Alaska Native Languages

Felicia Price, an employee of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, hands a copy of the Lingít-language book “Kuhaantí” to her son, Brayden, 8, while staffing the distribution table for the book with co-worker Genevieve McFadden during its release party Friday night at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Landmark Lingít-language children’s book is an ‘orphan’ with a very large family

“Kuhaantí,” first release of its kind in decades, part of nine-story collaborative tribal project.

 

An empty hallway at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on July 20, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska seeks to create statewide reading standards for Alaska Native languages

The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development is seeking a specialist in Alaska Native language education to create state standards for reading in Alaska… Continue reading

 

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire State Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau, explains during Wednesday’s floor session how a bill she is sponsoring will add to the number of Alaska Native languages officially recognized by the state and expand the role of a Native language preservation council.

Alaska Native language expansion passes House

Bill by Juneau lawmaker adds more officially recognized dialects, expands preservation council’s role

 

Salmon Northwest Coast art on the Wrangell Cooperative Association community smokehouse. (Vivian Faith Prescott / For the Capital City Weekly)

Planet Alaska: Smokehouse values

There are many ways to smoke salmon, but it takes discipline to take the time to learn and listen.

Salmon Northwest Coast art on the Wrangell Cooperative Association community smokehouse. (Vivian Faith Prescott / For the Capital City Weekly)
Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire Professor of Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, X’unei Lance Twitchell, analyses a ChatGPT story in Lingít while teaching his Intermediate Tlingit II class Thursday evening.

Does AI have a place in Tlingit language revitalization?

UAS professor weighs in.

Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire Professor of Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, X’unei Lance Twitchell, analyses a ChatGPT story in Lingít while teaching his Intermediate Tlingit II class Thursday evening.
Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire Ayuq Blanchett and Josaia Lehauli recieve awards for their work at the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary School Monday morning.

Tlingit language and culture program expands its reach

The optional district program is extending to eighth grade, hiring full-time principal

Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire Ayuq Blanchett and Josaia Lehauli recieve awards for their work at the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary School Monday morning.
Fredrick Brower, center, helps cut up a bowhead whale caught by Inupiat subsistence hunters on a field near Barrow, Alaska, Oc. 7, 2014. After tidal surges and high winds from the remnants of a rare typhoon caused extensive flood damage to homes along Alaska's western coast in September, the U.S. government stepped in to help residents largely Alaska Natives repair property damage. Residents who opened Federal Emergency Management Agency brochures expecting to find instructions on how to file for aid in Alaska Native languages like Yup'ik or Inupiaq instead were reading nonsensical phrases. (AP Photo / Gregory Bull)

FEMA fires group for nonsensical Alaska Native translations

For many, it was a reminder of culture and language suppresion.

Fredrick Brower, center, helps cut up a bowhead whale caught by Inupiat subsistence hunters on a field near Barrow, Alaska, Oc. 7, 2014. After tidal surges and high winds from the remnants of a rare typhoon caused extensive flood damage to homes along Alaska's western coast in September, the U.S. government stepped in to help residents largely Alaska Natives repair property damage. Residents who opened Federal Emergency Management Agency brochures expecting to find instructions on how to file for aid in Alaska Native languages like Yup'ik or Inupiaq instead were reading nonsensical phrases. (AP Photo / Gregory Bull)
Screenshot / Clarise Larson More than 60 people joined in on a Zoom meeting Monday afternoon to participate in an Indigenous Language revitalization class and panel that addressed the future of Lingít, X<strong>̱</strong>aad Kíl, and Sm<strong>ʼ</strong>algya<strong>̱</strong>x.

Celebrating learning on Indigenous Peoples Day

Community leaders talk future of Indigenous Southeast Alaska languages

Screenshot / Clarise Larson More than 60 people joined in on a Zoom meeting Monday afternoon to participate in an Indigenous Language revitalization class and panel that addressed the future of Lingít, X<strong>̱</strong>aad Kíl, and Sm<strong>ʼ</strong>algya<strong>̱</strong>x.
Artists of the inaugural Rock Aak’w Indigenous Music Festival gather beneath the mural of Elizabeth Peratrovich on the Juneau waterfront on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. This year the ceremony was all virtual, but organizers wanted to open the festival in person. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)

Rock Aak’w festival opens with songs, dancing and drumming

Rock Aak’w by seawalk.

Artists of the inaugural Rock Aak’w Indigenous Music Festival gather beneath the mural of Elizabeth Peratrovich on the Juneau waterfront on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. This year the ceremony was all virtual, but organizers wanted to open the festival in person. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)
Tlingit master carver Wayne Price, left, and students from Angoon High School wheel a dugout canoe down to the Angoon waterfront on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021, for a ceremony commemorating the bombardment of the village by the U.S. Navy in 1882. Dugout canoes were specifically targeted by the navy for destruction, and Price said crafting a new one was a way of healing from the past. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)

Remembering and rebuilding: Angoon residents commemorate 139 years since bombardment

‘We’re still here.”

Tlingit master carver Wayne Price, left, and students from Angoon High School wheel a dugout canoe down to the Angoon waterfront on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021, for a ceremony commemorating the bombardment of the village by the U.S. Navy in 1882. Dugout canoes were specifically targeted by the navy for destruction, and Price said crafting a new one was a way of healing from the past. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)
Courtesy photo / CCTHITA Tribal leaders from across the Southeast, including President Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson of Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, left; President Gloria Burns of the Ketchikan Indian Community, center; and Marina Anderson, Tribal Adminitrator of the Organized Village of Kaasan, right; and many others attended a consultation with officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service last week to meet and set the ground for replacing protections for the Tongass National Forest.

Federal officials meet with Southeast tribal governments

The current administration says they’re trying to have a better relationship than the previous one.

Courtesy photo / CCTHITA Tribal leaders from across the Southeast, including President Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson of Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, left; President Gloria Burns of the Ketchikan Indian Community, center; and Marina Anderson, Tribal Adminitrator of the Organized Village of Kaasan, right; and many others attended a consultation with officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service last week to meet and set the ground for replacing protections for the Tongass National Forest.
Haida artist Janine Gibbons poses with the book she illustrated, the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s first children’s book in the Haida language Xaad Kíl, a translation of the traditional story “The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales.” (Courtesy photo / Janine Gibbons)

Haida-language children’s book released as part of award-winning series

The book is a re-issue in X̱aad Kíl of a previously released traditional story.

Haida artist Janine Gibbons poses with the book she illustrated, the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s first children’s book in the Haida language Xaad Kíl, a translation of the traditional story “The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales.” (Courtesy photo / Janine Gibbons)
The pageantry of western opera will join forces with the Tlingit culture’s rich history of storytelling, song and dance to create the world’s first Tlingit opera. The opera, which is currently untitled, will premiere at the Perseverance Theatre around 2025. (Courtesy Photo / Sealaska Heritage Institute)

First-ever first Tlingit opera will premiere locally

It is a collaboration between Perseverance Theatre and the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

The pageantry of western opera will join forces with the Tlingit culture’s rich history of storytelling, song and dance to create the world’s first Tlingit opera. The opera, which is currently untitled, will premiere at the Perseverance Theatre around 2025. (Courtesy Photo / Sealaska Heritage Institute)