The Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Legacy Project: Tlingit Potlatch Speaking

Yakutat Heritage InstituteMaka Jinaatlaa Monture

December 2013

OverviewThe following presentation will convey information of the culture of the Tlingit Indigenous

people for the viewer to better understand the nation in need, followed by a review of the The Native Voices Endowment: A Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Legacy Project elements.

CONTENTS: Tlingit Nation Information Orthography History and background of the language

Cultural Context Ceremonial & Conversational Language Dialects

Grant Introduction Statement of Need Project Information/Grant Focus Long/Short Time Goals Grant Project Timetable Budget Grant Support: Tribal Council Resolution

Tlingit Nation Information The Tlingit people are found in Southeast

Alaska and farther south on the Northwest Coast.

There are established cultural, traditional and religious practices.

Approximately 16,000 tribal members Tlingit communities include:

Yakutat, Skagway, Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Sitka

Inland communities of Teslin, Carcross and Atlin, and Whitehorse in Canada.

Although much of the population is settled in urban environments, but many Tlingit continue to live in rural areas and maintain strong ties to the traditional practices.

Tlingit Language and Orthography These beliefs and value system of the Tlingit people affect how the language is

developed and taught.

There are 26 Consonants in Tlingit Some include d, dz, x, ch’, x’ ...and there are 8 Vowels!

Some include a, aa, ee, oo

Please click on the following link if you wish to scan through this introductory video by University of Alaska Southeast Professor, Lance “Xh’unei” Twitchell, to familiarize yourself with Tlingit sounds not found in English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBgRELgs2Pw

History and Background of the Language

Tlingit has five major dialects, although many words were used interchangeably because of trade Conversational Tlingit Ceremonial/Potlatch Tlingit

Conversational and Ceremonial/Potlatch Tlingit differed in terms of how many metaphors were used. Many nouns were actually a description of the function of an object, the

behavior of an animal, or how the weather would affect a human or animal - especially in Ceremonial/Potlatch Tlingit. For example: “Gu’wakaan ka teel’ Shu’unee dleit” doesn’t just mean

snow - it means “The Snow that is so mesmerizing, that when the deer come to the edge of the forest, they are hypnotized by the beauty of it.” This reflected the metaphoric way that the Tlingit adressed animate and inanimate spirits in life, itself.

Grant IntroductionYakutat Heritage Institute, a long withstanding non-profit

organization whose mission statement, “To perpetuate and protect the southeast Alaskan Tlingit cultures” is requesting funds from “The Native Voices Endowment: A

Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Legacy Project”, the grant was created within the Endangered Language Fund “for the purpose of revitalizing and perpetuating the

aboriginal languages of the American Indian Nations whose ancestors encountered the 1803-1806 Lewis & Clark Expedition.”

Statement of NeedThere is a dire need for native language education for the preservation of the Southeastern Alaskan Tlingit language, and the Yakutat Heritage Institute officially states language restoration as the official foremost priority of the Institute. We believe that when Alaska Native languages die, they do not become anything else. They are gone from us, for all time. There are estimated to be only 200 Tlingit speakers remaining, and each year, the Tlingit nations loses fluent elder speakers.

Walter Sobeloff, Renowned Tlingit Orator

Oratory Background & Grant Focus Tlingit language is embedded within their oratory, in songs, stories, and speeches.

There were times where the different clans held each other in such high regard during “potlatch speaking” that they achieved the highest levels of human compassion and empathy.

This grant will support the preservation and revitalization of traditional Tlingit oratory, or “Ceremonial/Potlatch speaking”.

To Review: Potlatch speaking is a form of traditional Tlingit oratorical speeches that were in a different form of speaking within itself. It was beautiful, metaphorical, based on balance, reciprocation, and respect. It had the ability to bring things together in harmony poetically, socially, and spiritually.

Grant Focus and Goals The grant will focus on research efforts to document and record the concepts and

history of Tlingit potlatch speaking by elders for future preservation and education.

If awarded the grant, Yakutat Heritage Institute will meet with the Native Language office of University of Alaska Southeast, as well as the department of Education of Sealaska Heritage Institute to refine the elements of the planning process.

The short terms goal is to record and preserve as much as about the history and proper execution of potlatch speaking as possible before we lose more of our remaining speakers.

The long-term goal include archiving the collected information, so that it may be made available to Tlingit language learners in culture immersion camps and programs.

Project Plans The beginning of the project

will focus on youth, and will include a collaboration with Sealaska Heritage Institute’s “Latseen Leadership Academy”, a summer leadership academy for Southeast Alaskan youth aged 14-17.

Our program would allot recording equipment to each Southeast village involved for the students to go and record

extensive video or audio of elder speakers, this close-relationship can be seen as a mentor-apprentice circumstance, where the combination of oral, audio logical, and visual elements will be brought into use.

