Athabascan language and culture resources
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DałA story about a crane and its interrelationship with smaller birds during times of migrations. A traditional story told in Deg Hit’an Athabascan by John Paul. |
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Dilja Dimaldu’ K’a GhetrakA story about two squirrels that traded parkas. A traditional story told in Deg Hit’an Athabascan by Alta Jerue. |
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Dinak’i Ch’its’utozre 2 |
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Dinakinaja Ikatsolnish Mada heye Hondo heyeA storybook about things such as a headband, a fishing hook, keys, socks, rings, airplane, etc. |
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Dinakinaja' Ik'ats'itolnish Nidots'o hikogh? Nidots'o dinogholt'aye?A story about a boy going shopping and learning how much items are, how many he would like, and the total price. |
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Dotron’ Nonot’okThis story is an adaptation of a North Slope Eskimo fable. A hungry raven mistakes a rock for a caribou. |
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K'altsaA story about a daughter who died and became a fox, then the parents figured it out and they got their daughter back again. A traditional story told in Holikachuk Athabascan by Bertha Rock. |
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Mary Ił Gwh IłA picture book about a little girl taking care of a rabbit. |
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Midisnaka Kwl Henh GhwlwkA story about an orphan boy who does not fit in with the other children and what he does to live his life. A traditional story told in Holikachuk Athabascan by Bertha Rock. |
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Nok'ołonh Chwh GhiyołThis is a story about how the Loch fish (Burbot) came into being. A traditional story told in Holikachuk Athabascan by Hannah Maillelle. |
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NuneA traditional story about a porcupine and beaver told in Deg Hit'an Athabascan by John Paul. |
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Tildzidza Hwzoya'A picture book about a mouse losing a tooth. |
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Ts’ima Dzagha’ Dina Hwzoya’A story about a mother and daughter who encounter a boy made out of spruce pitch. |
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He keeps going with those that are going to another place.
He keeps doing that until he has let off all the birds.
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The little birds went to the swan, and it started carrying them; it began to get hungry.
It started to grab for them.
It started to eat them.
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The little birds began wondering.
“We’ll not fly with him anymore,
because he got hungry and killed some of us.”
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“We’ll only go back with the crane.”
From this day, the little birds only go with the crane.
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Even if the crane is hungry, he never bothers them.
The crane leaves them alone and stops to eat.
The birds eat too.
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Then he (the squirrel) said to him,
“I’ll wear your parka, and you’ll wear mine,” he said to him.
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“When the sun goes down, I’ll go home,” said the ground squirrel.
The tree squirrel said, “When the sun goes down, I’ll go home too.”
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The ground squirrel told him, “No.”
“I will not give it to you,” he said to him.
“I’m going home right now.
I’m going back to the mountains.”
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When it began to get light, he stopped crying.
“What am I crying for?
He will never give it back to me.”
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Dog
Where is the dog?
Dog is sitting on an island.
Dog wants bone.
Bone.
Dog wants bone.
Where is bone?
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Beaver
Where is beaver?
There is a beaver.
Beaver is walking down.
Arrows
Lots of arrows.
You want arrows?
I want arrows.
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Rabbit
Look! Rabbit!
Rabbit hopping along the bank.
Rabbit hopped down.
Rope
Here is rope.
Long rope.
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Beaver
There is beaver
Where did the beaver go?
Beaver walked down.
Lake
Look! Lake!
It’s a big lake.
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Baby
Where is the baby?
There is the baby.
It’s a small baby.
Plate
Here is plate.
Big plate.
I want plate.
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Snowshoe
Where is snowshoe?
Here is snowshoe.
It’s a big snowshoe.
Berry
Look! Berry!
Lots of berries.
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Marten
Here is marten.
The man said he wants a marten.
Fish eggs
K’un’ ui choh.
Lots of fish eggs.
Fish eggs in a plate.
You want fish eggs?
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Nest
Here is a nest.
It’s a big nest.
Nest in a tree.
Bird
Look! Bird!
What is the bird doing?
The bird is sitting.
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Boat
Where is the boat?
There’s the boat.
