Alexander Bunka, Papers, ca. 1925-1970

Immigration History Research Center
University of Minnesota

Abstract | Provenance/Processing | Biographical Sketch | Scope and Content | Preliminary Container List

Bunka, Alexander
Papers, ca. 1925-1970
4 linear inches
Preliminary Inventory

Abstract

A railroad worker, Bunka was born in Fish Creek, Saskatchewan, of Ukrainian Canadian immigrants.  He served as a Ukrainian-English interpreter for John G. Diefenbaker (later prime minister of Canada), until 1922.  In 1928, he came to the United States; and in 1962, he retired to Tucson, AZ, where he served as president of the Tucson Ukrainian Society.

His papers consist of correspondence with editors and congressmen concerning Ukrainian political and social issues, a scrapbook pertaining to Ukrainians in Tucson, correspondence with congressmen and government officials, newspaper clippings pertaining to Ukrainian folk art and Ukrainian dissidents, photographs, and materials pertaining to churches and Ukrainians in Fish Creek.  Includes English.

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Provenance/Processing

Acquired from Alexander Bunka in 1972 and 1973. Preliminary inventory prepared for the Internet by Student Assistant Jessica Roskoski and Assistant Curator Heather Muir in 2001.

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Biographical Sketch

Alexander Bunka was born in Fish Creek, Saskatchewan, February, 1899. His parents were among the first Ukrainian settlers in Saskatchewan during the years 1898-1904, and Mr. Bunka was one of the first children born in the Fish Creek Territory, St. Julian and Batoche. Mr. Bunka served as a Ukrainian-English interpreter in the law office of John. G. Diefenbaker, who later became Canadian prime minister, until 1922. He immigrated to the United States in 1928 after several years of farming. In the United States, he was employed as a mechanic with the Santa Fe Railroad, and later as a federal inspector of diesel locomotives. He also developed a ranch in the Mojave Desert, which he eventually sold. Mr. Bunka retired in 1962 to Tucson, Arizona where he served as a vice president of the Tucson Ukrainian Society. The collection consists primarily of material relating to Mr. Bunka’s correspondence with editors and congressmen concerning Ukrainian political and social issues.

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Scope and Content

Papers consist of correspondence with editors and congressmen concerning Ukrainian political and social issues, a scrapbook pertaining to Ukrainians in Tucson, correspondence with congressmen and government officials, newspaper clippings pertaining to Ukrainian folk art and Ukrainian dissidents, photographs, and materials pertaining to churches and Ukrainians in Fish Creek.  Includes English.

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Preliminary Container List

Box Contents
1 Scrapbook compiled by Alexander Bunka and wife Evelyn, containing photographs and newspaper clippings dealing with the activities of Ukrainians in Tucson, and correspondence with congressmen and government officials.

Loose newspaper clippings and letters to editors and congressmen pertaining to Ukrainian dissidents and the proclamation of Ukrainian Independence Day.

Congressional Record excerpts dealing with Ukrainians.

Clippings dealing with Ukrainian folk art. 

Programs of Ukrainian concerts, festivals, and convention.

Photographs.

Newsletters from St. John’s Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, Edmonton, Alberta, 1969-1970.

Student, newsletter published by the Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union (SUSK), June, 1970.

Clippings from Ukrainian Voice, 1970-1973, 1974.

Golden Jubilee booklet for the Ukrainian-Greek-Orthodox Church of Canada, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Xeroxed page dealing with early Ukrainian settlement in Fish Creek Colony, Canada.

Xeroxed letters sent to Mr. Kurt Waldheim, Mr. A. Kosygin, Mr. O. Lashkol, protesting Soviet treatment of Malentyn Moroz and other Ukrainian intellectuals. 

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