Peter's Publisher

origins of the languages in my plan Some time ago, a friend posted on Facebook about choosing a new language to learn. He said he was aiming to learn seven to nine languages in his life, so he needed to be careful about what he chose to spend time on. I was struck by his words because I'd never really considered that I should consciously limit the number of languages I'd try to learn. Now I think about it all the time. It makes sense, of course: Growing up, we all realize in one way or another that everyone has limits to their knowledge of different languages. If you intend to learn several languages over the course of your life, then, it should help to plan deliberately and conscientiously how to meet those goals. I love languages, and I do intend to keep learning many throughout my life—so it's about time I made a plan.

Let me start by saying that I understand learning a fictional language is a hobby. Many people have hobbies that don't seem to have any particularly useful purpose. I'm sure I have hobbies that some would judge to be a waste of time, and I certainly have plenty of knowledge (including knowledge of fictional worlds) that many would judge to be useless. Nevertheless, I resent learners of fictional languages. I resent those who learn fictional languages not because I believe their pursuits are harmful, but because they clearly have aptitudes that could be put to exceptionally greater uses.

I wrote up the following timeline for the Totem Heritage Center , an awesome museum in Ketchikan that preserves some of the oldest Tlingit and Haida totem poles in the world. I wrote the original version in 2012 when I first worked at the Heritage Center. Now I've been rehired for this summer, and this is my updated version. Early 1700s — Haida move north into Lingít Aaní (Tlingit country), begin living on southern Taan (Prince of Wales Island) 1741 — The Alexei Chirikov expedition sees Tlingit, the first European encounter of Northwest Coast people 1774 — Juan Perez leads the first Spanish expedition north of California, likely bringing smallpox to Haida Gwaii and Taan. 1774-1834 — Fur trade ongoing between Natives and Europeans in Southeast Alaska 1793 — George Vancouver circumnavigates and names Revillagigedo Island Late 1700s — Members of the Taant’a Ḵwáan (Tongass Tribe) move to Dàasaxakw (Village Island) 1830s — Members of the Taant’a Ḵwáan move to Kadúḵx̱uka (...

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States, and I figured I should share a selection of my blogging on indigenous knowledge, history, and education. Without further elaboration, here's my selection of posts: Maps: Maps That Infuriate Me: European Claims to North America Percentage of Indigenous People in Each Territory, Province and State Mapping Indigenous Autonyms Coast to Coast Mapping Indigenous Autonyms in Canada History: Quick Alternate Histories: A Post-Beringia Pre-Columbian Migration Two Research Ideas from Northwest Coast-North Pacific History College assignments: Movement, Diffusion, Diversity and Stateness: North American Historical Patterns Before 1519 Native Worlds of New Spain: The Diversity and Power of Indigenous Communities in Colonial North America Art: An Indigenous/Non-Indigenous or Western/Non-Western Art Dichotomy? Visiting 'Ksan in Hazelton, British Columbia Red: A Haida Manga and the Possibilities of Graphic Novel...

some of my "books read" list This blog has been politics-heavy lately and will probably continue to be until the November 4th election and even afterward. For now, though, I'd like to take a break to write about reading. I've been recording the title, author, and date finished of every book I've finished reading since the beginning of my senior year of high school—August 2008. That's over six years of reading records I have now. I take care to say it's a list of books I finished reading, since there are many other books I began to read or even mostly read that didn't make the list. I don't really have a strict standard for book length, either; some were relatively easy reads that just took a day. Nevertheless, I think the list is dominated by good, full-length books. My list is now 153 books long, which works out to a grand average of one book finished every 14.51 days, or about 25 books per year. While that rate seems very modest to me,...

District 36 includes the communities of Ketchikan, Wrangell, Metlakatla, Saxman, Hydaburg, and Hyder. I live in Alaska's District 36, newly created after the crazy episode of redistricting that was this and this and this . (Ketchikan used to be in District 1, but apparently someone from Fairbanks managed to change the numbering so it's in their community now.) As a precursor to the upcoming primary election (August 19th) and general election (November 4th), I thought I should share some statistics about my district related to population and political affiliation—a sort of electoral "getting to know you" piece. (All statistics come from this state source .) As is true for all of Alaska, the majority of people in District 36 prefer not to identify with a political party. In fact, over 58% of District 36 voters are "undeclared" or "nonpartisan," compared with less than 54% in the whole state. (I am "undeclared." Read this to fin...

