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finisdunaway.bsky.social
Finis Dunaway
@finisdunaway.bsky.social
3.3K followers 270 following 73 posts
Historian | Author of DEFENDING THE ARCTIC REFUGE, SEEING GREEN, & NATURAL VISIONS | Environmental History & Visual Culture | North American West, Arctic, & other places

Arctic Refuge Public History site: defendingthearcticrefuge.com
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finisdunaway.bsky.social
With the US Senate planning to vote today on Arctic Refuge drilling, here's a photo of caribou on the coastal plain (the same place intended for drilling). #envhist

📷 Subhankar Banerjee, caribou mothers and calves, Arctic Refuge coastal plain, 2002; postcard version, 2022.
A postcard featuring a color photograph of caribou mothers and their calves (approximately ten in total). A thick fog hovers over the land, lending a purple glow to the entire scene. The mothers graze on cottongrass. The lettering on the postcard includes the words "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge" at the top and the word "Alaska" at the bottom.
December 3, 2025 at 4:19 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
Congratulations to Jackson Pind on the publication of STUDENTS BY DAY—a history of colonial education and Indigenous resistance at the Curve Lake First Nation. @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social
www.mqup.ca/students-by-...
A book sits atop a wooden surface. The book cover features an illustration of an orange school desk against a black background. The text on the cover is printed in white, "Students by Day: Colonialism and Resistance at the Curve Lake Indian Day School" by the author Jackson Pind. Below, there is a white background with further information in black typeface: "Foreword by Drew Hayden Taylor" and "Afterword by Jack Hoggarth."
November 8, 2025 at 2:42 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
Congratulations @parhee.bsky.social on the publication of NATURAL ATTACHMENTS! This book recasts the history of environmentalism as the history of privilege. Rhee focuses on Santa Barbara to tell a story with national implications. #envhist @uchicagopress.bsky.social 📗
A photograph of the new book by Pollyanna Rhee titled Natural Attachments: The Domestication of American Environmentalism, 1920-1970. The book appears atop a wooden surface. The cover of the book features a photograph of a massive, sprawling mansion with an orange tile roof. That photograph is superimposed on another photograph of green-colored mountains to create a striking overlay. The book title appears in white lettering, while the author's name appears in light orange lettering.
May 6, 2025 at 10:30 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
To celebrate #SuperbOwls, here's one of my favorites: the snowy owl.

📷 Wilbur Mills, coastal plain of Arctic National Wildlife Range (now Refuge), Alaska, 1969.

Fun fact: 1969 was a "peak-lemming year" on the Arctic coastal plain. And more lemmings meant more snowy owls! #envhist #alaskasky
A color photograph show a large white bird (snowy owl), with wings outstretched, as it prepares to land at its nest. The nest is in the foreground of the image; it appears as a grassy mound covered with fallen white feathers. The background is fuzzy and blurred, but a small patch of remaining white snow appears in the distance.
February 9, 2025 at 7:10 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
It was a great mail day. I really enjoyed @hollyguise.bsky.social's article on how Indigenous activists, artists, & their allies fought for environmental justice in Alaska—and now look forward to her book! Congratulations! #alaskasky @uwapress.bsky.social 🗃️❄️
A screen shot featuring the image of a book cover, which is titled Environmental Justice in North America, along with the title and abstract for an article by Holly Miowak Guise, "Alaska Native Environmental Activism." The full abstract appears below. ABSTRACT Alaska Native environmental history is rich with stories of collective activism for environmental justice. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the Indigenous press, Indigenous community networks, and grassroots movements of Indigenous peoples and conservationist allies challenged projects and laws imposed by the colonial US government that threatened the environment and its human and non-human inhabitants. This chapter examines how Native elders, artists, and journalists from the Indigenous-run Tundra Times newspaper all played an essential role in propelling Indigenous solidarity movements to protect land rights, food sovereignty, and the environment. Over time, the relationship between Native activists and non-Native US conservationists evolved to amplify Indigenous environmental issues, shaping contemporary approaches to environmental justice in and beyond Alaska. A book rests on a wooden surface. The book cover includes the title and author information, Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II by Holly Miowak Guise. The main title is in blue lettering; the subtitle in black; and the author's name in gray. The black and white photo below the text shows a group of men of various ages (young in the front, elders in the back)--all members of the Alaska Territorial Guard.
February 4, 2025 at 10:18 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
NEW 📗: If you're interested in race, justice, & environmental history, then I highly recommend NOT JUST GREEN, NOT JUST WHITE, a collection out this week from @univnebpress.bsky.social. #envhist
www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/978...
A photo of a book, titled Not Just Green, Not Just White: Race, Justice, and Environmental History, atop a wooden surface. In addition to the book title, the other text on the cover includes the names of the editors, Mary E. Mendoza and Traci Brynne Voyles, as well as that of Patty Limerick, who wrote the foreword. The cover image features a landscape painting that shows a windswept and vibrant green bristlecone pine tree, along with grey hills in the background and a large sky, in soothing shades of aqua, light blue, and dark blue, above.
January 29, 2025 at 1:57 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
In addition to Banerjee's photo, consider the statement the Gwich'in Steering Committee issued about the lease sale, esp. this paragraph about their relations with the caribou. Without Gwich'in leadership, the Arctic Refuge would have long ago been turned into an industrialized oil field. #envhist
This is a paragraph excerpted from the Gwich'in Steering Committee statement about the Arctic Refuge lease sale. The text of the paragraph appears as follows: "Long ago the Gwich’in followed vadzaih (caribou) to see where they went and to learn their ways. They led us to the Coastal Plain of what is now called Alaska. It was here that we exchanged half of our heart with half of the heart of vadzaih. In this way we became one and would always be connected. Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit is the critical nursery grounds of the vadzaih, which are essential to the nutritional, cultural, and spiritual needs of the Gwich’in Nation. Our traditional knowledge tells us that if you develop in the nursery grounds of the caribou you destroy the caribou, and therefore, destroy the Gwich’in."
January 11, 2025 at 10:01 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
The Gwich'in Steering Committee issued a statement about the lease sale, including this paragraph about their relations of responsibility with the caribou. Without the leadership of the Gwich'in Nation, the Arctic Refuge would have long ago been turned into an industrialized oil field. #envhist
Long ago the Gwich’in followed vadzaih (caribou) to see where they went and to learn their ways. They led us to the Coastal Plain of what is now called Alaska. It was here that we exchanged half of our heart with half of the heart of vadzaih. In this way we became one and would always be connected. Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit is the critical nursery grounds of the vadzaih, which are essential to the nutritional, cultural, and spiritual needs of the Gwich’in Nation. Our traditional knowledge tells us that if you develop in the nursery grounds of the caribou you destroy the caribou, and therefore, destroy the Gwich’in.
January 9, 2025 at 7:36 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
Amid all the bad, here's some good news: the lease sale of the Arctic Refuge, scheduled for tomorrow, received NO NEW BIDS.

