An Uncommon Accomplishment: Allen McCartney’s Forty Years of Research in the Aleut Region of Alaska

Abstract

Allen McCartney’s career of northern field research began in 1962 in the Aleut region of Alaska, an area to which he has returned many times over the next four decades. During that time, he worked throughout the region, from the Alaska Peninsula to the far western Aleutians, to the isolated Pribilof Islands, and at sites spanning the entire range of human occupation. The depth and breadth of his experience and interests have yielded important insights concerning the Aleut area, specifically, and the circumpolar region, generally. His efforts have also influenced the research goals and careers of many other northern scholars and have assisted in some unforeseen and unacknowledged ways in matters of Aleut land ownership and cultural heritage.