Saving a Dying Language

This week for my “profile” writing assignment I interviewed Daphne or “K’ashge” Wright, the Tlingit language instructor at Hoonah City Schools. We had a relaxed and easy forty-five minute conversation discussing her solo initiative to infuse the dying language of Tlingit into the youth of Hoonah. (Here she is wearing her hand-woven clan hat, standing in front of the "places map" that recalls the orginal Tlingit names of the area.)

It is Daphne’s estimates that there are only 100 fluent speakers left in the world. It was an entirely oral language until 1972. She has taken on the task of teaching Tlingit to all school age children with the hopes that it will not pass away with Elders and be lost forever.

Her mother was of the generation that was not allowed to speak their native tongue of Tlingit by the teachers of the missionary school that settled in Juneau. Even though Daphne didn’t grow up speaking Tlingit she heard it spoken at home in conversations between her mother, aunts and grandmother. She is a Raven, of the Seagull Clan but her mother wanted her to be able to assimilate successfully into the “white world” and made education a priority for Daphne and her three sisters.

Daphne went to college in Colorado and then went on to earn her Master’s Degree in Library Studies in Boston. She returned to Anchorage got her teaching credential and taught elementary education for nine years. She then moved to Hoonah and taught third grade for sixteen years. It was in the last six years that she aggressively started teaching Tlingit to her students. When she “retired” she transitioned into the part time job of Tlingit language coordinator, assisting the teacher of the school use Tlingit in throughout their curriculum. It was ten years ago that she became the official Tlingit teacher and all the Hoonah students came to her classroom to learn the language.


The language is beautiful, colorful and complicated. It has 16 sounds that don’t exist in English and while Daphne can recognize the sounds by writing and hearing them, she herself is still perfecting the execution of the some sounds. In Tlingit there is no “m”, “n”, or “p” sound, the theory being in the hindrance of the lip jewelry they wore. Daphne uses her skills as an elementary teacher to make learning the vocabulary fun. The students play bingo, make crafts, puzzles and color art projects all focused on getting the words in their mouth and ears. Something she wished she would have had when she was young.

Daphne works diligently on her Tlingit language quest. She doesn’t want the responsibility of being the one that of stood by and watched it fade away. It gives her the great satisfaction that she is doing her part to continue the legacy of her people’s language. She does wish that someone would join her in her work. High on her wish list is a helper. She is the lone Tlingit teacher in Hoonah and would love to have an apprentice. Daphne is hopeful that next year she will have someone to share the work load with…, “maybe they will want to teach the high schoolers…” she says with a mischievous laugh.