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V OLUME 16, ISSUE 8 S EPTEMBER 2011
News from the Kanatak Tribal Council !"#!$%&'(!#&!##)%*& Letter from President 2 ***Tribal council nomination forms were mailed on Septem- ber 19th. Please look for yours in the mail. Please call the of- Kanatak History 3 fice if you do not receive your ballot by September 26th. Re- member to vote for 2 of the nominees! Alaska Native History 4
Alutiiq Language 5 ***Over 200 salmon fillets were sent out to the Tribe. Thank you Shawn Shanigan for getting the fish out to the members Native Body & Soul 6 and again we thank you, your family and friends for catching Language Extinction Tribal Happenings 7 and cleaning the salmon! The Tribe and the Council appreciate you! Kanatak Programs 8
***Upcoming Tribal Council Meetings: Struttin’ our Stuff 9 -Sunday, September 25, 2011 at noon AKDT/4pm EDT Right-Clicked photos 10 - Sunday, October 9, 2011 at noon AKDT/4pm EDT Kanatak Kids 11
***Annual Meeting and Contact Info 12 Election: -Sunday, October 23, 2011 at noon AKDT/4pm EDT All tribal members are invited to attend at the of- fice in Wasilla. The meeting will also Remember to vote! be held via teleconference. Vote for 2. Call in number for ALL meetings: 1-866-895-5510 Passcode: 868521#
Kanatak Election Committee at work. N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 2 Letter from the Kanatak Tribal Council President
The fall season is upon us and we are preparing to hold our first election since the formation of our current council in December 2010. This election is to fill two seats currently held by Kathrine Lakoduk and Henry Foshey, both of whom were appointed to their current posts.
Coming up between October and November is our annual meeting, the AFN Convention, the BIA Providers Conference and the due process hear- ing for Ronalda Olivera, Shawn Olivera, Kathy Hansen, Christina Ramirez and Issac Ramirez.
Our Kanatak Election Committee has been meeting regularly and a deci- sion was made and approved by the Tribal Council to open a separate PO Box that will specifically be used only for election ballots. This new PO Box is temporary, and is in Pennsylvania since that is where the election committee members reside. When you look at your ballot return enve- lopes, you will see the address is for the return PO Box in Pennsylva- nia. The Election Committee members will collect the ballots and hand de- liver them to the tribal council at the annual meeting held in October.
Members that have project or program ideas are encouraged to contact Tess McGowan to get more information as to how to go about presenting these ideas to the council. If you have a need or a question, please call the Kana- tak tribal office at (907)357-5991 for more information. Don’t forget to vote!
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Kanatak Village in winter, 1920’s. N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 2 Kanatak, Historically Speaking... In 1920, Kanatak reemerged to the forefront of oil exploration, when Congress passed the Mineral Leasing Act, which reopened previously withdrawn lands. According to one observer of the industry, "When Congress passed a law prohibiting entry on Alaska oil-lease lands. . . [it] proved to be a blessing in disguise, because when Congress changed its mind again in 1920, and passed a new bill permitting oil-land development under certain prescribed conditions, interest was immediately stimulated in Alaskan oil prospects." Accordingly, "This new interest would probably never have taken place without the temporary probation." The new law allowed prospectors to lease oil and gas land, setting aside the old requirement of staking the land for mineral claims and working it each year. Whether it was a twenty-one-year-old from Seattle or Rock- efeller himself, anyone who filed an oil lease application in the federal land office and paid a $10 filing fee, plus a rental fee of twenty-five cents an acre, received an exclusive right to the petroleum under that land for ten years. With what the Seattle Post-Intelligencer exclaimed "the unlocking of the oil fields of Alaska," sea- soned gold miners, bankers and bootleggers, as well of some of the biggest oil companies in the nation, joined the "oil rush" to Cold Bay, and the near ghost town of Kanatak was resurrected. By 1921, geologists were again dispatched to the area, while the vicinity of Kanatak was the scene of concen- trated activity. From a small Native village, Kanatak grew into a well laid out American small town of two busy streets boasting a num- ber of boom town businesses—hotels, restau- rants, stores, and taverns. According to one ob- server, "three hundred people lived in Kanatak's environs at its height of prosperity." Lumber, drilling equipment, crawler-type trac- tors were barged north and brought onto the beach, and new arrivals were immediately put to work. The first task at hand: to build a road Barabara (Aleut = ulax), the traditional subterranean winter home seventeen miles long from Kanatak, up through the mountain pass, and over to the spot above the southeast corner of Becharof Lake where the drilling was projected. One of those new Horse races on the beach in Kanatak, 1923. arrivals was Benjamin A. Grier who managed the Ray C. Larson lumber yard in Kanatak from 1923 to 1924. Grier, who lived in many parts of Alaska and even served on the Alaska Territorial Legislature in 1925 and 1927, was no shrinking violet, and even he noted how tough it was to live in Cold Bay. For enter- tainment, miners raced the only two horses in town against each other. According to Grier, "these damned horses tried to commit suicide. [And] I don't blame them!"
