Ernest S. “Tiger” Burch, Jr., passed away on September 16, 2010, at his home in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. He was 72. His life ended suddenly, at a time when he was still as active as ever during his extremely productive career as an Arctic anthropologist. Indeed, for more than four decades, he has been a towering presence in the community of Inuit studies, and more broadly in the community of anthropologists of the circumpolar North. His primary geographical focus of interest was northwest Alaska, but he also conducted research in West Hudson Bay and had authoritative knowledge about all Inuit, Yup’ik, and neighbouring Indigenous peoples of the circumpolar North. Ernest S. Burch, Jr., was first called “Tiger” by some of his father’s friends shortly after his birth on April 17, 1938 in New Haven, Connecticut. This is the name by which he was thereafter known and called by family and friends, and later by colleagues as well. He was the eldest of the three children of Ernest Burch, Sr., and Elsie Lillard Burch. Although a city lawyer, Tiger’s father loved the outdoors, and he communicated this passion to his eldest son. In 1954, at age 16, Tiger was accepted as a junior member on one of Donald B. MacMillan's last Arctic expeditions, during which they travelled by schooner to Labrador, Greenland, and northern Baffin Island. This experience caused him to shift away from his original intention to become a field biologist, and to study human and social sciences instead. He received a B.A. in sociology, cum laude, from Princeton University in 1960. Immediately afterwards, he was hired to conduct a one-year study of the use of local resources in Kivalina, a small Iñupiaq community in northwest Alaska. He then went on with graduate studies in anthropology at the University of Chicago (M.A. 1963; Ph.D. 1966). During his doctoral studies, he travelled again to Kivalina, accompanied by his wife, with the intention to spend a year doing research. While there, in December 1964, Tiger was terribly burned in a gasoline fire while trying to save his field notes. He returned to the village after months of treatment but he, who had practised participant observation with such enthusiasm, found himself unable to join in strenuous subsistence activities anymore. Thus, making virtue out of a necessity, he switched to interviewing as his primary field research method; this actually coincided with a change in his orientation, from ethnography to oral history. From 1966 until he resigned in 1974, Tiger Burch was on the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. In 1969-70, he conducted what he considered to be his major Alaska research, based with his wife and two very young daughters in Kotzebue. During nine months, he relentlessly interviewed elders considered to be experts in local history, tapping into treasures of knowledge that until then researchers had ignored, and actually even scorned. With the method of historical reconstruction based on oral accounts, which he had devised and perfected, he was able to reconstruct in minute detail many aspects of life, and historical developments, in the whole of northwest Alaska, going back to the first quarter of the 19th century. As a true pioneer, Tiger Burch created social history and historical ethnography based on knowledge that he elicited from the memories of local experts. These Iñupiaq scholars, untrained in academic disciplines, provided knowledge that he was able to collect, understand, analyse, and synthesise in major publications that will remain monuments on the history of the region, as well as landmarks in the theory and methods of ethnohistory. His …
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Appendix: Selected publications by Ernest S. Burch, Jr.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1975a Eskimo Kinsmen: Changing Family Relationships in Northwest Alaska, Saint Paul, West Publishing Company, American Ethnological Society Monograph, 59.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1981a The Traditional Eskimo Hunters of Point Hope, Alaska: 1800-1875, Barrow, The North Slope Borough.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1984a Editor, The Central Yupik Eskimos, Études/Inuit/Studies, 8, Supplemental Issue.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988a The Eskimos, with photographs by Werner Forman, London, Macdonald and Co. Ltd./Norman, University of Oklahoma Press (German edition 1998; Norwegian edition 1990; Japanese edition 1991; Finnish edition 2000).
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988b Co-editor (with Inge Kleivan) of l'Oeuvre de Knud Rasmussen / The Work of Knud Rasmussen, Études/Inuit/Studies, 12(1-2).
