Kennecott Journey Assignment

Geography 101

Spring Semester 2007

David Snyder

Read the article, Kennecott Journey, by William Cronon, and answer the following questions with several sentences each. Use the back of this page or another sheet of paper if you like. Make sure your answers are legible if handwritten. If I can’t read it, it’s wrong!

1. In what ways was the Kennecott Mine tied to the economies of distant places? How did these economic connections to the rest of the world affect the local economy (Cordova, McCarthy and Kennecott)?

2. In what ways was the local natural environment important, both economically and spiritually, to the Ahtnas? How did this contrast with its importance to the recent immigrant miners?

3. How did the earliest Russian trade networks in Alaska alter the relationship between the Ahtna and their environment?

4. How did the Americans’ conception of property differ from the Ahtnas’ conception of property?

5. What was the relationship between the towns of Kennecott and McCarthy? Why was the makeup of their populations different?

6. How have the economies of Kennecott and McCarthy been revitalized? What ideas and attitudes attract people there today?

7. Draw some analogies between the history of Kennecott Mine and modern Alaska.