PRESS RELEASE: SHI RELEASES LANDMARK DICTIONARIES FOR TLINGIT, HAIDA, TSIMSHIAN

SHI RELEASES LANDMARK DICTIONARIES FOR TLINGIT, HAIDA, TSIMSHIAN
First-Ever Alaskan Haida Phrasebook Also Released


Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has published a new series of learners’ dictionaries for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian languages and the first-ever Alaskan Haida phrasebook.

The dictionaries are the product of years of documentation with assistance from Elders fluent in Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. The phrasebook was written by Dr. Erma Lawrence, one of the few remaining fluent speakers of Alaskan Haida.




“We’ve been working on language restoration for nearly 10 to 12 years, and I would say for a greater part of this we’ve been working on these dictionaries. So, they’re pretty broad in scope, and to have three of them released all at the same time I think is fairly significant,” said SHI President Rosita Worl.

“We know it’s going to have a lot of use, not only in the classroom but by people who are just interested in learning a little bit more about our culture.”

All of the dictionaries include sections translating Native words to English and English words to the Native languages.

The Dictionary of Alaskan Haida is the most comprehensive dictionary for the Alaskan dialect of Haida, with over 5500 entries. It contains several thousand example sentences gathered from the last remaining fluent speakers in Alaska.

The Dictionary of Tlingit is the first to include nouns and verbs and all the minor word categories such as adjectives, adverbs, and interjections in a single resource. The vast majority of the verb forms have never before been documented or published. It also includes example sentences for most of the entries, which illustrates the words in a context.

The Dictionary of Shm’algyack (Tsimshian) includes the majority of the common vocabulary and will be invaluable to beginning and intermediate students of the language. Sentence examples with sound will guide the user along the path of a deeper understanding of how our ancestors thought and their use of words.

The Tlingit dictionary was compiled by linguist Keri Edwards with assistance from Anita Lafferty, John Marks, June Pegues, Helen Sarabia, Bessie Cooley, David Katzeek, and Fred White. The Haida dictionary was compiled by linguist Dr. Jordan Lachler with assistance from Dr. Erma Lawrence, Claude Morrison, the late Woodrow Morrison and the late Anna Peele. The Tsimshian Shm’algyack dictionary was compiled by Donna May and Tony Roberts, who worked with the late Ira Booth, Lillian Buchert, Frances Duncan, Bernard Guthrie, Solomon Guthrie, Russell Hayward, Harold Hudson, and Charles Ryan, all of whom initiated the project. Mel and Ruth Booth, John Dalton, Doris Reece, and Conrad Ryan, Sr. contributed their knowledge to complete the project.

Complementary searchable, online dictionaries with audio of words and phrases are also being developed and will be made publicly available in the future.

The Alaskan Haida Phrasebook was written by Dr. Erma Lawrence and edited by Dr. Jordan Lachler, a Haida linguist. The book was compiled over a four-year period as part of SHI's ongoing Haida language project. The more than 4,000 sentences in this book cover some of the most common topics of Haida conversation, such as food, family, weather, health, traveling, fishing, working, music, and many others. It is the most comprehensive phrasebook to date for any Alaskan Native language, and will be a great aid to new learners.




The dictionaries were funded through a grant from the Administration for Native Americans, and the phrasebook was funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and support from Sealaska Corporation.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a regional nonprofit serving the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures.



CONTACT: Rosita Worl, SHI President, 463-4844; Dr. Jordan Lachler, 907-228-5168 or jlachler@kictribe.org; Keri Edwards, 321-2529 or kerimichon@yahoo.com; Donna May Roberts, toedoe@q.com

THIRTY-THREE CULTURAL OBJECTS REPATRIATED

Sealaska Corporation has repatriated thirty-three cultural objects from a Massachusetts museum on behalf of Tlingit clans in Southeast Alaska.

Most of the objects were repatriated on behalf of the Yakutat Tlingit and title will be officially transferred to them at a future ceremony, said SHI President Rosita Worl, an anthropologist who assisted in the repatriation.

The collection underscores the creativity and talent of our ancestors, Worl said.

“I mean the pieces are extraordinary,” Worl said. “It demonstrates the sophistication and the uniqueness of our art--but more than that--really the cultural values that gave rise to this artistic tradition.”

The objects were collected in the 19th century by Edward G. Fast and purchased by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1869. The collection comprises a wide range of objects, including a wooden warrior’s helmet (above), masks, rattles, tools and pipes. Most of the objects were used by shamans, Worl said.

“The pieces are mostly shamanic items, and of course shamanic items are very sensitive to our people. We have strict rules and protocols about the handling of shamanic objects,” said Worl, adding Native people believe shamanic objects have powers that could harm people who do not respect the protocols.

