Media Advisory

TO                          Features and Calendar Editors, PSA Directors

FROM                     UAF Anthropology Department

SUBJECT                Veniaminov Exhibit

LOCATION              Signers' Hall, UAF campus

DATE & TIME          Dec. 10 - 24; Jan. 5 - 10

The exhibit "A Good and Faithful Servant" on the life and work of Russian Orthodox priest Ioann Veniaminov in Alaska and Siberia is open to the public and free of charge at Signers' Hall. The exhibit can be viewed Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. through Dec. 24. The UAF campus will be closed for the holidays; the Veniaminov exhibit reopens at Signers' Hall Jan. 5 - 10.

A worldwide symposium was recently held at UAF marking the Veniaminov Bicentennial Year. Anthropologists, linguists, historians and scholars met to discuss Veniaminov's contribution to Arctic social science.

Veniaminov, a pioneer in the study of Alaska's Aleut, Alutiiq, Tlingit, Yup'ik and Athabaskan languages, is acknowledged worldwide as an educator, scholar, ethnographer and linguist. He developed the first written form of language, widely used until the 20th century, for Natives in Alaska and Yakutia in the Russian Far East. He was also considered a missionary of immense tolerance, encouraging the use of Native languages and traditional customs.

The clean-up/training exercise is tentatively scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 26.

CONTACT: UAF Anthropology Professor Lydia Black, (907) 474-7288.

DPD/12-10-97/98-026ma