Last fluent speaker of Alaskan language

Marie Smith Jones, 89, last fluent speaker of native Alaskan language

Published on: 01/23/08 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Marie Smith Jones, the last full-blooded Eyak and fluent speaker of her native language, has died. She was 89.

Jones died peacefully in her sleep Monday at her home in Anchorage. She was found by a friend, said daughter Bernice Galloway, who lives in Albuquerque, N.M.

“To the best of our knowledge she was the last full-blooded Eyak alive,” Galloway said Tuesday.

Jones also was the last person alive who was fluent in Eyak, a branch of the Athabaskan Indian family of languages, said Michael Krauss, a linguist and professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who collaborated with Jones for years in an effort to preserve the Eyak language.

“With her death, the Eyak language becomes extinct,” Krauss said.

Jones was honorary chief of the Eyak Nation. The Eyak ancestral homeland runs along 300 miles of the Gulf of Alaska from Prince William Sound, near the fishing village of Cordova, eastward across the Copper River Delta to the town of Yakutat. By the 21st century, only about 50 Eyaks remained, according to the university’s Alaska Native Language Center, which Krauss directs.

Jones was a survivor from the start, her daughter said. Many of her siblings died young when smallpox and influenza tore through the Eyak Nation of south-central Alaska, “wiping out just about everyone but her family,” Galloway said.

“She was a woman who faced incredible adversity in her life and overcame it,” Galloway said. “She was about as tenacious as you can get.”

Jones was born in Cordova on May 14, 1918, and grew up on Eyak Lake, where her family had a homestead. She married Oregon fisherman William F. Smith on May 5, 1948. He worked his way up the coast and put down roots in Alaska when he reached Cordova and met her mother, Galloway said.

The couple had nine children, seven of whom are still alive. None of them learned Eyak because they grew up at a time when it was considered wrong to speak anything but English, Galloway said.

Jones moved to Anchorage in the early 1970s to be closer to her children. She struggled with alcoholism until she was in her early 50s, and quit drinking, Galloway said.

Jones twice spoke at the United Nations on peace and the importance of indigenous languages, Galloway said. She also became active in environmental issues.

“There was a transformation of our mother into a very pro-active, politically active individual,” Galloway said.

Krauss described Jones as a “wonderfully ordinary Eyak lady who lived to a ripe old age not because of an easy life but because of a rather hard life, coming up and surviving as an Eyak in the 20th century.”

For the last 15 years, Krauss said, Jones was the last of her kind.

“That was a tragic mantle that she bore with great dignity, grace and spirit,” he said.

With Jones’ help, Krauss compiled an Eyak dictionary and grammar. Jones, her sister and a cousin told him Eyak tales that were made into a book.

She wanted a written record of the language so future generations would have the chance to resurrect it, Krauss said.

Nearly 20 native Alaskan languages are at risk of becoming extinct, he said.

“This is the beginning of the end unless we do something,” Krauss said. “Alaska Native languages are the intellectual heritage of this part of the world. It is unique to us and if we lose them we lose what is unique to Alaska.”

 Source: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/01/23/Obit_Jones.html

“Erotica- You thrill me” (*)

… A sensual beat goes from the base of your spin caressing all your back, is it a finger?, is it a tongue…?, is it the line she whispers to your ear: “What can I do, I´m so in love with you”.

Every time I listen to this song I feel like flying in a burning world, jumping from hot passion to melancholic romance: the perfect drink for someone intensively thirsty: I want to dance and fall in love. Five minutes of pleasure can be eternal all over me. This is the rhytmn that inspires me this beautiful version of this song. It feels me, surrounds me, surrenders me. It leaves my instinct all naked and dreaming…

(*) song “Erotica” by Madonna - new version for Confessions Tour

Mystic Galicia

“Mystic Galicia”- From my Spanish Diaries

“Aguafuertes Gallegas”

(title used as an homage to argentinian writer “Roberto Arlt”, who wrote the true “Aguafuertes Gallegas”)

Day 1- Tuesday 25th December 2007

 

… I started writing about this new trip on a half-empty-forgotten address book from 2006. These are the last days of December 2007. The world is waiting for a new year, I am waiting for a bus that will take me from Barcelona to Madrid. Eight hours and I will be far away…

 

Stylish people, stylish?

