In a growing effort to put Native culture on the map, literally, the Southwest Alaska village of Alakanuk wants to change the spelling of its name. But it won't be any easier to pronounce.Outsiders usually call it uh-luk-uh-nuk. Now say that while clearing your throat midway through the word.

That's roughly how the Yup'ik people said it for eons, long before an officer with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey "discovered" the village and anglicized the name in 1899. Problem was, there was no English letter for that guttural growl at the time.

The attempt to change the name to Alarneq -- the "r" makes the unique sound in the Yup'ik writing system created in the 1960s -- came before the Alaska Historical Commission last month.

It was one of four proposals designed to put Native names on geographic features or towns in Alaska.

Officials expect more such requests in the future, in part thanks to language immersion programs that have sparked new interest in learning traditional tongues.

The Alarneq request and two other proposed name-changes -- to rid Interior geographical features of the name Negrohead -- were tabled for a later meeting.The 9-member board wanted to hear from local residents who support the changes, said Joan Antonson, staff for the commission. The fourth proposal passed: To christen an unnamed ridge in Southcentral. Nen' Yese, 'earth ridge' in the Ahtna language, is 33 miles northwest of Glennallen. It should roughly be pronounced nee-in yes-eh, with a nasal inflection early in the word, said James Kari, a retired linguistic professor from the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

"It's now an accurate rendering of how it was pronounced originally, and that's cool," said Kari, who submitted the proposal.
He noted that the Alaska Native regional corportation, Ahtna Inc., supports the christening and is the principal landowner of the ridge, which can be seen from the Richardson Highway.

The Native names let people know a unique culture has long occupied the area, even if most people won't get the exact pronunciation right.

"It's a real native name, and these names have antiquity," said Kari.

The new name will be found on state maps. The historical commission, which serves as the review board for geographic names in Alaska, will recommend the name to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, for placement on federal maps, said Antonson.

Cultural revival

The proposals are an important step in reclaiming the Native language, said Walkie Charles, UAF's professor of Yugtun, the official language of the Yup'ik people. Native names often aren't found on today's maps. For example, in the Lower Tanana River region in the Interior, Natives have about 800 names for geographical features. But the U.S. Geological Survey recognizes only about 15 of those original names, said Kari.

Also, schoolmasters tried to make English the dominant language. Charles, a product of a Bureau of Indian Affairs elementary school in Emmonak in the 1960s, remembers teachers striking students with rulers or publicly shaming them for speaking their own language. But he continued to speak Yugtun -- most people call the language Yup'ik -- in private.

"It was a dirty language in public, but it was the only language with which to connect to my mother," he said.

Things are different now. Native languages have their own alphabets. For example, the Yugtun writing, developed in the 1960s at the Alaska Native Language Center, has 18 letters from the English alphabet. Many students are learning their ancestral language in immersion programs, and names on maps should coincide with what's taught in those classrooms, said Monica Shelden, an oral historian with the Association of Village Council Presidents.

She submitted the proposal to change Alakanuk's name, noting that key local groups supported it, such as the tribal government and corporation. More than 100 people in Alakanuk, a village of 700 on the lower Yukon River, signed a petition to change the name to Alarneq, said Benjamin Phillip, president of the Alakanuk tribal government.