Dr. Richard L. Dauenhauer

1942 - 2014  (72 years)

• Name	Richard L. Dauenhauer
  Prefix	Dr.
  Born	10 Apr 1942	Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, USA   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Died	19 Aug 2014	Juneau, Juneau Borough, Alaska, USA   [1]
  Buried	Alaskan Memorial Park, Juneau, Juneau Borough, Alaska, USA   [2, 3, 4]
  Person ID	I117068	Suedpfalz
  Last Modified	18 May 2021

  
  

  Father	Leonard George Dauenhauer,   b. 2 Apr 1914, Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, USA ,   d. 7 Feb 2000, Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, USA  (Age 85 years)
  Mother	Loretta Jane Grier,   b. 15 Feb 1918, Pennsylvania, USA ,   d. 11 Aug 1982, Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, USA  (Age 64 years)
  Family ID	F40577	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Sandra Dudley
  Divorced	Yes, date unknown
  Last Modified	1 May 2018
  Family ID	F106011	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Nora Marks,   b. 8 May 1927, Juneau, Territory of Alaska, USA ,   d. 25 Sep 2017, Douglas, Juneau Borough, Alaska, USA  (Age 90 years)
  Married	1973
  Last Modified	1 May 2018
  Family ID	F51008	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

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  Died - 19 Aug 2014 - Juneau, Juneau Borough, Alaska, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  A fish doesn't jump in Tlingit, the native language of indigenous people of Southeast Alaska. It performs a feat no word in English can adequately express. The verb in Tlingit captures the instant when a fish breaks the surface, the sequence of sounds as it rises and the spray of water that spreads around it. That some modern-day Alaskans get frustrated as they search for English equivalents can be attributed in part to the work of Richard Dauenhauer, a linguist, anthropologist, playwright and former Alaska poet laureate who died Tuesday of cancer in Juneau, Alaska. Dauenhauer, 72, made recording, transcribing and advocating for the Tlingit language his life's work. He trained a cadre of teachers and translators to continue his efforts. He sought not just to revive the fast-disappearing tongue, largely relegated to the thoughts of a few surviving tribal elders, but to win acceptance for its use. Alaskans can now elect to study Tlingit from kindergarten through college and read translated works of Tlingit oratory. "Everyone who is currently teaching Tlingit has been taught by Richard Dauenhauer," said Lance Twitchell, assistant professor of Alaska Native Languages at University of Alaska Southeast who is one of Dauenhauer's former students. Notable Deaths Notable deaths of 2014 Photos of leaders, stars and other notable figures who died in 2014. Often working with his wife, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, a Tlingit teacher and researcher, Dauenhauer archived recordings of the spoken language and helped standardize its written form. Through years of interviewing the last surviving Tlingit speakers, he also became a scholar of Tlingit folklore and culture, writing several books and editing anthologies. He was a program director and researcher for the Sealaska Heritage Foundation from 1983 to 1997, and a professor at the University of Alaska Southeast until 2011. He was Alaska's sixth poet laureate from 1981 to 1988. Dauenhauer sought to dispel the shame and fear once inflicted on native speakers. He gave Tlingit oral history the status of literature, "the same as the highest forms of English literature," Twitchell said. And his poetry celebrated literary possibilities of what had been exclusively oral traditions. The work was difficult. The Tlingit language is considered by linguists to be exceptionally complex. And the Tlingit people, who number about 25,000, have not been subject to the comprehensive ethnographic research of some other indigenous groups. Although various people — Russian-speaking priests and English-speaking missionaries — had rendered their language in written form, much of the group's heritage remained oral into the late 20th century. Plus, "our people are not the easiest to deal with," said friend and former student Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Dauenhauer won cooperation for his efforts through "his persistence and respectful ways," she said, and conveyed an understanding "that he was dealing with a sophisticated group of people." Richard L. Dauenhauer was born April 10, 1942, in Syracuse, N.Y. He studied Russian and German at Syracuse University and at the University of Texas, and earned a doctorate in comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin. Hired to teach literature at Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage, he met Tlingits who had grown up in a society hostile to their native dialects. Only a few hundred Tlingit speakers remained. Dauenhauer was divorced from Sandra Dudley in 1972, and became an honorary Tlingit nation member a year later when he married Nora, a mother of four. She was already working to preserve her native language, and the couple conducted field work together and collaborated on Tlingit translations and histories. The ranks of those who learned the language from birth are still shrinking. Today there are only about 100 fluent speakers, Twitchell said. But the language is on the upswing. At the university, those taking classes in Tlingit make a point of speaking it in public. Their number include older Tlingits who seek to recover a language they dimly remember from childhood. A bearded poet and "teacher at heart," Dauenhauer was still attending to his scholarly duties weeks before he died, Twitchell said. He claimed reading proficiency in a dozen languages and also worked to preserve Haida and Tsimshian, also indigenous Alaska languages. Dauenhauer argued that translation belonged more to creative writing than scholarship. He was interested in the way culture embeds itself in the mechanics of language. He sought to avoid dumbing things down — to avoid the common error of representing indigenous folklore as children's tales, for instance. His "Beginning Tlingit" textbook is still used at the university. His specialty was "oral literature," Worl said. "That sounds like a contradiction. He made it not a contradiction." Dauenhauer is survived by his wife, her four children, and several grandchildren, Worl said.

