Minto, Copper Valley, and Northway, AK
Photographs with Siri Tuttle and the Alaska Native Language Center at UAF 2008-2013.
โThere are values, meanings and stories embedded in the words of a language.โ - Siri Tuttle, linguist.

โI believe that we were given this language for a reason. I believe that every different kind of person..Eskimos, Aleuts, all kinds of people, have their own language and I believe thatโs what our heavenly father wants for us.โ - Geraldine Charlie, Minto Elder and Native Language Speaker.

This work was a collaboration with my mother,
, who worked for many years with Athabaskan languages in Alaska through The Alaska Native Language Center at The University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The initial goal of photographing was to document the linguistics work being done to preserve and teach these important languages. Some photographs were also used to support grant applications, at conferences, and in academic language publications.Over several visits, I absorbed meaning from the poetry and beauty in the languages. I tried to contemplate the landscape and the people through the lens of the Athabaskans (to the extent that any outsider can) โ the mountains, the water, the seasons, and the partnership between people and environment.
Elders and their adult children shared memories of themselves and others in the American Indian Boarding Schools. They were punished with violence for speaking their own languages or singing songs during this forced assimilation. The languages were neither โlostโ nor did they โfade awayโ - they were erased.

Here, the art of linguistics includes interpersonal relations, intricate language work, tech complications, DIY audio recordings, and many miles of travel on gravel roads. A lot of effort continues to beย needed to repair the cultural damage done by the US.ย
The photography I have made as an outsider in Alaskan villages, must be carefully managed, never profited from, and fiercely protected. Modern photographers should seek not to cause further harm through their work. Our industryโs historical legacy is intertwined with the historical thefts.

More information and resources below.
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report (2022)
National Museum of the American Indian
Demand a Black and Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the US Government