Culture festival in Petersburg discusses normalization of Tlingit language
The first annual Séet Ká festival focused on cultural awareness and revitalization of Petersburg through workshops and discussions. Part of this process is to recover the Tlingit language and Indigenous place names. KFSK’s Angela Denning reports:
In St. Petersburg, there are often Norwegian and English words on signs, such as at the airport and in shop windows in the city center. The current site of the town was created around 1900 by Norwegian immigrants looking for a good place to process fish. But the Tlingit culture goes back thousands of years before that.
The native name of Saint Petersburg is Séet Ká Kwáan. It means people of swift waters, referring to the Wrangell Narrows opposite the town.
At the festival, X’unei Lance Twitchell leads a group while pronouncing Séet Ká. He is an associate professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast. He says using a language helps normalize it in a community.
“Do you see it when you walk around? Do you hear it when you walk? Twitchell asked the group.
He says adding Indigenous language to signs in public spaces can help, such as the words “open” or “welcome.”
“We can see it, and then once we see it, we’ve learned how to make the sounds, we’re going to be curious how to play these things,” Twitchell said.
The Clausen Museum in Petersburg is starting to include Tlingit signage in its building and it’s something Twitchell is encouraging. He says indigenous words can be added to other languages already present such as English and Norwegian.
“Pushing away these ideas that there is only room for so many things. Because it was called Séet Ká long before it was called Petersburg,” Twitchell said. “And that doesn’t mean it can’t be Little Norway either. It can also be “on the chain”, right? And so these things they don’t have to compete with each other.
Twitchell has been advocating for the restoration of place names in Southeast Alaska for years.
Thomas Bay is a popular location for boat trips from Petersburg. Its Tlingit name comes from the shape of the land and water there.
“Taalkuuáxk’u Shaa,” Twitchell said. “So it’s an open-mouthed creek.”
A Tlingit word for the Wrangell Narrows is Gánti Yaakw Sédi which means burning boat channel or steamboat channel.
Sometimes names on maps can be racist and offensive, like Seduction Point on the Chilkat Peninsula. The English name – which was officially removed in 2020 – referred to a sexual assault of Indigenous women by British sailors. (The name has been changed to Ayiklutu.)
“So there’s an issue there that the Indigenous community has to live with these narratives,” Twitchell said. “And it also becomes an insult in addition to violence against people. So we kind of want to make lists of them and say “remove that from all the cards”.
There are offensive place names closer to Petersburg that are being changed, but it’s not a quick process. This often requires coordination between state governments and the federal government.
Twitchell says another step towards standardizing a language is teaching people the correct pronunciation of existing Tlingit names like Yakatat, Kake, Klawock, Angoon, Skagway, and Hoonah.
“I think there’s resistance at the start,” Twitchell said. “You know, someone is [might say] why do they want to change Hoonah’s name? It’s always been called Hoonah, it’s just that people pronounce it wrong. That’s all we do is correct the mispronunciation.
Another way to reclaim language is simply to use it. The more you use it, the easier it gets. Twitchell says some people might not understand the motivation and that’s okay. It’s part of the process.
“Sometimes if a community doesn’t have a regular presence of Indigenous activity, people get nervous about it and I think they express [that] saying, “I don’t think I’m included in that,” he said. “But really people say, ‘I don’t know what to do here. I’m not used to being there.”
the The Séet Ká festival took place from February 10 to 15 in Petersburg and online. Guest instructors taught Tlingit, beadwork, form line and held discussions on topics such as racial equality.