Tlingit

The tlakwa or Copper is a symbol of surplus wealth, cultural nourishment, conspicuous consumption and spiritual power among the Kwakiutl, the Tsimshian, the Tlingit, the Haida, and other indigenous peoples of coastal British Columbia. Names of high ranking people often contained references to copper, such as “Born to be Copper Maker Woman” and “Copper Maker.” Copper was also used as a decorative motif on garments, staffs, and crest carvings, where it represented wealth. The Copper was made of a large flat sheet of beaten metal cut in the shape of a flared shield, with a T shaped ridge beaten onto the lower portion. The shape perhaps reflects the trunk proportions of the human body, or possibly a filleted salmon. The Tsimshian thought it represented the backbone of an ancestor. The size varied in height from six inches to three feet.

A number of different languages in outside of the Indo-European family were analyzed based on how difficult it would be for a native English speaker to learn them. They were then rated on a purely impressionistic 1-6 scale of easiest to most difficult. Extensive phonological, morphological, syntactic and even semantic analysis was done for many of these tongues to highlight areas of difficulty for English learners. Very long: 101 pages.

This study is centered around the early work of Richard Dauenhauer. I begin by describing the systematic methodological approach Dauenhauer developed in his doctoral dissertation and the ways he applied it in a study of Tlingit songs, speeches, and oral narratives. While laying out his system and methodology, I situate his work in the context of his major theoretical source material. I also offer analysis and exegesis of the implicit theoretical dimensions of his work by appealing to theories within and beyond Dauenhauer’s central theoretical domain of folkloristics. I extend Dauenhauer’s project into different theoretical and philosophical discourses, especially emphasizing phenomenology, dialectical critique, and Levinasian ethics. This prompts a critical reassessment of Dauenhauer’s systematic approach and a new interpretation of his work as decolonial critique. Through this process I appeal largely to the critical work of Fredric Jameson, Emmanuel Levinas, Enrique Dussel, Franz Fanon, and Nelson Maldonado- Torres. Examining Dauenhauer’s work in this way allows for it to be viewed within its own concrete historical moment while also opening some of its unexplored practical and theoretical dimensions. Moving from folkloristics to decolonial critique reaffirms the political and ethical aspects of Dauenhauer’s work and offers an important way of extending his project into the future.

The Tlingit language has experienced drastic losses over the past two decades in terms of total number of speakers and places where the language is used. This steady decline in speakers was drastically accelerated as the last generation who grew up in a time when Tlingit was the primary language of homes and communities reach their sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties. The youngest first language speakers are in their 60s, although most of them are in their eighties because intergenerational transmission severely declined in the second half of the 1900s, and has only recently returned with a few families who have committed to speaking with their children.
Recent estimates have determined that the Tlingit language has about 80 birth speakers of various levels, and 50 second language learners that could be considered at the “intermediate” level or higher according to ACTFL scales. There are probably only 10 speakers remaining who could be considered fully fluent and capable of higher forms of speaking, and most of them are over 70 years old. This combines to create an unprecedented crisis for the Tlingit language, which will require massive shifts in cultural values, ways of living, institutional cultures, and educational practices if the language is going to survive the next 50 years with more than a handful of speakers.
Instead of merely surviving, or preserving, the goal of the Tlingit Language Continuity Movement1 is to have 3,000 speakers of the language by 2050. The current population of the Tlingit people is about 20,000 and of Tlingit territory is around 100,000. This means that 3,000 speakers would be 15% fluency among the Tlingit people and 3% within Tlingit territory, rising from 0.65% and 0.13% respectively.
This dissertation documents some of the events that have led to massive language decline, and proposes a series of interconnected methods that would result in language revitalization. In particular, increasing adult fluency, creating safe acquisition environments, mending a people and their language, and following a 30-year action plan is the proposed method to revitalizing the Tlingit language. These chapters are based upon the following research methods: reviewing published Tlingit language materials and recorded Tlingit language, documenting Tlingit language speakers and their thoughts on language learning and use, and incorporating theories from sociolinguistics, language revitalization, and post-colonial decolonizing methodologies.

