Organized Village of Kake

The Organized Village of Kake will preserve and revitalize Lingt culture and language for the residents of Kake, Alaska by arranging, describing, and migrating/digitizing 152 audio cassettes made and collected by late Kake tribal historian Charles "Topsy" Johnson from 1975 to 2006. The community of Kake faces high unemployment rates and other problems due to trans-generational trauma, cultural oppression and appropriation, and other factors resulting in high levels of poverty, unemployment, drug use, and depression. To address those and other problems, the project focuses on preserving and sharing the historic recordings, which feature important information about subsistence hunting and gathering practices, cultural survival, community self- reliance, identity formation, self-worth, respect, and tribal law that offer broad and significant counsel to the community. The project also includes facilitating access and use of the recordings by the local school, tribal citizens, and other students, scholars, and other organizations to foster positive and lasting improvements in the community.