Among the Dane people in Alaska and northern Canada, tradition tells us that it is rude to refer to animals and stars. He inadvertently talks about the reality of the night sky. And so is the troubling elders with probe questions.
Redheaded astronomical educator Chris Cannon had no idea about any of this cloudy morning in 2011. He knocked at the door of Paul Herbert in Forfour Yukon, Alaska, passing a faded sign that reads “trespasser will be shot.”
Dr. Cannon, for years after his PhD, at the time, in cultural anthropology, Herbert tried to introduce himself in Gwitchin, one of hundreds of born native speakers. Dr. Cannon then asked about the stars.
“What the heck does that mean, a star?” Herbert said. “It’s cloudy.”
Over tea at Herbert’s kitchen table, Dr. Cannon produced a document showing the names of stars recorded by Western ethnographicalists and anthropologists from the local indigenous culture. Existing research suggests that Northern Dene societies like Gujichin were able to map or study the larger dippers and other parts of the night sky. One ethnographicalist of the 20th century went on to dismiss the astronomical knowledge of the region’s indigenous peoples as “very small” and “small.”
But Herbert holds far more in his mind than the sum of all published studies.
“I said, ‘That stupid little map, I’ll throw it into the trash,'” Herbert recalled in a recording of the launch event. For Dr. Cannon’s new book About Northern Denester’s knowledge, hosted at the Tanana Chiefs Conference, a consortium of Alaska’s native community.
The book “Traveler’s Footprints” grew from his first encounter with Herbert, and was replaced by clearer photographs of the huge, old, complex astronomical systems shared by elders across more than 750 miles of subwestern landscape. Along with Herbert, about 65 Indigenous knowledge holders contributed to the book. More than a third have passed away since Dr. Cannon began his research.
One of the most central features of the regional astronomical system is the single figure that spans the entire sky. In Gwichin he is Yadiy.
“We may have called him another name, but we all have the same story of a man in the sky,” writes Fred Sangris of the Yellow Knife Dane First Nation in Canada in the preface to the volume. “As the book’s chief, elder and contributor, I hope that this work will give my sincere blessing and that many will benefit from the wisdom of the page.”
But at first, he sat awkwardly at the kitchen table, so it was clear that Dr. Cannon, now an Indigenous Research Scholar at the University of Alaska Fairbanks University, had a lot to learn. Includes methods To learn. Dr. Cannon will find that such knowledge cannot be acquired through traditional Western academic research. Instead, he needs to enter the world with his own thoughts, methods and rules.
His first job was clear: come back when the sky clears.
Dr. Cannon returned to Herbert’s home in the spring of 2013.
This time, stars were mandatory. Standing on powdery creaking snow in 25 Fahrenheit weather, Herbert said the Yadiy tail was the only big dipper that former ethnographicalists recorded as “Yahhii.”
Yahdii’s anatomy actually incorporated other famous stars. Castmas and Pollux were in Yadiy’s left ear. The Pleiades was the tip of Yadiy’s Animali’s nose. Yahdii’s left foot was hovered near Arcturus. His right foot by Deneb. The Milky Way was a snowy trail followed by Yadiy. What the ancient Greeks were upset by dozens of shapes was here a hybrid of single human animals arched in the sky, as all four gathered on a beach ball.
The overall constellations shared by Herbert were unknown to Western scholarships. I shared the paper About the subject. However, this prompted another question by Dr. Canon: Who was Yadiy?
Mr. Herbert refused to answer. This was not a casual discussion. Dr. Cannon needs to stick to it the right way and learn about it, Herbert said. 4 or 5 years should be appropriate.
In the Northern Dane tradition, children learn through tasks, riddles and personal reactions to experiences. It’s not through questions. It is certainly not information that was raised with a spoon. And in these issues Dr. Cannon was functionally a child.
According to Herbert, he will need to return to hunting excursions and take part in a better understanding of Yadiy’s identity by looking for a faint red star.
Dr. Cannon later lived in a cabin outside Fairbanks, but searched the star in vain during his nightly visit to the Outhouse. He also accompanied Mr. Herbert first on a short trip and then on a voyage.
Around 30 North Dane societies live in Alaska and Canada, and connect languages closely with each other.
Much of the Northern astronomical knowledge tackles the practical challenge of thriving in a sub-xiang environment. For example, to measure the time, Herbert reads the rise of a star on the horizon on a winter morning without the sun. He also remembers a stellar road search system that is as complicated as the star compass used by Polynesian voyagers.