Kanatak Connection Through Memories!
Frieda Shanigan Byars remembers: I recall the sick horses that the oil company abandoned without any food and we did not know what to feed them. My Mom decided we would take care of them. She helped us bring them back to good health by feeding them seaweed and old soft potatoes that had been buried in the sand (for preservation) from the year before. Everyday we tended those poor sick horses. When they were well again, Dad taught us to ride them bareback. Mine was Snake Eye, and my younger brother and sister had Blue Boy and Silveretta. Dad trained those horses to walk around and around our large house. One even liked to open the door and come into the windbreak. Then someone from the oil company returned to the village and wanted to take the horses away. N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 4 Alaska Native History or How Did We Get Here? Second in importance to the conversion of Native Alaskans was their education. On the founding of the first Russian colony on Kodiak Island in 1784, a school as well as a church was immediately established. Signifi- cantly, the school, supported by the Russian American Company, was bilingual, with studies in Russian and Aleut/Alutiiq. Bilingualism and the close connection between commerce and education were to be hallmarks of the educational system throughout the Russian American era and well into the American period. Undoubtedly the greatest educator in Russian America was Father Ioann Veniaminov, later Bishop Innokentii, who devised an alphabet for the Aleut language, expanded the educational system, and insisted that priests learn Native languages and customs. In 1841, he established the ecclesiastical seminary at Novoarkhangelsk (Sitka), which included coursework in Latin, trigonometry, navigation, medicine, and six years of Native languages. Local parish schools offered reading, writing, and arithmetic, Biblical history, penmanship, music, and, at times, as many as four languages simultaneously: Russian, Old Church Slavonic, Eng- lish, and a Native language. Indeed, the stories of the many remarkable graduates of the Church system, mostly Creoles like the priest Iakov Netsvetov and the explorer-soldier Alexander Kashevarov, are among the most moving in the history of Russian America. Among the most enduring legacies of Russian America are the works written and published in Native Alaskan languages: translations of Christian texts, dictionaries of Native words, grammars, primers, and prayer books. Soon after the founding of Russian America, attempts were made to learn Native languages. As early as 1805 Nikolai Resanov of the Russian American Company compiled a dictionary of some 1200 words in six Native Alaskan languages. The greatest proponent of multilingualism was Father Ioann Veniaminov. He created an alphabet for the Aleut language, and, with the help of the Aleut Toien (Chief) Ivan Pan'kov, wrote and published in 1834 an Aleut catechism, the first book published in an Alaskan Native language. As Bishop Innokentii, Veniaminov encouraged the study of Tlingit and a variety of Aleut-Eskimo dialects such as Atkan and Central Yup'ik, most successfully through his Creole protege, the priest Iakov Netsvetov. The latter, in turn, trained other Native and Creole priests such as Innokentii Shaiashnikov and Lavrentii Salamatov, who contin- ued his work well into the American period. With the American purchase of Alaska in 1867, the understanding of Native languages declined, although notable efforts to translate Tlingit were made. Ironically, in the sunset of Russian influence in Alaska, more translations (about fifteen) were published than in the "Golden Age" of the 1830s - 1860s (about eight), but many of these were reis- sues of earlier pioneering studies. The Russian American tradition of bilingualism is often contrasted with the American system, dominated by the Presbyterian minister Sheldon Jackson. Appointed the first Federal superintendent for public instruc- tion in 1885, Jackson decreed that only English could be taught at schools. His antagonism toward the "Greek" church prevented his rec- ognizing the unusual success of the bilingual Russian program, whose effects are still evident today.
