Mona Painter/ Cooper Landing
A Dena'ina maiden brings her Alutiiq suitor home to meet her mother during the performance of Nightwalk at K'beq in Cooper Landing.
By Mona Painter
Turnagain Times Cooper Landing Correspondent
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Mona Painter/ Cooper Landing |
The Cooper Landing Advisory Planning Commission’s July meeting was canceled due to lack of a quorum. The meetings are scheduled for the first Wed. evening of each month and are held at the Cooper Landing Community Hall. Karl Romig is chair, Carrie Williams vice-chair, and Sandra Key is commission secretary. Rob Bear, Dodie Wilson, and Dominic Bauer are the other current members.
George Siter recently submitted his resignation to Kenai Peninsula Borough. Mayor John Williams George is a busy man. He is the Personnel Officer (S-1) for the 492nd Coastal Command, 49th Military Police Brigade, Alaska State Defense Force, Dept of Military and Veteran’s Affairs. George wrote: “I have upwards of 100 troops that I am responsible for. This is a very large obligation I have been doing for over three years. It has been very difficult for me to have a full-time job at Gwins Lodge, administer the CL Fire Department, and serve on the CL Fish and Game Advisory Committee.”
Three commissioner’s terms are up as of Sept. 30—Rob’s, Carrie’s, and Dodie’s —so with George’s resignation applications will be taken for four positions on the CLAPC. Available on the KPB website under Planning is the Alaska Planning Com-missioners Handbook and the application form for advisory planning commission members. Some questions asked have to do with the applicant’s knowledge of local land use and planning issues, suggestions for local borough owned lands, and the applicant’s experience and expertise as related to the commission.
K’Beq is the Kenaitze Interpretive Site on the Kenai River across the Sterling Highway from the entrance to the Russian River Camp-ground at Milepost 52.6. K’Beq is a joint venture of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe and the Seward Ranger District of the Chugach National Forest. “At K’beq, Dena’ina Atha-bascans share their traditions and culture with visitors through interpretive walks featuring archaeological sites and traditional plant use. Tribal interpretation highlights Dena’ina knowledge and respect for the plants and animals of Yaghanen (the good Land), the Kenai Peninsula,” from the K’beq brochure. Having volunteered on an archeological Dena’ina site many years ago, I know how hard it is to look at the land now and imagine what was there when the Denai’ina ancestors were in residence because they left such a faint footprint. No teepees, no totem poles. Nightwalk also helps us to understand the Dena’ina culture.
Nightwalk is a dramatic performance of the tribe’s Dena’ina history presented by vignettes of significant events and explained by a narrator as the audience walks through the K’Beq site. Maggie Jones is the director and most of the actors are children. I was in the audience for the August 7 performance. The actor portraying the Russian lost his mustache as he moved quickly across the scene. Mary Fort retrieved the mustache and we were delighted to see it was fashioned from spruce lichen. The bright cloths brought by Europeans in the early contact time were thought by the Dena”ina to be made “from pelts of animals we could not name.”
The performance includes a recording of Peter Kali-fornsky reciting The Lord’s Prayer. Peter was born in 1911 and died in 1993. He was a Dena’ina elder who helped write the Outer Inlet dialect of Dena’ina language. Kenaitze Cultural and Education De-partment Director Sasha Lindgren and Amanda Attla Morrow, toe kick athlete of World Eskimo-Indian Olym-pics fame, were also on hand for Nightwalk. The last performance of the season is Aug. 17 at 1:00 p.m. Adult fare is $20 and children are $10. K’beq gates will be closed for the performance since the audience and narrator will be walking along the paved driveway loop.