 

I see many people: mediterranean, latin, afro or oriental looks… There´s a blond guy sitting in front of me. He is reading, I am nervous. He suddenly gets up and warns me about keeping an eye on my bags. According to his warning, somebody has been watching me For a moment… I have this “nordic” sensation surrounding my thoughts: once more, everybody believes I am a “guiri” (a tourist, a foreigner). This guy asked me if I spoke Spanish before giving me advice… once more I can´t avoid this feeling: I am an observer full of cultures but stuck in that “I don´t belong”- “Where do I belong” blunt feeling… so I ´m bored and tensioned, I want to go soon!

 

 

Finally, I am on the bus. I start to observe everything and see a bus driver outside another bus at the same station. We are all stopped and waiting. People are getting on every bus. This driver is standing in silence… It´s the way he is standing, the sunglasses he is wearing and how the wind dresses his hair in different forms. He is not handsome at all, but he shows attitude. “He has seen many worlds, the world´s on his eyes and feet, his hands are like sa-tis-fied roads…” I think… and laugh… because I think he ressembles the image of one of my favourite writers: Truman Capote… maybe I imagine I am in the old and boring town of Alabama city where he grew up and meanwhile I ask myself why the hell, we, the writers have the ability to identify and describe every yawn of God or scratch of the Devil on earth.

 

I simply realise a new chapter has begun.

 

Day 2- Wednesday 26th December 2007

 

It´s midday in Madrid, we take our way to Galicia by car. Avila and Zamora are places we pass by. The weather is nice: not too cold, not too warm.

 

At about 3 p.m. we have lunch in Benavente. The trip continues without any surprise. The ads on the road indicate many other directions: “A Coruña”, “Lugo”, “Vigo”, “Oviedo”. The landscapes are simple: quite dry, not very green, nothing in particular as to describe in detail.

 

 

We arrive to Sigüeiro town by night. Our first typical meal is “Caldo Gallego” (Galician broth), a delicious hot soup with some vegetables and potatoes. “Orujo” is the typical

high alcohol content drink, it´s like a firewater that you must drink in small quantities.

The chosen wine is “Rectoral de Amandi” produced with a grape called Mencía from Ribeira Sacra.

 

Day 3- Thursday 27th December 2007

 

We are ready to go for a trekking excursion in Sigüeiro town. We get up at about 9, have breakfast at 9:30. The day is cold, there´s too much fog. Drops of water fall from the wet branches of the trees.We are walking through “Tambre” river.

The bridge that crosses the river is the door to our curious steps. We walk, breath fresh air, observe nature. Nature is naked for us: leaves are on the floor probably dreaming of the spring. The vegetation is sadly beautiful. The foggy forest sleeps while we take pictures of every detail as untiring thieves…

 

 

After the excursion it´s time to go shopping for some food. I see the first ads in Galician language: “Boas Festas”. I have a smile in my spirit. I love reading new codes, compare words, find similarities. I think Galician language is pretty similar to Catalan. I hear people speaking in the streets and shops, I realise I understand almost everything!.

 

Lunch is served at about 2 pm. Sightseeing for “Santiago de Compostela” (Galicia´s capital) find us 11 km away of our town.

The church called “Convento de San Francisco” is our first visit. It´s about 5:30 pm, the sun is getting down. Its warm orange curtains of fire cover the city in an enigmatical and mystic way…

 

Walking down the streets, we arrive to la “Plaza de Obradoiro”, the centric big square where the cathedral is placed. This church is an amazing construction but how is that some strange and possibly pagan figures are set at the base of the indoor colums? you get the impression that Santiago kept a secret fight between heaven and hell…

 

The afternoon is quite and perfect to go for a coffee. The evening invites a “tapas bar” where we taste “Pimientos Pedró” (peppers) as part of the tapas and “tarta de Santiago” (cake) as a dessert.

 

The night knocks the door on “El Paraíso Perdido” (“The lost paradise”), a beautiful and very strange pub in the centre of the city.

