Huna Cultural Interpreter, August 23

The day we explored Icy Strait and Bartlet Cove, a National Park Ranger and a Huna Cultural Interpreter came aboard. The Park Ranger greeted us with "Hut ya aye", which means "I'm doing great in Tlingit. This is the customary greeting as they don't have a word for "hello".  Instead of goodbye, they say "till we meet again." The Ranger was a young woman whose tall, thin exterior housed a wandering soul.  There are 20 Park Ranger/Naturalists in Glacier Bay and she has worked in multiple parks. She has been here three years, seasonally and spends three months of the year working in other National Parks and 3 months traveling abroad. She did mention that the odds in Alaska are 3 men to every woman; however, the odds are good... but the goods are odd!

Consider that only 100 years ago Glacier Bay Park was under ice; it encompasses over 3 million acres in size, roughly the size of the State of Connecticut.  As we made our way into Glacier Bay, we saw sea lions and were joined by otters during dinner.  You could see them floating along on their backs. They are very large!

 

Alice was the Huna interpreter.  She was wonderful. She spoke of their "water way of life".  They had a saying "when the tide is out, the table is set".  The Tlingit did not use surnames; they used descriptive names or the place where something happened.  The Tlingit also had the first tour boats in Alaska!

The white man couldn't put them on a reservation because the villages were too remote to control, so they used a different tactic: assimilation.  Children were sent to boarding schools, and they lost their names. The Huna have lost their home many times.  First they lost their town to the glacier and moved to Huna. In June 14, 1944 they lost the town to fire. This time they put up modular homes so they didn't have to move again. There are 900 people living there now, with 6 churches and a K-6 public school. There is a huge festival in Fairbanks, a reunion and celebration and will next be held in June, 2011.

You are supposed to marry the opposite moiety. There is a moiety such as Raven or Eagle and underneath that are the clans, and the the houses. Young people are still told to marry the opposite clan. If you marry the same moiety, you lose status. You don't know who close the line is.  However, if you marry outside they adopt you in to the opposite clan and you don't lose status!  They haven't used a Shaman for some time.  When the government took singing and dancing, they took the Shaman and the practice has not returned.

The first born goes to live with the mother's brother to take instruction.  Alice went to live with her grandmother for three years. It was quite interesting to listen to Alice talk about a culture that still retains many of the aspects of its history.