Native American material culture rests uneasily within art museums. Removed from their original contexts of use, these culturally significant objects have been historically resignified as "primitive,” “exotic,” or representative of the mythic Other. Unfortunately exhibited as material evidence of progress, advancement, and civilization, they are largely silent about their makers’ desires and intentions. Today, Native American objects are reclaiming new voice. Many art museums are adopting more inclusive approaches to representational practice and are engaging with Native American peoples and objects in new ways. These approaches are fostering exciting conversations about the intersections of European and Native American ontologies and aesthetics.
In the spring of 2016, we were invited by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum to survey their small but distinguished Native American collection. We identified the objects and made exhibition (as well as digital and archival) recommendations. Many of the items were donations from alumni and often did not include detailed provenience. A group of 87 objects, however, were acquired in 1944 as part of an exchange with the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. The Heye Foundation was founded in 1916 as a prominent research institution focusing on Native American artifacts and cultures, and its collections now comprise the core of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C. We contacted Ann McMullen, curator at the NMAI and head of collections research, who provided us with a complete set of documentation for the RISD Museum's Heye Foundation objects. Perhaps most spectacularly, these items included a Tlingit headdress frontlet, whose provenance, impressive craftsmanship, and cultural meanings are the focus of this article.

The issue of language revitalization is central to the viability of Alaska Native communities. In order to resist language loss and ensure that languages are transmitted to younger generations, immense social efforts are required. Immersion schools have the potential to create more self-determined educational paradigms that are defined by internal cultural values rather than external western ideals, while simultaneously working to create a new generation of fluent speakers. However, immersion education is hindered by state and federally-sanctioned requirements that reduce communities' abilities to sustain immersion schools, which this thesis argues is an issue of social justice. These state and federal requirements are in conflict with international and national laws and agreements that guarantee Indigenous groups the right to self-determined educational paradigms in the language of their choosing. In 2015, legislation was introduced to support the creation of immersion charter schools in the State of Alaska. With Alaska's assimilationist history, the very creation of such legislation signals a shift in Alaskan politics. Through interviews, textual and content analysis, participation observation, community action research, and grounded theory methodologies, I find that Tlingit iii efforts to establish immersion schools are hindered especially by: 1) dominant culture teacher certification, and 2) required monolingual standardized testing. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to begin my acknowledgments with my gratitude to all of my interviewees, and those who helped steer me in the right direction along the way. Notably, X ̱ 'unei Lance Twitchell, gunalchéesh for a real history lesson in Alaska Native Social Change several years ago, for all the guidance and support that you have provided since then, and for all you and Miriah do. I would be doing an injustice to not praise Mark Baker's ability to simultaneously be an inspiring professor and program director, while also acting as a counselor to all of our cohort's daily issues. Mark, I cannot count the number of times that we as a group have talked about how lost we would be without you. In addition, Mike Hoyt somehow managed to find time in his crazy life to be a committee member, interviewee, and grad student commiserater-it was all enormously appreciated. Matthew Derrick deserves high praise and appreciation for taking what started as a partial idea and pushing me to actually have a thesis. I cannot thank you enough for the motivation, the reminders to suffer, and for tolerating the subsequent grumpiness associated with suffering. My decision to apply to the Environment and Community program is entirely credited to Sarah Ray. I could not ask for a better friend, confidant, mentor, and advisor. I do not have enough room in this document to tell you how much I appreciate the path you have helped me find. Thank you. v Parents, you have supplied never-ending emotional, and frequent financial support. Obviously, I would not be in this position without you. Dad, thank you for the flight changes when I foolishly thought I could make a flight the day after the semester ended, and had a teary meltdown instead. Mom, thank you for never allowing me to think people were doing enough to support others-full credit to you for helping me see when kids were being inconsiderate racists in ways that so many want to overlook. William, you are an inspiration. Thank you for the countless edits and questions answered. Mallory, thank you for putting up with both Will and me being terrible grad students at the same time, and, for that matter, putting up with either of us ever. Lastly, thank you to my cohort, especially Chisa Oros and Emma Lundberg, for whatever emotional stability I have remaining. Your support and presence have meant everything to me throughout this adventure. vi