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1994a Co-editor (with Linda J. Ellanna) of Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, Providence, Berg Publishers.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1998a The Iñupiaq Eskimo Nations of Northwest Alaska, Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 2005a Alliance and Conflict: The World System of the Iñupiaq Eskimos, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, Calgary, University of Calgary Press and the Arctic Institute of North America, Northern Lights Series, 7.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 2006 Social Life in Northwest Alaska: The Structure of Iñupiaq Eskimo Nations, Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., n.d. Caribou Herds of Northwestern Alaska, major new book in preparation (2002–2010)
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1970a The Eskimo Trading Partnership in North Alaska: A Study in "Balanced Reciprocity", Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, 15(1): 48-80.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1970b Marriage and Divorce Among the North Alaskan Eskimos, in Paul Bohannan (ed.), Divorce and After, Garden City, Doubleday and Co.: 152-181.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1971 The Nonempirical Environment of the Arctic Alaskan Eskimos, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 27(2):148-165.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1972a (with Thomas C. Correll) Alliance and Conflict: Inter-Regional Relations in North Alaska, in D.L. Guemple (ed.), Alliance in Eskimo Society, Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society, 1971, Supplement, Seattle, University of Washington Press: 17- 39.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1972b The Caribou/Wild Reindeer as a Human Resource, American Antiquity, 37(3): 339-368.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1974 Eskimo Warfare in Northwest Alaska, Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, 16(2): 1-14.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1975b Inter-Regional Transportation in Traditional Northwest Alaska, Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, 17(2): 1-11.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1976 The “Nunamiut” Concept and the Standardization of Error, in Edwin S. Hall, Jr. (ed.), Contributions to Anthropology: The Interior Peoples of Northern Alaska, Ottawa, National Museum of Man, Archaeological Survey of Canada, 49: 52-97.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1977 Muskox and Man in the Central Canadian Subarctic, 1689-1974, Arctic, 30(3): 135-154.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1978 Caribou Eskimo Origins: An Old Problem Reconsidered, Arctic Anthropology, 15(1): 1-35.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1979a (with James G.E. Smith) Chipewyan and Inuit in the Central Canadian Subarctic, 1613-1977, in James G.E. Smith (ed.), Indian-Eskimo Relations: Studies in the Inter-Ethnic Relations of Small Societies, Arctic Anthropology, 16(2): 76-101.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1979b The Ethnography of Northern North America: A Guide to Recent Research, Arctic Anthropology, 16(1): 62-146.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1979c Indians and Eskimos in North Alaska, 1816-1977: A Study in Changing Ethnic Relations, Arctic Anthropology, 16(2): 123-151.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1979d Native Claims in Alaska: An Overview, Études/Inuit/Studies, 3(1): 7-30.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1979e The Thule-Historic Eskimo Transition on the West Coast of Hudson Bay, in Allen P. McCartney (ed.), Thule Eskimo Culture: An Anthropological Retrospective, Ottawa, National Museum of Man, Archaeological Survey of Canada, 88: 189-211.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1980a Traditional Eskimo Societies in Northwest Alaska, Senri Ethnological Studies, 4: 253-304.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1983a Sociodemographic Correlates of House Structures in Three Beringian Populations: An Exploratory Study, in Henry N. Michael and James W. VanStone (eds.), Cultures of the Bering Sea Region: Papers from an International Symposium, New York, International Research and Exchanges Board: 112-139.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1984b The Central Yupik Eskimos: An Introduction, Études/Inuit/Studies, 8, Supplemental Issue: 3-19.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1984c Kotzebue Sound Eskimo, in David Damas (ed.), Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 5, Arctic, Washington, Smithsonian Institution: 303-319.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1984d The Land Claims Era in Alaska, in David Damas (ed.), Handbook of North American Indians, volume 5, Arctic, Washington, Smithsonian Institution: 657-661.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1986a The Eskaleuts—A Regional Overview, in R. Bruce Morrison and C. Roderick Wilson (eds), Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart: 98-106.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1986b The Caribou Inuit, in R. Bruce Morrison and C. Roderick Wilson (eds), Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart: 106-133.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988c (with Inge Kleivan) The Work of Knud Rasmussen Among the Inuit: An Introduction, Études/Inuit/Studies, 12(1-2): 5-10.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988d Knud Rasmussen and the "Original" Inland Eskimos of Southern Keewatin, Études/Inuit/Studies, 12(1-2): 81-100.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988e The End of the Trail: The Work of the Fifth Thule Expedition in Alaska, Études/Inuit/Studies, 12(1-2): 151-170.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988f Marriage and Divorce Among the North Alaskan Eskimos, reprint of 1970 article in Paul Bohannan (ed.), Divorce and After, in J.B. Cole (ed.), Anthropology for the Nineties: Introductory Readings, New York, The Free Press: 155-181.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988g Modes of Exchange in Northwest Alaska, in Tim Ingold, David Riches, and James Woodburn (eds), Hunters and Gatherers 2: Property, Power and Ideology, New York, Berg Publishers Ltd.: 95-109.