The boat is floating.
It’s foot
Here is its foot.
Its foot is hurting.
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With it
Floating (back and forth)
Woke up
Hungry
Back in the woods
Looking at
House
Sitting
Saw
Two people
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Went in
Dry fish
Took some
Started back down
Slipped
Fell down
Fell down on top of him/her
Smashed
Died
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Big, large
Again, more
He is singing
She missed it
He took it
Story
Piece of bark
Nest
Bird’s breastbone
Crane
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She grabbed it
It turned red
He is hungry
Stick
All of it
He sees it there
To possess
He climbed up (ladder)
He climbed up (bank)
It is there
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Finally
White place
How much
River
Looking around
Bumping the shore
Location
Toward
He is jumping toward
Then
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Then seeing it
Just that much
With
He smells it
It is
Really
Blueberries
Ladder
He slipped
I will lie down
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Cabin, house
Upon it
Do you want it?
Fox
Arrow
Fish eggs
Now
Many
He is angry
End of his tail
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With him
His foot
It fell on him
He slept
Lake
Ahead of it
His mother
Look, see
He was smashed
He is swimming
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They are playing
He is tired
He began to jump away
He sees it
Mouse
It is long
Night
They jumped into water
Swan
The one floating
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Headband
My mom found headband under the table.
Whose is this?
It’s Fred’s.
It’s Fred’s headband.
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Gloves
Mary Ann saw four gloves hanging.
Which one is mine? she said.
Is this big one mine?
Is this small one mine?
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Coats
Three coats are on the floor.
My mom is looking at them.
She said, whose coats are these?
Is it my son Floyd’s coat? she said.
Is it my daughter Christina’s coat? she said.
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Shoes
Ivan bought a new shoes.
“Which shoes did you buy,” his mom asked
“Did you buy tennis shoes?
Did you buy leather shoes?”
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Toothbrushes
My dad saw six toothbrushes laying there.
He wants to brush his tooth.
Whose are these? he said.
Which one is mine? he said.
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Key
My mom wants to go into the cache.
She is looking for the cache keys.
Which key is she going to use?
Is she going to use the biggest key?
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Paper
The teacher is looking over what the children worked on.
She found one paper with no name on it.
Whose paper is this? she asked.
Nellie said, it’s mine.
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Book
The teacher told James to get a book from the shelf.
James asked, which book?
Science book?
History book?
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Using a pencil
The children are writing news.
They are using pencil.
Looks like Linda’s need sharpening.
Whose need sharpening?
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Combs
Pauline is going to comb her hair.
There are five combs on the dresser.
Which one will Pauline use?
Is she going to use the biggest one?
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Lamps
My dad has four lights.
He wants to light one.
He asked, which one should I light up?
He will light the brightest one.
The biggest one.
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Boat
Homer saw a boat trailer.
Somebody’s boat, he said.
Irwin asked, is it a big boat?
A small boat?
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Socks
Ronnie bought four socks.
He asked Eugene if he want one?
Eugene asked, what color is it?
Ronnie said, two are white and two are red.
"Which one do you want?"
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Tape Player
Shirley told her younger sister she bought a new player.
Her sister asked, for me?
Is it a small one?
Who made it?
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Clock
My dad bought two clock.
Two different size.
Gladys asked, can I have one?
Her dad asked, which one do you want?
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Rings
My mom had two rings.
One is jade.
One is ivory.
Vernita asked, Which one do you use?
My mom said, I always use the jade one.
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Airplane
Two airplanes landed.
Billy is looking at them.
I don’t know whose it is, he said.
Maybe it’s Wein’s airplane.
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Drying racks
Here are two drying racks.
There are poles everywhere.
What about here.
Susan asked, “where there a lot of animals.”
“Where there are a lot of trees there are lots of animals,” he dad said.
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Knives
My dad saw two knives.
He asked, “whose is this black one?”
Billy said, “it was John’s.”
“Which one is sharp?”
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The child of two people who were living together died.
The little girl grew up.
And then she died.
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When the father would go to the fishtrap,
A fox would be running around.
But he would leave it alone.
