Read Pinart's three translated articles here:

• Alphonse Louis Pinart among the Natives of Alaska [Vol. 50(1)]
  • Richard L. Bland (translator)

Alphonse Pinart

Courtesy of the Journal of Northwest Anthropology

In the late 1800s, European society developed a desire to document the native cultures that were rapidly disappearing. Alphonse Louis Pinart was France’s representative in this rescue effort. He hastily collected materials and published his results in brief articles. Three of his twelve articles on Alaska are translated and reproduced by Richard L. Bland in JONA 50(1). In these three articles, Pinart describes some of the customs of Alutiiq and Tlingit peoples, as well as Aleut masks and other artifacts he found in a burial cave on Unga Island in the Shumagin Islands.