BILL HESS

Bill Hess is a W. Eugene Smith Fellow, having won the runner-up award in 1999. His book, Gift of the Whale: The Inupiat Bowhead Hunt: A Sacred Tradition, has been widely and positively reviewed in publications ranging from Smithsonian Magazine to the Seattle Times and was the subject of a full-hour edition of NPR's Talk of the Nation. Hess, a bush pilot, has published in many periodicals and newspapers, ranging from National Geographic to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, but he is most proud of those small circulation publications he has, often single-handed, put together for various segments of the American Indian and Alaska Native Communities, such as The Fort Apache Scout, The Tundra Times, Uiniq Magazine and Alaska's Village Voices. Hess also photographs and writes about cats.

ABSTRACT

My presentation roughly mirrors the content of my book, Gift of the Whale. Using slides and words, I will introduce participants to the Inupiat people of the Arctic Slope, the land, the sea, the ice, and the animals, in particular the bowhead whale. I will speak of why the bowhead, and the hunt of the bowhead, continues to be vital to the lives of the people of Alaska's Arctic Slope.