Héen Aawashaayi Shaawat / Marrying the Water The Tlingit, the Tagish, and the Making of Place Eleanor Ruth Hayman Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades an der Fakultät für Geowissenschaften der Ludwig‐Maximilians‐Universität München Vorgelegt von Eleanor Ruth Hayman Aus Wendover, United Kingdom Ebersberg 2018 Erstgutachter: Professor Dr. Ralf Ludwig Zweitgutachter: Professor Dr. Markus Vogt Tag des Antrags auf Zulassung: 9 Januar, 2018 Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 9 Mai, 2018 2 For Piers, Hugo, Madeleine, and Bertille who run with the wolves 3 Table of Contents Table of Figures 8 Executive Summary 11 Abstract 17 A Preface 18 B Acknowledgements 23 C Notes 27 C.1 Notes on the Tlingit language 27 C.2 Notes on accessing the digital maps 30 C.3 Notes on capitalisation choices 31 C.4 Notes on the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach of this thesis (post-colonial and decolonial positionings, and the more-than-human) 32 C.5 Notes on the radio interviews (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) 34 D Glossary of terms 35 1. Introduction 42 2. Literature Review 52 2.1 Postcolonialism and decolonialism; theory, alliances, spectrums, and complexity in the Anthopocene(s) 60 2.2 Decolonising Water 61 2.3 Water Ethics – introducing a new water culture and a new water consciousness? 63 2.4 The Social Life of Water, and Cultural Flows 65 2.5 Storytelling Water 67 2.6 Transformative Science (the Great Transformation) and intersections with Narrative Theory and Method: literacy biases, and current debates in Eurocentric Science 69 2.7 Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) 71 2.8 Legal anthropology 73 2.9 The Yukon River Watershed: hydrological and geological characteristics 76 4 2.10 Settler colonialism and white supremacy from a Tlingit and Tagish perspective 84 2.11 Waters, genders and the practice of Tlingit and Tagish water knowledges 87 2.12 (Critical) Environmental hermeneutics and perspectivism 88 2.13 Ethnopysiography, toponyms and biocultural diversity 92 2.14 (Eco)-phenomenology 95 2.15 Critical cartography, deep mapping, and weaponising maps 97 2.16 Decolonising hybrid methodologies 98 2.17 Relevancy of approach and practical application for current water(shed) management and water conservation issues 104 3. Overview of chapters 107 3.1 Part One – Ontologies of Water: Aquatic Intersections (Chapters 4 & 5) 107 3.2 Part Two – Decolonising the Hydrological Imaginary (Chapters 6 & 7) 107 3.3 Part Three – Applications: Counter-Mapping, and the Tlingit and Tagish Living Water Ethic (Chapters 8, 9 & 10) 107 4. Héen Kas’él’ti Xo̱ o : Among the Ragged Lakes 108 4.1 Introduction 108 4.2 Tlingit and Tagish Culture, and Tlingit Language 110 4.3 Indigenous women and feminism: Decolonizing Feminist Political Ecology? 113 4.4 Modern Water 117 4.5 Challenging the dominant water story: Storytelling Water North of the Future 118 4.6 Narrative Ecologies 122 4.7 Slow violence and slow activism? 125 4.8 Conclusion 127 5. Narrative Ecologies and Ecological Narratives: Bodies, Fluids, Flows and Circulations 129 5.1 Introduction 129 5.2 Carcross/Tagish First Nation (CTFN) 130 5.3 Rewriting enduring grammar 131 5.4 Bodies - Bodily fluids – Flows - Circulations 133 5 5.5 Fluids – Flows – Circulations 140 5.6 Metaphors we live by? 144 5.7 Bodily Circulations and Symbols 148 5.8 Feral Waters, Fluid Spaces, Water as Collaborator 149 5.9 Rejecting/Resisting tight geographies 152 5.10 Conclusion 153 6. Decolonising Water – Decolonising Personhood – Decolonising Knowledge 154 7. Decolonisng the Anthropocene. Whose Anthropocene is it? 164 7.1 Introduction 164 7.2 A Tlingit and a Tagish Voice 165 7.3 Glacial time: who gets to redefine speed? 166 7.4 What do glaciers do? Mystery and uncertainty 168 7.5 Conclusion 170 8. A deep chart - the aqua‐face of deep mapping 171 8.1 Introduction 171 8.2 Critical Cartography and Google Earth 173 8.3 Collaborative, ethnographic water research with the inland Tlingit and Tagish peoples 176 8.4 Critiques and approach to a deep chart via the Google Earth platform 177 8.5 A collection of violences 184 8.6 Rival geo‐locational baselines 185 8.7 Conclusion 189 9. I yá.axch´age? / Can you hear it? 191 9.1 Introduction 191 9.2 Carcross/Tagish First Nation (CTFN) 194 9.3 Narrative, environment (water) and virtue ethics 195 9.4 A daa tutan i yux´atangee, yáa át wooné and the art of listening 197 9.5 Sensory geographies and the ethnography of sound 203 6 9.6 Crow’s critical role in shaping the Tlingit/Tagish hydrological imaginary and Tlingit/Tagish identity with water 206 9.7 Shuka, and Rosalind Hursthouse’s new virtue of ‘respect for nature’ or ‘being rightly oriented towards nature’ 209 9.8 Aquacentrism 210 9.9 Deep charting and deep listening 212 9.10 Conclusion 215 