Raven's Blanket

•  A non-profit designed to enhance and perpetuate the cultural wellness and traditions of Indigenous peoples through education, media, and the arts.
•  To promote the artistic works throughout Alaska by both Native and non-native Alaskans.

My Lingit Introduction:

Ch’a aadéi yei xat naay.oo. Sh yáa awudaneix’i yáat yikeení. Gus’k’ikwaan,

Gunalchéesh haat yee aadí. Lingít X’éináx, Yeilk' Tlaa yoo xat duwasáakw. Dleit kaa X’éináx Vivian Prescott ka yoo xat duwasáakw. Yéil naax xat sitee. (Adopted) T’akdeintaan áyá xat. Sáami ka Suomalainen yádi áyá xat ka áyá xat  ka Irish, ka Dutch, ka German…

Howie Martindale yoo duwasáakw ax xúx. Mitchell Prescott yoo duwasáakw ax éesh. Lorna Woods yoo duwasáakw ax tláa. Binkley ka Amundsen dachxan áyá xat. Kachxaana.aakw dax as een.aa áyá. Sheetka Kwaan yei xat yatee. Kashxeedí aya xat. Ax toowoo yak’éi yaax’ yei xat teeyí Gunalchéesh ax x’éit yees.aaxí.

 Poem

by Vivian Faith Prescott.

Published in Ice Box, 2009.

Lingít Oratory

Let the voices of your toenails be heard—Clarence Jackson.

Let the voice of your toenails be heard clacking on planked floors, sound seeping into cedar whorled wood.

Yet in response to your oratory, your words— like claps of thunder searching for a mountainside, skip across linoleum floors and hang upon aluminum framed windows and spackled walls.

 And here I sit in the back row with those who understand the protocol—we stomp our feet and watch the deaf ones who cannot hear our voices, because they still clap with their hands.