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Once in a while he would feed it.
He would take the fish from the trap.
He would feed it some blackfish.
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He had set a fish trap.
He fed it some blackfish.
He would feed it whenever he went to the trap.
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Whenever the couple would go to bed, somebody would be snoring across from them.
It had come inside.
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The place where the snoring was coming from was covered.
It was covered with a fox skin.
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“What will we do tomorrow?” they asked each other.
“We’ll bring in some fish eggs,” he told her.
“One of us will smear it with fish eggs and the other one will grab it.”
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“We’ll grab the fox skin that covers it,” he told her.
That is what they did.
They grabbed it and smeared it up.
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“There’s going to be a potlatch,” they said.
Everybody was cooking.
They made ice cream and everything.
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One day, Mary’s dad was hunting.
Mary was always waiting for him when he went out hunting.
Now she asked her mom how far her dad walked.
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Her mom smiling, “he just left, how fast do you think he’ll walk back,” she told her.
“I want him to walk back fast,” she told her mom.
“Wonder what he’ll come back with.”
It was a long day with Mary.
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It was dinnertime in the evening when her dad walked back in.
Mary was happy then.
“What did you bring back?” she asked her dad.
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He took his coat off.
Mary was watching when he hung his coat.
Then something moved in his pocket.
Her dad was smiling when this happened.
“What did you bring back?” she asked her dad again.
“Look in my pocket,” he told Mary.
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Slowly she looked in there.
She can only see two eyes glowing.
Her dad dug in the pocket and took out baby rabbit.
“I only brought this back,” he said.
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For Mary, he made a house for rabbit.
For a while the rabbit was scared.
But Mary was treating the rabbit good, so it wasn’t scared anymore.
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Mary really cared for the rabbit, but didn’t know what to feed it.
She was trying to feed it her food.
She didn’t know it doesn’t eat that kind of food.
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Her dad told her, “Don’t try to feed it that kind of food.
Rabbit doesn’t eat that kind of food.
We’ll get plants for it.
Maybe he’ll like that kind.”
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Finally winter was over.
The rabbit got big.
It was almost bigger than its house.
“We should release it.”
One day her dad told her. “It’s a forest animal.”
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“I should go to the smokehouse,” he thought.
“I can take some dried fish eggs from the top of the pile and put them on my head,” he thought.
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Then he told his grandmother, “She’s the only one I like,” he said.
“Yes, she’s like you,” she said.
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Meanwhile, the others said, “She married somebody who stinks.”
They were complaining because he had put fish eggs on his head.
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They laughed at her.
They said to her, “Who would marry a person like that, somebody who stinks?” they said to her.
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In the meantime, he stopped smelling so bad; he had washed his head.
They lived well.
They had one baby.
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She also went up into the other cache.
She ate up everything in that one, too. Then she left.
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She was walking along.
Then she began to get thirsty.
“I want water,” she said, shouting out loud.
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Then she came upon a lake.
She began to drink the water in it.
She drank all the water out of the lake.
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Then she started walking again.
She walked down to the shore.
She saw water flowing.
She went up to where a big fire was burning.
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She lay down by the fire.
She lay down with her stomach facing the fire.
She went to sleep.
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Suddenly she jumped up out of her sleep.
Her stomach had cooked until it burst.
Water poured out of it.
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A porcupine was staying on the other side of the river.
It was eating a lot.
It was staying far across the river.
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It was thinking.
“I want to go on the hill on the other side of the river,” it thought.
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“I want someone to take me to the other side,” it said to it.
“I want to go to the hill,” it told it.
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The beaver asked it, “Which direction do you want me to go?”
“Straight across,” it answered.
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It began to swim across with it.
The river was too wide, and the beaver began to get tired.
It started panting, but kept on swimming.
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When it swam ashore, it was facing upstream.
“Go on, go up the bank,” it told the porcupine.
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A mouse was walking along.
He was walking upstream.
He was walking upstream on the beach.
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He thought, “What will I do?”
Suddenly he thought of his tooth.
He took out his tooth.
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Back downriver, there was a little mountain from which smoke was rising.
