Hoonah City Schools holds a celebration of Tlingit culture near the end of every school year.
The ḵu.éex’, or potlatch, celebrates the town’s Tlingit culture and heritage. Nearly the entire community of about 745 year-round residents is invited to see the youngest generation carry forward their ancestors’ traditions.
Students from preschool up to 12th grade sing, dance, recite speeches and perform skits — all in Tlingit. The ḵu.éex’ has been a tradition in the school for 28 years.
“Ḵu.éex’ is literally ‘to invite somebody,’ so there are many different types of ḵu.éex’, whether it be for memorials or naming ceremonies, or weddings or festive times of the year,” Lgéikʼi (click to listen) Heather Powell said.
Powell teaches Tlingit language in Hoonah City Schools and is the director of the Haa Kusteeyí Áyá program. A graduation requirement now for all ninth and 10th-grade students is to take the language.
“There’s many different reasons why they have ḵu.éex’, and this for us is one to teach our children a little bit about the ceremony of reciprocity and what it means to be of a certain clan, what it means to be the child of that clan, how precious our grandchildren are,” Powell said. “It’s an important thing for them to learn.”
Senior and member of the Eagle moiety Treston Lafferty gave a welcome speech (click to listen) to begin the event. The Eagles and Ravens take turns hosting each year — this year was the Eagle’s turn.
Next, students wearing traditional Tlingit regalia — some of it passed down through several generations — paraded in accompanied by drums.
More than 80 percent of Hoonah’s 120 students are Tlingit, but everyone takes part in the festivities.
“This was my third ḵu.éex’, and each time it’s equally as moving for me,” Superintendent Ralph Watkins said. “I think for me, as an African-American, more so.”
Ralph Watkins took over as superintendent of Hoonah City Schools this school year.
He saw his first ḵu.éex’ during a visit before he was hired as principal.
He knew Hoonah was a special place after that.
“I know absolutely nothing about my African history, nothing,” he said. “I’m almost jealous. The fact that I can be a part of preserving something that I couldn’t do for my own culture is important to me.”
This year’s ḵu.éex’ honored special guests visiting from outside Hoonah.
Elder Ruth Demmert speaks fluent Tlingit and taught for many years in Kake.
“This is my second time that I’ve been here for their ḵu.éex’ and you know it’s wonderful because they sang the song ‘You Are My Sunshine’ translated into Tlingit, and that was done for my mother,” Demmert said.
Second- and third-graders sang Demmert’s version of the song (click to listen).
Many in the Tlingit community view Demmert as a cultural treasure. Very few fluent speakers remain.
She continues to act as a resource for Powell and her colleagues who have led the language program in Hoonah for years.
“We’re very fortunate at Hoonah City Schools, and I’m going to say this because the aunties won’t, but we have our Auntie Carol Williams has been working in Hoonah City Schools for 43 years, and we also have Daphne Wright — Duffy Wright, Ḵ’ashǤé — whose been working in Hoonah City Schools for 33 years,” Powell said. “Combined with that, 76 years of keeping opportunities for the door to be open for Tlingit language, culture, song and dance to exist within the school district. We’re very, very blessed within this community.”
At the end of the celebration, community members joined students in a song that some of the students wrote last year.
The lyrics speak to the Tlingit tradition of reciprocity and respect for all things.
“The world is balanced,” they sang (click to listen) in Tlingit. “We will live right/ what was given to us/ we will give to them.”
Kaanák Ruth Demmert’s translated lyrics for “You Are My Sunshine”:
Ax Gagaanix isitee
Ch’a tleinax xaa iyatee
Ax toowu ilik’ei xaa
Tleil kooshk’eiyi
Tleil yisaku ge
Waa ixsaxanee
Daa ch’a tlakw
Ax Gagaanix eenasti.
Tliyaat ge xaanaa
Ch’u axakeedi
Ax jooni toox’
Ax jigei wa.e
Kei xat wusgeedi
Aax ee kawdihaa
Tle ee itde
KaxwdiGaax.