 

Day 4- Friday 28th December 2007

Get up at eight, we must go to Galicia´s airport to pick up another mate. At about 10:00 we go 80 km south into “Ria de Vigo” direction. Going on that way, we are closer to Portugal; stop at “San Simon” island, a curious place which was used as an orphanage and as a prison too. The trip continues until the entrance of Vigo city crossing the bridge called “Ponte de Rande”. We go back and take Pontevedra´s direction to arrive to a town called “Bueu” in Cangas. There, we are welcomed by a kind friend (*1) who will guide us through different beautiful places on that day.

 

Our guide invites us to visit his house set on a place with amazing views of Galicia. After tasting a delicious and typical “albariño” a home- made wine from his own warehouse, our new direction is “Cabo Udra”, a wild natural place at Ria de Pontevedra.

 

At about 2 p.m. another typical lunch is waiting for us: “Cocido Gallego” (Galician Stew), a plate made of many types of meat and vegetables.

 

In Cangas town we see the “Cruceiro de Hío”, a cross made by the sculptor José Cerviño in 1872 which has scenes of the old testament from the base to the top. The beauty of suffering and tragedy hits your spirit before entering to the “Iglesia parroquial de San Andrés”, the church that is behind it.

 

“Costa da Vela” is the next place we visit. This is a beautiful beach with amusing vegetation of trees and clean sand. From this view you can see other important beaches.

All the place has an arqueological and ecological importance.

Following the excursión “Monte do Facho” in Morrazo area it is an old pre Roman town that attracted peregrinations because it was considered as a sanctuary. It is also very important because of his hyeroglyphics on the stones.

 

 

… I just hear the sound of our steps on the pebble when we get down to Costa da Vela again… everything is in silence, we are in silence feeling the fresh air caressing our faces…

The only sound you hear are the strong waves hitting each other and playing like furious wild children. Our best picture is taken on a giant metal snail put as some kind of modern sculpture in the middle of this natural place.

 

 

Day 5- Saturday 29th December 2007

 

12:30- We are in Pontevedra´s zone in a town called “Baños de xurxo”. It is too rainy… we have a break to go for a coffee. We arrive to “Cuspedriños” town, “the town that doesn’t exist” according to the stories some local women tell us. This is what in Spain is called “La España profunda” (the deep Spain), you can see peasant women carrying cows under the rain, working very hard , dressed in old clothes and boats for rain.

 

We interrupt their daily work with our cameras. We want to take pictures. One of them tell us something. We don´t understand very quickly. We believe they do not want us to take pictures of the cows and they were saying exactly the opposite: they were so kind that offered us to carry their cows to take proper pictures!. We can’t believe how kind they are. They want and need to talk. We suppose or have the feeling of what is to be many hours alone working in such a deep solitud…

 

This day is very important for me because I will do a real hard trekking for the first time in my life. The next zone is called “Balneario de Sant Xusto”. We walk under the rain on the montain, the route is called “Sendeiro de San Xusto”.The forest is full of gold autum leaves. The floor is irregular and full of stones, walking it is not an easy task. We have to go up and down all the time. We stop to eat something when we are at the natural “balneario” which is a place with strange bathtubes made of stone.

 

At 5:30 we are up again. The excursion has finished and it seems that I have succeed!

I am all blushed, it is hard to breath properly and I definetely need a lot of water to recover a bit of energy. My mates are laughing about me. They are experts in these kind of activities!… I guess I am only a lost writer stumbling over ideas the rain spits on my wet head…

 

Coming back from this new experience we deserve a hot meal in Santiago by night. I watch the shops, the streets. I realise Santiago has many stylish shops as one called “El humanoide del traje verde” (“The humanoid of the green suit”). It is very funny to see a t-shirt on its show window that says: “Te odio ex” (I hate you, ex).

 

After dinner a bar called “Garigolo” placed on “Praciña da algalia de arriba” street is the chosen café to continue our deserved relax. (the long names of the streets call out my attention…)

 

Day 6- Sunday 30^th December 2007

 

At 11:00 before midday we are ready to go out again. “Pontedeeume” town in “La Coruña” direction is a picturesque town full of cobbled streets and a view to the sea with colourful ships. There, we enter to do a quick visit to the “Iglesia de Santiago” (the “Church of Santiago”).

