At its Fall 2010 meeting on November 30 the
Alaska Historical Commission approved a new Native place name,
Nen' Yese'. It's an Athna Athabaskan name which denotes a prominent ridge east of Lake Louise, to the north of the Glenn Highway. The name will now be recommended to the US Board on Geographic Names for inclusion as an official place name on USGS maps.
The fact that the ridge known to the Ahtna as Nen' Yese' did not already have an English name was probably crucial to the success of this proposal. The process makes it very difficult to change existing names. Witness the ongoing battle to change the name of North America's highest peak to Denali. So it is that three other proposals to add Native names were tabled at the November meeting. These were:
- Alakanuk village to Alarneq
- Negrohead Creek to Łochenhyatth (or Nachenyath)
- Negrohead Mountain to Tl'oo Khanishyah
The
December 18th edition of the Tundra Drums quotes UAF's Walkie Charles as saying that the move to use indigenous names such as
Alarneq is an important stem in reclaiming language. Alarneq is an Yup'ik (or Yugtun) word, written in the standardized writing system which has been used for writing Yup'ik for more than 40 years. The name Alakanuk represents a poor attempt to pronounce the name by non-speakers of the language. Perhaps the fact that Alakanuk is at least an approximation of the Yup'ik name led the Board to defer in this case. Other successful proposals to change village names have involved the replacement of English names which had absolutely nothing to do with the indigenous name. For example, the name English Bay was changed to
Nanwalek in 1991, and the name Sheldon Point was changed to
Nunam Iqua in 1999.
One can hope that the Alarneq proposal will eventually be successful. If so, we may see more such proposals in the future. The Tundra Drums article indicates that the Association of Village Council Presidents, who sponsored the Alarneq proposal, may submit more village name changes. The forthcoming revision to the
Indigenous Peoples and Languages of Alaska map includes 210 indigenous village names spelled according to the local writing system, so there are plenty of opportunities for name changes.
The proposals for Łochenhyatth and Tl'oo Khanishyah are somewhat different in that they were made not an indigenous organization but by a middle school class in Fairbanks which objected to the existing English name. These are not village names but rather--as in the case of
Nen' Yese'--geographic features. As such it is difficult to imagine much opposition to these changes. Note however that a couple years ago Australian Aboriginal groups actually
opposed a proposal to change the name of a place known in English as Mount Niggerhead. The key seems to be making sure that the names originate from the language of the land on which the feature is located--which in the two proposals here is certainly the case: Łochenhyatth is a Lower Tanana Athabaskan name, while Tl'oo Khanishyah is a Gwich'in name.
