Hoonah, Alaska / July 7, 1995

Photo Below: Hawai'iloa Sailing Down the Icy Strait, Alaska

"Hawai'iloa" sailed across Port Frederick in a light northerly wind to the native community of Hoonah (pop. 800) at 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon. The crew was greeted at the wharf by the village elders. A seagull dance followed.

The seagull, actually the arctic tern, is the totem of one of the clans of Hoonah. The terns inhabit cliffs on the Pacific Coast of Glacier Bay National Park, the area where the four clans of Hoonah originally lived, across the Icy Strait from Hoonah. Acc ording to tradition, when terns are alerted by a loud sound, thousands of them swoop down and rise up again as if to greet the visitor, then return to their nests in the cliffs. Elder Richard Dalton says that the terns will even say the name of the visitor--in any language. The clan dancers imitate the motions and sounds of a seagull, crying out "It's just me."

As "Hawai'iloa" came into the harbor, 400-foot long log transport ship with four deck cranes was loading logs near tiny Pitt Island, a traditional burial site. A long float of logs ready for loading was nearby. Logging is one of the mainstays of the local economy.

The mountains around Hoonah have been clear-cut, with wide swaths of treeless land near the shore. The spruce and cedar logs are shipped whole, mainly to Japan, which is stockpiling wood, and more recently to China and Korea. Sales to the Far East bring a premium price for timber. Despite the sparse population of the region (the whole of Alaska has about the same about of people as the island of O'ahu), the human impact on the environment has been great because of the worldwide demand for Alaska's resourc es.

The logging takes place on land belonging to Sealaska Corporation and the Huna Totem Corporation, which profit from the timber sales. According to elder George Obert, the native residents generally oppose the logging around their town because it destroys the habitat of deer, one of their traditional foods. Native hunters now have to travel farther to find deer. However, the board of directors of Huna Totem sold the timber in order to maximize profits for all its shareholders, the majority of whom no longe r live in Hoonah.

Sealaska, the regional native corporation of Southeast Alaska, and Huna Totem Corporation, a native village corporation, were formed after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA) of 1971, which awarded cash (nearly $1 billion) and land (44 million acres) to the native peoples of Alaska for the illegal seizure of aboriginal lands by the U.S. Government. Sealaska, one of fourteen regional corporations, received 300,000 acres while 12 native villages and towns in the Southeast with at least twenty-fi ve inhabitants received 23,000 acres. (Some villages were left out; as of the summer of 1995, five more were applying for land.)

Not everyone is happy with the settlement. According to Frank Williams, the village of Huna, with the largest number of native people, received the same amount of land as the villages with fewer people. Also, because the land selected had to be contiguous to the village, the people of Hoonah were not able to take the land with the best resources, or land in their original homeland in Glacier Bay National Park, which is rich in animal and plant life. Williams also believes that the native people would not have formed profit-making corporations, as stipulated by ANCSA, if they had had a choice.

The Tlingit language and traditions have been largely lost through assimilation of the younger generation. There are no native speakers under 40. District School Superintendent Virginia Fryrear, says that the Hoonah School is taking the lead in developing a curriculum in Tlingit language and culture. But a 35-year old Tlingit remains skeptical. Although he considers himself a radical and has developed a strong interest in his culture in the last three years, neither he nor anyone else of his generation ca n speak the language. "Until I see that the school can produce one Tlingit speaker, I can't say that its program will work."

At a crosscultural workshop, Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, crew member of Hawaiiloa and Hawaiian Studies professor at UH Manoa, shared with Tlingit educators the successes of the Hawaiian Language Immersion program in Hawai'i. "It's wonderful to hear our childr en speaking in Hawaiian and arguing in Hawaiian." "I am impressed with the immersion method and would recommend it for the teaching of any language, including Tlingit. You would have an easy time starting a school in Hoonah because you still have native s peakers among the older generation."

The "Hawai'iloa" crew will tour Glacier Bay tomorrow before departing for Haines and Juneau tomorrow afternoon.