019 James S - Glacier Bay History - Translation.txt

{Number = 019}
{Type = Translation}
{Title = Sítʼ Ḵaa Káx̱ Kana.áa / Glacier Bay History}
{Author = Kaasgéiy / Susie James}
{Clan = Chookaneidí; Tʼaḵdeintaan yádi}
{Source = D&D 1987:244–259}
{Translator = Ḵeixwnéi / Nora Marks Dauenhauer}
{Page = 245}
 1	The name of it is G̱athéeni,
 2	that land of ours.
 3	G̱athéeni,
 4	the bay where the glacier was.
 5	It was where people lived.
 6	Salmon of all kinds ran there.
 7	That's why the people lived there; they made it a village.
 8	Many kinds of salmon are there.
 9	Good salmon ran there.
10	It was while people were still living there,
11	the houses:
12	maybe as many as five houses stood there,
13	the houses:
14	the Kaagwaantaan
15	and the Wooshkeetaan
16	and the Eechhittaan
17	and
18	us, those of us who are Chookaneidi,
19	all of us were there.
20	We were living there.
21	It was then,
22	what was she thinking, anyway,
23	that young girl
24	at the start of her enrichment? She was curtained off.
{Page = 247}
25	One was curtained off for three years.
26	That is why there were very many of us who are Tlingit,
27	because of how we cared for this child of ours.
28	Only at the end of the third year her hand would be given to her husband
29	straight from her place of isolation.
30	A female ehild was handled this way.
31	That was the way it was, the way she sat behind a curtain; it had been two years; it was the third year approaching.
32	It was not long
33	befare she would be released.
34	It was not long before someone would marry her.
35	There were the first sockeyes they smoked.
36	The sockeyes
37	used to run up under the ice, under the ice; it's not that way any more.
38	It was those they smoked.
39	They usually dried them.
40	But just what was happening?
41	That girl and her place.
42	It was an extension made of cedar bark
43	behind the house,
44	cedar bark.
45	That was where the young girl was kept.
46	It was said you could clearly see up the bay.
47	Through the mountains there you could see the glacier way up the bay; it was only a tiny piece
48	It was hanging there up the bay.
49	It couldn’t be seen much from the river; it could only
50	be seen from way out.
51	But she knew the glacier was there.
52	That is why she called the glaeier
53	like a dog,
54	“Glacier,
55	here,
56	here.”
57	With that dryfish she had eaten, the bones from the sides;
58	The way you eall a dog she was spitting on it; she called it like a dog with it.
{Page = 249}
59	“Glacier.
60	Here.
61	Here.
62	Here,” she said.
63	She called it with the sockeye dryfish.
64	She lifted the cedar bark from there.
65	Then her younger sister said to her,
66	“Hey, why are you saying that?”
67	She ignored what she said.
68	At one point the little sister went to tell her mother? “Mother!
69	Why is my older sister saying that?”
70	“What’s the matter?
71	Sh! sh!” her mother told her.
72	“Girls don’t bring news from back rooms.”
73	“But wait! Let me teIl you first what she’s saying.
74	My older sister’s calling the glacier; like a dog,
75	just like you call a dog:
76	Ptuh! Ptuh! Ptuh! Ptuh! Ptuh! She’s spitting on the bone,
77	the sockeye bone,
78	and using it to say, ‘Glacier! Here!
79	Here! Here!
80	Here!’
81	Then she threw it up there.”
82	“Don’t tell! Don’t tell!”
83	she warned that daughter of hers.
84	When dawn came that morning she finally went to her.
85	“What are you saying those things for now?
86	What are you calling the glacier for?
87	Don’t you know that you can break a taboo? You shouldn’t be saying things
88	about anything like that.
89	Why were you saying those things? Don’t you say them again.”
90	She talked to her.
91	Hunters would go up there by boat.
92	Suddenly people said,
93	“What’s wrong with the glacier? It’s growing so much!”
94	They used to see it way
95	up the bay.
96	But now it was near, getting closer, the way it was moving,
97	people said.
{Page = 251}
98	Oh, no.
99	It pierced the heart of that woman, the mother of the girl.
100	It was now growing fast.
101	They said the way it was moving, the way it was grewing, was faster
102	than a running dog.
103	Then people became afraid.
104	It was when the year was becoming full
105	people said.
106	It was Little Black Glacier that was there from long ago.
107	The place called Little Black Glacier.
108	“Little Black Glacier is already disappearing into the other one.
109	It is already disappearing into the new one,” is what people said.
110	"Oh, no.
111	What’s happening? What's going to happen to the people?”
112	At the same time Glacier Bay was murky.
113	People said it was like diluted milk.
114	Down there
115	the one growing through the sand behaved that way.
116	It was churning up from the bottom of the bay.
117	Whirlpools churned over to the surface like the tide.
118	Where the glacier was moving, it behaved that way.
119	The clay was like diluted milk,
120	The clay there was just like diluted milk.
121	This was when people became frightened.
122	Why was it? Wasn't there any way te stop it?
123	That was when
124	they made the songs then,
125	those people of long ago.
126	Naanaa Hít stood there,
127	Naanaa Hít.
128	Your paternal aunt
129	Kaaxwaan
130	has probably told this to you.
