Three young Metlakatla residents have started a new nonprofit organization with the goal of strengthening their Tsimshian culture. The first task is helping to create a larger pool of fluent speakers of the Tsimshian language, starting with themselves.
In an old black and white photo taken on Annette Island in the late 1800s, more than two dozen Tsimshian men are lined up in two rows, ready to pull a tree stump out of the ground using only ropes and muscle.
Those were Metlakatla’s founders, recently arrived from British Columbia, and that was one of many stumps they pulled by hand to clear the land for their new community.
“That’s an inspiring image for us because it didn’t matter if they were rich or poor, it didn’t matter what their clan was. The only thing that mattered was setting aside their differences to pull together to create something that no one person can create on their own,” said Gavin Hudson, one of three co-founders of the Haayk Foundation.
Hudson said if his ancestors were able to pull thousands of stumps out of the ground without the aid of modern machinery, he believes their new nonprofit can revive the dying Tsimshian language, a first step toward revitalizing the culture.
“Sm’algyax is the language of the Tsimshian people. It’s going away. It’s fading away before our very eyes,” Hudson said. “It seems that with language loss comes identity loss. We fill that void with drugs and alcohol and abuse of all sorts — self-hatred, self-loathing. So, our silver bullet idea is to save our language in order to strengthen the spirit of our people.”
That’s where they got the name for their nonprofit — haayk means spirit. The three cofounders — David R. Boxley, Kandi McGilton and Hudson — are aiming high but in less than a year, the Haayk Foundation has made some progress.
They organized an online fundraising effort selling T-shirts to raise money for materials and classes, and they held a “coming out” culture and history event during the community’s annual Founders Day, which commemorates the founding of Metlakatla.
They’re bringing in a teacher in December to conduct a series of free language workshops. David R. Boxley is also one of the group’s founders; his father, David A. Boxley, will serve as the teacher. The elder Boxley is a master carver who kicked off a cultural revival in Metlakatla in the 80s; he hosted the first potlatch in that community to honor his grandparents and raised his first big totem pole.
Boxley said that cultural revival focused on the arts – carving, singing, dancing, weaving and regalia.
“As far as I’m concerned, and I think we all feel that way, this is the next step,” he said of the Foundation’s efforts. “We have to take what our parents’ generation has done and not try to replicate anything but build off that upward movement.”
The decline of Native languages started with government-run schools during the first half of the 20th century. Native students were punished for speaking their language and were told to only use English. Now, though, Boxley said,
“It’s no one else’s fault anymore if it goes. Nobody’s stopping us anymore. Nobody is saying it’s wrong,” the younger Boxley said. “The things that caused us to be in this mess don’t exist anymore.”
Except for a lingering sense of shame and trauma passed down through the generations. But, Boxley said, learning the language, reclaiming that heritage, is a way to heal.
“The pride one feels in knowing who they are is invaluable,” he said. “It prevents you from doing things that harm your body or your family when you’re proud of who you are, when you know where you come from, when you have a connection to something beyond keeping up with the Kardashians.”
The three Haayk Foundation co-founders, want to work with other Native organizations and community members, which Hudson said is the only way to achieve their challenging goal. In fact, their Founders Day event was called “Pulling Together.”
During that event, they gave everyone who attended a print of a painting by Chris Hopkins, based on that old photograph of Metlakatla’s founding fathers pulling a stump out of the ground. The painting also is called “Pulling Together.”
Hudson said Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, who is Tlingit, attended the Founders’ Day event and also received a print. Mallott had it framed and gave it to Gov. Bill Walker.
Hudson said, “Gov. Walker, I’ve read over and over again in Alaska news that he’s choosing to find inspiration in the same place that we found inspiration, and that is in the pioneers who settled Annette Island.”
Because pulling together is the only way to solve a really big problem, whether it’s clearing a thousand stumps or saving a dying language.
