Haa Léelkʼu Has Yoo X̲ʼatángi: Our Grandparents’ Language

Duration:

5 minutes, 19 seconds

Meet Daphne and Heather, two Hoonah City School instructors who teach the Tlingit language to children from preschool through high school. They explain the intricacies and importance of passing on a challenging, but rich and beautiful language to the next generation.

Photo by Ian Johnson, HIA

The Tlingit language, rich in metaphor and deep in meaning, encodes the history, life ways, stories, and traditions of the Huna Tlingit. Widely spoken into the mid-20th century, the Tlingit language began to fade during a painful era of western acculturation. Today, there are fewer than 60 living fluent speakers.

Fortunately, language revitalization programs throughout Southeast Alaska focus on teaching Tlingit in many elementary, middle, and high schools and adults are reconnecting with their language roots through online classes and courses at the University of Alaska, Southeast. Hoonah City Schools, with a native enrollment of approximately 85%, provides K-12 language curricula. Language instructors Daphne Wright (K’ashGé) and Heather Powell (Lgeik'i) use stories, songs, games - and modern technology - to teach their students the intricacies of this challenging language. In partnership with Hoonah Indian Association, Huna Heritage Foundation, the National Park Service, and others, language is also taught at culture camps, on Journey to Homeland trips in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, and during after school programs.

Inside Xunaa Shuká Hít (Roughly translates to Huna Ancestor's House)

Photo by Ian Johnson, HIA

Many years ago, the National Park Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Subsistence Division, worked with a group of Huna Elders to document and record the Tlingit place names that blanket the Glacier Bay landscape. These names reflect important natural resource gathering areas, ancestral stories, sacred places, and major geological and historical events that occurred in Tlingit Homeland. Tlingit place names describe more than just location – they convey the rich tapestry of human perception and experience that comprises the Tlingit world view. As mnemonic devices, place names are important cultural nuggets that trigger memories of past events and cultural life ways.

Yoo X’atángi

Haa L’éelk’w Hás Yoo X’atángi (Our Grandparents Language)

Hei Hei Hei Hei (vocables)

Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee (It’s inside of us)

Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee (It’s inside of us)

Hei Hei Hei Hei

Haa Yoo X’atángi Kei Naltseen (Our language is getting stronger)

Hei Hei Hei Hei

Ch’u Tleix áwé Kugaagastí (May it exist forever)

Hei Hei Hei Hei

• Haa Yoo X’atángi - Tlingit Language Song

  
  

  Lance Twitchell X’unei (Tlingit name), composed the chant to encourage all to learn and speak Tlingit, using the words of four Tlingit elders; Florence Sheakley, David Katzeek, Ruth Demmert and Cyril George.

  Credit / Author:

  Performed by Leah Moss, Kooxwudúyaa

  Date created:

  11/18/2021

  Audio Transcript

  Yoo X’atángi

  Haa L’éelk’w Hás Yoo X’atángi (Our Grandparents Language)

  Hei Hei Hei Hei (vocables)

  Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee (It’s inside of us)

  Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee (It’s inside of us)

  Hei Hei Hei Hei

  Haa Yoo X’atángi Kei Naltseen (Our language is getting stronger)

  Hei Hei Hei Hei

  Ch’u Tleix áwé Kugaagastí (May it exist forever)

  Hei Hei Hei Hei