Russian and Aleut/Alutiiq books N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 5 The Alutiiq Language The Alutiiq language (also called Sugpiak, Sugpiaq, Pacific Gulf Yupik, Chugach, Koniag-Chugach, Suk, Sugcestun) is a close relative to the Central Alaskan Yupik language spoken in the western and southwestern Alaska , but is considered a distinct language. It has two major dialects: • !"#$%&'()*+$$,-'./"01#'"#'+21'*//13'/%3+'"4'+21'()%.0%'51#$#.*)%'%#6'"#'!"6$%0'7.)%#68'%)."'./"01#'"#' Afognak Island before it was deserted in the wake of the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. • Chugach Alutiiq: spoken on the Kenai Peninsula and in Prince William Sound. About 400 of the Alutiiq population of 3,000 speak the Alutiiq language. Alutiiq communities are currently in the process of revitalizing their language. In 2010 the high school in Kodiak responded to requests from stu- dents and agreed to teach the Alutiiq language. The Kodiak dialect of the language was only spoken by about 50 persons, all of them elderly, and the dialect was in danger of being lost entirely. In addition, the Alutiiq Mu- seum in Kodiak is recording the Alutiiq language in an extensive project designed to increase knowledge of Alutiiq. The Alutiiq Living Words project involves fluent Kodiak Elders, semi-fluent second language speak- ers, and other interested community members. The project began in the summer of 2007 and will run through the summer of 2010.
The decline of the Alutiiq language did not begin, as many would assume, with the arrival of Russian fur trad- ers and explorers. Many Alutiiq men and women learned Russian in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but most Native families continued to use Alutiiq in daily life. The Russian Orthodox Church incor- porated Native languages into their mission, rather than enforce a Russian-only policy. Those who were bilin- gual and also educated in Russian church schools were among the first to help Alutiiq become a written lan- guage. This first form of written Alutiiq was in the Cyrillic alphabet. Most of these texts were translations of church texts, such as the Lord's Prayer and the Gospel of St. Matthew. After Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, Alutiiq villages became trilingual, with Alutiiq, English, and Russian spoken in different social spheres. While children often spoke Alutiiq at home, and Russian and Alutiiq in Russian Orthodox services, American missionary and government schools instituted a harsh English- only policy, often enforced with corporal punishment. These students, punished and shamed for speaking their Native tongue, would be the first generation who did not teach Alutiiq to their children. This was a decision 9%.16'"#')":18'/%31#+.';%#+16'+"'/3"+1<+'+21$3'<2$)631#'43"='+21'/%$#'+21>'.*441316'%.'+21>'&31;'*/?'7#'+21'1%3)>' twentieth century, it was widely believed that since English was the language of the dominant American socie- ty, it was the only language children should learn. School teachers believed in the pervasive "kill the Indian, save the man" ideology, which encouraged assimilation over extinction for Native children in the United States. In the early to mid 1900's, adults would often talk to each other in Alutiiq when visiting, but only in relaxed, non-public settings. Most Alutiiq people be- tween the ages of 40 and 60 years old who were children during that era, can understand Alutiiq but cannot speak it. From the turn of the century until about 1960, Native languages around Alaska were severely suppressed, and the Alutiiq people of southwest Alaska were among the hardest hit. By 1982, when the Alaska Native Lan- guage Center published the "Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska" map, there were an estimated 900 speakers of Alutiiq in all dialects, and there were no villages where Alutiiq was being taught to children. Twelve years later, 450 speakers were estimated to be living. By 2003 on the Kodi- ak Archapelago, a survey by the Alutiiq Museum estimated only 50 speak- ers of the Koniag dialect, with the youngest speaker being 55 years old. It is projected that if nothing is done to save the Alutiiq language, within 15 years, there will be few or even no speakers left. N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 6 Keeping Body and Soul Together, the Native Way So, why does it matter? Why do folks of Alutiiq descent care about the potential death of their language? Language defines a culture, through the people who speak it and what it allows speakers to say. