Comments for with the subject line “TCP/NAL Comment” by October 31, 2012.
James Kari
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics
Alaska Native Language Center
University of Alaska Fairbanks
In reviewing this request from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation I wish to call your attention to various works on what I refer to as ethnogeography and specifically on Alaska Dene (or Athabascan ethnogeography that contribute to the definition of both traditional cultural properties as well as to the incipient concept of traditional cultural landscapes (TCL). The two language areas I have researched most extensively are Dena’ina and Ahtna, two Dene languages of Southcentral Alaska. I have also done this type of work in several other Alaska Dene languages.
I will list here several sources of the past ten or more years followed by a brief summary of some ethnogeographic generalizations that I have been making. This message is in order to get this summary in prior to the NPS deadline.
Balluta, Andrew
2008 Shtutda’ina Da’a Sheł Qudeł: My Forefathers are Still Walking with Me, Verbal Essays
on Tsaynen and Qizhjeh Denaina Traditions. Ed. by James Kari. Lake Clark
National Park and Preserve.
Evanoff, Karen E.
2010 Dena’ina Ełnena, A Celebration. Anchorage: Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.
Ferreira, Samson L.
2005 Kijik Archeological District Cultural Landscape Inventory. Anchorage: National Park
Service.
Gaul, Karen. K.
2007 Nanutset ch’u Q’udi Gu, Before Pur Time and Now, An Ethnohistory of Lake Clark
National Park and Preserve. Anchorage: National Park Service.
Kari, James
1994 Local vs. Regional Place Naming Conventions in Alaskan Athabaskan Languages. In
Proceedings of the twenty-third Western Conference on Linguistics, Vol 6. Ed. by S.
Hargus, G McMenamin, and V. Samiaan. Fresno: California State University. Pp. 233-
249.
1996a A Preliminary View of Hydronymic Districts in Northern Athabaskan Prehistory.
Names 44:253-271.
1996b Names as Signs: 'Stream' and 'Mountain' in Alaska Athabaskan Languages. In
Athabaskan Papers in Honor of Robert W. Young, edited by L. Jelinek, K. Rice, and L.
Saxon. Pp 443-476. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
1997 Upper Tanana Place Names Lists and Maps. Ms. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. 33
pp. and 10 maps.
1999 Draft Final Report: Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and
Preserve.National Park Service.
2004 Recent Developments in the Study of Dena'ina Language and Culture. Report to Lake
Clark-Katmai National Park and Preserve.
2006 Traditional Cultural Properties in the Vicinity of Sparrevohn Long Range Radar Site. Prepared for Cultural Heritage Studies, Environment and Natural Resources institute. University of Alaska Anchorage. U. S. Air Force 611th Air Support Group, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska.
2008 Ahtna Place Names Lists, 2nd Edition revised. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language
Center.
2010a Ahtna Travel Narratives - A Demonstration of Shared Geographic Knowledge
Among Alaskan Athabascans. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.
2010b The Concept of Geolinguistic Conservatism in Na-Dene Prehistory. Anthropological
Papers of the University of Alaska. New Series, vol 5:194-222.
2011 A Case Study in Ahtna Athabascan Geographic Knowledge. IN Landscape in
Language, Transdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by D.M. Mark, A.G. Turk, N. Burenhult & D. Stea. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 239-260.
2012a Place Names Maps for Ahtna, Inc. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language
Center. CD with 17 pdf files.
2012b Lower Tanana Athabascan Place Names. Alaska Native Language Center.
Kari, James and Priscilla Russell Kari
1982 Dena'ina Ełnena: Tanaina Country. Edited by J. McGary, Alaska Native Language
Center.
Kari, James and James A. Fall
2003 Shem Pete’s Alaska, The Territory of the Upper Cook Inlet Dena’ina. University of
Alaska Press, Fairbanks. 2nd edition.
