5 Áak'w Province Archives

Formerly named Lynn Canal Province, I ‘prenamed’ it after the inhabiting Kwáan, to dispense with IWGNs. It’s enormous and unwalkable by mere human beings, extending from granitic highlands across from Deishú, end of trail (Haines) south to Tleixsatanjín, hand at rest (Heintzleman Ridge). Áak’w Province is treated in much greater detail—watershed by watershed—in Places>Áak’w & T’aakú Aaní. Here I’m only giving a broad-scale overview of ‘home province,’ with examples outside of the roaded CBJ.

Lingít names on IfSAR terrain model

We have no known Lingít name for this magnificent river flowing into Daxanáak, between 2 points (Berners Bay). Maps call it (for undocumented reasons) Antler River.

Repeat photo pair below:

Wulix‘áasi Héen, cascading river (Katzehin), is fed by Meade Glacier.* The Lukaax.adi were intimately familiar with this northernmost ice-river draining “Juneau Icefield,” because it advanced about to the corner visible in distance on the 1929 oblique. Hiking upvalley for trapping and goat-hunting would have been easy on barren river bars, at least during low flow. Whatever name they called it by has apparently been lost to history.

My retake lines up opposing points fairly well, but was taken from lower elevation. Although considerable recession has occurred, this is still an active glacial river, with mostly-barren flood plain. Only in a few protected side pockets and on some point bars has substantial reforestation occurred. An example is the cottonwood stand marked in middle distance.

In contrast, the glacially rebounding estuary has seen about 400 acres of more uniform forest advance. Unlike the river bars, this uplifted delta is now entirely free of water-related disturbance.

* Richard Meade was the naval commander who bombarded and leveled 5 Kake forts and settlements on northern Kuiu. The name of his gunship Saginaw has been scrubbed from recent maps. “Meade” should also go away.