Volume 55 Number 2 Spring 2017 Some give by going to the Missions Some go by giving to the Missions Without both there are no Missions Jesuit Priest Helped Preserve Language for Alaska Natives Fr. Jules Jetté, SJ ~1864-1927 On March 2nd, Diocesan Coordinator for Library and Archives, David Schienle, was invited to attend the Alaska Anthropological Association Conference, which took place in Fairbanks, Alaska. Julius Jetté, SJ, was featured during talks at this year’s AAAC. Fr. Jetté spent a total of 27 years in Alaska, arriving in 1898. While serving in Alaska, he learned the Koyukon Athabaskan language, and began writing a dictionary which was completed by Koyukon Scholar Eliza Jones in 2000, seventy three years after his death. David recalls that one of the conference highlights was when David Kingma, of the Jesuit Oregon Province Archive, presented a biographical profile on the late Fr. Jetté. Another conference presenter, Dr. James Kari, of the Arctic Native Language Center, and editor of the Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary, talked about ANLC’s project to produce a complete annotated Koyukon place name database, partly, by utilizing the Jetté map. The conference intention was to present the new findings but also to honor a legendary missionary in Catholic Alaska history— Fr. Julius Jetté, SJ. In Alaskana Catholica, Fr. Louis Renner, SJ, in 2000, wrote: The body of this great missionary and scholar—who 29 years earlier was granted permission to go to Alaska, “at least for a time, as an experiment, to see whether his health is able to bear the rigors of that region”—was laid to rest in the mission cemetery, where it lies buried in the frozen tundra to this day. The written legacy and the memory of the man, however, live on. His published works and his manuscripts still receive much attention, and older people along the Yukon still remember well and speak fondly of Julius Jetté, known to them as “Father Jetty.” The following article first appeared in the Catholic Anchor, in 2015. It provides a wonderful insight into one of our Alaskan pioneer missionaries-- Fr. Julius Jetté, SJ. I am indebted to Editor, Joel Davidson and to Author, Naomi Klouda for allowing me to share it with you. –Patty Walter

Fr. Jules Jetté, SJ, in Nulato, Alaska

CATHOLIC BISHOP OF NORTHERN ALASKA Special Masses are offered throughout the year for 1312 PEGER ROAD FAIRBANKS, ALASKA 99709 you and your intentions by our Missionary Priests. Phone: 907-374-9532 www.dioceseoffairbanks.org Please pray that God may bless us and our work. By NAOMI KLOUDA REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM UNLIKELY ALASKAN CATHOLIC ANCHOR, JOEL DAVIDSON, EDITOR At the turn of the end of the 19th century, Alaska attracted “Alaska is a thing of the future much more than a thing Catholic priests who embraced the difficult missions of the past,” Jesuit priest Jules Jetté wrote in the 1920s. outlined by their superiors. Jesuit Aloysius Robaut, who “Even of the little that is known, a good part has traveled up the Yukon River and founded the Holy Cross been painted in fanciful colors or inaccurately recorded. Mission in 1887, wrote a harrowing description of life in To take all this for granted and strictly limit myself to the the Alaska mission lands. description of Catholic missionary work in the country “Those winters of seven months with interminable would have been, it seems to me, as setting a real picture nights in houses poorly lit and poorly heated were too in an imaginary frame.” much for those men that psychologically were not equal to Father Jules Jetté (1864-1927) made good on his it. It took a strong physical constitution, a nervous system high standards. As a missionary priest coming to Alaska firmly set on an even keel, a healthy sense of humor, a in 1898, his primary role meant conversions and baptisms character impervious to moodiness and a zeal for the among the Athabaskans, but as a scholar, he wanted to glory of God … To survive, one had to possess them all chronicle the multitudinous complexities of the Koyukon and in a heroic degree.” Athabaskan language and culture. Father Jetté didn’t seem a likely candidate. Born in As a humanitarian who loved the Ten’a people, the 1864 in Montreal, he entered a life of title and privilege. melding of those two vocations meant Father Jetté was His father, Sir Louis-Amable Jetté, served as a judge and uniquely able to bestow a lasting gift on Alaska’s unknown professor before becoming lieutenant governor of Quebec future: An encyclopedic dictionary on the Koyukon — in 1898. His mother, Lady Jetté, founded the order Sisters the most widely spoken Athabascan language in Alaska. of Charity of Montreal. Spoken primarily in the western interior of Alaska, the At 18, Father Jetté entered the Jesuit novitiate, language now has less