Simeone, William E. and James Kari
2002 Traditional Knowledge and Fishing Practices of the Ahtna of Copper River, Alaska.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence Technical Paper No.
270.
2005 The Harvest and Use of Non-salmon Fish Species in the Copper River Basin Office of Subsistence Management Fisheries Resource Monitoring Program. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence.
Some generalizations:
Dene is the largest Native language family in area in North America. The profile of Dene Generative Geography Capacity that emerges in Ahtna, Dena’ina and other Alaska Dene languages is a flexible, rule-driven, territorial ethos that is based upon the sharing of geographical knowledge among speakers of neighboring Dene languages. Looking across the language family, looking at certain patterns and congruities in geographical naming in distant regions (Pacific Coast Dene and Southwest Dene) as well as various lexical and cultural pieces of evidence, we conclude that key elements of Dene geographic policies were in place during the establishment of the original Proto-Dene language area. This area is the middle Tanana River, where continuous Dene occupation can be reconstructed to about 12,000 years.
Systematic Ahtna place names records have been maintained and refined for over 35 years. The place names lists and maps for the Ahtna language area robust evidence of the aboriginal Ahtna place names network. A large group of Ahtna experts have contributed the place names. Probably 40% of 2145 names have been reported by two or more experts. Ahtna speakers who know the spoken name system do not dispute with one another about details of the name network. The systematic character of the Ahtna place names is reinforced by bilingual place names and similarities in systematic features in neighboring languages such as Dena’ina, Lower Tanana, Tanacross and Upper Tanana. We find bilingual and trilingual versions of shared features, confirmation of the same streams, villages and trail routes. By 1920 as many as 200 Ahtna place names were independently confirmed by numerous travelers, geologists, and other writers or academics. Also we can show that the Ahtna place name system survived as its own orally conveyed name system after the onset of American exploration and American laws in Alaska and have been used throughout the 20th century. Except for a couple of obvious post-historic Ahtna place names, the Ahtna names and trails in use by the Ahtna on the Klutina Lake-Klutina Glacier trail must be very old. We can also note the redundancy and repetition between the various primary linguistic sources on Ahtna and other Alaskan Athabascan place names as well as between the early documentary sources on those languages.
This repeated confirmation of geographic details is the hallmark of shared Dene or Athabascan geographic knowledge–foot travel is facilitated by the memorization of place names and vice versa. This reconfirmation is in fact typical of all Dene or Athabascan languages where there has been systematic geographic research. Some patterned features of Dene geography such as regional patterns in hydronyms, seem to be evidence for very ancient land tenure among the early Athabascan bands. We can state that this verbally transmitted Athabascan place names system is inherently conservative and has provided a specialized order to their landscape and their survival on the landscape. There are many reasons why we can hypothesize that a large portion of Ahtna place names recorded in the 20th century for major streams and prominent landmarks date from antiquity, perhaps even to the original occupation and spread of the Athabascans throughout Copper River Basin.
When there has been long-term consolidated research on place names networks in the Alaska Dene languages we can provide for a flexible template to consolidate rare sources on a place-specific basis. Our book Shem Pete’s Alaska sets the bar for salvage ethnographic research, where we were able to provide virtually definitive information pertaining to Dena’ina sites and land use in areas that have been almost totally abandoned by the Dena’ina through the course of the 20th century. To be sure, the Traditional Cultural Landscape of the Upper Inlet Dena’ina has been profiled in a more comprehensive way than for most North American native tribes.
In Alaska there is increasing recognition of the practical value of the long-term ethono-geographic research program. In the large-scale state-funded project, the Susitna Hydroelectric Project, an ethnogeographic research phase is currently being developed that will 1) analyze the Ahtna and Dena’ina place name networks in impact areas of the dam, lake, road and transmission corridors; 2) will provide descriptions of long-term Dene adaptations to the region especially in specialized knowledge realms such as riverine directions, hydrology and foot travel; 3) the ethnogeography will inform the archaeological reconnaissance work in the project area.