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1. Introduction: Place and Tlingit Senses of Being
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son in Tlingit geography, he taught me a course, which continues. His geographic life history proved so rich that I became interested in it as a text itself. I compiled and analyzed a preliminary version of that text as part of my 1995 dissertation, but since then this project has continued to grow considerably and will culminate in a separate publication. In recognition of his status as teacher, Herman Kitka Sr. was invited to participate in my thesis defense at the University of Washington in Seattle . In the spring of 1996 we taught a course together at the University of Alaska Southeast, providing further opportunity for collaboration and understanding of the ways Tlingits construct and relate to landscapes in Southeast Alaska. In a ceremony during that semester Herman bestowed upon me the ultimate gift: adoption into his family as his brother, giving me the name Yaan Jiyeet Gaax, carried by his late brother David and many distinguished Kaagwaantaan before him. For this exceptional embrace I am eternally grateful, humbled, and indebted. My thinking on place-names and senses of place has been greatly enhanced by Eugene Hunn, my mentor at the University of Washington , and by the exceptional work of a wide range of scholars and artists inside and outside of anthropology, especially David Abram, Keith Basso, William Bright, Robert Bringhurst, Julie Cruikshank, Nora and Richard Dauenhauer, Robert Davis, Susan Fair, Walter Goldschmidt, A. I. Hallowell , Michael Harkin, Dell Hymes, Stephen Jett, Leslie Main Johnson , Miriam Kahn, Sergei Kan, James Kari, Steve Langdon, Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, Frederica de Laguna, Marie Mauzé, Dan Montieth, Fred Myers, Richard Nelson, Priscilla Schulte, BrianThom,Anthony F. C. Wallace, Thomas Waterman, Gary Witherspoon, and others. I would also like to thank colleagues, associates, and former students at the University of Alaska, Saint Lawrence University, and Trinity College , especially Rosita Worl, Wallace Olson, Ginny Mulle, Clive Thomas, Judy Andree, Pat Fitzgerald, Robin Walz, John Pugh, Hans Chester, Yarrow Vaara, Deborah McBride, Mary Kapsner, Norio Matsumoto, Nikki Morris, Ali Pomponio, Richard Perry, John Collins, Eve Stoddard , Celia Nyamweru, Margaret Bass, David Katz, Saurabh Gupta, Fred Errington, Jane Nadel-Klein, Beth Notar, Hugh Ogden, and Jim Trostle. Finally, I thank the expert staff at the University of Washington Press, especially Lorri Hagman, Pam Canell, Marilyn Trueblood, and Jane Lichty. xiv Preface Like all contemporary ethnographers of the Tlingit, I labor in the shadow of Frederica de Laguna, whose classic works have laid the foundation for nearly all subsequent work. It was her Boasian attention to ethnogeographic detail that first drew my attention to Tlingit places and place-names and to the role of the past and of the clan in shaping Tlingit conceptualizations of space and place. She also graciously furnished me with copies of her unpublished notes on Tlingit place-names. In Alaska I would like to extend a tlein gunalchéesh (a big thankyou ) to all those people who taught me something of Tlingit places, especially Mary Willis, Amy Marvin, Richard Dalton, Jessie Dalton, Vesta Dominicks, Charlie Joseph, Oscar Frank, John Bremner, Cecelia Kunz, Paul James, Charles Johnson, Richard Sheakley, Kelly St. Clair, Wilbur “Jumbo” James, Mary Johnson, Gilbert Mills, Edith Bean, Kelly James, Richard Newton, Frank Gordon, George Jim, Matthew Fred, Martha Kitka, Esther Shea, and Mark Jacobs, who have all walked into the forest . In addition, I would like to thank Harold Martin, George Davis, Ruth Demmert, Clarence Jackson, Mike Jackson, Lydia George, Gabriel George, Jimmy George, Matthew Kookesh, Joe Hotch, Marsha Hotch, Tom Jimmie, Paul and Marilyn Wilson, Lance Twitchell, Wanda Culp, Mary and Paul Rudolph, Charles Jack, Ken Grant, Sam Hanlon, Pat Mills, Frank White, Lilly White, George Ramos, Elaine Abraham, Judy Ramos, Ray Sensemeir, Walter Johnson, John and Roby Littlefield, Ethel Makinen, Vida Davis, Nels Lawson, Dan Marino, Andy Hope, Fred and Margaret Hope, Richard Stokes, Walter Soboleff, and others too numerous to mention. For intellectual and logistical support, I am especially grateful to Nora and Richard Dauenhauer, Nancy Yaw Davis, Andy Hope, Bob Schroeder, Robi Craig, Martha Betts, Rob Bosworth, Herman Kitka Jr., Harvey Kitka, Mike Turek, Karl Gurcke, Wayne Howell, Theresa Thibault, Dick and Rosemarie Isett, Margo Waring, and Doug Mertz. Finally, in addition to my Tlingit brother Herman Kitka Sr., I thank the rest of my family for their invaluable assistance, herculean tolerance , and unwavering support, especially my wife, Tia, whose understanding and intelligence informs this project in so many ways, and our children, Mariah, Liam, and Roan. In me you hold a special place. Preface...