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988h Toward a Sociology of the Prehistoric Inupiat: Problems and Prospects, in Robert D. Shaw, Roger K. Harritt and Don E. Dumond (eds), The Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska's Native People, Anchorage, Alaska Anthropological Association, Aurora Monograph, 4: 1-16.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988i War and Trade, in William W. Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell (eds), Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, Washington, Smithsonian Institution: 227-240.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1991a From Skeptic to Believer: The Making of an Oral Historian, Alaska History, 6(1): 1-16.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1991b Herd Following Reconsidered, Current Anthropology, 32(4): 439-445.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1992a (with Thomas C. Brown) Estimating the Economic Value of Subsistence Harvest of Wildlife in Alaska, in George L. Peterson, Cindy S. Swanson, Daniel W. McCollum, and Michael H. Thomas (eds), Valuing Wildlife Resources in Alaska, Boulder, Westview Press: 203-254.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1993 The Organization of Arctic Social Sciences, in Louis-Jacques Dorais and Ludger Müller-Wille (eds)., Social Sciences in the North: Keynotes Presented at the Eighth Inuit Studies Conference and the First International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences, Ste-Foy, International Arctic Social Sciences Association and Groupe d'Études Inuit et Circumpolaires, Topics in Arctic Social Sciences, 1: 31-114.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1994b The Future of Hunter-Gatherer Research, in Ernest S. Burch, Jr. and Linda J. Ellanna (eds), Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, Providence, Berg Publishers: 441-455.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1994c Rationality and Resource Use Among Hunters, in Takashi Irimoto and Takako Yamada (eds), Circumpolar Religion and Ecology: An Anthropology of the North, Tokyo, University of Tokyo Press: 163-185.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1994d The Iñupiat and the Christianization of Arctic Alaska, Études/Inuit/Studies, 18(1-2): 81-108.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1995a (with Craig Mishler) The Di'haii Gwich'in: Mystery People of Northern Alaska, Arctic Anthropology, 32(1): 147-172.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1995b The Caribou Inuit, in R. Bruce Morrison and C. Roderick Wilson (eds.), Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience, 2nd ed., Toronto, Oxford University Press: 115-142.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1998b Boundaries and borders in early contact north-central Alaska, Arctic Anthropology, 35(2): 19-48.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1998c The North Alaskan Eskimos: A Changing Way of Life, in Melvin Ember, Carol Ember, and David Levinson (eds), Portraits of Culture: Ethnographic Originals, vol. I, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall: 89-118.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1999a (with Eliza Jones, Hannah P. Loon, and Lawrence Kaplan) The Ethnogenesis of the Kuuvaum Kaniagmiut, Ethnohistory, 46(2): 291-327.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1999b The Caribou Inuit (with Yvon Csonka), in Richard B. Lee and Richard H. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 56–60.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 2002 The history of Arctic ethnography: Some personal reflections, in William W. Fitzhugh, Stephen Loring, and Daniel Odess (eds), Honoring Our Elders: A History of Eastern Arctic Archaeology, Washington, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Arctic Studies Center, Contributions to Circumpolar Anthropology, 2: 33-46.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 2005b Sociocultural Anthropology in Alaska, 1972-2002: An Overview, Alaska Journal of Anthropology, 3(1): 9-103.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 2007a Rationality and Resource Use Among Hunters: Some Eskimo Examples (revised version of 1994 paper), in Michael Harkin and David Rich Lewis (eds), Native Americans and the Environment: Perspectives on the Ecological Indian, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press. pp. 123-152.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 2007b Traditional Native Warfare in Western Alaska, in Richard Chacon, and Ruben Mendoza (eds), North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence, Tucson, University of Arizona Press: 11-29.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 2009 Smithsonian Contributions to Alaskan Ethnography: The First IPY Expedition to Barrow, 1881-1883, in Igor Krupnik, Michael Lang, and Scott Miller (eds), Smithsonian at the Poles. Contributions to International Polar Year Science, Washington, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press: 89-98.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1983b Peoples of the Arctic (ca. 1825), map compiled for the National Geographic Society, Washington.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1985 Subsistence Production in Kivalina, Alaska: A Twenty-Year Perspective, Juneau, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence, Technical Paper, 128 (online at: http://www.subsistence.adfg.state.ak.us/ TechPap/tp128.pdf).
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1988j (with Inge Kleivan, Rolf Gilberg, and Jean-Loup Rousselot) Selected Works by Knud Rasmussen, Études/Inuit/Studies, 12(1-2): 205-221.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1990 The Cultural and Natural Heritage of Northwest Alaska, vol. I, Geology, Kotzebue, NANA Museum of the Arctic.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1994e The Cultural and Natural Heritage of Northwest Alaska, vol. 5, The Iñupiaq Nations of Northwest Alaska, Kotzebue, NANA Museum of the Arctic and the U.S. National Park Service.
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 1997 International Directory of Arctic Social Scientists, Washington, National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (NSF 97-94).
- BURCH, Ernest S., Jr., 2007c (interview with Rachel Mason) An Interview with Ernest S. Burch, Jr., Alaska Journal of Anthropology, 5(1): 147-153.