by Greg Lincoln
Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks was established in 1972 by state legislation to research and teach the 20 Native languages of Alaska. It is now an internationally recognized center for the study of Iñupiaq, Yup’ik and Northern Dene languages.
The ANLC was home to linguist Michael Krauss who was began working at UAF in 1960. He saw the need to save our native languages because they were rapidly losing natural speakers.
“A decade later, aided by the State of Alaska and National Science Foundation funding, he recruited a team of linguists dedicated to working with 20 Native languages and founded the Alaska Native Language Center (ANLC),” says his obituary. “With the number of Native children learning those languages from their parents declining rapidly due to culturally destructive government policies, Krauss lobbied state legislators, and the entire ANLC team worked closely with Native elders to develop writing systems and document vocabulary, grammar and folktales. Krauss also oversaw the production of language teaching materials at ANLC, as well as academic publications. A vast collection of written data, audio recordings and publications was compiled into an archive that became an independent entity in 2013, the Michael E. Krauss Alaska Native Language Archive (ANLA).
Michael Krauss was a champion for endangered languages and his work has been important for language revitalization efforts. In 2008, the last native speaker of Eyak – the language of the people of the Copper River region – passed away. Through Krauss’ documentation of the Eyak language, which included a reference grammar, dictionary, and story collection the language still lives on. Michael Krauss loved our Alaskan Native languages.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Native Language Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Tuesday, Oct. 4, with an event at the Wood Center on the Troth Yeddha’ Campus in Fairbanks.
The event is open to the public and will be livestreamed on the UAF media website and recorded for later viewing. It will be a celebration of the past, present and future of Alaska Native languages and will feature panels on language revitalization, language workshops, dance performances and more.
“This day honors all the collective work and efforts our predecessors, both faculty and students. Since the 1960s on, the Alaska Native Language Center community has reverently gathered voices and times of the past that identify the DNA of the Indigenous peoples of Alaska,” said ANLC Director Walkie Charles.
“For the past five decades, ANLC has played a vital role in the documentation, preservation and instruction of Alaska Native languages,” said Charlene Stern, UAF’s vice chancellor for rural, community and Native education. “This event is an opportunity to celebrate the efforts of the past while also envisioning the next 50 years of how ANLC can support the greater movement to strengthen Alaska Native languages.”
Quyana.
