‘Syllabus’ for a course at Hoonah, 2014-15
Seems high time I got this and several other ‘scoping’ documents out there for folks to use. Nine years is enough gestation time, eh?
In 2014, I was invited to participate in a program for Hoonah high school students. This multi-year course—a collaboration of Glacier Bay National Park, Hoonah Indian Association and Hoonah City Schools, addressed human connections to the land-&-seascape of greater Glacier Bay, homeland of Xunaa Ḵáawu. Thematically, Hoonah’s program resembled an earlier one I helped develop for Goldbelt Heritage Foundation that centered geographically on Áak’w and T’aakú Aani. We called that course Why do we live here? Specifically; what were the factors in choice of winter village sites and summer resource camps?
A bluff-top fort site at Lanastáak, nose ring (Dundas Bay), well known in oral history, was relocated and studied by Wayne Howell in the early 1990s. Oldest radiocarbon date was about 800 years ago. No post-contact, western artifacts were found, suggesting no use after around 1780 AD. On our field trip in May, 2015, the class bushwhacked 2 miles from camp and scrambled to the leveled bluff-top. This pano spans house site #1. Adults in left background: teacher Ben McKluckie, Wayne Howell, Mary Beth Moss (NPS), and Darlene See, Kooshdaa hit.
Deliverables to NPS, HIA and the School District included a sort of scoping document/course manual, and a day-by-day journal of our activities. Someday maybe I’ll get around to uploading the journal (one of my all-time favorite field experiences).
Meanwhile, check out Xunaa Ḵáawu: Why do we live here? 15MB download 
