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Our Perfect Wild: Ray And Barbara Bane's Journeys And The Fate Of The Far North

Author : Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan
Published : 2016-02-15

Ray and Barbara Bane went to Alaska on a lark, a whim to spend a year teaching school in the bush. They stayed for a lifetime. They did what many of us no doubt dream of doing, but don't.

Alaska in 1960 was a state far rougher and more raw than it remains today. Dogsled and bush plane were the main modes of transportation across much of the state. Wood provided heat, and game filled the larder. And the Banes slipped comfortably into this life, as writer Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan, working closely with Ray Bane, illustrates in relating the story of their life in the Last Frontier State.

Going against conventional wisdom, the couple not only sought a series of teaching assignments after their first year in the state, but they worked to meld into the small communities where they taught.

Ray would head out on multi-day hunts with the men, driving his own dogsled, sleeping in snow shelters, and sometimes paddling skin-covered boats, while Barbara learned how to skin seals with the village women and became equally adept at driving a dogsled when not teaching.

Both worked to learn the Iñupiaq Eskimo language to better teach their students English. They also relished in the wild landscapes of their adopted state. To better familiarize themselves with Alaska they embarked on a 1,200-mile dogsled journey one year. A summer was spent in a tent camp they set up on an unnamed island in the middle of a lake in the Alatna Valley so they could explore the Brooks Range.

Ray, at his wife's encouragement, learned how to fly and bought his own bush plane to better explore the state. 

School administrators were aghast, and the couple's principal warned them not to get too enmeshed in the local culture.

"Bane, you're new here and I can appreciate your enthusiasm," he began. "But this business of learning the Iñupiaq language to teach your kids English is counter-productive. If these kids are going to be successful, they need to learn English and leave the old ways behind. You're doing them a disservice."

Ray strongly disagreed. And a heated debate ensued.

"Furthermore," the principal said, "it has come to my attention that members of the staff consider your activities running around by dog team and socializing with the Eskimos to be foolhardy and setting a poor example."

"You are entitled to your opinion," Ray countered firmly. "As for the language issue, the standardized test scores from my class speak for themselves. You can't argue with the improvement in their academic achievement.

This quieted the principal, but now disgruntled, he warned Ray to guard against becoming "Bushy," wielding the term as if it were an ailment. He then dismissed Ray with a nod to the door.

Bane left the warning in the principal's office. And, actually, the couple's desire to better understand the culture of the Eskimos furthered Ray's career. After gaining a graduate degree and returning to Alaska, his path led to the National Park Service, first by conducting research into subsistence living and eventually as superintendent of Katmai National Park and Preserve.

In between the bookends to their life in Alaska, Ray Bane played a key role in the greatest addition to the National Park System: the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Bane was tasked with helping survey potential lands for inclusion in the National Park System; they would be added under Section 17 (d) (2) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that became law in 1971. Under this "d-2" provision, the Interior secretary could withdraw up to 80 million acres of Alaska lands for conservation purposes.

With President Carter's signature to ANILCA in December 1980, the National Park System gained Denali, Gates of Arctic, Glacier Bay, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark and Wrangell-St. Elias national parks. Of course, a couple years earlier, in 1978, the president had resorted to executive privilege -- the Antiquities Act, to put a finer point on it -- to initially protect many of the 43 million acres as national monuments.

But Ray's help in surveying potential park lands was a job filled with wonder and alarm. As Alaskans became more and more aware of the potential withdrawal of lands from energy development, homesteading, and other long-time uses that didn't mesh with National Park System regulations, the Banes were often met with scorn and animosity.

Going over this long history with the Banes during a research period of two years, Ms. Johnson-Sullivan came away with a compelling and interesting story not only of the Banes' work and social involvement in Alaska, but also in tracing the challenges and hardships of carving out a 43+ million-acre addition to the park system. The experience, for the Banes, was rewarding, insightful, and forever memorable.

Living with elderly Eskimos and Indians, who had been reared in the ancient traditions of their cultures and with their spiritual insights, made me realize that we truly can live with nature without destroying its essence. We do not have to abuse the land in order to gain our sustenance or to satisfy our desire to explore wild areas. When we do injure it, we are robbing the future of a precious gift. I end with only one regret. I wish we could have done more.

Traveler footnote: You can learn more about the Banes' life in Alaska by following their website, Our Perfect Wild.

 

 

Comments

Barbara and Ray were among the NPS people I admired most in Alaska.  Their contributions to making the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) as successful as it has been cannot be overstated.  Now it is up to the next generation to continue their work to preserve the vast Alaskan wilderness.  Thanks, Barbara and Ray.  (I'm not sure that Barbara was an employee but she worked at his side the summer I was in Alaska.)


Thank you for the comments, Rick.  I recall being a member of a Ranger Skills training course at the Canyon when you were an instructor.  You and other staff instilled in class members the ideals on which the NPS is founded.  I and other classmates took it to heart and tried to live up to the standards in which you trained us.  Those were heady days when there was sense that we had a great mission and opportunity to carry forth the goals and ideals of the National Park System and National Park Service.  Thank you!  


Picked up this book during a recent trip to Hawaii and read it cover-to-cover on the return flight.  A fascinating book you just can't put down ... superbly written and well documented.  The Banes venture into the some of our most remote areas and embrace the wonder and beauty of the breathtaking environment and fascinating native cultures.  They battle extreme cold and deprivation, narrrow minded school principals, 1000 lb bears, perilous ice, jingoistic US Senators, and other formidible denizens with equal joy and aplomb.  One of the most awsome and inspiring life stories I have ever read.  If Ray and Barbara are not true American heros then I don't know who is.

 


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