A HISTOLOGY of DENE TEXTUALIZED ORATURE By
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TELLING ANIMALS: A HISTOLOGY OF DENE TEXTUALIZED ORATURE by JASMINE RACHAEL SPENCER A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) July 2017 © Jasmine Rachael Spencer, 2017 ii Abstract In this dissertation, I create an interpretive framework based on deictic constructions to analyze Dene/Athabaskan poetics in four print collections of dual-language textualized orature— Denesułine/Chipewyan (Alberta), Dena’ina/Tanaina (Alaska), Dene Dháh/South Slavey (Alberta), and Diné Bizaad/Navajo (Southwest). Using this framework, I focus on the epistemological power of animals via the critical metaphor of animal tissue (muscle, bone, blood, and breath)—thus “histology.” My Introduction describes my framework. Chapter two, “‘Grandson, / This is meat’: Wolf and Caribou on How to Live in This Is What They Say,” focuses on ɂɛtθén, the word for both “meat” and “caribou,” and the homophonic relationship between meat and caribou. Chapter three, “‘I will be popular with the Campfire People, so ha, ha, ha’: Porcupine and Lynx on How to Love in K’tl’egh’i Sukdu/A Dena’ina Legacy,” on k’etch eltani, the prophetic practice of true belief. Chapter four, “‘What will you do now?’: Wolverine and Wolf on How to Die in ‘The Man Who Sought a Song,’” told by Elisse Ahnassay, on the (a)historical function of wodih, “news,” an oral genre that shapes the future. Chapter five, “‘If it floats, we will all live forever’: Coyote and Badger on How to Live Again in Diné Bahane’: The Navajo Creation Story,” on the reincarnational exchange figured by niłch’i bii’ sizinii, the inner wind. My Conclusion, “Histologies,” considers how the above concepts correspond to: flesh (ɂɛtθén), mind (k’etch eltani), breath (niłch’i bii’ sizinii), and bone (wodih): an animal that is a dream, a dream that is an animal. One of the primary ideas in my dissertation is the concept of narrative revitalization, which I define as cognate to and coeval with community practices of language revitalization, by comparing our conditions for who we are, how much space we believe ourselves to share, and how much time we have to share it in. iii Lay Abstract In my Introduction, I offer a language-based interpretive framework for animal narratives in Dene/Athabaskan languages Denesułine/Chipewyan, Dena’ina/Tanaina, Dene Dháh/South Slavey, and Diné Bizaad/Navajo, and in English. Chapter two, “‘Grandson, / This is meat’: Wolf and Caribou on How to Live in This Is What They Say,” focuses on ɂɛtθén, the word for both “meat” and “caribou.” Three, “‘I will be popular with the Campfire People, so ha, ha, ha’: Porcupine and Lynx on How to Love in K’tl’egh’i Sukdu/A Dena’ina Legacy,” on k’etch eltani, prophecy and belief. Four, “‘What will you do now?’: Wolverine and Wolf on How to Die in ‘The Man Who Sought a Song,’” told by Elisse Ahnassay, on wodih, “news.” Five, “‘If it floats, we will all live forever’: Coyote and Badger on How to Live Again in Diné Bahane’: The Navajo Creation Story,” on niłch’i bii’ sizinii, the inner wind. My Conclusion compares these concepts. iv Preface Chapter Two will be published in the form of a book chapter as “‘Grandson, / this is meat’: Hunting Metonymy in François Mandeville’s This Is What They Say” in Activating the Heart: Storytelling, Knowledge, Sharing, and Relationship, with the permission of the publisher, Wilfrid Laurier University Press. v Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………ii Lay Abstract…………………………...…………………………………………………………iii Preface……………………………………………………………………………………………iv Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………….v List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………….vii List of Figures………………………………………………………………………...…………viii Acknowledgements………………………………...……………………………………………..ix Dedication……………………………………………………………………………………….xiii Chapter One: Introduction—“Histories”…………………….………………..…………………..1 Chapter Two: “‘Grandson, / This is meat’: Wolf and Caribou on How to Live in This Is What They Say”………………………………………………………………………………………...53 Chapter Three: “‘I will be popular with the Campfire People, so ha, ha, ha’: Porcupine and Lynx on How to Love in K’tl’egh’i Sukdu/A Dena’ina Legacy”………………………………………85 Chapter Four: “‘What will you do now?’: Wolverine and Wolf on How to Die in ‘The Man Who Sought a Song,’” told by Elisse Ahnassay………………………………….…………………..110 Chapter Five: “‘If it floats, we will all live forever’: Coyote and Badger on How to Live Again in Diné Bahane’: The Navajo Creation Story”……………………………………………………147 Chapter Six: Conclusion—“Histologies”……………………...………………..