Polar Bear, Inc.: The Pain of Change in an Alaska Native Village

by Alf Walle

Overview

New ways of life often provide benefits while simultaneously inflicting pain. This tendency is especially true when indigenous, ethnic, and rural people face the impacts of the modern world. Polar Bear Inc. portrays these pressures through the depiction of a fictional indigenous community and the tensions and challenges occurring in the wake of social and economic transitions. By visiting a struggling and evolving community, the reader witnesses the tensions, rivalries, and dysfunction arising due to outside intrusions and internal wrangling. Meet a wide cast of characters who must take sides in a tale of power, control, and identity as some people embrace their heritage while others turn away from it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594337222
Publisher:	Publication Consultants
Publication date:	10/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	174
File size:	580 KB

About the Author

Alf Walle has lived and worked in Alaska for close to 20 years. He is the former program director for a division of a major Alaska Native corporation. He is a state-certified substance abuse counselor specializing in therapy aimed at Alaska Natives. A high point in Walle's career was serving as a professor of tribal management, visiting small Native villages above the Arctic Circle to provide management seminars and training to local leaders. More generally, Walle is a well-known business anthropologist who specializing in indigenous peoples. Living and working in China and Central America for extended periods, Walle observed recurring patterns to economic and social development he employed into the Polar Bear, Inc. plot. All of these experiences provide insights needed to create a fictional story that exploring the dilemmas of indigenous, ethnic, and rural people in a changing world.