He started looking at it and he thought about it.
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“I should go toward it,” he thought.
He started to go toward it.
He started walking back downstream toward it.
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They say that a mother and daughter were living together.
They were helping each other work with a fishnet.
They lived there and never saw any other people.
They lived on the edge of the ocean.
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They did not know any people.
They had a canoe.
Every spring they would put spruce pitch on it.
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They would go back into the woods for the pitch.
They would melt it.
They would pitch the canoe.
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Afterward they would put the fishnet in the water.
They would go fishing.
It was springtime again.
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“I should go back into the woods by myself,” the girl told her mother.
“I should go back alone for pitch,” she told her.
“You stay here and work on the fishnet,” she told her.
Then she took a birchbark basket and started going back into the woods.
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She walked among the big spruce trees.
She gathered spruce pitch.
“Well, this is pretty good for our old canoe.
It’s pretty good,” she said, she thought.
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Then she thought, “I’ll go back now,”
And she started walking back out.
“Do you like me?” somebody said.
She became frightened.
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“Who could that be?” she thought.
“I didn’t know that there was anybody around,” she thought.
She looked all around.
Nobody was there.
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She looked among the willows and standing trees.
Nobody was there.
Then she started to go back home again.
“Do you like me?” somebody said.
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She stopped again.
She looked up among the branches.
Way up in the fork of the spruce tree, someone was sitting, a boy.
A boy was sitting up there.
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“Is that you who said that?” she asked him.
“Do you like me?” he asked her.
The girl told him, “Yes.”
“I want you,” she told him.
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He came down to her and went back out of the woods with her.
He went back out of the woods with her and went into the house with her.
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Her mother did not even ask who he was.
He went across the room from them.
He started staying there.
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He would not go out in the daytime, but only at night.
He would get up.
He would walk around outside.
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The mother and daughter used spruce pitch on their boat.
She would melt the pitch and they would pitch the boat.
Then that man got up.
He got up and went outside.
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He told them to go get some inner bark.
They began to gather it.
They gathered a lot of bark.
After that he told them what to do.
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They tore them into strands.
He told them, “Braid it like this.”
They started braiding it. They braided.
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They braided it until they made a big ball.
They said, “Come and see this.”
He only went out to look at it in the evening.
During the day he would stay inside and sleep the whole day.
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“That’s not enough, braid more,” he told them.
They continued braiding.
It became very big.
He said, “No more, it is big enough.”
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In the evening he said, “Okay, now take it down and tie it to the canoe.”
He told this to the girl.
“Stay on the shore by the rope,” he told her.
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The boy began paddling upriver in the evening.
He began paddling upriver.
The girl sat by the ball of rope that was tied to the canoe.
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The whole night went by while she sat by it.
He told her to let out the rope for him.
She let the rope out as he paddled upstream.
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“Rewind it into a ball,” he told her.
She started doing that.
It was close to morning when he came drifting back to her.
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He got a lot of seals.
They were even tied on the side of his canoe.
Also in the canoe.
He landed the canoe.
He landed just before the sun rose.
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The mother got up, and that girl did too.
All day long they skinned them.
They put them away while he slept in the house.
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Then it became evening again.
He went outside again.
Then he went outside and did what he had done the day before.
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“I’m going to paddle upriver,” he said.
The girl went back down to the edge of the water.
She went down to the edge of the water and started sitting there.
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She was supposed to be holding the rope.
The boy went back upriver.
Her mother should have gone out to her.
Her mother went back up and into the house and went to sleep.
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While the girl was sitting at the edge of the water, she fell asleep.
“Pull the rope back,” he had told her.
She fell asleep.
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The sun came up. The sun came way up, and then the girl woke up suddenly.
She woke up suddenly and started pulling the rope, but it was light.
It was very light.
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As she was pulling the rope, the canoe came toward her and nobody was inside it.
Nobody was in it when it came to the shore.
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She started to call him, but she never found him.
The boy was gone.
What happened to him?
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Then she started looking in the canoe.
Way up in the front, there was a little lump.
She looked at it closely.
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