#eyak

[lesbianlenses]

[folkfashion]

Eyak woman, Alaska, by Lexi Qass’uq Trainer

[problemed-motherfucker]

I found a book that has some tlingit legends & stuff & im just here like tearing up lol.

Like, I was never told any of these, or any other 1s. It just feels nice, and bittersweet and such.

[Image ID: the cover of a book illustrated in monochrome brown and off white. It shows a raven cawing with its claws holding a small tree branch. Behind the tree there is a totem pole. The book is titled "The Raven and the Totem; Traditional Alaska Native Myths and Tales" the credits read "Collected and edited by John E. Smelcer" and "illustrated by Larry Vienneau and Susie Bevins"/.End ID]

[Image ID: the praface of the preiviously mentioned book reading "preface: this volume Contains ethnographic narratives from the following alaska Native groups: Tlingit, Eskimo (Yupic, Sugpiaq, Inupiaq), and Athabaskan Indians. Volume II, to be published within the next couple years will include 'folktales' from the Aleut, Haida, Tsimshian, ans Eyak linguistic groups" /.End ID]

[arcticdementor]

There is an Eyak Native proverb that an Eyak friend told me once when we were riding in his Zodiac out to look at a piece of Prince William Sound in Alaska. It goes: "A white man will talk to you for three days before deciding whether he wants to fish with you. A Native will fish with you for three days before deciding whether he wants to talk with you."

Richard

[linguisten]

Linguist's death leaves a dream of a lost language revived

When linguist Michael Krauss died, he left the Eyak language with just one fluent speaker who is now reckoning with his mentor's dream of reviving a lost language.

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - Can a language whose speakers have all died be brought back to life? The late linguist Michael Krauss, who died in August, believed it possible and worked until his final days to realize his vision with the nearly vanished Eyak language, whose last Native speaker died a decade ago.

Krauss, who founded the Alaska Native Language Center and who drew the map of Alaska Native languages that hangs in many an Alaska social studies classroom, arrived in the state in 1960 already aware of the dire plight of Alaska Native Languages, and Eyak in particular.

At the time, there were six fluent speakers remaining. The former population of speakers that was estimated around 1,400 had been eliminated through the harsh language suppression of 19th and 20th century American territorial education policies.

In 2008, the last native Eyak speaker died.

“It was the first Alaska Native language in modern history to cease to be spoken by native speakers,” said linguist Gary Holton, who worked with Krauss beginning in the late nineties, “And at that moment, Mike became the last speaker in a way. He's not a native speaker, but he was functionally fluent in Eyak and he was kind of recognized by the Eyak community as the last speaker”

[yesstrongwomen]

Women in History Series

Marie Smith Jones

Marie Smith Jones (1918-2008) was the last speaker of the Eyak language and the last full-blooded member of the Eyak Nation in Alaska. When her sister died in the 1990′s, she realized the full importance of her own birth, and became an activist. She advocated to stop clear-cutting forests where Eyak lodges still stood and campaigned for Eyak bones to be decently buried. She was the chief of her nation. 

Later, she worked with scholars to record the Eyak language, compiling a dictionary and proper grammar for the language. As an old woman, she longed for the resurrection of the Eyak people, so that the nation would not die with her. Experts scoffed at her notion, but the Eyak nation was her whole world. 

Without her coming forward, we would not have a record of the Eyak language at all. What other women have contributed something one-of-a-kind? Send me a message!

[ba7ab-haifawehbe]

اياك - ساندي

[okayezeee]

There's always a wild side to an innocent face. 😼😎😁 #wildOne 😈 #lilO 🎶 #eyak ♏