than 300 speakers and the number wrote his biographer, Jesuit Father Louis Renner, in is steadily falling. Alaskana Catholica. At age 32, Father Jetté was ordained To preserve the language for posterity was no a priest in the Jesuit Order. His studies in the humanities ordinary accomplishment. and natural sciences included a three-year focus in “The Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary is a great advanced mathematics at the best schools in France potlatch of language,” said Alaska anthropologist Richard and Canada. This was hardly typical training ground for Nelson who is perhaps most known as the host the spending seven months of winter’s interminable nights popular public radio series called Encounters. in houses poorly lit and poorly heated. Speaking to the Catholic Anchor, Nelson said Father Jetté’s dictionary is “arrayed with the gifts of words, NATIVE AT HEART each one as precious — and potentially as fleeting — as the breath it is borne on.” Yet soon after arriving in the Yukon River village of Nulato Father Jetté’s dictionary was not meant to be in 1898, he identified with Interior Alaskans, called the merely a work for academics, but aimed at relaying the Ten’a. heart of the Athabaskans. “I am indeed very much like a native on the point His love of the customs and words come through of sensitiveness, and this gives me a wonderful facility in his tidy calligraphy script. to understand them,” he wrote in a 1899 letter to his Yet time itself was against the man, the priest and superiors. “I have only to treat them as I would be treated the scholar. myself.” His dictionary wasn’t published until 102 years Father Jetté set about learning the language. He after he wrote his first Koyukon vocabulary notation. By visited families and accompanied the Ten’a men on fishing then, he’d elicited a lot of help beyond the grave. and hunting trips, keeping his notebook handy to record The result is the Koyukon Athabaskan Language words and stories. In watching women prepare hides, he Dictionary, by Father Jules Jetté and native speaker Eliza recorded minute details such as how many times they Jones, edited by James Kari. scraped skins for drying. He also undertook a census of The Alaskan Shepherd Newsletter Volume 55 Number 2 Spring Page 2 1,300 names, birth dates and genealogy, as well as geographical names. An old sourdough’s story described Jetté as delicate and “five- feet and a little something. He had the appetite of a mouse and his face like a baby angel’s only tougher, you understand, and possessing a heart as big as his two feet.” A fellow priest described him as wearing the poorest clothes and claiming for himself the most uncomfortable room. “He had made up his mind to make himself Indian with the Indians,” wrote Jesuit Father Joseph Perrow. Within four years, Father Jetté was fluent in Koyukon, Renner wrote. An area the size of Minnesota encompasses this group of language speakers. Father Fr. Jules Jetté, SJ, in Nulato, Alaska Jetté took confessions in the language and celebrated Mass, impressing both the Ten’a and visiting outsiders. DOCUMENTING & LIVING A CULTURE Episcopal Archdeacon Hudson Stuck stayed for a service presided by Father Jetté in 1906 in Nulato. Later From 1908 to 1915, he worked on his 2,344-page Koyukon he wrote, “Here for the first and only time, I listened to dictionary, despite limitations such as frozen ink and a white man so fluent and vigorous in the native tongue scarce sheets of paper. Yet, bent over his manuscripts in that he gave one the impression of eloquence.” his 17-by-17 foot log cabin on the banks of the Yukon Abruptly in 1903, after five fruitful years in Alaska, River, he found genuine satisfaction and peace in his he was sent to leave what he called “this blessed soil” for labors, Renner wrote. a return to Canada by his Jesuit superiors. During this time Father Jetté published “He was perplexed by the summons, all the more “L’Organization sociale des Ten’as,” and an 85-page because his health was good,” Renner wrote. article “On Ten’a Folklore,” as well as “Riddles of the Ten’a Obediently, he left Nulato for the Jesuit college of Indians.” St. Boniface in Winnipeg where he “taught mathematics, On July 18, 1916, he became a naturalized wore Indian moccasins and smoked his pipe in class,” American citizen. His work and popularity among the Renner records. Ten’a gave him a connection few failed to notice in a vast As time allowed, he began to compile a short region. He obtained a camera and began to photograph grammar of Koyukon. By 1904 he was back in Alaska people he served, documenting them for posterity. He in time to accompany his beloved Koyukon for their fall processed the glass plates himself, then gave many photos hunt. to people to keep. He’d taken part in all the seasons of “As I arrived in Nulato