Half a year ago, I wrote about the project "Map of Our Tribal Nations."  The map displayed (or attempted to display) all of the indigenous nations that inhabited the lands now making up the Lower 48, naming them by their autonyms  (names for themselves in their own languages). At the time, creator Aaron Carapella promised he would later publish a map of all Canada's indigenous nations and their names. Since then, he has—the Canadian First Nations Map —and afterward he encouraged me to review it.  Now I will.

Last October, I went to Mexico without being able to speak Spanish. I would call my knowledge of the language "less-than-survival level." However, I managed to do pretty well navigating the daily need-to-do tasks I had while in Oaxaca. Why is that? I mean, it could have been far more difficult for me to spend five days in Mexico without knowing the language—but it wasn't. The historian in me has only one conclusion to make: The main reason I managed as easily as I did was because of the continued rise of global uniformities. In his book The Birth of the Modern World , Christopher Bayly traces what he names "the rise of global uniformities" from 1780 to 1914. Let's explore what this concept means for all of us.

Indianaʼs treaties ( source ) I've just recorded my first ever podcast, and uploaded it to SoundCloud . It's entitled "Indiana: Thoughts on Indigenous Revitalization,"  or "Indiana" for short. Please take the time to listen to it, or read the transcript below: Hello, my name is Peter Stanton, and this is my very first podcast, entitled "Indiana." Be sure to check out the transcript of this podcast and my other writing on peterstanton.blogspot.com . Think for a moment about humble Indiana—Indiana, the land of corn and basketball. What does the name Indiana mean, anyway? Unsurprisingly, it means "land of the Indians"—a name thought up by white people, of course. But would you guess what percentage of people living in Indiana today are Native Americans? It's 0.4 percent. What kind of sick joke is that? That's about 25,000 people in a state of 6.5 million.

my first "Tlingit Word of the Day" tweet As I continue my small efforts to promote Lingít , (the Tlingit language), I've begun to occasionally post Tlingit place names or other "words of the day" to Twitter and Facebook. This is my first compilation of the posts I've done so far, and hopefully there will be many more to come.

I discovered Prezi two and a half years ago , and I've very much enjoyed using it ever since, although I haven't been able to do so all that frequently. As of now I have created a total of ten prezis, but now for the first time I will share one on this blog. Prezi is essentially an online presentation built on a boundless and interactive field, rather than the traditional PowerPoint slide. In fact, Prezi has so many advantages over PowerPoint in terms of its adaptability, ease of use, and "wow" factor that I can't understand why anyone would use PowerPoint ever again.

a Google Earth shot of Laax̱aayík (Yakutat Bay) This year I've written a few different in-depth posts on the blog about moments from Tlingit history—a natural outgrowth, I suppose, from all the fun research I did while writing my senior thesis . I wrote about a Spanish expedition that came to Prince of Wales Island in 1779, (likely bringing smallpox), and I wrote about a battle in Prince William Sound in 1792 fought between Tlingit, Russians, and the Russians' Chugach Sugpiaq allies (the first recorded battle between Tlingit and Russians). More recently, I highlighted some of my favorite facts from the book Land of the Ocean Mists by Francis Caldwell. Now I'd like to share a full story from Land of the Ocean Mists,  paraphrased in my own words and with additional information provided. The story concerns a dangerous year spent in the place the Tlingit named Laax̱aayík , a place we now call Yakutat...

UAS recently put up signs for each of its student apartments (which, by the way, are very nice to stay in). The signs give a nature-related name to each building that begins with its already-established letter designator: I, for example, live in building A, which now has a sign saying "Aurora." The signs look great, and I love that a translation is provided for each word in  Lingít (Tlingit), such that "Aurora" has "gisʼóoḵ" beneath it (a new word I'll remember now). I have found one problem, however, and it's the sign in front of building B:

( Google Books ) I recently finished the book Land of the Ocean Mists: The Wild Ocean Coast West of Glacier Bay , written by longtime Alaska fisherman Francis Caldwell. Caldwell covers all the information and stories most people would ever want to know about the coast between the Alsek River and Cape Spencer in Southeast Alaska, known as the Fairweather Country. Here's a roughly chronological list of some of the most interesting things I learned, all paraphrased or summarized from the book: First, no person lives in the Fairweather Country today. In the past, however, there were Tlingit villages at Dry Bay, Lituya Bay, Cape Fairweather, on a stream coming out of Grand Plateau Glacier, and at a site on Palma Bay now covered by La Perouse Glacier.

