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Southeast Alaska Tribal Resource Atlas: Indigenous Place Names Education Project

This project, completed under the Southeast Native Subsistence Commission, aims to recognize land as a fundamental subsistence, natural, & cultural resource by documenting and utilizing indigenous place names for resource management and education purposes. Developed with support from various agencies, it highlights the vital connection between names and cultural heritage. The text explores the importance of indigenous place names in education, emphasizing their role in preserving knowledge and connecting people to the land. Learn about the significance of place names and their impact on cultural understanding.

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Southeast Alaska Tribal Resource Atlas: Indigenous Place Names Education Project

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  1. 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).

  2. 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).

  3. 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”

  4. The Three “Rs” • Resonance-generative force • Resilience-conservative force • Respect-reciprocal force

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