……………...221 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………257 Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………...280 A………………………………………………………………………………………...280 B………………………………………………………………………………………...296 vi C………………………………………………………………………………………...308 D………………………………………………………………………………………...367 vii List of Tables Table 4.1: Soundscape………………………………………………………………………….122 Table 5.1: Summary of Animacy Hierarchy in Navajo………………………………………...175 Table 5.2: Animacy, Greimas, Sacred Mountains……………………………………………...212 Table A.1: Animals Included in Mandeville’s Story Cycle…………………………………….282 Table C.1: Names of Storytellers in Wolverine Myths and Visions…….………………………308 Table C.2: Evidentials and Viewpoint………………………………………………………….346 Table C.3: Deictic Field Actors Using Hanks and Rice………………………………………..352 viii List of Figures Figure 2.1: Frame Metonymy……………………………………………………………………63 Figure 2.2: Frame Metonymy—ɂɛtθén (Caribou/Meat)…………………………………………79 Figure 5.1: “Four Sacred Mountains of the Dinétah” (Morris 2014); reprinted with permission of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center………………………………………………………159 Figure 5.2: “Great Seal of the Navajo Nation” (Hawkins 2013); Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, 2013…………………………………………...161 Figure 5.3: The Verb Wheel (Fernald et al. 2011); permission to reprint on request...………...162 Figure 5.4: Cover image from Leading the Way: The Wisdom of the Navajo People 14.10 (2016): 25-27; permission to reprint requested…………………………………………………………163 Figure 5.5: “West Mountain” (Begay 1967); reprinted with permission of the Museum of Northern Arizona……………………………………………………………………………….164 Figure 5.6: Greimas Square (EmmaSofia515 2010); public domain…………………………...167 Figure 5.7: Greimas Square and the Sacred Mountains………………………………………...168 Figure 5.8: Greimas Coordinates in the Navajo System………………………………………..169 Figure 5.9: Reversals from Leading the Way: The Wisdom of the Navajo People 14.10 (2016): 25-27; permission to reprint requested…………………………………………………………189 Figure 5.10: Corn pollen on a Corn Tassel (Spedona 2007); Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, 2007…………………………………………...202 Figure 5.11: Tulip Stamen Tip with Glittering Pollen (Harrison 2009); Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, 2009………………………………..203 ix Acknowledgements This project was funded by a three-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (2011-2014) and by the University of British Columbia; it is important to state that UBC is situated on unceded Musqueam territory. I was further assisted in writing this dissertation with the funding provided by the Navajo Language Academy/Diné Bizaad Naalkaaah (NLA/DBN) to attend the Institute on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang) 2016 in Fairbanks, Alaska. The people who have made this project possible are many—there are the storytellers, listeners, interpreters, transcriptors, translators, editors, publishers, readers, and commenters. There are the animals, too. Anything good in any of my chapters is theirs, and those whom I thank here. At the University of Victoria, Leslie Saxon is to be thanked above all, for her outstanding past, present, and future scholarship and mentorship. Adar Anisman, John Tucker, Trish Baer and her husband Richard, Iain Higgins, and Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins are also wonderful colleagues. At the University of British Columbia, my dissertation committee has made this project possible. Margery Fee is a scholar and mentor whom I can never thank enough. Her conviction, tolerance, humor, and breadth and depth of knowledge are unparalleled. I am proud to work with her and very grateful for her contributions to the field of Indigenous literary studies. Thank you, Margery, for being such an inspiring interlocutor. You have also given me many books, all of which I treasure. And you have read so much of my writing in so many forms! Your gift of time is better than gems. Barbara Dancygier and Patrick Moore have made it possible for me to draw upon cognitive-linguistic theory and ethnopoetics for my language-focused approach, and I am deeply grateful for their indispensible support. Barbara, your gift of a copy of Diné Bahane’ helped to form the direction of my project and, I hope, will help to shape the rest of my life. Pat’s x time and thought over the years, as we have discussed Dene stories and ethics, is a kind and ever- helpful gift, and I will always remember it. Pat’s archive of Wolverine stories is extremely special; thank you, Pat, for allowing me to have a listen—I was delighted. Also at UBC, Deena Rymhs, Bo Earle, Boż ena Karwowska, and Martina Volfová are wonderful colleagues. The Navajo Language Academy is a place where I can learn in a very real way. Irene Silentman, Lorene Legah (Diné College), Ellavina Tsosie Perkins, and Leroy Morgan: