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17-704: The Porcupine River ( Ch’ôonjik in Gwich’in ) is a 916 km (569 mi) tributary of the Yukon River in Canada and the United States. It rises in the Ogilvie Mountains north of Dawson City , Yukon , Canada. From there it flows north through the community of Old Crow , veers southwest into the U.S. state of Alaska , and enters the larger river at Fort Yukon, Alaska . It derives its name from

34-523: A Bible and a hymn book which was written in Gwichʼin in 1898. McDonald used English orthography as his model when representing Gwichʼin. This was unusual for missionaries at the time: other missionaries were translating the Bible from French into languages such as northern Slavey . After 1960, Wycliffe Bible translator Richard Mueller introduced a new modified spelling system. The purpose of his writing system

51-517: A big situation that had and do still cause cultural disruptions. There are two main dialects of Gwichʼin, eastern and western, which are delineated roughly at the Canada–US border . There are several dialects within these subgroupings, including Fort Yukon Gwichʼin, Arctic Village Gwichʼin, Western Canada Gwichʼin (Takudh, Tukudh, Loucheux), and Arctic Red River. Each village has unique dialect differences, idioms, and expressions. The Old Crow people in

68-543: A recognized language in 2014. The Gwich'in language is taught regularly at the Chief Zzeh Gittlit School in Old Crow, Yukon. Projects are underway to document the language and enhance the writing and translation skills of younger Gwich'in speakers. In one project, lead research associate and fluent speaker Gwichʼin elder Kenneth Frank works with linguists and young Gwich'in speakers affiliated with

85-675: A verb read from the right to left, so full understanding is obtained. In the PBS Kids television show Molly of Denali , the main character Molly comes from a family of Gwich'in background, and therefore uses words in the Gwich'in language such as 'Mahsi' Choo' throughout the show. Molly shares her Gwich'in background with the show's creative producer, Princess Daazhraii Johnson. Alaska Native Language Center The Alaska Native Language Center , established in 1972 in Fairbanks, Alaska ,

102-418: A verb. A verb can be composed by using a stem, which is then accompanied by smaller word parts, i.e. prefixes. A prefix gives off a lot of information. It informs an individual about whether the word is in the past or present tense. A prefix can also inform the individual about the number of people participating. The stem can be found at the end of the word and the prefix follows right behind the stem when reading

119-660: Is a research center focusing on the research and documentation of the Native languages of Alaska. It publishes grammars, dictionaries, folklore collections and research materials, as well as hosting an extensive archive of written materials relating to Eskimo , North Athabaskan and related languages. The Center provides training, materials and consultation for educators, researchers and others working with Alaska Native languages . The closely affiliated Alaska Native Language Program offers degrees in Central Yup'ik and Inupiaq at

136-589: The Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks to document traditional knowledge of caribou anatomy (Mishler and Frank 2020). Gwich’in is spoken by many First Nations and residential schools played a factor in creating a cultural disruption and a language shift. During the time that residential schools were open their main goal was to change the way indigenous communities operated entirely. Another goal of

153-599: The Bluefish Caves . Radiocarbon dating has assessed them as 25,000 to 40,000 years old—several thousand years earlier than the generally accepted date for human habitation of North America . The Porcupine River offers the possibility of "an excellent novice river trip for those experienced in remote wilderness travel," according to author Karen Jettmar. Boaters can travel by canoe, kayak, or raft, though rafters may have difficulty with upriver winds. A 800 km (500 mi) float trip beginning at Summit Lake in

170-483: The University of Alaska Fairbanks , and works toward the documentation and preservation of these languages. In 1974, Michael Krauss published a language map of Alaska, which he later updated in 1982. It has remained the standard since then. In the summer of 2011, the Alaska Native Language Center made an update to Krauss's map. One of the biggest reasons for this update was that some of

187-870: The Gwich'in word for the river, Ch'oonjik, or "Porcupine Quill River". The Porcupine caribou herd, whose range includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska, gets its name from its calving grounds around the Porcupine River. Possible (but disputed) evidence of the oldest known human habitation in North America comes from a cave on one of the Porcupine's tributaries, the Bluefish River . Many apparently human-modified animal bones have been discovered in

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204-755: The World's Languages in Danger, Gwichʼin is now "severely endangered." There are about 260 Gwichʼin speakers in Canada out of a total Gwichʼin population of 1,900. About 300 out of a total Alaska Gwichʼin population of 1,100 speak the language. In 1988, the NWT Official Languages Act named Gwich'in as an official language of the Northwest Territories, and the Official Languages of Alaska Law as amended declared Gwich'in

221-598: The Yukon Territory, descending the Bell River to its confluence with the Porcupine, and continuing to Fort Yukon is all rated Class I (easy) on the international scale of river difficulty . However, in high water the difficulty may rise to Class II in Upper and Lower Rampart canyons, downstream of the international border, where the current is swift. Gwich%E2%80%99in language The ejective affricate in

238-404: The name Gwichʼin is usually written with symbol U+2019 ’ RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK , though the correct character for this use (with expected glyph and typographic properties) is U+02BC ʼ MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE . The missionary Robert McDonald first started working on the written representation of Van Tat and Dagoo dialects Gwichʼin. He also produced

255-608: The northern Yukon have approximately the same dialect as those bands living in Venetie and Arctic Village, Alaska . Gwich’in speakers located in Old Crow speak several dialects including Kâachik and Tâachik. They are spoken in Johnson Creek village. The consonants of Gwichʼin in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets): A verb in Gwich’in contains smaller word parts that come together to make

272-515: The residential schools was to wipe out the indigenous culture and replace it with the European culture , also causing the indigenous children to abandon their heritage language. This process was done by taking the children away from their families and placing them in a school. Fortunately, the Gwich’in and the Dinjii Zhuh culture did survive the residential schools. Residential schools were

289-571: Was to better distinguish the sounds of the Gwichʼin language. Later on, Mueller's writing system was officially adopted by the Yukon Territory . The new writing system helped preserve the Gwichʼin language: previously, young people found it difficult to understand written Gwichʼin. Few Gwichʼin speak their heritage language as a majority of the population shifts to English. According to the UNESCO Interactive Atlas of

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