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea may not translate precisely into another language. For example, in the traditional Alutiiq language, the word for drum and music are the same - cauyaq. This duplication illustrates the importance of drums to traditional Alutiiq music. Although Alutiiqs also perform with rattles and whistles, the drum, with its penetrating beat, is their main instrument. In addition, many endangered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger generations, but no written forms. With the extinction of a language, an entire culture is lost. Much of what humans know about nature is encoded only in oral languages. Indigenous groups that have inter- acted closely with the natural world for thousands of years often have profound insights into local lands, plants, animals, and ecosystems—many still undocumented by science. Studying indigenous languages therefore ben- efits environmental understanding and conservation efforts. Studying various languages also increases our understanding of how humans communicate and store knowledge. Every time a language dies, we lose part of the picture of what our brains can do.
If you’d like to learn Alutiiq or brush up on what you already know, according a story in the Kodiak Daily Mirror, the Native Village of Afognak has produced several sets of Alutiiq flashcards for use on mobile devic- es, such as iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry. The Flashcards display Alutiiq words and phrases in three <%+1&"3$1.-'<"==%#6.@';1%+213@'=11+'A'&311+?'B%<2'<%36'<"#+%$#.'%';3$++1#'()*+$$,'/23%.18'+%//$#&'%#'$<"#' plays a recording of the phrase. Tapping below the phrase displays the English translation. Users can monitor +21$3'/3"&31..'$#'=1="3$C$#&'/23%.1.8')1..'0#";#'<%36.'<><)1'9%<0'%3"*#6'+"'&$:1'+21')1%3#13'%66$+$"#%)'/3% Some basic vocabulary to get started: cama’i = hello, hi Camiku Tang'rciqamken.- I'll see you sometime (goodbye). quyanaa = thank you Quyanaituq. - You're Welcome. (lit. "It's nothing to be thankful for".) aa'a - yes qang'a - no Asirtuten-qaa? - How are you (Are you good?) Asirtua. - I'm fine/good. Qunuqamken. - I love you. !"#"$% N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 7 Tribal Happenings "#$#%&'()*+!(,-.#!./#0)'$!1-1#*(.!)*!-2&!$)3#.45! ***Happy birthday to Amari- Shawn and Samantha Shanigan recently returned from ah Olivera who celebrated her a glamorous second honeymoon after 12 years of mar- 20th birthday on September 6, riage—their first was camping on the Homer Spit. 2011. One of the highlights of the Mexican cruise was meet- ing the star of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. ***Happy birthday to Ashley Olsen who celebrated her 21st birthday on September 7, 2011. ***Happy birthday to Aaron Forshey who celebrated his 32nd birthday on September 8, 2011. ***Happy birthday to Ron Walters who celebrated his 39th birthday on September 17, 2011. ***Happy birthday to Pamela Bell-Boyles who is celebrating her 46th birthday on September 26, 2011. Nichole Shanigan attended her first formal event, Homecoming, in high school during the weekend on September 9-10. Here’s a photo of Nichole and a cou- ple of her friends in their formal duds. An evening of pool—pictured are Chris Forshey, Tony Forshey, Dave Stailey (Alex’s husband), Tim Forshey and Henry Forshey. Chris vows he’s going to beat Henry at the game next time! ***Happy birthday to Richard Boskoffsky who is celebrating ***Happy birthday to Samuel his 40th birthday on Septem- Sheridan who is celebrating ber 23, 2011. his 30th birthday on Septem- ber 29, 2011. N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 8 Programs Available through Kanatak ! Native Tribe of Kanatak Now that compact funding through BBNA for small & needy tribes is restored, the following