"A Dena'ina Legacy, K'tl'egh'I Sukdu, The Collected Writings of Peter Kalifornsky," is truly a priceless resource for anyone interested in learning more about the Dena'ina language, legends and culture. The book is a collection of writings compiled over nearly 20 years by Kalifornsky, one of the last speakers of the Kenai dialect of the Dena'ina Athabascan language of Cook Inlet.

In addition to the stories, the book contains Cook Inlet maps, place names for many landmarks and geographical features throughout the region, photos dating back to the late 1800s, the Dena'ina alphabet, translations of many common words and a biography of Peter Kalifornsky.

First published in 1991 by the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Alaska Native Language Center with assistance from The CIRI Foundation, the book was produced by Kalifornsky, who worked with editors James Kari, a linguist, and Alan Boraas, an anthropologist.

According to Boraas, development of the book was challenging and demanding for all involved, but that in the end it was worth all the effort.

"Very few people know how difficult it was to bring "A Dena'ina Legacy" to print. Aside from the technical problems of putting a bilingual publication together and the many, many editorial decisions that had to be made, countless cultural interests and personal issues had to be resolved," he said.

"Many people wanted to shape 'A Dena'ina Legacy' according to their conception of what Native American literature should be. I am proud to say, however, that Peter Kalifornsky had the final say in all matters and had complete editorial control including using a modification of an Athabascan orthography (alphabet) which is unique to his writing. Peter had complete authority over the stories that went into the book which, by itself, involved difficult decisions."

Kalifornsky was born Oct. 12, 1911, at Kalifornsky Village on the Cook Inlet bluff. The tiny village was located four miles north of the Kasilof River mouth on the Kenai Peninsula. His name for the place was Unhghenesditnu, translated as "farthest creek over." His mother, Agrafena Chickalusion Kalifornsky, died when he was two years old, so, in addition to his father Nick, he was raised by his aunts and later an uncle and his wife.

Kalifornsky spent most of his life in Kenai, working at various construction and fishing related jobs, as well as subsistence hunting and fishing and running a trap line. As a child he was educated in the English language and was beaten with a stick for speaking Dena'ina in public school.

His formal education went only through the fifth grade, but in his later life, Kalifornsky worked closely for almost 20 years with Kari and Boraas to record and study his language and the oral traditions of his ancestors.