By Aaron Leggett, CIRI History Intern

My name is Aaron Leggett, and I am a Dena’ina Athabascan from Eklutna. For the last several years, I have been working at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. In November, I accepted the position of history intern at CIRI. Since I grew up here in the city, I had very little knowledge of my people. Additionally, since my village is in such close proximity to the urban area, much of the traditional way of life has been lost.

As a result of my personal desire to learn more about my culture and also because I want to be able to answer questions that arise as part of my work, I have developed a reading list of a few basic works for those interested in the history of the Dena’ina. As I began reading and doing research, it occurred to me that there might be others who want to learn more about the Dena’ina. While this reading list is in no way exhaustive, it is meant to offer a starting place to those who want to learn more without delving into scholarly works.

My first and foremost recommendation is the book “A Dena’ina Legacy, K’tl’egh’I Sukdu, The Collected Writings of Peter Kalifornsky,” edited by James Kari and Alan Boraas. This priceless work has traditional stories, poems and language lessons in the Dena’ina Athabascan language of the Lower Cook Inlet. It took Kalifornsky 20 years to compile this book. What I find particularly helpful is that it has many traditional and historic stories about the Lower Cook Inlet Region. My favorite is “The Kustatan Bear Story.”

A relatively short book with a great deal of information about the Lower Cook Inlet Dena’ina is “The Kenaitze People,” by Robert E. Ackerman. This is a very readable book, full of information on the Kenai branch of the Dena’ina.

“Shem Pete’s Alaska,” edited by James A. Fall and James Kari, is a truly remarkable and useful resource. Although out of print, it is scheduled to be reprinted in the near future by the University of Alaska Press. The new version will include more than 200 new place names. The earlier version covers most of Upper Cook Inlet and has over 700 place names, with contributions from many elders who are no longer with us.

This book is unmatched because it has so much information about the Cook Inlet region and the Dena’ina. It includes a great deal of information from those who witnessed the many changes that have taken place in the Cook Inlet region over the last 100 years.

Another great resource is the book “Tanaina Plantlore,” by Priscilla Russell Kari. It is also out of print, but it is due to be re-issued this summer by the National Park Service. It is a full-color guide to hundreds of plants used by the Dena'ina of Southcentral Alaska. Traditional uses for food and medicine are described as well.

It’s amazing the amount of information that can be learned simply by looking at the Dena’ina names for plants and berries and all the uses the Dena’ina had for them. For example, the Dena’ina name for “Larkspur,” which is “eyu ghundi,” means “lice those ones.” The name refers to its use as a wash to get rid of lice. The name for “wooly lousewort,” which is “ch’anjidi yelqet’I,” means “that which bees eat.” This name refers to the fact that bees use it as food.

My favorite is the name for “puff balls” – “delgga chisha” – which means “raven’s ochre.” The name derives from the reddish brown dust that comes out of it.

A book which gathers a number of articles about Cook Inlet is “Adventures through Time,” edited by Nancy Yaw Davis and William E. Davis. It is a compilation of papers presented in 1993 at a symposium on Cook Inlet. Included is a great deal of information on the Dena’ina. Especially noteworthy is the piece by Alan Boraas and Donita Peters called, “The true believers among the Kenai Peninsula Dena’ina.”

Many details about traditional Dena’ina life are contained in a book published in 1938 called “The Ethnography of the Tanaina,” by Cornelius Osgood. Much of the information in the book cannot be found anywhere else. I especially enjoyed the part about Dena’ina matrilineal clans and their role in Dena’ina society.

For the younger readers, two books written by CIRI shareholder Alberta Stephan of Eklutna are an excellent place to start. While the books appeal to all ages, because they are relatively short and fun to read, they are very appealing to youth. The first one is called “The First Athabascans of Alaska: Strawberries,” and the second is called “Cheda: (Athabascan for Grandma).” These books are easy to read and contain a lot of basic information on the Dena’ina.

For those interested in hearing the life stories of elders, I recommend the book “Our Stories, Our Lives,” which contains fascinating stories from Dena’ina elders such as Shem Pete, Sava Stephan, Billy Pete, Peter Kalifornsky, Fred Bismarck and Alexandra Kaloa. What I love about this book are the stories these elders share about the Cook Inlet region. It is a particularly valuable resource because all of these elders mentioned except for Sava Stephan have passed on.

These are just some of the books that are out there. I encourage anyone who is interested to read on and learn more about the Dena’ina. Chin’ an.