Haida class returns a 1901 migration story to its own language

The account of how the Kaigani Haida came to Alaska has sat for more than a century in an American ethnologist's phonetic shorthand. A class of advanced Haida language students spent last fall putting it back into X̱aad Kíl.

Jasḵwaan Bedard, who taught the course, will describe the work in Juneau on Aug. 3.

John R. Swanton recorded "How the Kaigani Migrated to Alaska" in 1901 during the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, transcribing it in Americanist phonetic notation. Bedard's students spent the semester converting it back into the language it was told in.

Bedard is Haida and teaches in the Indigenous Languages Program at Simon Fraser University. She will talk about how she built the course and what her students came to understand about the migration.

The lecture runs noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 3, in the Clan House at Sealaska Heritage Institute, livestreamed on SHI's YouTube channel.