Later, we go to visit the “Fragas do Eume”, a natural park which is considered one of the Iberian forest jewels. Its vegetation reflects the different tonalities of the seasons: from the deep green to the autumnal yellow or the bloom of the chestnuts in the summer.

The general aspect remains a jungle. You can see beautiful cascades that you can´t stop looking at.

The “Mosteiro de Caaveiro” (Monastery of Caaveiro) is another jewel we visit. Following the river you acces to the ruin of the oldest Benedictine monastery in Galicia.

A kind guide is there to tell us stories about the life in a place thought for priests to be isoleted from the world, a shelter to find peace…

There are some secret basement that no one knows what they were used for. A funny story tells that blond women were kept there to avoid men´s temptation.

Our kind guide shows us a place used to practice musical activities. I see a sheet with printed music and he comments he goes there to practice singing. We ask him to sing for us and he delights our ears with a peaceful and traditional “kirye eleison”.

 

At about 18:30 we go to La Coruña and visit the “Torre de Hércules” (“Tower of Hercules”), an acient Roman lighthouse full of Celtic and Greco- Roman elements.

The end of this day is in the centre of “La Coruña” city tasting typical wine, food and walking through the old pinturesque part of it.

 

At about 23:30 we go back to Sigüeiro town.

Day 6- Monday 31st December 2007

 

The morning find us doing some shopping at the centre of Galicia. This is our last day to go for a visit, on the following one, we´ll be travelling in Valencia’s direction (where I will stay for some more days before going to Barcelona again).

 

3 pm.- We are the luckiest visitors on earth: we are guided through Santiago city by two excellent guides (*2). With every deep, historical and phylosophical explanation I listen to, I think it´s a gift from heaven to re- discover the most known and unknown places of this delighting place.

 

In other words… I get the feeling that every corner of Santiago hides a mistery, a real or made-up story, a treasure which shines with the strenght of its brave sea, the weight of its stones and the intensity of its cold air. So religious as bewitched: a powerful halo of centuries of cristianity floats around the monuments, or thousands of religious souvenirs at its shops, but, at the same time, the fairies and witches seem to be winking an eye on you or touching your shoulder when you stumble with pagan figures here and there, figures that no one can exactly explain.

The visitor or the pilgrim remain trapped in a doubt, or maybe I would have to say we all remain buried amongst questions, like the fervent apostle who found the beginning and the end of a way he traced inside…

 

Day 7- Tuesday 1^st January 2008

We are on our way to Valencia. Stop at Ponferrada to go for a coffee. I don´t want to eat, I get off the car and go inside… I just watch the shop meanwhile my mates eat something. There are sweets and souvenirs here and there… the place smells to instant coffee and ressembles a giant tired eyelid. I find a book called “Un placer fugaz”, I can´t believe the coincidence, is this a sign from heaven?, this book is about Truman Capote´s letters to his friends and it´s written by Gerald Clarke. I look at it once and once again. I go out and get on the car realising Truman was the driver all the time. He sat on one side of my spirit, with a martini on his hands.

 

 

(*1) Many thanks to Jaime

(*2) Many thanks to Carlos & Trinidad

-Many Thanks to Marta, Isa, Sebastián, Jesús and Matthieu-

 

London Calling- From my English diaries

“Aguafuertes Inglesas”- December 2007

Day 1

“Urban angels have blue eyes”

… I guess I still see myself walking through the streets of Russell Square.

I arrived to London on a Thursday rainy night in December. I didn´t know where to go. I was at Luton airport and asked for somewhere to stay in a centric place. I can declare I was assigned the elegant zone of Russell Square by pure chance.

I had to take a bus, a train and a metro to arrive to my place.I will never forget the gentle Sir that carried my suitcase in the bus and train. He had those beautiful blue eyes, those trembling diamonds full of water, those kind of eyes that make me feel a strange peace, a mirror of spleen, or a connection with some old forgotten charm… The incredible was that he helped me without asking me first. He seemed to be there for me: he had grey hair, was dressed in a blue suit and his appearance was the one of a typical business man, he was like an urban angel to me.