after a full one year’s people’s lives. absence from my flock, having lost one half of my Indian language and my muscles softened by quiet college life, FINAL YEARS I felt bound to plunge into Indian life again, renew old acquaintances, pick up some strength of limb and some When an accident befell Father Jetté on Oct. 22, 1922, it fluency of speech, and above all keep company with the didn’t seem fatal. On that day in the Yukon River village of native and remind them there’s a God to serve and a Tanana, he lifted a large log he meant to saw into firewood. religion to practice,” Father Jetté wrote. He suffered a hernia just at freeze up when travel was The Alaskan Shepherd Newsletter Volume 55 Number 2 Spring Page 3 nearly impossible. Trails lacked snow. Eleven days passed began at the University of Alaska Fairbanks when the before friends could get Father Jetté to doctors in Nenana, Alaska Native Language Center was founded. Linguist transporting him by boat and dogsled. He was nearly dead Michael Krauss arrived at UAF and began the research when he arrived, Renner wrote, his hernia found to be program for the languages in the 1960s. Eliza Jones, strangulated. Already gangrene had set in. a Koyukon who had already worked extensively with Recuperation meant a year in a Fairbanks hospital written translations, began working with the dictionary and an operation in Seattle, then more recuperation at in 1972. Seattle University. Teaching French, acting as spiritual “Many years ago, I got this bright idea that I could father to the Jesuit community, and writing a partial make a dictionary of our language and I figured I could history of the Alaska mission kept him from returning have it done in two years,” Jones wrote in her introduction to Alaska until 1926. to the Koyukon dictionary. When he finally made it back to Alaska, he planned When Krauss introduced her to Father Jetté’s to assist in St. Joseph’s Mission along the Akulurak River. dictionary manuscript, it was the first Koyukon writing He died eight months later in the now-abandoned village she had seen that she wasn’t directly involved in of Akulurak on Feb. 4, 1927. He is buried there on the producing. frozen tundra, in a grave marked and visited by his Jesuit “I was so fascinated with this manuscript that descendants. had been written before my time. It was like listening to an elder telling me stories of the past. I wanted to re- DICTIONARY’S SURVIVAL transcribe and reorganize the material and combine it with my own knowledge of the language. I have worked Father Jetté didn’t publish his seven-volume dictionary with Father Jetté’s material for so long that it has become during his lifetime partly due to his perfectionist like working with a real live person. I find myself arguing nature. He didn’t consider it finished as he sought with him on some things,” she wrote. deeper understanding of a certain sound or additional Getting the dictionary prepared for publication meaning. When he died, the manuscripts may have would take 23 years. been with him. By 1936, they were certainly in Nulato James Kari, who headed the Alaska Native though, and the Rev. Joseph McElmeel, superior there, Language Center for many years at UAF and edited the placed the manuscript at the disposal of Jesuit Father dictionary, like Krauss, became familiar with the full body Robert Sullivan who was at Nulato doing research for his of Father Jetté’s writings, illustrations and photos, stored doctoral dissertation, called “The Ten’a Food Question.” in the Gonzaga University archives. Father Sullivan told Renner in 1996 that he was given the The 1,118-page dictionary that made its way to manuscript with an aim of publishing it. In 1943 — seven print April 1, 2000, clearly was built on the body of Father years later — the manuscript was mailed to Spokane at the Jetté’s work. Kari remains fascinated with the Jesuit priest’s request of the Jesuit’s Oregon Province archivist Father organization and contributions. The result of nearly 30 William Lyle Davis. years in Alaska left a tremendous trove of opportunities Many years later, Father Wilfrid Schoenberg, an for future scholars, Kari said. In Gonzaga University’s archivist of Jesuit papers at Gonzaga University, rescued archives his written works take up more than nine feet the rest of Father Jetté’s papers from an old shed in Nulato of space. in June 1958. In raw form, Father Jetté’s language manuscript “I heard since, that flooding waters swept the shed contained 2,344 pages. The dictionary contains many and contents down the river,” he told Renner. Fortunately, drawings made by Jetté to illustrate concepts such as the the dictionary was not in it. various designs of Ten’a hunting traps, fish snares and snow goggles. One entry details the Hi’o stick dance and A REDISCOVERED TREASURE its 13 songs.

