026 White C - First Russians - Translation.txt

{Number = 026}
{Type = Translation}
{Title = Anóoshi / First Russians}
{Author = Yaaneekee / Charlie White}
{Clan = Lʼuknax̱.ádi; Teiḵweidí Yádi}
{Source = D&D 1987: 292–297}
{Date = 1962}
{Place = Yakutat}
{Recorder = Wooshjix̱oo Éesh George Ramos}
{Transcriber = G̱unáakʼw Fred White}
{Page = 293}
1	My age is 88.
2	On August
3	15th
4	that will be
5	my age.
6	That's how long I have lived.
7	Situk
8	is where my father raised me.
9	My father had his house there in Situk.
10	That's where I was born.
11	It's where I grew up.
12	My father raised me there.
13	Yes,
14	and from there
15	we moved to this place called Laax̱aayík
16	from Situk.
17	And that is where we lived.
18	Yes, we were called Lʼuknax̱.ádi.
19	In the world
20	there aren't many of us.
21	Yes,
22	Lʼuknax̱.ádi
23	were traders.
24	They travelled a lot
25	also to that side, the mouth of Copper River,
{Page = 295}
26	trading.
27	Yes, now
28	these boats arrived at Yakutat,
29	ten boats
30	trading for furs.
31	Yes,
32	as they were voyaging back now
33	the tides
34	turned to rapids on them.
35	What is it? I forget the name of it.
36	Yes, Lituya Bay.
37	Now
38	this is where
39	the Lʼuknax̱.ádi capsized,
40	ten boats,
41	no more
42	there wasn't a single one left.
43	Two men
44	floated over to a back eddy.
45	Two
46	were straddling the overturned bottom.
47	One was called
48	Xʼaatsʼákʼu
49	and
50	Xíxchʼi Shaan.
51	They were straddling the bottom of the overturned boat
52	that floated into a back eddy.
53	They were sitting facing each other.
54	As it was getting dark on them,
55	the one named Xíxchʼi Shaan
56	was imitating a Frog.
57	G̱wá-gwá-gwá-gwá.
58	But the one facing him
59	was cawing like a Raven.
60	He made the sound
61	g̱áa-g̱áa-g̱áa-g̱áa-g̱áa.
62	It was getting dark on them, just like it is now.
63	They were straddling the bottom of the overturned boat.
64	No more!
65	No one knew what happened to them.
66	Darkness now covered them.
67	The men with them were now gone.
68	They all died.
69	Daylight came without them
70	straddling the bottom of the overturned boat.
71	Yes,
72	through this
73	the
74	furs
75	that they bought--
76	in a halibut skin bag, like what we have
77	today,
78	it must have been like rubber bags,
79	they didn't leak,
80	they're called halibut skin bags,
81	this is what they had these furs in--
82	sea otter,
83	fox,
84	everything--marten,
85	marten furs,
86	land otter
87	mink,
88	everything--
89	all this
90	the tide swept to Russia.
91	Through this,
92	when they discovered it,
93	the Russians
94	went searching
95	so they could find the mainland.
96	Through this
97	the Russians
98	sailed into Lituya Bay.
99	Through this they arrived at the mainland,
100	the furs that the Lʼuknax̱.ádi capsized with,
101	that were swept to their land.
102	Through this the Russians came upon this land.
103	So!
104	I have finished telling the story.