The Gift of the Middle Tanana

The Gift of the Middle Tanana

Author: Gerad M. Smith

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-02-11

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1793654778

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The Middle Tanana Valley in Alaska remains one of the most important regions of the continent for archaeological research. In The Gift of the Middle Tanana: Dene Pre-Colonial History in the Alaskan Interior, Gerad Smith explores the history, ethnography, and archaeological record of the Native people in this region during the late Holocene. Smith creates an interpretive framework informed by Alaskan Native traditions, focusing on traditional place names and the deep-play rituals of reciprocity. Smith sets forth the case that the local themes and oral traditions of the potlatch are better understood not as singular ceremonial events but as a mechanism of regional social cohesion that dictated everyday life. The Gift of the Middle Tanana illustrates how the role of reciprocal deep-play shaped a traditional society that has lasted over a thousand years.


Landscape in Language

Landscape in Language

Author: David M. Mark

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2011-06-09

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 902728704X

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Landscape is fundamental to human experience. Yet until recently, the study of landscape has been fragmented among the disciplines. This volume focuses on how landscape is represented in language and thought, and what this reveals about the relationships of people to place and to land. Scientists of various disciplines such as anthropologists, geographers, information scientists, linguists, and philosophers address several questions, including: Are there cross-cultural and cross-linguistic variations in the delimitation, classification, and naming of geographic features? Can alternative world-views and conceptualizations of landscape be used to produce culturally-appropriate Geographic Information Systems (GIS)? Topics included: ontology of landscape; landscape terms and concepts; toponyms; spiritual aspects of land and landscape terms; research methods; ethical dimensions of the research; and its potential value to indigenous communities involved in this type of research.


Shem Pete's Alaska

Shem Pete's Alaska

Author: James Kari

Publisher: University of Alaska Press

Published: 2021-06-15

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 1602233071

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Shem Pete (1896–1989), a colorful and brilliant raconteur from Susitna Station, Alaska, left a rich legacy of knowledge about the Upper Cook Inlet Dena’ina world. Shem was one of the most versatile storytellers and historians in twentieth century Alaska, and his lifetime travel map of approximately 13,500 square miles is one of the largest ever documented with this degree of detail anywhere in the world. The first two editions of Shem Pete’s Alaska contributed much to Dena’ina cultural identity and public appreciation of the Dena’ina place names network in Upper Cook Inlet. This new edition adds nearly thirty new place names to its already extensive source material from Shem Pete and more than fifty other contributors, along with many revisions and new annotations. The authors provide synopses of Dena’ina language and culture and summaries of Dena’ina geographic knowledge, and they also discuss their methodology for place name research. Exhaustively refined over more than three decades, Shem Pete’s Alaska will remain the essential reference work on the landscape of the Dena’ina people of Upper Cook Inlet. As a book of ethnogeography, Native language materials, and linguistic scholarship, the extent of its range and influence is unlikely to be surpassed.


Athabaskan Language Studies

Athabaskan Language Studies

Author: Robert W. Young

Publisher: UNM Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 9780826317056

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Many leading figures in the field of Athabaskan languages contributed to this volume, and their range of topics matches Robert Young's interests. Four papers deal with northern Athabaskan languages, which Young studied in the 1930s. The remaining essays focus on aspects of Navajo language and culture; Young has specialized in this area for over fifty years in collaboration with his mentor, William Morgan, Sr. Several essays present detailed analysis of verb and sentence structure in Navajo, two are studies of Navajo literacy, another examines Navajo philosophy, and one offers the first study of how children learn the complexities of the Navajo verb. Anyone interested in Navajo studies or Athabaskan languages will find these essays invaluable.


Native Tribes of the North and Northwest Coast

Native Tribes of the North and Northwest Coast

Author: Marlys Johnson

Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP

Published: 2004-01-04

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 9780836856118

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An introduction to the history, culture, and people of the many Indian tribes that inhabited the region from the Arctic through the northern interior of Canada to coastal Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.


Memory and Landscape

Memory and Landscape

Author: Kenneth L. Pratt

Publisher: Athabasca University Press

Published: 2022-10-18

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 1771993162

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The North is changing at an unprecedented rate as industrial development and the climate crisis disrupt not only the environment but also long-standing relationships to the land and traditional means of livelihood. Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North explores the ways in which Indigenous peoples in the Arctic have adapted to challenging circumstances, including past cultural and environmental changes. In this beautifully illustrated volume, contributors document how Indigenous communities in Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and Siberia are seeking ways to maintain and strengthen their cultural identity while also embracing forces of disruption. Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors bring together oral history and scholarly research from disciplines such as linguistics, archaeology, and ethnohistory. With an emphasis on Indigenous place names, this volume illuminates how the land—and the memories that are inextricably tied to it—continue to define Indigenous identity. The perspectives presented here also serve to underscore the value of Indigenous knowledge and its essential place in future studies of the Arctic. Contributions by Vinnie Baron, Hugh Brody, Kenneth Buck, Anna Bunce, Donald Butler, Michael A. Chenlov, Aron L. Crowell, Peter C. Dawson, Martha Dowsley, Robert Drozda, Gary Holton, Colleen Hughes, Peter Jacobs, Emily Kearney-Williams, Igor Krupnik, Apayo Moore, Murielle Nagy, Mark Nuttall, Evon Peter, Louann Rank, William E. Simeone, Felix St-Aubin, and Will Stolz.


Mid-Holocene Language Connections Between Asia and North America

Mid-Holocene Language Connections Between Asia and North America

Author: Edward Vajda

Publisher: Brill's Studies in the Indigen

Published: 2022-01-27

Total Pages: 546

ISBN-13: 9789004436817

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This volume presents the up-to-date results of investigations into the Asian origins of the only two languages families of North America, Eskaleut and Na-Dene, that are widely acknowledged as having likely genetic links in northern Asia.


Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary

Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary

Author: James M. Kari

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 728

ISBN-13:

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Dictionary of the Ahtna language, one of the Athabaskan languages, spoken in the Copper River area of southcentral Alaska, by less than 100 persons in a total population of about 1200 of Ahtna descent.