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Press Release
May 19, 2008
(Radio Actualities)
SHI RELEASES MAJOR BOOK ON HISTORIC TLINGIT, RUSSIAN BATTLES
Book based on never-before published Tlingit recordings
Sealaska
Heritage Institute (SHI) has released a major book on historic battles
between the Russians and Tlingits in the early 19th century.
Anóoshi Lingít Aaní Ká: Russians in Tlingit
America, The Battles of Sitka 1802 and 1804, edited by Richard and Nora
Marks Dauenhauer and Lydia Black, is the 4th volume in the
award-winning series, Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature.
The book explores an era from the 1790s through 1818 when Russians
expanded into Southeast Alaska to take control of the Northwest Coast
fur trade. The Tlingit people resisted the incursion into their
ancestral homeland and events culminated in two historic battles between
the Russians and Tlingits in 1802 and 1804.
At the heart of the book are never-before published recordings by the
National Park Service of Tlingit elders telling oral histories of the
battles. The recordings were made in the 1950s by Kiks.ádi elder Sally
Hopkins and Kaagwaantaan elder Alex Andrews, who was a child of the
Kiks.ádi. The book was conceived 20 years ago when Kiks.ádi elders asked
the Dauenhauers to transcribe, translate, and publish the tapes, and the
Sealaska Heritage Board approved the project. The Dauenhauers were able
to compare the recordings to eye-witness accounts by Russians translated
into English by Lydia Black, a scholar who worked on the book until her
death in 2007.
“We’re not dealing with second-hand information. We’re dealing almost
exclusively with first hand accounts, so we have the Tlingit first-hand
accounts and then we have Russian first-hand accounts, many of which
have never been published even in Russia,” said Dauenhauer, calling it
one of the most complex books he and his wife, Nora, have undertaken.
“We were amazed with the amount of agreement on most of the major
events.”
The book also is important because it recounts events from the Tlingit
point of view, which is missing from Alaska history books, said Nora
Dauenhauer.
“Our children don’t have anything in history in schools or anywhere, and
one of the things we hope we’ll use this book for is in schools where
people teach history without Tlingits,” she said. “I’m just so happy
that we have this story to fall back on and for students to realize that
they have a history also.”
Other important accounts from the Tlingit perspective include
transcriptions of two recently discovered recordings in English by
Andrew P. Johnson dating from the 1970s, and histories by Mark Jacobs,
Jr. and Herb Hope written in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.
The book is exciting because it brings to life the Tlingit war hero K’alyáan
(commonly referred to as Katlian), a Kiks.ádi who is well known in
Tlingit oral traditions, said SHI President Rosita Worl. A portrait by
Clarissa Hudson of K’alyáan is featured on the book cover and a
reproduced watercolor of him is included in the book’s color section,
which was funded by a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation.
“We’ve known about him, but hopefully now the public is going to be able
to read about this very famous Tlingit person who led the Tlingits to
success in this 1802 battle,” Worl said.
The book is full of new information that tells a more complete story
about that time, Richard Dauenhauer said. People may not realize the
battle of 1802 was carefully planned and executed by the Tlingits, said
Dauenhauer, noting there were three almost simultaneous attacks on
Russian positions throughout Southeast Alaska. During one encounter, the
Tlingits feinted a full retreat and the Russians charged after them. But
it was a trick – when the Tlingits got to the top of a hill, they
suddenly uncovered canons and opened fire. Other new information is
about a German skippering for the British who double-crossed both the
Russians and the Tlingits. The Russians and Tlingits eventually made
peace and were amicable in the six decades following the battles. That
created a hurdle for the editors because in Tlingit culture, once peace
is made, the topic is not discussed anymore.
“If peace has been made, then people are often reluctant to talk about a
battle,” Richard Dauenhauer said. “It was one of the cultural taboos we
had to overcome in the book.”
The book was published by SHI in cooperation with the University of
Washington Press. It was funded by Sealaska with grants from the
Rasmuson Foundation and supported by the National Park Service and the
University of Alaska, whose President’s Professorship supported the
final three years of research and editing. Dauenhauer describes it as a
highly collaborative project that involved Kiks.ádi clan members and
house leaders, Tlingit community members, and the enthusiasm and
creative energy of many individual contributors. It is available in
hardcover ($60) and paperback ($35) through SHI and from local
bookstores. The Dauenhauers and other contributors will do a book
signing at 2 pm, June 5 at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center during
Celebration.
Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private, nonprofit founded in 1981 to
administer cultural and educational programs for Sealaska Corporation.
The institute is governed by an all-Native Board of Trustees and guided
by a Council of Traditional Scholars. Its mission is to perpetuate and
enhance the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska.
CONTACT: Rosita Worl, SHI President, 907-463-4844; Richard and Nora
Marks Dauenhauer, editors, 907-586-4708
-
Richard Dauenhauer, Editor, TRT: :19
“We’re not dealing with second-hand information we’re dealing almost
exclusively with first hand accounts, so we have the Tlingit
first-hand accounts and then we have Russian first-hand accounts, many
of which have never been published even in Russia. We were amazed with
the amount of agreement on most of the major events.” (wav)
(mpeg)
-
Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Editor, TRT: :18 “Our children don’t have anything in history in schools or
anywhere, and one of the things we hope we’ll use this book for is in
schools where people teach history without Tlingits.”
( wav ) (mpeg)
-
Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Editor, TRT: :13 “I’m just so happy that we have this story to fall back on and
for students to realize that they have a history also.”
(wav) (mpeg)
-
Rosita Worl, SHI President, TRT: :13
“We’ve known about him, but
hopefully now the public is going to be able to read about this very
famous Tlingit person who led the Tlingits to success in this 1802
battle.”
(wav) (mpeg)