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FOG ON THE MOUNTAIN
By: Frederica de Laguna
Kachemak Country Publications: Homer, Alaska
1995 (pb)
First publication by Doubleday, Doran & Co (1938)
Fog on the Mountain is a very interesting little
mystery novel for a number of reasons, perhaps the least of which is its
plot! It tells of the investigations by anthropologist Wallace Howard into
the mysterious deaths of several colorful characters in and around Petrovnia,
Alaska, a fictional frontier town on Kachemak Bay, Alaska. While gathering
data for an ethnographic study of Pacific Eskimo (now we would probably
refer to these indigenous peoples as “Aleuts”) life ways in the Depression
Era Alaskan back country, the young Dr. Howard is plunged into a spiraling
cycle of violence that begins with the death of Chief Totemoff, a respected
elder with shadings of shamanistic powers. What is first believed to be an
accident soon proves to be a vicious murder, with the victim’s son-in-law
the chief suspect. Howard’s friendship for the murdered man and his belief
that the son-in-law is innocent of the charge gives the inquisitive
anthropologist all the urging he needs to investigate the killing on his
own. In so doing, he uncovers some of the dirty little secrets of this
little town—including its preference for vigilante justice over the
courtroom version. There are a seemingly endless array of motives for the
murder—plus two more killings that follow hard on the heels of the slain
chief--including stolen Aleut shamanistic artifacts, the poaching of sea
otters, illegal fishing, and bootleg liquor. But are these motives or
merely red herrings? Howard uses his scholarly abilities to untangle the
web of clues and in doing faces certain death as the ruthless killer leaves
him stranded on a tiny islet in Kachemak Bay that is fast becoming inundated
by the rising tide.
The plot of Fog on the Mountain is fairly
interesting and the novel’s characters range from complex and colorful
(Chief Totemoff and his daughter, Matrona, for instance) to the stiff and
somewhat bland (our hero, Wallace Howard!). But the novel includes some
wonderful ethnographic insights—both of the indigenous Aleuts and the white
society of “frontier” Alaska in the 1930s. These latter strengths are due
to the talents and experiences of the author, Frederica de Laguna. This
incredible woman was one of the true pioneers of American anthropology,
studying under the legendary Franz Boas and receiving her Ph.D. from
Columbia in 1933 She was a contemporary and colleague of Margaret Mead’s and
in fact, shared with Dr. Mead in 1975, the honor of being the first female
anthropologists elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She was
affiliated with the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania
from the early 1930s—when she led five research expeditions in Alaska—to her
death in 2004, just three days after her 98th birthday. Her
fieldwork continued in the decades following the 1930s as she produced
groundbreaking archaeological studies on the Athabascan, Eyak, Chugach and
Tlingit peoples. Her teaching career spanned almost 40 years at Bryn Mawr
College, and even after her retirement in 1975 she continued to write and
lecture. Her greatest honor may have been the invitation extended to her in
the 1990s by the Yakutat Tlingit to join them in a potlatch to thank
“Grandmother Freddy” for her friendship, her sensitivity to the Tlingit
culture, and her scholarship “which has become a priceless record of the
past and a source of inspiration for the future.”
Federica de Laguna wrote one other mystery, also set in
Alaska, entitled The Arrow Points at Murder. I haven’t read this
novel, and after finding a copy on Amaon.com, priced at $150, it may be
quite some time before I do!
I give Fog on the Mountain four trowels, not
because the novel itself is so great, but because the author was truly a
great pioneer of American anthropology and archaeology.
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