Alaska Native languages themselves were faced with STORYTELLING SCHOLAR destruction from 1920-1960 when the American education system imposed on villages demanded only Father Jetté’s intimate knowledge of the Koyukon language English be learned and spoken. But an ambitious revival Continued on page 7 The Alaskan Shepherd Newsletter Volume 55 Number 2 Spring Page 4 N O V E N A

To the friends and benefactors of the Missionary Diocese of Fairbanks: On each of the eight days preceding the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on the feast day itself, June 23rd, a Novena will be offered in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and for our benefactors and their intentions. Additionally, a special Mass will be offered, at Sacred Heart Cathedral, on June 23rd. You are invited to submit petitions to be remembered during the novena (on the reverse side.) No offering is necessary. Any received Place Order On Reverse Side will be used to support our ministries here in Northern Alaska. You are also invited to join us on the novena days (June 15-23) inclusive Your first class by praying the following prayer: O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, you said: “Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall stamp donations find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” With confidence in your loving, compassionate Heart, I come to you as are greatly the fountain of every blessing. I ask you to make my heart humble and holy like appreciated. yours. Grant me to live a holy life and to die a happy death. During this novena YES! We collect Box Tops for the I humbly ask also for certain spiritual Catholic Schools of Fairbanks! Mail to: The Shepherd Ladies and temporal favors:_____Most Sacred 1312 Peger Road Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me! Fairbanks, AK 99709 The Alaskan Shepherd Newsletter Volume 55 Number 2 Spring Page 5 Dear Bishop Zielinski, Date______F01 S2017 02 St. Catherine of Siena, Building Update Editor’s Note from Spring 2016: The story of I want to help you and the missionaries ministering Chefornak’s twice-lost church, to fire, is indeed in Northern Alaska to bring the Mass, the Sacraments, a sad one. The original church was built around religious education, and training to the widely-scattered 1952 and lost to fire in 1972. A second St. people of Christ, in Alaska. Please accept this donation to Catherine of Siena was erected by the people, without any outside funding, in the fall of 1975. your General Fund and use it where most needed. In 2004, a devastating fire once more laid claim AMOUNT OF GIFT: $25______$50_____ $100_____ $250_____ to the church. The Diocese has been unable to Other$______fund an effort to rebuild these past twelve years. If donating by check, please make payable to: The people of Chefornak are eager to begin. CATHOLIC BISHOP OF NORTHERN ALASKA or CBNA Sister Kathy Radich, OSF, tells us: “Chefornak is If donating by credit card: NAME AS IT APPEARS ON CREDIT a 100% Catholic community of about 400 people. CARD: ______The village of Chefornak has generously allowed TYPE OF CARD (Visa, Master Card or Discover Cards only): the parishioners of St. Catherine’s to use their VISA___ MASTER CARD___ DISCOVER___ Community Hall. The Hall overflows when used One Time Only:( ) Monthly:( ) Quarterly:( ) Twice A Year: ( ) for parish events and meanwhile village events Annually:( ) are postponed or halted because parishioners *CREDIT CARD NUMBER: (Strictly confidential): occupy the space. In order to have both--valuable ______community events and a sacred worship place-- we must rebuild the church in Chefornak.” EXP DATE: ______PHONE:______2017 Update: As of May 2017, we have raised EMAIL:______$208,527.00 toward the building of the new SIGNATURE: ______St. Catherine of Siena church. Our Diocesan Engineer, Cindy Jacobson, writes: “The Chefornak Tribal Council has donated pilings Dear Bishop Zielinski, Date______F179 S2017 02 and with the ongoing fundraising efforts by I also want to help you rebuild the St. Catherine of Siena the village parishioners and the generosity in Chefornak, Alaska. Please accept this donation to your of Alaskan Shepherd donors, I believe we can install the foundation. As we continue to Church Renewal & Rebuilding Fund and if the project raise funds we can begin to purchase and ship becomes fully funded, please use it where most needed. materials.” AMOUNT OF GIFT: $25______$50_____ $100_____ $250_____ Other$______Thank You I have enclosed a check___OR ___Please use the credit card* information entered above. For your continued prayers (Please write Chefornak on memo line) and support while we begin to build the new church. OUR LADY of the ARCTIC SNOWS TINY --Bishop Zielinski SAINTS CHARM $6 each (See previous page) Qty______Check Enclosed $______Please use the credit card*information entered above.

Please remember my Intentions: ______

The Alaskan Shepherd Newsletter Volume 55 Number 2 Spring Page 6 Where In The World Is Bishop Chad Zielinski?