He got off the train before me. I was nervous, so the outskirts were dark and cold for me. I didn´t know what to observe first. I felt confused…

When I arrived to King´s Cross station I found a nun on my way: she was dressed in black and seemed very serious. She was kind to me…

I finally arrived to Russel and started asking for Compton Place street to anyone.I felt desperate about finding the hostal. I was tired and excited.

The zone was marvelous: old, elegant, with fences here and there, stairs, parks and rain, rain, rain… over me, over everybody.

Someone sent me to the opposite place, so I had to walk a lot until I found the right address.

It was about nine at night. Some shops were open. I even entered to pubs just to ask.There he was serving drinks: this blond-as-gold-guy with that difficult accent that reminded me to the Manchester one. He gave me an important clue. I went out of the pub knowing I was very near. I thought about catching a cab. Left driven old strange big black cars would have been another adventure for me, but I decided to continue walking. This time there was a tall dark hansome fella walking on that park under the rain. He finally told me the exact direction I had to take. I arrived to “The Generator”. It surprised me the glass with the blue light outside. The front of the place had one of my favourite colours!… I felt like home…

“Miss Victoria, are you ok?”

One of my first impressions is related to black people living in London. They are not like any other black people I had seen in other places. They are always smiling. The guy from the hostal reception was so kind… He was busy as hell. The place was overbooked -I suppose a city as London is always welcoming tourists- but he observed me, looked worried so he took the time and asked me many times: Miss Victoria, are you ok? I never found warmer and nicer words that these… I needed so much to hear something like that… He even went upstairs with me to show me were my room was. (I was so nervous and tired that I couldn´t find it alone on the first time).

A funny thing happened in the second hostal I moved. My room was downstairs and the bathroom was shared and upstairs.

I went upstairs to take a shower and when I finished I went downstairs all wet covered with a red towel to enter to my room. In the reception there was this another black guy. He looked at me and automatically laughed when he saw me because the manager of the hostal had entered to my room to do the cleaning.

Anyway: I won! I entered to my room to dress me up in my exclusive Scottish dress!.

Day 2

“knights from fairy tales”

The second day I moved to another place. I went to “Goodwood” bed & breakfast on a street called Tavistock Place.

That morning I visited the British Museum (an amazing big place with all the stolen pieces from Rome, Greece, Egipt and more).

I later went to see “my” guys: the changing- guard at Buckingham Palace, but first I saw the horse change. I walked throught those beautiful parks on my way to the palace. (some tourist said “this is the park where Madonna comes to do jogging”, and I thought “wow, she has good taste!”. The squirrels played around. I had never seen them so close!

There were also pelicans but I was scared when saw a black crow on a tree. When you see things like these, you remind yourself that you are in a city full of mistery and scary things. No matter the normal life you see on the streets,

technology or modern ways of life… That city, its inhabitants and arquitecture leave a macabre stamp on your thoughts when you least expect it.

After the Buckingham ceremony I walked through Hyde Park. I couldn´t believe the guards were so nice to the people: they smiled and said things when near the fences. I really have to say I had never seen so perfect and handsome men in my whole life. They looked like knights from fairy tales. You really enter to another epoch when you are there.

This was the only sunny day and people went by through Trafalgar Square happily and relaxed, so did I and entered to the National Gallery. I took many buses that afternoon. When I was on one of those typical red double floor buses (“double-decker buses”) you see on the movies,I received a phone call I didn´t expect and that made me feel very happy.

The paintings of the National Gallery are amazingly colourful. To be there it´s like tasting delicious plates from different places, but you taste them with your sight. From here to Oxford street: an amusing block of shops, people and souvenirs. London. Lond-on: bright lights, style, crowns and punks.

The typical red phone boxes everywhere!

“You will be loved in Camden”

An unexpected visit came to my hostal, so I spent the rest of Friday with him: Leceister Square, Covent Garden, a dinner in Soho,Buckingham at night, Victoria Station… The night was extremely cold so I was freezing! he gently gave me a scarf and hat I still have and this was another gift for me.

