What the Elders Have Taught Us ― Alaska Native Ways

As Alaska’s Native peoples confront contemporary challenges, they increasingly find strength in the traditional values and practices that have sustained their cultures for millennia. In stirring words, What the Elders Have Taught Us pays tribute to the first Alaskans and the ancient values they consider paramount. Ten essayists, one from each of Alaska’s diverse Native cultures, were asked to write about a specific value that is common to all, lessons that have been part of their oral teachings for countless generations. The resulting essays are infused with personal reflection as well as profound truths. Featuring Roy Corral’s outstanding photography, What the Elders Have Taught Us offers rare insight into the lives of Alaska’s First People—at work and play, in celebration and sorrow—living out the legacy handed down by the elders.

Roy Corral has been a photojournalist working in Alaskan photography since 1986. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in photojournalism from the University of Alaska and worked as ALASKA magazine's photo editor for five years. He also worked as a photojournalist for Alaska Newspapers Inc., where his Alaska landscape pictures appeared in Alaska's rural newspapers—Tundra Drums, Cordova Times, Dutch Harbor Fisherman, Arctic Sounder, Seward Log, and Bristol Bay Times. His Alaska nature photography has also been published in National Geographic, Outside, Sierra, Backpacker, and Forbes, just to name a few. His extensive travels across Alaska have included visiting nearly every village and town across an area roughly one-fifth the size of the continental United States, giving him a unique understanding about the multifaceted nature of Alaska's people and places.