Alutiiq
Anthropologist receives "Genius Grant"
Chicago,IL
- The MacArthur Foundation Fellowships were presented
recently by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Anthropologist Sven Haakanson, Alutiiq, was among this
year's recipients.
Haakanson,
40, is executive director of the Alutiiq Museum in Alaska.
The coastal Alutiiq people are among the native populations
of Alaska.
When
he first received the phone call, the anthropologist said
he at first thought the call which woke him up, was a
practical joke.
Haakanson,
an Alutiiq who grew up on Kodiak, spends seven weeks a
year traveling among the island's villages, working with
students and trying to combat a belief that they are "stupid
and useless and worthless" because they are a native
people—something Haakanson said he struggled with
himself.
"It
took me eight years at Harvard to figure out I'm not that
stupid," Haakanson said. "I don't want to create
cultural arrogance. I want children to feel good about
who they are as humans, give them a culture to celebrate,
a heritage to appreciate."
Since
1981, the MacArthur Foundation has named 756 fellows,
recommended to the foundation's board by a 12-member selection
committee.
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