation jumped in to lure naïve tribal leaders into an intense capitalistic scheme. Clear cutting, false economic promises resulted. Tlingit siblings Robert and Wanda Culp Loescher were influential, but on opposite sides of management issues. Robert promoted aggressive economic development, numb to ecological degradation. Wanda fought for the spirits of ancestors living in the forest. Their relationship splintered, but when Robert fell ill and needed a kidney transplant, Wanda offered hers to save the brother she loved. She gave in the spirit of Tlingit tradition "to give back." Robert's world reversed because Wanda saved his life, propelling him to advocate for balanced development and spiritual respect for Tongass. The siblings serve as metaphors in this moving film about the complexities of native control in a world of aggressive industrial influences.