In April 2022, Outer Coast hosted the inaugural Learners Teaching Learners: A Tlingit Language Conference at Outer Coast. A study group of teachers and learners (who lovingly call themselves the Tlingit Nerdz) came to Sitka from across Southeast and the Yukon for a sunny weekend immersed in Tlingit language alongside Outer Coast students, staffulty, and Sitka community members. Outer Coast was beyond honored to host such distinguished guests: for decades they have been teaching, celebrating and recording the Tlingit language all across Lingít Aaní – from Sitka, Wrangell, and Hoonah, to Juneau, Whitehorse and Teslin. Everywhere they go these teachers bring joy and build bridges into the language and the culture, touching schoolchildren, fluent elders and all ages in-between. We felt privileged to celebrate their achievements and to learn from their deep knowledge and experience.
The dynamic trio of Matthew Spellberg (faculty), Nirali Desai (Academic and Residential Advisor), and Emily Drukman (Year student) put in dozens of hours behind the scenes to design the schedule, make our guests feel at home, and ensure the logistics ran smoothly.
Our eight out-of-town guests arrived on Thursday, April 7, and thus began a jam-packed weekend.
On Friday morning, the crew attended Koolyéik Roby Littlefield’s middle school Tlingit class. In the afternoon they gave presentations on campus about bird names, language revitalization camps, and recording conversations in Tlingit. We got in some games of Rock-Paper-Scissors (Té, X’úx’, Ḵaashaxáshaa!) and Memory, and learned how to sing “You are My Sunshine” Lingít x̱ʼéináx̱. At the end of the day we had the special privilege of hearing a story about the Shaxdákw, an ancient mammoth. This story was told long ago by Gadzóosdaa Virginia Smarch and recorded by Yeiltʼoochʼ Tláa Collyne Bunn. Yeiltʼoochʼ Tláa and her friends shared with us a Tlingit language interpretation they had worked on alongside Keiyishí Bessie Cooley. It was an honor to be in the presence of a story shaped by so many past and present tradition bearers.
Saturday brought a larger group of Sitkans to our festivities, including guests of all ages. Shkʼawulyéil Ralph Brady of the Kiks.ádi welcomed the group to the land. After Shkʼawulyéilʼs beautiful opening words and a response from the visiting Eagles, folks flowed between stations to play Tlingit card games, carve Devil’s club necklaces, and whip up soapberry ice cream, all while practicing new vocab and phrases. Local artist and Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade welcomed us into her studio for a tour and reading, and the community capped off the evening with an elaborate feast cooked together across many kitchens. (Aatlein gunalchéesh to Sitka Salmon Shares, which donated 25 pounds of rockfish and 20 filets of black cod for the conference!) The night ended with some rousing and competitive rounds of Tlingit-language bingo.
On Sunday, we visited Dog Point Fish Camp with Koolyéik and enjoyed a second full community feast followed by wonderful songs, dances, and gifts.
Outer Coast students and staffulty ended the weekend with spirits soaring. We are so grateful to our guests for their endless generosity and warmth and for sharing their knowledge, energy, and care. Some of our students later worked with them remotely to study traditional use of plants for their final class projects.
You can hear more about the weekend from our guests in Tlingit (!) on the Gunalchéesh! radio show hosted by K’yuuhlgáansii Fred Olsen — listen here.
At one point the Nerdz suggested that they stay in Sitka for good – and we couldnʼt agree more! We look forward to having them return to campus in the coming years, and we are certain that there will be many more gatherings at Outer Coast devoted to Tlingit language. And luckily, we don’t have to wait long for the next opportunity to study Tlingit with friends from all over— the wonderful X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell will once again be teaching the Tlingit Language Massive Open Online Course in 2022 (stay tuned)! We feel so privileged to see the joyous community created by love for the language of this land.
In everything we do at Outer Coast, we aim to fuse deep academic study – and all our students can tell you now that Lingít requires a lot of it! – with the everyday pleasures of community. We canʼt wait for another chance to cook, bake, play bingo, make necklaces, study stories, and conjugate verb paradigms with our friends in Sitka and all over Lingít Aaní.