favicon I want for my new blog Last Friday the other master's students and I had a one-day technology workshop with our UAS education technology professor. We won't be taking his course until September, but I appreciated that the workshop gave us a jumpstart on what we'll do in the coming months. Most importantly, the professor had all of us create a website that will serve as an online portfolio for class assignments. Most of my fellow students created an e-portfolio using Google Sites, but my own experience with that service has led me to feel that it's highly limited, and somewhat frustrating to work with. I far preferred its predecessor, Google Pages, which I used to create projects like this one . (It doesn't look as good as it did originally, since it was switched over.) Instead of using Sites, I opted for another Google-owned service that I'm much more familiar with: Blogger.

( source ) Recently I watched the film Reel Injun , a documentary about Hollywood's hundred-year history of portraying indigenous North Americans. Perhaps not surprisingly, Reel Injun is a Canadian film—not one supported by Hollywood. Near the end of the film, it also points to the Canadian (Inuit) production  Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner as showing the way forward in indigenous filmmaking. My curiosity sparked, I watched Atanarjuat myself, (it's free to watch  here ), and I really was impressed. Released in 2001, Atanarjuat  was the first feature-length fiction film written, produced, directed, and acted by Inuit, and it was acted entirely in their language,  Inuktitut . Simply put, it's a beautiful, superbly-acted film depicting a story of jealousy and revenge that dates from long before Europeans invaded Inuit lands. Not every indigenous film should depict only the past, of course, but I wholeheartedly agree that Atanarjuat is a strong example for future ...

Petersburg's friendly one-room airport I left Ketchikan with my girlfriend last Saturday to go up to Juneau and start summer classes there for my next big project—earning a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Alaska Southeast. My classes are going great now, but it took me about twenty-four hours to get to Juneau from Ketchikan, rather than the five originally expected. My girlfriend and I flew Alaska Airlines standby on a route that hopped from Ketchikan to Wrangell to Petersburg to Juneau. On the tarmac in Petersburg , I was asked to step off the plane, and eventually was taken into Petersburg's small airport. Before my girlfriend knew I wouldn't be getting back on, they closed the doors and took off for Juneau. What follows is an explanation for my delay accompanied by nine photos, (one above makes ten), taken during the ten hours I spent in the pretty and peaceful town of Petersburg.

the top of a pole at Totem Bight Ketchikan, Alaska is without a doubt the best place in the world to see totem poles, and if you only had one place to see these monumental carvings, Ketchikan should be it. However, Ketchikan's totem poles are scattered over a few major locations, and two of those locations—Saxman Totem Park and Totem Bight State Historical Park—are found at a significant distance from the city center, and in opposite directions from each other. Ideally, I think visitors to Ketchikan should see both Saxman and Totem Bight, along with the Totem Heritage Center and the other totem poles around the city. But, if you only have a limited time in my hometown, as most visitors do, which should it be—Saxman or Totem Bight?

The morning after I returned to Kichx̱áan , Lingít Aaní, I just had to go see my hometownʼs brand new library. The new public library was still being constructed when I left last August, and it had its grand opening in January. Once inside, I was struck by the lovely wood interior, beautiful (and functional) furniture, and plentiful space for children, teens, and adults to hang out, read, and enjoy some gorgeous views. On the way out, I was struck by a graphic novel I saw displayed on top of a shelf—a Haida manga. I'd heard of the genre before and felt curious, so I checked out my first book from Ketchikan's new library— Red: A Haida Manga , by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.

On Monday the 27th, (Memorial Day), I returned home from Georgetown for the last time—a new graduate ready to began something new, back in the town where I grew up. In past years, I always thought I was coming back to Ketchikan, Alaska. This time, though, after a year spent exploring the history of the Tlingit and their homeland, I felt much more that I was returning to Kichx̱áan, Lingít Aaní. Kichx̱áan is the Tlingit name for the site that the city of Ketchikan was built on. Clearly, the Tlingit name was adapted by the Euroamerican settlers, but it was also changed—anglicized—and turned into something different. Using indigenous place names, rather than ones created or changed by colonizers, restores to a place some of historical meaning. Even more essential, perhaps, is the acceptance and use of indigenous autonyms—Native peoples' names for themselves. A new map of the contiguous United States provides an impressive, near-comprehensive display of such autonyms and is very muc...