Tomorrow I get to fly around for four hours searching for bald eagle nests on the lake shores and coastlines of Katmai National Park. Needless to say I am excited. I was studying the map of the park today and there are a lot of locations that are hard to pronounce. I get frustrated with the names of things around here so I thought if I look up the meaning of the words maybe that would get rid of some of the frustration. I, like most people, depend on Google to answer all of my questions. Not today, the language of the Eskimo tribes are disappearing and it is very sad because the villages are in Eskimo names. It is unfortunate that the Native American languages are being forgotten, not just in Alaska but all over our country, when they represent the words of great and honorable people. Out of 17 names I tried to look up, I could only find the meaning of six and one kind of weird answer. No matter what I typed into Google: this word means?, where is the word from?, and the word itself, I could not find an answer. I was however lead to buy an Eskimo dictionary, though the pages I looked at only said that certain names were definitely Eskimo but it did not have their meanings. I am going to see if our resource center has any thing about the language to get more information.
I thought I would share what I did discover. Alaska came from the Aluet word Ayeska, meaning the great land. That fits Alaska very well as it is three times the size of Texas. I could not find out what Katmai meant. All the searches led me to the national park site. Naknek, the town 15 miles from here was originally a Yupik village. The Yupik tribes were found all over the area. They called the village Naugeik. It was changed by the Russian navy to the name of Naknek. The large volcano in Katmai that erupted in 1912 and was the biggest eruption in the twentieth century is called Novarupta which fittingly means new eruption. Today in the area there is nothing but ash.
I will also being doing work on the Alagnak Wild River National Park. Alagnak means making mistakes. It sort of fits what I here about this river as there are very rough white water spots to transverse through and each year rescues are performed on the river. The third park I will be working on is called Aniakchak. It is a park that is hardly ever visited by tourist. I am told that there is a ten day float for wildlife monitoring that goes on in this park and my boss calls it the ankle breaker. Not sure yet if I will be the one going on the float. Stay tuned. I could not find the meaning of Aniakchak.
Igiugig is an area near Katmai that's watershed flows through the park. The name means like a throat that swallows water. I am not sure if the name fits the area but it is not the romantic name I thought it might be. Another place that I will visit is called Chignik Lagoon. There are also the Chignik mountains. Chignik means big winds. Why do I get the feeling that air travel in this area might be iffy. One of the bays I will be searching for nests in is called Swikshak. This is the one that I got funny information for. I read that it is an Eskimo term but that the word might actually have come from a Mexican tribe. I haven't quite figured this one out. Other places I will visit are Kukaklek Lake, Nonvianuk lake, Kahivik Bay, Amalik bay, Takli Island, Ninagiak Island, Kamishak river, and Illlilama Watershed. None of these names could be found on any Google search. Though my main interest is in the wildlife that call this area home, I am interested in the people that lived for thousands of years here. I hate to see their history vanish.
Speaking of wild animals, though we haven't seen any large mammals yet, while hiking today we did see moose tracks. We also found the remains of a bird that had been eaten by something. Still keeping our eyes peeled for the first sighting.
This week schedule is: Monday- bald eagle nest survey and try to pass the shotgun certification. Tuesday and Wednesday is map making of the nests we found and comparisons to past records. Hopefully, another day of flying. Thursday- it is off to Brooks Camp for eight days of boat training, more bear training and to get familiar with the area where a large number of brown bears will exist once the salmon run starts, which is July. This week also is the towns start of tourist season. The grocery store is staying open later, Eddies hours are changing, King Ko's (a restaurant, bar and lodge) will open. Today I noticed a lot more smaller planes were landing at the airport. Soon I am told the river will become a float plane highway. Wonder what that will do to the hundreds of swans on the river right now.
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