"LAKE ATNA" WAS A VAST ICE AGE SEA THAT COVERED MUCH OF THE COPPER VALLEY, LEAVING BEHIND THE INFERTILE SAND THAT NOW BLANKETS OUR YARDS & GARDENS
JIM KARI IS AN EXPERT ON THE AHTNA LANGUAGE & GEOGRAPHY – FROM EXTENSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH AHTNA ELDERS
Of Special Interest Is Preserving the Massive Number of "Place Names" Used Over Centuries By The Ahtna People To Describe The Many Locations in the Region
Four mountain ranges – the Chugach, Alaska, Wrangell & Talkeetna Ranges held in the waters of Lake Atna until its ice dams broke at the end of the Ice Age, thousands of years ago, and the water flowed out in every direction through canyons surrounding the Copper Valley. (Map, Jim Kari)
PRESENTATION MAY 5TH
Ahtna Place Names for officially unnamed features in and around Glacial Lake Atna
May 5 @ 11:00 am to 12:00 pm AKDT
Speaker: James Kari, Emeritus, Alaska Native Language Center
Photo by Chris Cannon
Kari’s 2019 article presents geolinguistic evidence that a group of about 20 names called “The Nen’ Yese’ Ensemble” were coined by eyewitnesses to the Susitna R-Copper R drainage shift in the first half of the 11th millennium. Kari is preparing a selection 17 Ahtna place names for unnamed features as a batch place name submission. Six of the names are in the Tyone River area. Other names can be viewed along the surrounding highway system. The batch name proposal can be time-effective and informative for various state and federal agencies, for Ahtna Inc. and the local Ahtna communities, or for researchers who specialize in the Alaska landscape. Learning how to say and to analyze some these names can be rewarding as well.
If you are in Fairbanks, join us in-person at UAF Akasofu, rm 401.
Map of some of the enormous number of named locations, as identified by Ahtna elders in the past. This map was photographed at the Palmer Visitor Center in July, 2018. (Photo, Country Journal)
