Culture: our past and present relationship to the land
Naltóoshgán, below, was home to the great southern clan the Ganaax.ádi, ancestral to the Aanx’aakhittaan and Deisheetaan. Entering Southeast via Nass River, the Ganaax.ádi established villages at Naltóoshgán, the good place (Whitewater) and Chayéek, arm goes way up inside (Chaik Bay) long before the founding of Aangóon. In places like Naltóoshgán, academic categories—Nature, Culture—relax and shake hands. For the past decade or so, my role as a naturalist has been to facilitate that meeting.
In August, 2012, Brenda Campen led Bob Christensen and me quietly through the ancient village of Naltóoshgán, on a raised, formerly tidal bench only a few feet up from the active drift line. A wall of vigorous spruces fronts the landing beach today. None were present in 1948 aerials. Branch whorls confirmed growth of over a foot per year on well-drained, culturally enriched soils, full of shell midden according to Frederica deLaguna’s test pits. The mossy turf resembled a tended golf course, typical of many reforesting village sites where tightly interlocking tree crowns discourage vascular vegetation.
Sketched from a visit to AMNH in 1989.
Culture is divided into 5 subcategories:
● Tlingit geography and history
● Why do we live here? and
● Restoration.
Explore those sub-categories or view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map.
This structure is by no means comprehensive, only reflecting several fairly narrow topics that appeal to me as a landscape-level naturalist. At Discovery, we have no pretensions toward expertise in—for example—Native language, customs, oral history, or spirituality. Our hope, however, is to support in any way we can, the exciting cultural resurgence that’s happening everywhere you turn these days: in education, in art, and on the radio.