At Gwich’in, orientation is given in relation to the river system. Instead of walking “north” or “south”, you travel “upstream” or “downriver”. If Mr. Herbert is confused at night in the thick forest, he just looks at Yadiy’s orientation. As he and Dr. Cannon documented, he mentally maps the position of the stars in relation to the river-derived system of the land below. 2022.
As they traveled together, Dr. Cannon realized that Mr. Herbert often chose a route that followed the story of the Northern Dane, a form-changing wanderer. Known by various names in different dialects, he is an English “traveler.” In primitive times, travelers transformed what once was a world inhabited by monsters into a place of kinderness to humans. However, the places travellers went after his lifelong adventures often remain unlimited.
Dr. Cannon decided to test the informed guests. Is Yadiy another name for the traveler? Did he ask vaguely? Mr Herbert responded with no. It will take Dr. Cannon years and years to understand why he answered that way.
However, elders who Dr. Cannon visited in a nearby community provided complementary clues and provided other toes for him. Their dialect also holds the names of the human and animal constellations that span the heavenly grounds as described by Mr. Herbert, suggesting an old, deep worldview. To Sahtúot’ine, Yahdii was named Yı́hda. In Ahtna he was Nek’eltaeni. He was Nogiyori to David Engles, a member of Lower Tanana.
Herbert’s teaching methods were not limited to his family, but proved to be ancestors. Mr. Engles was taught by his grandfather. He also engulfed him in the mystery of the night sky with a challenge that Dr. Cannon recognised with a familiarity.
If I could find the “Little Red one” my grandfather said, he would have taught me more. Within weeks, Engles found the star.
In contrast, Dr. Cannon needed a cross-cultural tip equivalent to find a faint star to Mr. Herbert’s satisfaction. He only caught them after hearing elders from other communities discuss connecting with their own version of the constellations figures after discovering their “head” or “heart.” Hearing this, Dr. Cannon narrowed his search into the empty realm where Yadiy’s mind must be.
He then found it, astronomers in the west of the ambiguous star called 27 Lin, as only visible on the clear night.
It took him three and a half years.
But whose heart was it really? The more Dr. Cannon studied, the more he became convinced once again that travellers, human and animal constellations were the same in many Northern Dene cultures.
Eventually he again formed a relationship with Mr. Herbert, highlighting his own deeper beliefs and the work he put into it. This time, Herbert gave Jesus: the appearance of the Gwichin traveler was the same as the Yadiy.
In the past, Dr. Cannon’s collaborator told him that it was intended to be found only by those who were interested enough to make their own participatory journey and have a personal relationship with the stars. Only then could we recognize that travelers we knew from childhood stories were above the stars.
Among the cultural benefactors who contributed to the book, Dr. Cannon approached the subject in a traditional, practical way, and many agreed to help violate this intimate knowledge on paper. Others were motivated because they realized that they were one of the few people remaining in their subculture and language to retain this knowledge.
“I haven’t talked about this in 20 years,” Engles told Dr. Cannon in an interview. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to get back what my grandfather gave me.”
Dr. Cannon’s book aims to fill in what he considers the yawning gap. Although all civilizations experience the night sky, Dr. Cannon estimates that in-depth research into how people conceptualize the universe has been attempted in less than 1% of human language.
“I felt that was necessary,” John McDonald said. Those who conducted the survey He served as Dr. Cannon’s academic reviewer in astronomy with Inuit Elders in the 1990s.
“I reacted emotionally to it,” he said of Dr. Cannon’s manuscript.
This experience has been more personal for Mandy Beiha, one of the book’s young contributors. From Delhi, located in Canada’s northwest territory, she describes her culture as one of the last generations to grow the language of her culture as her first tongue. The elders’ decision to participate in Dr. Cannon’s research was part of a continuing gift to future generations, she described it as an act of “unconditional love and sacred duty.”
When Dr. Cannon met her and Elder Charlie Neiel, the discussion felt like a very remembered exercise that she already knew. All the familiar stories of travelers were suddenly snapped into place between the stars.
“When I remembered or connected it, it was like everything past, present and future came together for me, and it has lived,” Beiha said.
Dr. Cannon also conveyed the traditions of other Northern Dene cultures seeking the heart of the constellations, explaining how much the process took him. Mr. Beiha quickly began to pay attention to one faint star above his head.
The next time Dr. Cannon visited, she pointed it out and he confirmed that she had identified the correct star.
“I laughed a bit,” she said. “I found it, and I didn’t even know I’d found it.
