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Southeast Alaska Tribal Resource Atlas. Southeast Native Subsistence Commission Place Name Project Thomas Thornton--Coordinator. 1994-2002—completed under SENSC -Southeast Intertribal Fish & Wildlife Commission.
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Southeast Alaska Tribal Resource Atlas Southeast Native Subsistence Commission Place Name ProjectThomas Thornton--Coordinator 1994-2002—completed under SENSC -Southeast Intertribal Fish & Wildlife Commission. Funded by National Park Service Heritage Preservation Grants with support from local tribes and agencies. Further Developed with support from Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative & Ecotrust, FIS, and Sealaska Heritage Institute. Purpose: Recognition of land as most fundamental subsistence, natural, & cultural resource. Names as expression and reflection of these values & thus useful for natural and cultural resource management and education. Kake Elder Fred Friday (1946): The Native people know all the points and rocks and every little area by name. If I told you all the names of all the places that I know it would fill many pages. These areas were used so much that we were familiar with every little place. (Goldschmidt & Haas 1998:177).
Place & Education • A little evolutionary education theory • Education is a cultural universal & imperative. Schools are not. Schools are modern inventions & tools of large agricultural and industrial societies. • Alaska Native education rooted in place (in situ) and subsistence (in vivo). Schools have interfered with these modes of education. • Experiential & multimedia education are cultural universals dating back hundreds of thousands of years. Writing and literacy are modern inventions dating back only about 10,000 years. • Naming (including place naming) is a cultural universal. Names for things are foundational to education for they describe, distinguish, and distill important information. Places names provide a unique window on the world without which we would literally be disoriented. • Linneaus (1737, Swedish botanist) said: “If you don’t know the names, your knowledge of things perishes.” This is because “Every name has a story behind it” (Jumbo James, Huna elder).
The Art & Science of Teaching & Working with Indigenous Place Names • Example: 3 Names for Glacier Bay: • S’é Shuyee—”End of the Glacial Mud” • Xáat Tú—”Icebergs Inside” • Sít’ Eeti Geeyí—”Bay Taking the Place of the Glacier”
The Three “Rs” • Resonance-generative force • Resilience-conservative force • Respect-reciprocal force