131	Their clan house stood up the river.
132	Next to it stoed ours,
133	Xinaa Hít indeed.
134	Its name then was
{Page = 253}
135	Xinaa Hít, indeed,
136	that was the name of ours then.
137	There were many
138	other houses.
139	And there was a row of houses behind these too.
140	There were many people there.
141	That’s when
142	the mother of the girl to1d her mother,
143	told Shaawatséekʼ.
144	“It seems your granddaughter has broken a taboo," she told her.
145	“She called that glacier.
146	Now it's nearly on top of us, the way
147	the way it’s growing.
148	It’s growing like a running dog.
149	It’s like a running dog.
150	There’s no way to get away from it
151	the way the glacier has been growing,”
152	she said to her mother.
153	That’s when her mother said,
154	“Yes,
155	then just prepare ahead of time, then,
156	then just prepare ahead of time.
157	The place you will escape to:
158	prepare it in your minds.
159	Yes!
160	This little granddaughter of mine that broke the taboo,
161	I will take her place,
162	I will take her place.
163	I will stay in my mother’s maternal uncles’ house.
164	I will simply stay
165	in my mother’s maternal uncle’s house.
166	I will not 1eave to go to the boats.
167	But this granddaughter of mine is a young woman.
168	Children will be born from her.
169	Sa you will take her aboard with you.
170	But whatever happens to my maternal uncles’ house will happen to me.”
171	That’s what she said to her daughter.
172	That’s when
173	she replied, “Hey! What are you saying?
174	Why should you stay behind? You too,
175	you’ll go with us too.” “No!
{Page = 255}
176	I am not going with you.
177	I won’t leave here with you.
178	Yes!
179	What happens to this,
180	my mother’s maternal uncles’ house will happen to me,”
181	is what
182	Shaawatséekʼ said.
183	“But Kaasteen will go in the boat.”
184	(It’s usually switched by story tellers.
185	This is the way I know the story, the way I heard it; this is how
186	I tell it.
187	My maternal grandfathers, those who were already aged
188	when I first became aware of them,
189	I’m telling it
190	from their lips.)
191	That’s when
192	the mother of the girl
193	said,
194	telling her husband,
195	“My mother is saying such and such.”
196	That’s when the maternal uncle
197	was composing a song.
198	He was composing a song.
199	He was trying to compose
200	a song.
201	He went over to Naanaa Hít.
202	This was where
203	he said
204	yes
205	to Ḵaanax̱duwóosʼ,
206	the one of long ago,
207	“I am composing a song.
208	How would it be if you
209	compose a song too?
210	It wouldn’t be right if there might not be anything heard from us
211	when we begin
212	our escape from here.”
213	“Fine!” he said. “Good.
214	That’s what I’ve been thinking about.
215	I’ve been thinking about it.
216	I will compose one,”
{Page = 257}
217	he said to him.
218	“As soon as I’m done,
219	you pack.
220	You pack.” Soon
221	it was reaching the outside of Áaxʼw X̱oo; soon.
222	The glacier
223	was outside the place called
224	Áaxʼw X̱oo.
225	How swiftly it was growing.
226	It was even, even faster than anything.
227	How swiftly the glacier was growing,
228	this was when
229	they packed.
230	I wonder what they packed
231	into the boats?
232	Into the boats they worked at
233	lifting their packs, into the boats.
234	When it was nearing the front of the village
235	on the outside of Áaxʼw
236	then the water behaved just like
237	it was churning up in large chunks.
238	That’s when people became frightened; That’s when the whole village began to get ready then.
239	Then they were getting ready in the boats,
240	they were getting ready in the boats.
241	Then, when they were ready in the boats
242	that grandmother
243	didn’t want to go aboard.
244	“Take my little granddaughter aboard with you.
245	Take Kaasteen aboard with you.
246	But I will just stay here.
247	Whatever happens to my grandparents’ house, to my mother’s maternal uncles’ house will happen to me,” she said.
248	That is why they began boarding the boats without her.
249	They were already anchored in the bay.
250	They began singing the song from Naanaa Hít.
{Comment = First song, first verse.}
251	Eehee iyaa
252	eehee yei hei yaa
253	yei aalaa hei yaahaa
{Page = 259}
254	ei hei hayoo oo
255	aaṉaa iyaa aa laa
{Comment = First song, second verse.}
256	My land
257	will I ever…
258	yei aalaa hei yaa aa
259	yei hei hayoo ooo
260	aaṉaa iyaa aa haaa
{Comment = First song, third verse.}
261	My house
262	will I ever…
263	yei aaṉaa hei yaahaa
264	yei hei hayoo ooo
265	aaṉaa iyaa aa haaa
266	Hwee-e-e-e-e-e. This is a cry
{Comment = Second song, first verse. Note says “sung twice”.}
267	Won’t my land
268	be pitiful
269	Won’t my land
270	be pitiful
271	when I leave on foot?
272	hee hee hee hee
273	ahaa haa haa haa
274	yee hee hee hee
275	ahaa haa haaa
276	yee hee yaa hee hee.
{Comment = Second song, second verse.}
277	Won’t my house
278	be pitiful
279	Won’t my house
280	be pitiful
281	when I leave by boat?
282	hee hee hee hee
283	aha a haa haa haaa
284	yee hee hee hee
285	ahaa haa haa
286	yee hee yaa hee.
{Comment = Second song, comment.}
287	This is a cry.
288	This is a song for the cry.