Fr. Jules Jetté, SJ, in Holy Cross Alaska clearly came from his relationship with the people, Kari said, July 8 & 9: Nativity Parish coupled with his academic abilities. “He took confessions and so he was intimately aware Rancho Sante Fe, CA and yet treated people with profound respect,” he said. July 15 & 16: St. Joseph Church “Jetté was a great genius of his time. Probably the greatest linguistic scholar of any person in his career and the richest Fremont, CA of anyone since him.” September 23 & 24: Our Lady of Mercy The most visible revelation about Father Jetté’s Point Richmond, CA character is handed down through his handwriting — tidy, tiny, flowing lines. Bishop Chad Zielinski will visit the listed parishes--this Among the difficulties of being a scholar in the far summer and fall--to speak about the great challenges north were a shortage of paper and the difficulty of frozen of ministering within the most northern Diocese of the ink. Father Jetté maximized each page with his miniscule United States. He will speak particularly about having handwriting. only 15 priests and the areas they must cover. Because Perhaps the root of his life’s work was a love for of the vast size of the state, people in the village/ conversation and stories, like the Ten’a he found. One bush communities sometimes do not see a priest for December day in 1901, he traveled by dog team with weeks at a time. Our villages have no connecting road Koyukon companions, Nelorotemel and Tlitsona. Father system and can only be reached by plane. The Catholic Jetté thought to stop and have a meal, perhaps visit for a Diocese of Fairbanks is the largest in the country in while. geographical terms. It stretches from Tok, near the “And what are you thinking about?” Nelorotemel Canadian border, all the way across the state to Little asked him. “Do you think the days are long enough at this Diomede near the border with Russia; from Barrow time of year for us to spare one hour of daylight for cooking on the coast of the Arctic Ocean to Chefornak south a meal?” of Nelson Island it encompasses 409,849 square miles. Nelorotemel softened that by adding he thought of Within its boundaries the diocese is home to 11,000 Father Jetté as more Ten’a than white man. “And there is no Catholics, 4,000 families, out of a general population Indian who would think of taking his meal now.” of 165,500. Fairbanks is also the country’s only Father Jetté got his point and they traveled on. When fully missionary Catholic diocese, falling under the they finally quit for the day, they fixed a fire and ate. Then “Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples” the it was time to talk, time for stories. Church’s international missionary wing. The diocese “After supper a long and interesting conversation is among the poorest in the nation. Only eight of its 46 parishes and missions are self-supporting. The ensued, for a life without talking is not life to a Ten’a, and viability of these parishes depends in large measure on we had kept a forced silence the whole day long,” Father donors from across the country and around the world. Jetté wrote. --Naomi Klouda The Alaskan Shepherd Newsletter Volume 55 Number 2 Spring Page 7 Speak Lord, Your Servant is Listening Dr. Eliza Jones By ROBERT HANNON REPRINTED FROM ALASKA CATHOLIC Photo By: David Schienle SUMMER 2013 ISSUE

Dr. Eliza Jones naturally frames a discussion about her native language with a story. In her Athabaskan culture, she says, to know a name of a place is often to know the story behind it. A hill named “Pelvic Bone Point” carries a tale about a man who climbed it to test himself against a bear with a spear; some time later, the only remains were a human pelvic bone at the point of the hill. Eliza Jones is a respected elder and Parish Administrator at St. Patrick in the village of Koyukuk, situated at the confluence of the Yukon and Koyukuk rivers. To her region, which embraces eight village parishes in the Central Yukon, she is an active member of the regional and diocesan pastoral councils, where her insightful observations and suggestions help guide diocesan policies in the area. However, it is her work as the co-author of Koyukon Athabaskan challenges of translation in 1963 when Wycliffe Bible missionaries sought Dictionary that has elevated her name her help in translating scripture into Athabaskan. One of the fruits from to a wider community. The hefty 11 Eliza and others’ work are the prayers in her Native language used in the hundred-plus-page tome is a celebrated parishes in her region. She says she feels an intimacy with the Lord when work of scholarship. Its foundation lies she prays in her Native tongue. in the journals of Jesuit missionary priest “There is a difference in how you feel when you pray in Denaakk’e. and scholar Jules Jetté. Eliza updated and It is closer to your heart somehow. It is speaking from your soul to God. expanded his writings. Her many years of For me it is more meaningful.” work on the dictionary and her service She isn’t alone. Several years ago, Eliza was the lector at a special in the Alaska Native Languages Center at Mass in honor of Alaska Natives that was celebrated in Fairbanks. She read the University of Alaska Fairbanks led the her passage in Athabaskan. At the reception following Mass a respected university to award her an honorary Ph.D leader from another village approached her to tell her how happy her in 1990. reading had made him. He said it was beautiful. Robert Ruzicka, a brother in the “A lot of people today don’t speak the native language, but they Order of Franciscan Friars, coordinates the like to hear it prayed. They like to hear us pray in our native language Central Yukon’s eight Catholic parishes. He because there is something spiritual when they hear it.” says Eliza bridges generations and cultures. She says she’s fortunate to bridge cultures. Eliza’s lived example offers villagers a “I always feel fortunate that I’m rooted in my Native spirituality model of how to negotiate modern life with and the Church. Somehow, I can combine it together. For me there isn’t village ways, “Eliza’s service to her home a conflict between Native belief and the Catholic Faith.” village has been so special,” Bro. Bob says, “it can be expressed in ‘Not me Lord, but You come to Your people.’” Eliza first encountered the The Alaskan Shepherd Newsletter Volume 55 Number 2 Spring Page 8