On the Ice opens in Anchorage and Fairbanks February 17th!

Andrew McLean's recent film On the Ice will open in Anchorage and Fairbanks on Friday, February 17th and will play at least until Thursday, February 23rd, with the possibility of an extension if all goes well! The film is set in Barrow, Alaska and provides an and intriguing and provocative glimpse into life in the tundra. From the film's website:

In this engrossing and suspenseful feature film debut by filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, two teenage boys who have grown up like brothers go about their lives in the comfortable claustrophobia of an isolated Alaskan town. Early one morning, on a seal hunt with another teenager, an argument between the three boys quickly escalates into a tragic accident. Bonded by their dark secret, the two best friends are forced to create one fabrication after another in order to survive. The shocked boys stumble through guilt-fueled days, avoiding the suspicions of their community as they weave a web of deceit. With their future in the balance, they are forced to explore the limits of friendship and honor.

Read reviews from the Huffington Post, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and NPR!

Anchorage Openings:

Regal Tikahtnu Stadium 16
1102 Muldoon Road
Anchorage, AK 99504

Click here to purchase tickets!

Special Event (Saturday, February 18th)
Evening screening to be announced here.

Fairbanks Openings:

Regal Tikahtnu Stadium 16
1102 Muldoon Road
Anchorage, AK 99504

Click here to purchase tickets!

Special Event (Sunday, February 19th)
Late afternoon screening to be announced here. 


>> On the Ice will be released in many more cities, including Juneau, Nome, Sitka, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Chicago, and New York! Click here for more information.

Inupiaq Resources from Sean Topkok

Sean Topkok has kindly given us permission to share a series of papers that he compiled for the Alaska Native Knowledge Network! They address a variety of social issues from an Alaska Native, and specifically Inupiaq perspective. Please click the links that follow to download the papers. Permission is granted for educational use only.

• Avoiding Conflict

• Elders' Knowledge

• Family Roles

• Knowledge of Family Tree

• Knowledge of Language

• Respect for Nature

• Respect for Others

• Responsibility to Tribe

• Spirituality

If you have a question for Sean or would like to get in touch with him, please click "contact" in the navigation bar.

Searchable Smithsonian Archives

The Smithsonian website is full of great resources for educators. If you're planning a cultural studies unit, be sure to utilize the searchable National Anthropological Archives. There is also a searchable database for the the Human Studies Film Archive. Rotating exhibits from the Collections and Archives Program at the Department of Anthropology are highlighted here, so check back frequently.


When searching the archives, take a note of the plus (+) sign to the left of each individual search result. If the color behind the plus sign is light, that means that when you expand the result you will get more information, but no photograph. If the color behind the plus sign is dark, a photograph is available or other image is available.


From the NMNH Terms and Conditions of Use:

Subsets of the information, records, or images in one or more of the databases may be used, downloaded, reproduced, publicly displayed, distributed, or reprinted strictly for educational, scientific, scholarly, and other non-profit uses provided that the following attribution appears in all copies:  "Information provided with the permission of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th and Constitution Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20560-0193. (http://www.nmnh.si.edu/)"