Native languages on AK radio program

The Nov 17 edition of the Alaska Public Radio Network program AK featured several short segments on Native language. Unfortunately, much of the reporting reveals an old bias against granting indigenous languages the same status as world languages such as English. The program makes repeated reference to various Athabascan "dialects" in Alaska, or to the similarity of Alaskan dialects and Navaho. Why is it that journalists who would never think to refer to English as a "European dialect" have no problem whatsoever relegating Alaska Native languages to dialect status?

Revising the Alaska Native language map

Michael Krauss' map of Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska has become an iconic symbol of Alaska Native's and the indigenous presence in Alaska. Since its first publication by the Alaska Native Language Center some 33 years ago, the Map has defined language territories and boundaries in the state. Based on more than a decade of research by Krauss and others, the Map attempts to synthesize linguistic and social information to delineate distinct languages based largely on technical factors.

While the Map has been revised once and reprinted dozens of times, the underlying medium employs obsolete graphic arts technologies, making even relatively simple changes to the Map difficult and expensive. So it is that certain pejorative language names remain on the Map. These include both old spellings, such as Kutchin for Gwich'in and Tanaina for Dena'ina, as well as more offensives terms such as "Ingalik" for Deg Hit'an.

A group at the Institute for Social and Economic Research in Anchorage proposes to use GIS technologies to create an interactive version of the map which will not only permit easy updating of language names, but also permit language data to be overlaid on other readily available geographic information, such as village populations. A presentation by ISER postdoctoral fellow Colin West at the Arctic AAAS meeting in September outlines the benefits and challenges of the GIS approach.

One thing that becomes clear is that the existing digital data now circulating are grossly in error. Geospatial data were made available as part of a CD-ROM supplement to Roger Pearson's 2000 school atlas, Alaska in Maps: A Thematic Atlas. However, these data differ radically from those on either the original 1974 Map or the 1982 2nd edition. Many villages are located in the wrong language area, and some boundaries support erroneous claims, such as the extension of the Central Yup'ik territory to Cook Inlet. It is unclear whether these errors were introduced deliberately or merely through carelessness.

To make matters worse, it seems that the digital data may have been released in violation of copyright. A March 2000 letter from atlas author Roger Pearson to then ANLC Director Michael Krauss requests permission to use Map data in the CD-ROM, offering remuneration in the amount of $100. However, there is no indication that permission was ever given or that this payment was ever made. Still, issues of accuracy are more important than copyright. Let's hope that the ISER project can generate accurate geospatial language which can be made freely available all interested in Alaska Native languages.

For the record, ISER is not the only organization working on GIS language mapping in Alaska. The NSF-funded LL-MAP Project incorporates information from ANLC. And the GIS in Linguistics Project incorporates both ANLC data and census data. Stay tuned.

NSF award in limbo

In September the US National Science Foundation awarded more than $1.4 million to Dr. Michael Krauss to support the documentation of Alaska Native languages. Part of the International Polar Year effort, this project involves ten senior scholars of Alaskan languages working on ten endangered languages of Alaska and neighboring Canada and Russia.

However, the fate of this award remains unclear. In the June 24th issue of the SSILA Bulletin, Krauss announced that he was severing ties with the Alaska Native Language Center, the organization which he founded at the University of Alaska in 1972. Now it is unclear whether the award will be administered by ANLC or by some other as yet unspecified university unit. No announce has yet been forthcoming from Krauss or the UAF administration. None of the linguists involved with Krauss' project work at the Center, though Yukon linguist John Ritter is affiliate faculty there.

Documenting the highly-endangered languages of Alaska can only be a good thing. We can only hope that the administrative issues are resolved quickly.

The legacy of Sheldon Jackson

After nearly a decade of legal wrangling, the Alaska Supreme Court finally gave its opinion on the the state's 1998 ill-conceived "English-only" law. In a 4-1 decision the court basically upheld the spirit of the 1998 law, ruling in favor of all but the most egregious of its provisions.

One of the law's original sponsors, Ken Jacobus, is quoted by the Anchorage Daily News as saying that "the whole idea was to get people to speak English because it benefits them, not to prevent them from speaking their own language." Yet, the idea that there might be people in Alaska who do not have sufficient exposure and access to English is ludicrous. English has long been the dominant language of communication in Alaska. The only question is whether or not other languages will be tolerated alongside English. The Court did find unconstitutional a provision which would have required English to be used in all public agencies and government functions, but the Court basically accepted the idea that one language should be officially raised above all others.

Because the Court's ruling is narrowing constrained, it is difficult to predict what practical effect the ruling will have. However, the overall message is clear. Sheldon Jackson's message of monolingualism is confirmed. Sheldon Jackson, you ask? Wasn't he some hero of Alaskan history? Hardly. As the first Commissioner of Education in Alaska, Jackson proselytized about the evils of Alaska Native languages and did more than anyone to cement the idea of English-only and monolingualism in Alaska. In 1888 he smugly noted that Alaskan students were "required to speak and write English exclusively; and the results are tenfold more satisfactory than when they were permitted to converse in unknown tongues." (quoted in Krauss 1980). Though Jackson always claimed to have Alaskan's best interests in mind, the record clearly shows that his campaign against Native language was motivated more by fear than by empathy. Nearly 120 years later, yesterday's Supreme Court ruling merely continues Jackson's legacy of fear of multilingualism.