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GUIDE TO THE TANANA LANGUAGE COLLECTION (1903-2004)
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: Tanana Language Collection.
Extent: 9 manuscript boxes and one 3-by-5 card file box covering 2.5 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 Tanana place names, phonology, and verb forms; wordlists; ethnographic and traditional texts; and educational materials.
Languages: Collection languages are both Tanana and English. Some documents offers Tanana words in comparison to other Athabaskan languages in Alaska.
Abstract: All materials in the Tanana collection are either written in or about the Tanana language. The earliest documents date from the early 1900s, however most of the collection dates from 1960s to the present, with a focus on wordlists, fieldnotes, and phonology. Fieldnotes by Krauss form an important part of the collection and include work on dialects, phonology, verb forms, place names, and collections of texts. Educational materials and religious texts are less well represented. The collection also includes some early research papers. 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, Tanana 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 Tanana 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. The staff of the Alaska Native Language Center have also contributed primary material to the collection through their fieldnotes, class lectures, and academic research papers.
Processing History: The first major organization of the Tanana 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: Tanana was formerly spoken along the Tanana River from Minto to the Goodpaster River. Dialects include Goodpaster, Salcha, Chena (extinct since 1976) and Minto-Nenana. Fewer than 100 speakers remained as of 1980 (Krauss). A practical orthography was developed in 1974; to date, few texts have been published in Tanana. Much of the linguistic documentation has been the work of Michael Krauss, James Kari, and Siri Tuttle from the 1990s to the present.
Scope and Content Note: The scope of the Tanana language collection is quite broad in that it strives to include all material written or published in or about the Tanana Language. Dr. Michael Krauss made an effort to collect all things Tanana, and has developed a nearly comprehensive collection. Recent contributions by other staff at the Alaska Native Language Center, notably James Kari and Siri Tuttle, have greatly contributed to the completeness of the collection.
Generally, the collection contains materials relating to linguistic fieldwork, academic research, and educational materials for schoolchildren. By far the largest part of the collection relates to the fieldnotes of various reserachers. Though there are originals, many of the fieldnotes are photocopies provided by the author or field researcher. The earliest materials date from the first half of the 20th century; there is comparatively little linguistic documentation from this period, mostly relating to place names, some notes on dialectology, and some wordlists.
The first detailed linguistic documentation was undertaken by Michael Krauss in the 1960s and 1970s and includes especially studies of the lexicon, phonology, dialects, and notes on comparative Athabascan, as well as beginning work on a noun dictionary (in 15 folders) and some text transcriptions and translations. Also very significant during this period are Mertie Baggen’s fieldnotes on the lexicon (16 folders).
During the 1980s, Michael Krauss and James Kari were the primary documenters of Tanana, with fieldnotes predominantly relating to place names, the lexicon, and texts (ca 25 folders). Both Kari and Krauss have continued to contribute to the collection to the present. The fieldnotes and publications of a number of other researchers during this period are also represented in the collection. In addition, there are a number of items from the 1980s relating to the ethnography of the Tanana people, with many of them produced by the Tanana Chiefs Conference.
From the 1990s to the present, Siri Tuttle (ca 16 items) has produced studies of phonetics, phonology, morphology, and other aspects of the grammar of Tanana; the materials include fieldnotes, published papers, and her dissertation.
Comparatively little material concerns religious texts in the Tanana Language, and only a handful of educational materials can be found in the collection. Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, Chad Thompson, James Kari, among others, have all contributed to the development of literacy and literacy materials, including especially primers for children, most of which were developed in the late 1970s and 1980s.
COLLECTION ORGANIZATION:
The Tanana 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, Tanana, with the two-letter code “TN.” 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 Tanana 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, BA refers to Mertie Baggen and Elizabeth F. Andrews.
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:
TN961K1962e reads as the fifth of several items produced in 1962 by Michael Krauss, who began working on the Tanana language in 1961. TN964BN1974 reads as an item produced in 1974 by Mertie Baggen and Elizabeth E. Andrews; Baggen began working on the language in 1964.
List of Authors and Contributors
Subject List
Container List
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