Mediating Athabascan Oral Traditions in Post-Secondary Classrooms

Abstract

This article describes how three versions of a Deg Hit’an Athabascan narrative are used in a pre-service teacher education course entitled “Alaska Native Education” at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Use of both written and videotaped versions of this narrative, told by the late Belle Deacon, a Deg Hit’an storyteller formerly of Grayling, Alaska, facilitates students’ understandings of the roles of oral traditions in educational processes for Alaska Native people. Students also gain an understanding of Athabascan worldviews; emphasized within these worldviews are the values of learning and honoring relationships as part of Athabascan educational processes.