Hundreds crowded into Harrigan Centennial Hall Saturday for the Sitka Native Education Program’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of Knowledge, a gathering in the form of a traditional Lingít koo.éex’, with more than 12 hours of songs, speeches, gift distributions, meals, presentations and protocol honoring the first half-century since the program was founded.
The auditorium was standing room only for much of the celebration of SNEP, which was founded in the early 1970s by elders acting “in response to the urgent need to preserve and promote Tlingit language, dance, values and traditions among youth,” a program for the event states.
Through the years SNEP has “supported transmission of traditional knowledge through Lingít song and dance, regalia making, storytelling, subsistence harvesting and language learning,” and has “empowered students with a strong identity and belonging” while also educating the greater Sitka community, the program says.
All aspects of Tlingít culture shone Saturday, with SNEP students, graduates and family members dancing with the Kéet Gooshí Héen Dancers, Gájaa Héen Dancers, Wooch.een Students and Xóots Elementary Dancers.
Sitka Tlingit violin program students performed along with adult participants, volunteers and instructors. SNEP drumming class and traditional arts studio students also demonstrated their work.
Traditional regalia was much on display, and members of the Eagle moiety sat opposite members of the Raven moiety throughout the event.
Much of the celebration honored the people who founded SNEP and served as instructors in the 1970s. “Through their tireless and committed work, these elders gave youth then, and now, the chance to learn about where they came from and who they are through the Lingít worldview,” states the program.
SNEP founders and original instructors included Yeidikook’áa Isabella Brady, Ḵaal.átk' Charlie Joseph Sr., Aanyáanáx̱ Tláa Annie Joseph, Kaasnák Annie Dick, Kaat Shi Tláa Elizabeth Basco, Sgatoot Emma Duncan Davis, Alice Williams, Maria Guthrie, Vida Davis, and Daasdiyáa Ethel Makinen, among many other elders and culture-bearers.
Saturday’s program also held Sdi Sháa Mary Marks, Mary Perkins, Aanwugeex’ Esther Littlefield and Daanax.ils’eik, Geisteen Chuck Miller, in loving memory.
The celebration honored SNEP staff and volunteers, parent advisory committee members, program graduates and many individuals and organizations for their support and contributions.
Between student performances, SNEP instructors and community leaders introduced and gave context for various Tlingít “hat songs,” as well as “big songs” that tell the history of clans and “yeik utees” or spirit songs.
Leaders distributed fire dishes to honored guests, and piles of gifts to many attendees. Everybody shared a 4 p.m. meal that included salmon and herring egg salad.
Children, many of them students, circled the room offering refreshments to elders and clearing service items. Sitka Tribe of Alaska staff members volunteered to run the event, from the check-in station to kitchen crew.
Following the community meal, student dance groups gave performances.
Protocol continued in the evening with clan adoptions, as people received Tlingít names with witnesses present.
As the event approached its close around midnight, people held an honoring of Keet Tláa Anne Johnson, one of the founding instructors who continues as an active instructor five decades later.
“A lot of young kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews are still being taught by her,” SNEP graduate and former instructor Ethel Williams said of Johnson. “She did such an awesome job for all of us.”
People also honored L’eiwtu Éesh Herman Davis, who had a hand in the beginning of the program and continues as an active community leader today, .
Williams joked that as children first entered the SNEP program “we were scared, (the instructors) were loud. But by the end of it, look what has come about, look what is here. Look what you guys are seeing. To see those kids up there today.”
“To see Larry Garrity working on dance with those young men,” Williams said. “To see the girls doing the Tlingít sway. ... We can’t give enough credit for what we have that’s instilled in us, what we have in our heart.”