programs, based Do you need help with housing? upon the budget passed by the tribal council on April 5, are available for the membership: If you are a member in good standing with the Native Tribe of Kanatak and meet certain income require- Education Program: Funds to be awarded to eligible ments, you may be eligible for assistance from the tribal members seeking higher education and/or specific Bristol Bay Housing Authority. The income require- job-skill training required for employment/certification. ments are established by HUD and vary depending on Tribal Youth Activity Program: Funds to be awarded the place of residence and the number of family mem- to eligible tribal members between the ages of 1-18 for bers. For example, to meet the income eligibility extracurricular activities, such as school sports, boy/girl standards in the Mat-Su borough, where Wasilla is lo- scouts, summer or sports camps, music lessons, dance cated, the yearly income for a family of three can be no lessons, etc. ="31' +2%#' EFG@GFH8' >1+@' $4' +2%+'.%=1' 4%=$)>' "4' +2311' Emergency Assistance Program: Funds for tribal resided in the Anchorage area, that maximum would be members’ unexpected emergencies that threaten basic $58,000. quality of life, such as fire damage, leaking roof, non- Through BBHA, there are currently programs for rent- functioning furnace, water heater, etc. (Low-income al assistance, utility vouchers, home repairs, down- members should seek this assistance through BBHA.) payment assistance for home purchase and crime pre- Wellness Program: Funds for education and promotion vention/youth or cultural activities. There is also the of healthy living, including suicide prevention, alco- option for the Kanatak tribal council to assess the hol/drug prevention and tobacco-use prevention. memberships’ housing needs and create other pro- Tribal Burial Assistance Program: Funds to be award- grams in the future, subject to federal guidelines and ed to help with final expenses of tribal members who BBHA approval. were in good standing with the tribe at the time of pass- To apply, you must fill out an 18-page application $#&8'=%I$=*='%;%36'/13'61<1%.16'=1=913'J'EK@FHH? which includes supplying proof of income, such as Tribal Social Activity Fund: Funds for 2 activities di- yearly income tax forms. The application is available rectors to create and organize quarterly tribal social activ- at the BBHA website: http://www.bbha.org/apply.htm ities in both Alaska and the Lower 48. Phone numbers for contact with either the King Salm- Culture Program: Funds to promote culture and com- on or Dillingham offices are also available at the munication among tribal members. above-listed website. These programs generally require the following: Once your application is complete, mail it to this ad- !" completed tribal membership/enrollment (member in dress: good-standing) Bristol Bay Housing Authority !" completed application for program PO Box 50 !" documentation of need/amount, bids where request- Dillingham, Alaska 99576 ed, and proof/receipts of expenditures !" name/address of 3rd party to whom checks will be !""#$%&' ("' (' )#*$+' ,-$,."' ()$' /01' !""#$%' %!)$,1*2' 10' Do NOT mail your application to the Kanatak trib- tribal members. al office! Contact the executive director, tribal administrator or Kanatak tribal council for additional information about these programs. N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 9 Saving the Language Doris Lind is probably the only member of the Native Tribe of Kanatak who speaks the Alutiiq lan- guage fluently. Doris “Tootsie” Murphy was born in Kanatak to Lena Kalmakoff Murphy and Tim Murphy. Doris’ grandparents were Nikolai (“Nikolai No. 10”) Kalmakoff and Tootsie Kalmakoff, both full-blooded Alutiiq. Doris says she was raised speaking the Alutiiq language and did not learn English until she went to school. As was noted in another article in this newsletter (page 5), the abil- ity to speak fluent Alutiiq makes Doris very unique—only around 400 people still speak the lan- guage. Needless to say, this also makes her a valuable resource as Native leaders, scholars, and in- stitutions try to save the Alutiiq language