“Qamani: Up the Coast, in My Mind, in My Heart” Iflupiaq Place Names, Vol. 2
Project ID: P15AC01014
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Partner Institution: Oregon State University
Fiscal Year: 2015
Initial Funding: $64,954
Total Funding: $64,954
Project Type: Research
Project Disciplines: Cultural
National Park: Alaska Region
Principal Investigator: Marino, Elizabeth
Agreement Technical Representative: Mason, Rachel
Abstract: The project will document Inupiaq place names and associated descriptions, stories and narratives for all the coastal areas of the Preserve. It will document past and present subsistence practices associated with those places and with aid in understanding changes in subsistence practices. In addition to preserving Inupiaq language through place names, the project will further the
understanding of Inupiaq peoples’ connection to places associated with the Preserve. It will demonstrate indigenous concepts of ecosystem by highlighting the importance of the interconnections among place names used by Inupiaq peoples. This is anticipated to be a multi year project, depending on availability off funding for succeeding years. Under this agreement,project personnel will interview 4-8 1ftupiat elders and culture bearers from Wales in order to collect Inupiaq coastal place names and knowledge, extending the geographical scope of the first Qamani project to include the Tapqaq coast to the village of Wales. They will visit key sites, with 2-3 elders and cultural bearers.
In 1998, Susan Fair, folklorist/anthropologist, and Edgar Ningeulook, a NPS employee and Shishmaref resident, embarked on a project to document Inupiaq place names from Shishmaref to Deering, AK. With the help of those two villages, they created a project entitled “Documentation of Toponyms and Site Information along the Saniq Coast and in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve” funded by the NPS, resulting in the manuscript, “Qamani: Up the Coast, in My Mind, in My Heart”. A portion of this manuscript was carved out as an individual volume devoted to the findings of the team’s place name study. This work, titled Inupiaq Place-Names, Localities, and Site Descriptions for the Seward Peninsula, Alaska includes data derived from archival research and interviews with knowledgeable Shishmaref residents about the Tapqaq Coast from Shishmaref to Cape Espenberg and the Saniq Coast from Cape Espenberg to Deering.
The main purpose of this project is to conduct additional research in order to complete documentation of the Inupiaq coastal place names from the Tapqaq Coast (south of Shishmaref) to Wales, AK. The goals of this project are to: l)”document Inupiaq place names and associated descriptions, stories and narratives for all the coastal areas of the Preserve2) document the history of and changes in subsistence practices through understanding the places associated with them; 3) transfer communal history; 4) preserve Inupiaq language; 5) document significant events; 6) further the understanding of Inupiaq peoples’ connection to places associated with the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (BELA); 7) demonstrate indigenous concepts of ecosystem by highlighting the importance of the connections between place names used by Inupiaq.
The main objectives for this project are to: 1) interview 4-8 Inupiaq elders and culture bearers from Wales in order to collect Inupiaqcoastal place names and knowledge, extending the geographical scope of the first Qamani project to include the Tapqaq coast to the village of Wales; and 2) visit key sites, if possible with 2-3 elders, videotaping the visits to document their commentary and to show later to others who ere unable to participate in the visits.