Revising the Alaska Native language map

Michael Krauss' map of Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska has become an iconic symbol of Alaska Native's and the indigenous presence in Alaska. Since its first publication by the Alaska Native Language Center some 33 years ago, the Map has defined language territories and boundaries in the state. Based on more than a decade of research by Krauss and others, the Map attempts to synthesize linguistic and social information to delineate distinct languages based largely on technical factors.

While the Map has been revised once and reprinted dozens of times, the underlying medium employs obsolete graphic arts technologies, making even relatively simple changes to the Map difficult and expensive. So it is that certain pejorative language names remain on the Map. These include both old spellings, such as Kutchin for Gwich'in and Tanaina for Dena'ina, as well as more offensives terms such as "Ingalik" for Deg Hit'an.

A group at the Institute for Social and Economic Research in Anchorage proposes to use GIS technologies to create an interactive version of the map which will not only permit easy updating of language names, but also permit language data to be overlaid on other readily available geographic information, such as village populations. A presentation by ISER postdoctoral fellow Colin West at the Arctic AAAS meeting in September outlines the benefits and challenges of the GIS approach.

One thing that becomes clear is that the existing digital data now circulating are grossly in error. Geospatial data were made available as part of a CD-ROM supplement to Roger Pearson's 2000 school atlas, Alaska in Maps: A Thematic Atlas. However, these data differ radically from those on either the original 1974 Map or the 1982 2nd edition. Many villages are located in the wrong language area, and some boundaries support erroneous claims, such as the extension of the Central Yup'ik territory to Cook Inlet. It is unclear whether these errors were introduced deliberately or merely through carelessness.

To make matters worse, it seems that the digital data may have been released in violation of copyright. A March 2000 letter from atlas author Roger Pearson to then ANLC Director Michael Krauss requests permission to use Map data in the CD-ROM, offering remuneration in the amount of $100. However, there is no indication that permission was ever given or that this payment was ever made. Still, issues of accuracy are more important than copyright. Let's hope that the ISER project can generate accurate geospatial language which can be made freely available all interested in Alaska Native languages.

For the record, ISER is not the only organization working on GIS language mapping in Alaska. The NSF-funded LL-MAP Project incorporates information from ANLC. And the GIS in Linguistics Project incorporates both ANLC data and census data. Stay tuned.