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GUIDE TO THE HOLIKACHUK LANGUAGE COLLECTION (1880-2003)
Alaska Native Language Archives
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Box 757680
Fairbanks, AK 99775
INFORMATION FOR RESEARCHERS
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
COLLECTION ORGANIZATION
COLLECTION SUMMARY:
Title: Holikachuk Language Collection.
Extent: 3 manuscript boxes covering 1.5 linear feet.
Repository Location: Alaska Native Language Archive, 406 Brooks Building, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Please consult with the Alaska Native Language Center for information regarding the specific location of materials within the archive.
Forms of Material: The collection includes both original and photocopied manuscript and typescript documents comprised of academic research papers; fieldnotes, particularly pertaining to Holikachuk place names, phonology, and verb forms; wordlists; ethnographic, religious, and traditional texts; and educational materials.
Languages: Collection languages are primarily Holikachuk and English. Some documents offers Holikachuk words in comparison to other Athabaskan languages in Alaska.
Abstract: All materials in the Holikachuk collection are either written in or about the Holikachuk language. The earliest documents date from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and contain ethnographic accounts and some information on personal and place names; however most of the collection dates from the mid to late 19th century. The bulk of the later materials consists of fieldnotes, representing research on vocabulary and placenames, with some traditional texts, although neither texts nor grammatical information are abundant. Originals and copies of fieldnotes by James Kari, representing work from 1972 through the 1990s form an important and large part of the collection. The collection also includes some educational materials prepared during the 1980s by Hanna Maillelle and others. Photocopied material occassionaly represents original material held by other repositories and certain reproduction and use restriction apply.
INFORMATION FOR RESEARCHERS:
Access: Collection access is permitted during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 4:30, and further by appointment throughout the year.
Preferred Citation: Please list author, date, and title of publication, whether item is a photocopy or original, location of original document if different than ANLC, then note folder title, Holikachuk Language Collection, Alaska Native Language Center Archive, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Restrictions: Visitors to the collection may copy non-restricted items, though lack of clerical support prohibits ANLC from processing photocopy requests online or by mail at this time. In addition, many items in the collection are restricted in their use by their authors or by the repositories from which we obtained our copies, and may not be further copied here without permission of the original repositories.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION:
Acquisition Information:Dr. Michael Krauss of the Alaska Native Language Center began collecting materials now in the Holikachuk collection when he arrived at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1960. Krauss made great effort to assemble a near-comprehensive collection of primary and secondary source material, in the form of wordlists, fieldnotes, manuscript texts, journal articles, and previously published articles on the language. Kari has been largely responsible for contributing his materials to the Center, especially during the processing work in 2002-2006. The staff of the Alaska Native Language Center have also contributed primary material to the collection through their fieldnotes and academic research papers.
Processing History: The first major organization of the Holikachuk Collection occurred in the late 1970s and led to the publication of an annotated catalogue based on folder titles. This system has been retained, and recent work (2002-2006) has concentrated on document preservation, the development of an electronic database, and the creation of a finding aid.
Acknowledgements: Some of the photocopies obtained by Krauss were made from originals held in other repositories, including the Alaska and Polar Regions Collection, Elmer Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska.
Funding: The National Endowment for the Humanities (grant # PA-50139-03) funded collection processing and finding aid development.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Language Information: Holikachuk is the Athabascan language of the Innoko River, formerly spoken at the village of Holikachuk, which has moved to Grayling on the lower Yukon River. Holikachuk, which is intermediate between Ingalik (Deg Xinag) and Koyukon, was recognized as a potentially distinct language since the 1840s; but as it remained largely undocumented until the 1960s, it was definitively identified as a separate language only in the 1970s. The total population is about 200, and of those perhaps 12 speak the language.
Scope and Content Note: The scope of the Holikachuk language collection is quite broad in that it strives to include all material written or published in or about the Holikachuk Language. Dr. Michael Krauss made an effort to collect all things Holikachuk, and has developed a nearly comprehensive collection, which has been greatly supplemented in recent years through donations by Kari.
Little documentation of Holikachuk took place before the 1960s: there are 4 items for the period 1880-1910 and none thereafter until 1959 in the collection. These early works primarily list personal and place names, especially collected by John W. Chapman. There are some comparative notes on the speech of Holikachuk and Innoko villages.
By far the largest part of the collection relates to the fieldnotes of various linguists. The first linguistic documentation was undertaken by Michael Krauss in the 1960s, at which time Holikachuk was determined to be a distinct language with major phonological differences with neighboring Athabascan languages. This early work, consisting of 5 items, especially relates to phonology, lexicology, and dialectology, and it includes reports of various field trips. From 1975 to the present, James Kari has been a major contributor in efforts to document Holikachuk. His fieldnotes, in 13-14 folders, pertain to place names, wordlists by semantic category, stem lists, and traditional texts. Most recently, Giulia Oliverio (2000-2003, 7 items) has been working on other aspects of the linguistic documentation of Holikachuk, including especially aspects of the grammar, such as prefixation, derivation, and incorporation, as well as some documentation of conversational phrases.
Another important part of the collection relates to the development of an orthography and to educational materials and the encouragement of Holikachuk literacy. Jeff Leer worked on a practical orthography and literacy exercises in 1974-75, as did Kari to some extent. Most of the educational materials are primary readers (14 items) prepared for children; many were adapted and translated into Holikachuk from other Athabascan languages by Hannah Maillelle, Chad Thompson, and others in the 1980s.
COLLECTION ORGANIZATION:
The Holikachuk Language Collection adheres to the organizational schema developed and applied to each language within the Alaska Native Language Archives by Michael Krauss and Mary Jane McGary in the late 1970s. It involves a system of call numbers (folder numbers) aimed at arranging items chronologically by author. The files are generally organized by author, and thereunder by date of ‘publication’ or ‘work’. In files with multiple authors, the first or earliest author is used. ‘Authorship’ should be interpreted loosely to include not only author in the traditional sense, but also collector, translator, transcriber, speaker, editor, compiler, or informant; these roles are generally indicated. The call number system codes the language series, author, and date. A brief explanation of the call number system follows:
The call number first notes the language, Holikachuk, with the two-letter code “HO”. The second element of the call number is a three-digit number consisting of the last three digits of the year of the author’s first known work on or in the Holikachuk language. When an item has more than one author, the date is that of the first-named author.
The third element of the call number is the first letter of the author’s surname, or several letters in the case of co-authors. For example, K refers to Kari; MT refers to Maillelle and Thompson.
The fourth element of the call number gives the date of the item. The given date on the published item is used as the item date. When an item includes several editions, translations, or reprinting of a single item, the date of the specific edition in the archive is listed. In some cases, and academic year date appears on educational publications, such as 78/79; here the first year has been used as an item date. In the dating of unpublished materials, if a date appears on the item, it is used as the publication date, except in rare cases where we have concrete knowledge that the date is in error. Undated items have been assigned dates based on our knowledge of the authors work. Some of theses dates are quite approximate and this is usually noted in the description. If multiple items were published in the same year, they are distinguished by letters of the alphabet following the date, e.g. “1973a”, “1973b”.
Some examples:
HO983T1983a reads as the first of several items produced in 1983 by Thompson, who began working on the Holikachuk language in 1983. HO983MT1985 reads as an item produced in 1985 by Maillelle and Thompson; Maillelle began working on Holikachuk in 1983.
List of Authors and Contributors
Subject List
Container List
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