Here are pregnant female caribou, migrating to the place where they give birth, the same place that drilling proponents want to turn into an oil field.

📷 Subhankar Banerjee
An aerial photograph shows long lines of caribou walking over snow and a frozen river. The image is mostly bichromatic, emphasizing the whiteness of snow and blueness of icy water. Tracks and traces from the caribou migration appear etched across the land, weaving and winding throughout the image.
January 9, 2025 at 1:34 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
The fight over this land will continue into 2025 and beyond. If you are interested in learning more about the multi-decade struggle to defend the Arctic Refuge, I have put together a Public History website. It includes a detailed timeline & lots of sources. (10) defendingthearcticrefuge.com
A photograph appears showing lines of caribou migrating over a blue frozen river. Over the photograph appears a book cover for Defending the Arctic Refuge along with text describing the book and, at the top, tabs for the companion Public History website.
December 9, 2024 at 3:58 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
Defending the Arctic Refuge is a microhistory of an epic political battle. It centers unlikely activists & alliances to show how a traditional wilderness fight turned into a transnational struggle for Indigenous rights & environmental justice. (Also: beautiful pictures!) 🗃️📗
Book cover for Defending the Arctic Refuge. A photograph shows caribou walking through snow. Members of the massive Porcupine herd, the caribou are migrating from Yukon, Canada, to their calving grounds in the Arctic Refuge in Alaska.
December 30, 2023 at 2:54 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
Happy to share "Representations, Traces, Vital Agents: Why Images Matter to Environmental History" out now in GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT & free here:
www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/w...

It focuses largely on how my understanding of one photograph changed over many years. 📗🗃️ @uncpress.bsky.social
Charlie Swaney stands on a wooden observation tower, scanning for animals. In the distance loom the snow-capped Romanzof Mountains, while below willows gleam in yellow and gold. Swaney's hunting camp lies along the East Fork of the Chandalar River, inside the boundary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and near the Gwich'in community of Arctic Village, Alaska. Photo by Subhankar Banerjee, 2002.
September 22, 2023 at 12:49 PM
finisdunaway.bsky.social
Big news about the Arctic Refuge yesterday, as the Biden administration canceled the oil & gas leases auctioned off by Trump. 🦌🐦❄️

I've put together a public history website about the long struggle to protect this land: defendingthearcticrefuge.com

It’s a companion to:
Book cover for Defending the Arctic Refuge. The photograph shows caribou migrating through snow on the way to their calving grounds in the Arctic coastal plain. Photo by Peter Mather.
September 7, 2023 at 6:04 PM