This paper examines the history of an object, a red, hand-beaded Yukon First Nations dance shirt, held in the collection of the MacBride Museum of Yukon History. It is first photographed in 1912 at the Carcross Potlatch and then is carefully protected and stored, rather than destroyed, during the active years of the Potlatch ban, to return to public view at the first legal Potlatch after the ban was lifted in the 1960s. The paper examines its stylistic origins, beadwork patterns and alterations it has endured during its celebrated lifetime, as well as its significance now as a touchstone for cultural understanding.

The brothers Aurel Krause (1848-1908) and Arthur Krause (1851-1920) were born in the Schwetz region of West Prussia and both studied natural sciences in Berlin, where they also obtained permanent teaching posts. Well-trained by their travels throughout Europe and experienced in scientific study, they appeared to the se¬lection committee of the “Geographical Society of Bremen” (the former “Association for North Polar Travel”) to be ideal candidates to undertake a scientific and ethnological research and collecting journey to the coastal regions of the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea, in particular the Chukchi Peninsula and those parts of Alaska which had then been very little explored scientifically or ethnographically. The Krause brothers were given leave and their expedition lasted from 1880-1881, but it was not the Chukchi Peninsula, originally considered to be the primary goal of the expedition, which aroused later interest, but rather their six-month stay with the Tlingit people in South-Eastern Alaska. This was no doubt in part because the expedition’s findings were pub¬lished only in essay form in scholarly journals, while Aurel Krause devoted a separate monograph to the Tlingit in which he published both brothers’ findings. This was often quoted, although never reprinted in the original German. An English translation appeared in 1956, justified by the translator and editor Erna Krause as follows: “It is the most complete description that exists of the life of the Tlingit. Other good books about them have appeared, but they examine only parts of the picture.”
In keeping with the contemporary perception of a need to document pre-European cultures as thoroughly as possible in the face of their predicted destruction, the Krause brothers were meticulous and methodical in their collecting and described what they found in detail, helped by their gift for observation and their scientific training. The significance of Aurel’s monograph is in its documentation and evaluation of the brothers’ find¬ings. It is interesting to compare this work with diary entries and letters from the field. Aurel clearly revised initial perceptions and evaluations after his return having examined relevant literature and engaged with the latest scholarship.

The Übersee-Museum houses collections from the Pacific Northwest Coast , namely attributed to the Tlingit of Alaska. A cooperation with members of the Tlingit communities started in 1993 and culminated in the creation of a totem pole by famous Master carver Nathan Jackson and his son Stephen. The pole was erased in front of the museum's main building in 1996. The artists worked with the collections leaving some valuable new information. The article documents the project.  .

Since the beginning in the 18th century, German explorers and sceintist have taken an active part in the scientific exploration of the North Pacific, traveling on both the North Siberian and Northwest American sides of the Bering Strait. They left an important written legacy published in German, Russian and in some cases, French. For a long time these publications were known only to a small scientific community. However, unpublished sources, including diaries and letters, remained undiscovered in public and private family archives. While some of the more important German publications have been translated into English after the 1950s a, reprints of the original German editions did not exist. In order to allow access to the original editions and provide up-to-date commentaries of the contents, Viola König conceived an edition program on the discovery and exploration of Alaska, the Northwest  Coast, and the North Pacific as recorded in German works which she published in ‘HISTORIA SCIENTIARUM zur Geschichte der Wissenschaften in Deutschland’ (General Editor Bernhard Fabian founded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung). The article discusses  the results of of her commentaries on selected works in their given contemporary context..
Volume abstract: "German travellers, explorers, missionaries and scholars produced significant new knowledge about the Arctic in Europe and elsewhere from the 17th until the 19th century. However, until now, no English-language study or collective volume has been dedicated to their representations of the Arctic.Possibly due to linguistic barriers, this corpus has not been sufficiently taken into account in transnational and circumpolar approaches to the fast-growing field of Arctic Studies. This volume serves to heighten awareness about the importance of these writings in view of the history of the Far North.
The chapters gathered here offer critical readings of manuscripts and publications, including travelogues, natural histories of the Arctic, newspaper articles and scholarly texts based on first-hand observations, as well as works of fiction. The sources are considered in their historical context, as political, religious, social, economic and cultural aspects are discussed in relation to discourses about the Arctic in general.
The volume opens with a spirited preface by Professor Jean Malaurie, France’s most distinguished Arctic specialist and author of The Last Kings of Thule (1955)"..

