Born in Unalakleet, raised in Shaktoolik and educated at Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon, Emily Brown, whose Eskimo name was Ticasuk, was an educator for 30 years and devoted herself to record and pass on knowledge about the unwritten history of all her Inupiaq people. She obtained a provisional teaching certificate and became a grade school teacher and an advocate of bilingual education. In 1954, at the age of 50, Emily began 10 years of attending summer school at the university to earn her Bachelor of Science degree in education while teaching full time during the academic years. She received two B.A.’s and a Master’s degree from the University of Alaska, finishing her graduate work in the 1970s. It was while working on her Masters degree in 1974 that she published her first book, Grandfather of Unalakleet which was later republished The Roots of Ticasuk: an Eskimo Woman’s Family Story. Brown’s native name, “Ticasuk” means: “Where the four winds gather their treasures from all parts of the world. the greatest of which is knowledge.” Her best known book, released in 1987, Tales of Ticasuk: Eskimo Legends and Stories, presents several Inuit legends in Inuit Mythology.

Brown’s service to her state was widely known and she received many awards throughout her lifetime, including a presidential citation by Richard Nixon for her “exceptional service to others, in the finest American tradition.” She was twice cited by the Alaska legislature for preservation of Alaska Native culture and language.

Sources

University of Alaska Electronic Info Spot. Emily Ivanoff Brown’sTales of Ticasuk,” from the forward by Journalism Professor Jimmy Bedford.

https://openlibrary.org/a/OL2928012A”Emily Ivanoff Brown Tales of Ticasuk. 1987, University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks