Anna’s Athabaskan Summer

Griese, Arnold. Anna's Athabaskan Summer. Honesdale: Boyds Mill Press, 1995.

Anna’s Athabaskan Summer is a story aimed for elementary age children.  Anna’s family, who lives in Alask and is of Athabaskan decent, goes to a special place each summer where her ancestors lived.  Anna’s family fishes for salmon on the river where her family goes each summer.  Her grandmother tells her stories about the beliefs Athabaskan’s have dealing with nature and creation.  Her mother also informs her about the respect their people have for all living things.  She tells Anna they must only take the fish they need, and return what is not needed back into the river.  As the weather grows colder once again, Anna wishes summer did not have to end.  Anna’s grandmother reminds her that summer will always come again, and that she will always be a part of Anna’s life even after she is gone.  Anna and her family leave their summer home and the place where the Athabaskan Indians once lived all together, remembering that they will come back next summer and she will bring a friend who she can teach about her ancestors as well.

            Arnold Griese is not an insider author, but he has done extensive research about the Athabaskan Indians.  He has been immersed in the culture when he moved to Tanana, an Athabaskan village in Alaska.  He taught within a schoolhouse in the village.  Grises focuses on one Indian tribe, which is good since he is not stereotyping or generalizing about Indians in general.  Griese also shows that Native Americans live regular lives and dress and talk like everyone else through his contemporary setting and Ragins illustrations.  Grieses story qualifies as good multicultural literature when thinking about the question of, does the story question themes of a minority and then try to answer them.  Anna questions the traditions and beliefs of the Athabaskan Inidians and receives answers from her mother and grandmother.