10. Carcross/Tagish First Nation Water Declaration (working draft) 216 11. Conclusion 224 12. Bibliography 227 Appendices 254 Appendix A: Tlingit and Tagish traditional oral narratives 254 Appendix B: QR codes and dropbox links to the digital maps 270 Appendix C: Yukon Scientist & Explorer’s Licence 2014 273 Appendix D: Watersampling location map and raw data 275 Appendix E: Interviewee list 2013, 2014 279 Appendix F: CTFN Traditional Knowledge Prior Informed Consent Form 2013 281 Appendix G: CTFN Traditional Knowledge Policy 283 7 Table of Figures Figure 1: Location of the Yukon Territory, Canada 18 Figure 2: CTFNs traditional territory straddles the Yukon Territory and British Columbia (pink boundary) 20 Figure 3: Carcross/Tagish First Nation inland Tlingit and Tagish community consultants Colleen James / G̱ooch Tláa (Daḵlʼaweidí Clan of the Wolf moiety) and Mark Wedge / Aan Gooshú (Deisheetaan Clan of the Crow moiety) in the Yukon Territory, Canada (left), and coastal Tlingit Elder David Katzeek / Kingeisti (Shangukeidi Clan of Klukwan, Eagle moiety), in Alaska, United States (right). Photos: Eleanor Hayman 26 Figure 4: Yukon Territory Indigenous languages (Note the Tagish and Tlingit language regions in light pink and brown) 28 Figure 5: Indigenous Peoples and Languages of the circumpolar north and Yukon River watershed. (University of Alaska) 29 Figure 6: Shaanakheeni (water coming from the mountains)/ Chʼaḵúx ̱ Anax ̱ Dul.adi Yé (Bennett Lake). Southern Yukon Lakes – the headwaters of the Yukon River. Looking West, August 2012. Photo: Eleanor Hayman 76 Figure 7: One of the last advances of the Late Wisconsinan McConnell glaciation. Notice the location of Carcross and Bennett Lake (Bond 2004) 77 Figure 8: Llewellyn glacier in far background. Photo taken from Atlin road looking south-west. August 2016. Photo: Eleanor Hayman 78 Figure 9: Location of Tulsequah and Llewellyn glaciers and Juneau Icefield, in John J. Clague, Johannes Koch and Marten Geertsema (2010) 79 Figure 10: Map of north-western North America. Minor and major volcanoes of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province (Wiki 2016) 81 Figure 11: Yat’aayi heen (Warm Springs) south of Atlin, looking east towards the Codilleran volcanic field. Ajacent to the west is the Teslin Tlingit Council 8 sign for Yat’aayi Heen Geeyi (Warm Bay; a bay in Atlin Lake). Photo: Eleanor Hayman, August 2016 82 Figure 12: USGS Landsat surface water temperature comparative maps 103 Figure 13: Yukon River Watershed counter-map. Copyright Eleanor Hayman 110 Figure 14: Pictograph of Tlingit canoe with eight paddlers. Reproduction drawn by Ukjese van Kampen (2012:183). Ocre on rock. 137 Figure 15: 1880s photograph by Miller-Chase, labelled as ‘Miners on the Yukon’. (PO049-24. Sealaska Heritage Institute Archives). 138 Figure 16: Tlingit designed (war) canoes at the Teslin Tlingit Celebration 2013. As a tourist had recently lost their life on Teslin Lake, respect and recognition for the body meant that no canoes were paddled, no one swam in the lake, and no water was used in any way. Photo: Eleanor Hayman 2013. 138 Figure 17: Toponym counter-map. Copyright Eleanor Hayman 141 Figure 18: Tlingit royal armour made from slats of yew wood bound together. Used for going to battle against the Tree People, as well as other humans. (See coastal Tlingit Elder Elaine Abraham’s presentation on the same topic). 155 Figure 19: Deep chart Google Earth kmz private file: Once the file is opened intellectual property and copyright stipulations are shown in a banner above CTFNs traditional territory 178 Figure 20: Screenshot of the Tlingit language audio file integrated into the Tlingit and Tagish toponym table with descriptions and photographs. Users can see the location of the place name in 3D format, see the written Tlingit toponym with English language translation and description, and hear the pronunciation of that Tlingit toponym in Tlingit. 179 Figure 21: Example of baseline water quality sampling in correlation with Tlingit and Tagish toponyms (2014). Photographs of the toponym are visual when scrolling down on the water quality table 180 9 Figure 22: Two time-lapse animated videos of ice break-ups were generated by downloading free online images courtesy of USGS Landsat satellite (path 58, row 18) which passes over this region every 16 days. Satellite images from 1991 and 1997 were two years with relatively cloud free images, so these were sequenced with a focus on the Tagish narrows. 181 Figure 23: The ArcGIS generated poster for “Tagish John’s” 1887 map is contrasted with coastal Tlingit Chief Kohklux with Tu-eek and Ḵaatchxixch (his wives) map, and a remotely sensed (2015) outline of the headwaters of the Yukon River – the Southern Yukon Lakes. Copyright Eleanor Hayman 188 Figure 24: The Teslin Tlingit