Latseen Leadership Camp Class of 2012 (Image Above)

Project Plans Continued The students will then return the

equipment to Yakutat Heritage Institute, where the recordings will be sent to University of Alaska Southeast, for the Tlingit language students can work closely with the University linguists for transcription in both Tlingit orthography and English.

We hope that this project can grow, and one day serve as a model for language preservation.

UAS Tlingit Class (Image to Right)

Grant Project Timetable

Grant Budget

Grant Budget Continued

Grant Support: Tribal Council ResolutionYakutat Tlingit Tribe

Resolution 00-01 WHEREAS, Yakutat Tlingit Tribe is the federally recognized Tribal governing body for the Tribal members of the village of Yakutat: and, WHEREAS, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe recognizes that the Tlingit people undoubtedly always had to make transitions and for the Tlingit culture to survive assimilation that sought to eradicate the language and culture: and, WHEREAS, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe recognizes that the need exists to preserve and revitalize all aspects of the Tlingit language: and, WHEREAS, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe recognizes that there are estimated to be only 200 Tlingit speakers remaining, and each year, the Tlingit nations loses fluent elder speakers: and, WHEREAS, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe identifies that traditional Potlatch speaking is a form of traditional Tlingit oratorical speeches that were in a different form of speaking the Tlingit language within itself, and recognizes that a more critical need exists to preserve and revitalize the category of Potlatch speaking: and

Tribal Council Resolution Continued

WHEREAS, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe recognize that the appropriate method of doing this through recording and preserving all aspects and methods of Tlingit Potlatch speaking from the remaining fluent elder speakers: and, WHEREAS, the Tribe sees an opportunity to work with Tlingit youth throughout Southeast Alaska to gain leadership experience and life skills while working towards the preservation of all aspects of the preservation and revitalization of the Tlingit language, including the preservation of Potlatch speaking: and, WHEREAS, the Tribe sees an opportunity to work with the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Southeast Alaskan non-profit organization whose mission “seeks to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures.” and, WHEREAS, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe recognizes that the authority for this action lies in our mission statement: “To perpetuate and protect the southeast Alaskan Tlingit cultures” as well responsibility as the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe to our community, and as a tribe of the Tlingit nation: and,

Tribal Council Resolution ContinuedNOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe hereby authorizes the members of the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe or their designees, youth of Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, Yakutat Tlingit Tribal members, to collaborate on all needs and aspects of preserving as much of the Tlingit Potlatch Speaking Methods and values {Targeting from now onward }: and, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe hereby challenges all Southeast Alaskan communities and the general public to consider partnering with and supporting with the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe on the project preserve and revitalize the all current available knowledge and history of the execution of the category of Traditional Potlatch speaking {Targeting from now onward}: BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Yakutat Tlingit Tribe President or designee is hereby authorized to allocate funds from the “The Native Voices Endowment: A Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Legacy Project”, to preserve and revitalize the all current available knowledge and history of all aspects relating to the Tlingit language category of “Traditional Potlatch speaking”.

Certification

We hereby certify that this resolution was duly passed and approved

by the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe Council on this 8th day of October, 2012 by a vote

of 10 yes, 0 no, 0 abstain.

In Conclusion…

The history of the assimilation of the Tlingit people undoubtedly always overcome obstacles to make transitions and survive from one generation to the next. There was a time for the

people, where they would feel their world would never recover from the brutal discrimination and assimilation that sought to eradicate the language and culture. When

Alaska Native languages die, they do not become anything else. They are gone from us, for all time. But there are 200 speakers left. And there are people willing to go into battle for the language. And for a human society that’s been around for thousands and thousands of years,

we want to be able to capture and preserve that traditional knowledge through this grant, foster relationships between learning and leadership, and ultimately, to perpetuate and

protect the Southeast Alaskan Tlingit culture.

Gunalcheesh!The Yakutat Heritage Institute will like to extend out gratitude to the to the community for your

time, our additional resources, and to The Endangered Language Fund!

Questions?Contact Project director, Maka Monture at

makamonture@gmail.com or at 1(907)750-8175

Sources Background Image: Bear Revealing Human Form Bentwood Box, By Ken Humpherville

Tlingit Beginning Sounds by Lance Twitchellhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v= DBgRELgs2Pw

Tlingit Nation Information: Simon Ager, http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ tlingit.html

Images: http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/ANCR/Southeast/TlingitMap/images/ Tlingitmapsmall.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YOOKdIWc9xY/TjCjgbEnyRI/AAAAAAAABD0/LXsK8PAitSU/s1600/ shi.png

http://www.endangeredlanguagefund.org/ NVE_request.php

http://jun-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/355997804. jpg

Http://facebook.com/sealaskaheritageinstitute

http://yukon-news.com/media/images/2009/july/27/ teslinstory.jpg

http://www.endangeredlanguagefund.org/ NVE_request.php