Explanations and Definitions
- Alaska Natives
- In Alaska there are numerous contrasting Native cultures and linguistic groups, the most prominent being the Tlingit (or Tlingt) Indians of the southeast panhandle, the Athabaskan Indians of the interior, the Inupiaq Eskimos of the northeast, and the Yupik Eskimo of the southeast. Other groups include the Pacific Gulf Yupik Eskimos of southern Alaska, the Siberian Yupik Eskimos of Saint Lawrence Island, and the Tsimshian and Haida Indians of the southeast, who like the Tlingit are part of the American Indian Northwest Coast tribal complex. Of these, the only Alaska representatives are the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. The Haida reside mainly at Hydaburg, and the latter at New Metlakatla, both part of the southeastern panhandle – a 30 mile wide strip of mainland bordered by an 80 mile wide chain of islands known as the Alexander Archipelago. The wide geographical differences are reflected in the many dialectical differentiations found in Native speech and song.
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(Thomas Johnson: “Ilingit Dance, Music, and Society”)
Native Alaskans
- Not to be confused with Alaska Natives. A native Alaskan is anyone born and
raised in the state.
- Athabascan (also spelled Athapaskan)
Aurora borealis
- Luminous bands or streamers of light sometimes appearing in the night sky of the northern hemisphere; "The northern lights"
- Borealis
- Northern, pertaining to the northern zone of plant and animal life lying just below the tundra.
- Cheechako (chee-chak-ko)
- Someone new to Alaska, a tenderfoot or greenhorn, specifically someone who has not lived through an Alaskan winter. According to The Chinook Jargon, a 1909 dictionary of the old trading language used by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the early 1800s, the word comes from combining the Chinook Indian word chee, meaning new, fresh, or just now, with the Nootka Indian word chako, that means to come, to approach, or to become. Another later description (probably not correct) of the word from the 1930s says that it was the Chinook Indian version of “Chicago.” Early spellings of the word were Chechako or Checharco.
- Chilkoot Trail and Pass
- The trail is an old Indian route from tidewater at Dyea, 15 miles from Skagway, to the headwaters of the Yukon River, a hike of 32 miles over the 3,246 foot high Chilkoot Pass. Stampeders had to backpack their year’s worth of supplies miles to Lake Lindeman, which included 40 trips up and down the 45-degree “Golden Stairs” to the 3,550-foot pass.
- Mount McKinley
- The great mountain that bears President William McKinley’s name was dubbed so by the gold hunter
William Dickey in 1896. His reason was based on the fact that McKinley, a Republican from the state of Kansas was a champion of the gold standard. At the time of its naming, McKinley had not yet been elected president, nor had he ever been to Alaska. Dickey’s choice probably caught on because of a story he wrote about his trip to Alaska in the New York Sun. (See James Loewen. Lies Across America, 1999). Alaskans, and especially the Native Athabaskans, would prefer that the mountain be given back its original name "Denali.”
- Outside (or to go outside)
- To not be in Alaska; or leave Alaska
- Pioneer
- An early settler; currently someone who has lived in Alaska for thirty years or more.
- Sourdough
- Originally a kind of bread made from a fermented dough saved from one baking to another, so that the need to have fresh yeast is avoided. Colloquial: Someone who has lived in Alaska through at least one winter.
- Tinhorn
- From the use of metal dice-shakers in chuck-a-luck games. Slang: A person pretending to have money; a gambler.
- Tundra
- A vast, nearly level, treeless plain of the arctic regions.
- The “lower states” or the “lower 48”
- The 48 contiguous states of the United States
*The distance between Alaska and Siberia, across the Bering Sea, is 56 miles.
*The Red Dog Saloon, mentioned in Johnny Horton’s song When It’s Springtime in Alaska (co-authored with Tillman Franks), is in Juneau and not in Fairbanks.