  
  

• Sources

  [S926] Find-A-Grave, (www.findagrave.com). [S927] Obituary. ame: Richard Dauenhauer Gender: Male Age at Death: 72 Date of Birth: 10 Apr 1942 Birth Place: Syracuse, New York, USA Date of Death: 19 Aug 2014 Source Location: USA Spouse: Tlingit Full Obituary: Richard Dauenhauer (April 10, 1942 August 19, 2014) was an American poet, linguist, and translator who married into, and subsequently became an expert on, the Tlingit nation of southeastern Alaska. He was married to the Tlingit poet and scholar Nora Marks Dauenhauer. He won an American Book Award for Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka, 1802 And 1804Life[edit]Dauenhauer was born in Syracuse, New York. His B.A. was in Slavic Languages and his M.A. in German. He earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 1975 from the University of WisconsinMadison, with a dissertation titled Text and Context of Tlingit Oral Tradition.[1]From 1981 to 1988, he was the poet laureate of Alaska.[2]Together the Dauenhauers were the editors of the Sealaska Heritage Foundation's highly regarded Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature series.His papers are held at University of Alaska Anchorage.[3]Dauenhauer died on August 19, 2014, in Juneau's Bartlett Regional Hospital, after having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a month prior.[4]Works[edit](with Philip Binham) (eds.) (1978) Snow in May: An Anthology of Finnish Writing 19451972. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.(1980) Glacier Bay Concerto. Anchorage: Alaska Pacific University Press.(1982) "Two Missions to Alaska." Pacific Historian,, vol. 26, pp.2941.(1986) Phenologies. Austin: Thorp Springs Press.(1987) Frames of Reference. Haines, AK: Black Current Press.(1990) "Education in Russian Alaska." In: Russian America: The Forgotten Frontier, ed. by Barbara Smith and Redmond J. Barnett, pp.155163. Tacoma: Washington State Historical Society.(with Nora Marks Dauenhauer) (eds.) (1981) "Because We Cherish You . . .": Sealaska Elders Speak to the Future. Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Foundation.(with Nora Marks Dauenhauer) (eds.) (1987) Haa Shuk, Our Ancestors: Tlingit Oral Narratives. (Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature, vol. 1.) Seattle: University of Washington Press.(with Nora Marks Dauenhauer) (eds.) (1990) Haa Tuwanagu Ys, for Healing Our Spirit: Tlingit Oratory. (Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature, vol. 2.) Seattle: University of Washington Press.(with Nora Marks Dauenhauer) (eds.) (1994) Haa Kusteey, Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. (Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature, vol. 3.) Seattle: University of Washington Press.Nora Dauenhauer, Richard Dauenhauer, Lydia T. Black, ed. (2008). Russians in Tlingit America. University of Washington Press. ISBN978-0-295-98601-2.(2013) Benchmarks: New and Selected Poems 19632013. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. [S926] Find-A-Grave, (www.findagrave.com). Richard Dauenhauer Memorial Photos Flowers Edit Share Learn about upgrading this memorial... Birth: Apr. 10, 1942 Syracuse Onondaga County New York, USA Death: Aug. 19, 2014 Juneau Juneau Borough Alaska, USA American poet and linguist. Received his B.A. from Syracuse University in Slavic languages, his M.A. from the University of Texas in German, and his PhD. in Comparative Literature in 1975 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He became a professor of literature at Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage where he became associated with the Tlingit people. In 1973 he married Tlingit poet Nora Marks and became an expert on the Tlingit nation of southeast Alaska. They won an American Book Award for "Russians in Tlingit America: The Battle of Sitka, 1802 and 1804". He was the poet laureate of Alaska from 1981 to 1988. He recorded the Tlingit language, transcribed it to English, and used the language in much of his poetry. Saving the language and the culture of the people was his lifes work. Died from pancreatic cancer. Burial: Alaskan Memorial Park Juneau Juneau Borough Alaska, USA Created by: EFulmer Record added: Aug 27, 2014 Find A Grave Memorial# 134946923 [S8] Information from an informant - Auskunft eines Informanten - Information d'un informateur. Proposed Change: Alaskan Memorial Park, Juneau, Juneau Borough, Alaska, USA Tree: Suedwestpfalz Link: http://www.birkenhoerdt.net/placesearch.php?tree=1&psearch=Alaskan+Mem orial+Park%2C+Juneau%2C+Juneau+Borough%2C+Alaska%2C+USA Description: Alaskan Memorial Park, Juneau, Alaska, USA Juneau became an unified municipality on 01 July 1970, when the city of Juneau merged with the city of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current municipality. Mariner's Knoll Genealogy USA Mariner's Knoll Genealogy USA