Indo-European family: Anatolian group: Hittite and Luwian
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\ier\ana&limit=-1

Indo-European family: Greek group: dialect of Herodotus
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\ier\grk&limit=-1

Hurro-Urartian family: Hurro-Urartian group: Hurrian and Urartian
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\hur\hur&limit=-1

Na-Dene family: Tlingit group: Tlingit Northern
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\nde\tli&limit=-1

Na-Dene family: Eyak group: Eyak
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\nde\eya&limit=-1

Na-Dene family: Pacific Coast Athapaskan group: Hupa
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\nde\pca&limit=-1

Haida family: Haida group: Haida South (Skidegate), Haida North (Masset)
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\hai\hai&limit=-1

West Trans-New Guinea family: Alor group: Abui Takalelang, Abui Atimelang
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\tnw\alo&limit=-1

North Caucasian family: Lezgian group: Udi Nidzh, Udi Vartashen, Caucasian Albanian, Archi, Kryts proper, Kryts Alyk
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\ncc\lez&limit=-1

For over 150 years, Tlingit women artists have beaded colorful, intricately beautiful designs on moccasins, dolls, octopus bags, tunics, and other garments. Painful Beauty suggests that at a time when Indigenous cultural practices were actively being repressed, beading supported cultural continuity, demonstrating Tlingit women’s resilience, strength, and power. Beadwork served many uses, from the ceremonial to the economic, as women created beaded pieces for community use and to sell to tourists. Like other Tlingit art, beadwork reflects rich artistic visions with deep connections to the environment, clan histories, and Tlingit worldviews. Contemporary Tlingit artists Alison Bremner, Chloe French, Shgen Doo Tan George, Lily Hudson Hope, Tanis S’eiltin, and Larry McNeil foreground the significance of historical beading practices in their diverse, boundary-pushing artworks.

Working with museum collection materials, photographs, archives, and interviews with artists and elders, Megan Smetzer reframes this often overlooked artform as a site of historical negotiations and contemporary inspirations. She shows how beading gave Tlingit women the freedom to innovate aesthetically, assert their clan crests and identities, support tribal sovereignty, and pass on cultural knowledge. Painful Beauty is the first dedicated study of Tlingit beadwork and contributes to the expanding literature addressing women’s artistic expressions on the Northwest Coast.

This article considers the work of Nathan Jackson, the preeminent Alaskan
Tlingit carver and revivalist of the postwar period, who engaged modernist forms and principles in his early career. His paintings, prints, and experiments in textile design combined Tlingit motifs with expressive color fields and abstract space. Developed under instructors associated with modernist movements such as the Indian Space Painters, Jackson’s relationship with modernism represents an alternative to the neotraditionalism of his contemporaries. However, despite achieving initial acclaim for his experiments in printmaking and painting, Jackson came to reject this aspect of his training in favor of classical Tlingit forms and practices. Jackson’s early oeuvre thus imbricates Euro-American modernism in the history of Northwest Coast Native art alongside the emulation of nineteenth-century forms, and his eventual rejection of modernist styles refutes the relationship between Indigenous and modern art as one of unidirectional appropriation.

During the Yakima war, in 1856, American people had to face Canadian indige-nous people in addition to their “own” Indians. Groups of warriors were crossing the river of Puget Sound to plunder and capture slaves from among the local tribes. During these expeditions, white settlers were often attacked and robbed. As a consequence, the U.S. Navy had taken measures to reduce the robbing activity of Canadian Indians wherein they sent their war ships onto the waters of Puget Sound.