2018 Alaskana Award from the Alaska Library Association 2018 Alaska
Historical Society James H. Drucker Alaska Historian of the Year
AwardWalter Harper, Alaska Native Son illuminates the life of the
remarkable Irish-Athabascan man who was the first person to summit
Mount Denali, North America's tallest mountain. Born in 1893,
Walter Harper was the youngest child of Jenny Albert and the
legendary gold prospector Arthur Harper. His parents separated
shortly after his birth, and his mother raised Walter in the
Athabascan tradition, speaking her Koyukon-Athabascan language.
When Walter was seventeen years old, Episcopal archdeacon Hudson
Stuck hired the skilled and charismatic youth as his riverboat
pilot and winter trail guide. During the following years, as the
two traveled among Interior Alaska's Episcopal missions, they
developed a father-son-like bond and summited Denali together in
1913. Walter's strong Athabascan identity allowed him to remain
grounded in his birth culture as his Western education expanded,
and he became a leader and a bridge between Alaska Native peoples
and Westerners in the Alaska territory. He planned to become a
medical missionary in Interior Alaska, but his life was cut short
at the age of twenty-five, in the Princess Sophia disaster of 1918
near Skagway, Alaska. Harper exemplified resilience during an era
when rapid socioeconomic and cultural change was wreaking havoc in
Alaska Native villages. Today he stands equally as an exemplar of
Athabascan manhood and healthy acculturation to Western lifeways
whose life will resonate with today's readers.