Worl oversaw the repatriation at the museum with two Eagle and Raven members of the Council of Traditional Scholars, a panel founded by the institute to advise on programs. The objects, which arrived in Juneau in March, were repatriated through a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

The Yakutat Tlingit will decide whether to take the objects home or to sign a memorandum of agreement to leave them at Sealaska Heritage Institute, which has expanded its holding facility through grants and donations from Sealaska Corporation, the Rasmuson Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. SHI enlarged its facilities to accommodate a growing number ethnographic collections and archival materials acquired in recent years. The institute employs a professional staff to care for cultural objects and archival materials. Staff hopes to eventually have additional space for public exhibitions of its collections.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a Native nonprofit established in 1980 to administer educational and cultural programs for Sealaska, a regional Native corporation formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The institute’s mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures.

OLD AUDIO AND VISUAL RECORDINGS DIGITIZED

OLD AUDIO AND VISUAL RECORDINGS DIGITIZED
Change means public can now view and listen to recordings

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has transferred forty audio and visual recordings dating to between 1965 and 1975 to CD and DVD. The change means the public may now peruse the recordings, which had previously been off limits due to their obsolete format.

“Since we’ve been able to reformat them and make them available in DVD or CD, it makes them accessible for the public,” said Zachary Jones, archivist at the institute’s Special Collections Research Center. “People can now learn from these and use them, and they can be great educational tools.”

The audio visual materials include interviews with Tlingit Elders; Elder Johnny C. Jackson speaking and singing about clan history; footage documenting a totem pole raising ceremony in Kake; Klukwan Tlingit dancing and lectures; and youth dancers performing in Angoon.

“People are dancing, they’re singing their clan songs, they’re doing these things for their descendants and for their people so they can learn and know these things,” Jones said.

The audio recordings include lectures from the Juneau Indian Studies Program; Angoon ceremonies; traditional Haida stories told by Mrs. Carl; William L. Paul speaking on civil rights and the land claims battle; and speakers at a Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand Camp convention, said Jones, noting in some of the recordings people speak entirely in Tlingit.

“They talk about the culture and tell things that are important to the Tlingit heritage,” Jones said.

The recordings were all on open reels of film: seventeen were audio-visual and twenty-three were audio recordings. The transfers were made by Preservation Technologies, L.P., which specializes in care and preservation of recordings. The institute will also keep uncompressed digital copies on a portable hard drive for preservation purposes. A sample of one film concerning a Kake totem raising can be viewed by click here.

The institute has expanded its holding facility through grants and donations from Sealaska Corporation, the Rasmuson Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. SHI enlarged its facilities to accommodate a growing number ethnographic collections and archival materials acquired in recent years. The institute employs a professional staff to care for cultural objects and archival materials. Staff hopes to eventually have additional space for public exhibitions of its collections.

The Special Collections Research Center is open to the public 8:15-4:15 pm, Monday-Friday (closed noon-1 pm). It is located on the third floor of Sealaska Plaza.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a Native nonprofit established in 1980 to administer educational and cultural programs for Sealaska, a regional Native corporation formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The institute’s mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures.


CONTACT: Zachary Jones, SHI Archivist, by clicking here.

A look back to the early 1900s

SHI has posted a Certificate of Citizenship for John M. Tlunaut which shows the lengths to which Native people had to go to gain citizenship in the early 1900s. In the document, Tlunaut attests to his abandonment of tribal practices and relationships and adoption of civilized life. Additionally, five non-Natives had to affirm he had given up tribal customs and relations and qualified for the rights of citizenship. Ironically, he is the grandfather of Rosita Worl, president of SHI, whose mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures.

SHI Obtains Collection of Rare and Historic Photographs

The Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Special Collections Research Center library and archive recently obtained a significant collection of rare and historic photographs. These photographs, dating to between 1878 and 1915, capture visual imagery of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian history. These photographs were obtained from Alaskana collector Richard Wood, also operator of the Alaskan Heritage Bookshop of Juneau, Alaska.

While SHI Special Collections had previously obtained some photos from the Alaskan Heritage Bookshop in the past, with this new addition the collection amounts to seventy-two unique and rare photographs in our Richard Wood Photograph Collection. It’s quite possible that some of these photographs are not held by any other library in the world. The collection is diverse, capturing various views of Native life and culture, and the pictures were taken by various professional and semi-professional photographers. One particularly rare photograph captures a view of a Tlingit canoe with a sail. This picture can be viewed below along with a few other samples. All the images in this collection have been posted online. Overall, this collection is a great addition to SHI Special Collections holdings and will provide practical use for SHI and the patrons of Special Collections. Some of these photographs are currently being used in SHI’s forthcoming curriculum entitled The Road to ANCSA: A Native Perspective.



Item 24: Cabinet card photograph showing a Tlingit canoe with sails on an unknown river, circa 1880s, by Miller-Chase. Photo has seven or eight men in canoe, with sails up and American flag waiving. Photo is labeled as “Miners on the Yukon, Alaska” but its unclear if this is actually in the Yukon area.



Item 54: Cabinet card photograph of a Killisnoo Jake (Kichnaalx) in regalia and the clan hat named Ats’eiyee S’aaxw (Sheltered Area Under the Tree Hat), photograph produced by B.C. Towne, circa 1880s. Photographer likely Edward DeGroff.


Sealaska Heritage Institute is a regional nonprofit serving the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures. If you would like to donate materials to SHI Special Collections contact their archivist.