I couldn´t believe so many persons that didn´t know me at all were so gent to me. I felt protected and welcome all the time. We took many undergrounds and buses together. Walked a lot. Hand in hand. Arm in arm. It was a surprising adventure for we both. I will never forget that day and some nice things I heard… He seemed to think in a loud voice: “the way you are dressed…”

“you will be loved in Camden” or “they will love you in Camden” (I don´t remember the exact words), “yes… you like music” and he smiled…

(…)

Whatever happens to his life I will never forget this walk. We were probably two strangers but we were important for the other just for some hours of our lives and that´s the sparkle, that´s the miracle.

Day 3

“Mixed emotions”

In the morning: British museum again… Picadilly circus in the afternoon. What a lovely zone… I bought some souvenirs in a street market.

Went back to the hostal, went to a cyber, went to the hostal again. Received another unexpected gift: a phone call from my friend E.!from the USA. I was shocked! After this I took the tube to Camden. I wanted to see where was this place to go the following day.

Many emotions. Mixed emotions. Many beautiful things, faces, advertisments, walks, words, clothes…

Day 4

“Camden Queen”

According to the previous opinions I received about me and this place, I will name myself as a “Camden Queen”, (and you will deduce why).

I arrived to Camden Town on Sunday morning and fell in love with the place at first sight. It is that kind of places where you find all the non official, all the strange things you could never even imagine you could find.

It is a zone with pubs, punks, markets and people from everywhere. It is under, it has sweat and smell. It is different. It is like a scream: if you are not in conformity with the world, you must visit this place. So much life as death. It is intense.

I spent many hours visiting the stall markets. I bought exclusive clothes -as usual- and avoided to see many music stores because I couldn´t resist so many emotional impacts… that place it´s a paradise!

After a long while I was so tired… I took the tube and went to the tower of London… the famous site for famous historical prisoners… The sea under the tower bridge is macabre… you see it and you imagine a suicide. The sky was grey and started to rain again…

That rest of the afternoon I spent it at Victoria Station and later at Luton…

What can I add..? In London my name´s everywhere… on the buses, on the underground, on the train… Charles Dickens´ museum was almost round the corner of my hostal but I couldn’t go due to lack of time.

At five o´ clock life finishes on the streets. Everybody seems to be at home or in pubs. The view from my hostal was amazingly beautiful! Everything was a page of a fairy tale mixed with a Dickens chapter: working class, multicultural people driving buses and at shops. Many accents, kinds of food but only one last adjective:

“Elegant”

How much a heart can hold…?

I post below the lyrics of a Pet Shop Boys song. This is my gift for anyone reading my blog. This is my MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all:

E-Mail (Pet Shop Boys)

Communication’s never been as easy as today and it would make me happy when you’ve gone so far away if you’d send me an e-mail that says ‘I love you’ Send me an e-mail that says ‘I love you’Now time and distance melt away No digital delay And some things can be written down that we’re too shy to say Send me an e-mail that says ‘I love you’ Send me an e-mail that says ‘I love you’There may be other temptations in your life Don’t want to add more complications to your life but I’m sending this e-mail to say ‘I love you’Now there’s a ghost within this house You’re haunting me tonight I’m looking at some photographs and thinking that I might jump on a plane and surprise you where you are but do you want me there? I’m so insecure but one thing would make me sure if you’d send me an e-mail that says ‘I love you’ Send me an e-mail that says ‘I love You’ -Many Thanks to Helen for travelling with me!

Welcome to Victorian News

Welcome to my blog! I will try to post chronicles about my trips and any other interesting things I want to share with people around the world.

The line “Aguafuertes…” and the different places I name after it is my homage to a great argentinian (German) writer, “Roberto Arlt” and also to my friend E. in USA, because I know he likes this writer.

I don´t have much time to be on the net but I try to use this medium in a positive way, so it is very common that I appear and dissapear according to my changing pace of life. Regreattably, I can´t be absolutely constant in my posts or updates of my other websites, I just do what I can. The important issue is that I don´t lose contact with people I really like.

Sometimes I can´t tell all my stories to all of you, or I forget e-mails or I mess up everything, sorry! I have too much information in my busy-24hrs.plug in head!

… So this is another effort to show that I am always around you!

Kindest and deep regards!