from extinction. During the summer of 2005, Doris worked with Jeff Leer on an Alutiiq dictionary project. Jeff Leer is a recognized linguist and a member of the faculty of the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. During this particular summer session with Doris Lind, Jeff was able to field-check ninety percent of the dictionary. A Short Dictionary of Alaska Peninsula Sugtestun & Alaska Peninsula Alutiiq Workbook was published by the University of Alaska Press in 1996 with Doris Lind listed as one of the authors. Besides her Alutiiq language ability, Doris has another distinc- tion in the tribe. Having been born in Kanatak on March 14, 1920, she’s certainly the oldest member of the tribe at 91 years young. Doris remembers that she left Kanatak as a young girl in 1938, hoping to make a living working in the salmon cannery at the nearby village of Chignik. She returned home to Kanatak for a few years, until prevented from doing so by the war in 1942 and 1943. She remembers well this time which was very scary for her. After the war, the only opportunities to return to Kanatak were special occasions when her son Elia was able to fly her there in his plane. Doris has many happy memories of helping her mother bake bread and of playing on the beach and mountainside. She tells of her youth gathering wild roots, putting up fish, hunting game, and helping raise her brothers and sisters. She says, “It was a very exciting time with the dances, and other activities, such as trapping, fishing, and traveling to/from Egegik over the Kanatak Pass.” These days Doris Lind lives in Chignik Lake, Alaska.! ! Here’s a link to a recent article in the Anchorage Daily News that reports that many Alaska Native languages are at-risk. There are 11 Alaska Native languages and 22 dialects, according to the Alas- ka Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, Alaska: "#$%!&'#()#!*#+,-.!'#$/0#/.(!#+!1,()!!! Daniel Forshey Right-Clicked Photos of tribal members Sophia Kalmakoff Rane and Henry Forshey Gordon & Nick Shanigan Some younger Kanatak tribal members…. Mary Shanigan and kids, Gordon, James & Nikki Silly daddy! Donnavon, Nichole & baby Nathan Shanigan, 2000. Nick Shanigan, June 1976 N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 11 Kanatak Kids This is the time of the year when the Pacific gray whales leave their feeding grounds in the Arctic Ocean and Chukchi Sea and head to warmer waters, generally near Baja Cal- ifornia. As they migrate, they pass through the waters surrounding the Alaska Peninsu- la, including Kanatak, as they prefer the coastal, shallow waters of the continental shelf. Gray whales migrate to the colder waters every spring, because cold waters con- tain more oxygen—more oxygen means more life which, in turn, means more food for +21'&3%>';2%)1.?''L3%>';2%)1.'%31'9%)11#';2%)1.8'+2%+'=1%#.'+21>'6"'#"+'2%:1'+11+2?'' Instead they have up to 180 7-inch long, yellow baleen plates per side of their upper jaws that function as sieves in the feeding process. Gray whales are the only bottom- feeding whales. They dredge through the mud and use their baleen to filter out the bot- tom-dwelling amphipods and crustaceans. An adult gray whale is 46 feet long and weighs 33 tons—that’s about the size of a large yellow school bus! Gray whales are mottled gray in color with occasional orange patches caused by para- sitic whale lice. How will you color your gray whales? N ATIVE TRIBE OF KANATAK P AGE 12 Contact Information !" President Terrence Jason Shanigan [email protected] 907-244-8165 !" Vice-President Alex Giacometti [email protected] 206-992-9240 !" Secretary/Treasurer Kathy Lakoduk [email protected] 907-315-6184 !" Council Member Henry F. Forshey [email protected] 610-704-8112 !" Council Member Shawn Shanigan [email protected] 907-315-3878 !" Executive Director Tess McGowan [email protected] 610-217-0399 or !" Tribal Administrator Shawn Shanigan [email protected] 907-357-5991 !" Newsletter Editor Jeanette Shanigan [email protected] 907-982-9103 Website: http://www.kanatak.com Mailing Address: Native Tribe of Kanatak Physical Address of Office: PO Box 876822 1251 Copper Creek Road Wasilla, Alaska 99687 Wasilla, Alaska