This unit is story-based. Whereas our previous contributions to the "I Am Salmon" project were organized around the life cycle of the salmon, with the Aak’wtatseen story as one of several suggested readings in the language arts component, this set of notes and suggestions comes from the opposite direction; it is based on the story and comes directly out of it. Anchored firmly in the text itself, class reading and discussion of the story will lead to a range of concepts and activities in language arts, social studies, science, and other academic disciplines.

Teachers interested in using the present set of material should also look at the "I Am Salmon" loose-leaf binder (One Reel: 1999), because the present Unit is designed to interface with the resources and activities in the "I Am Salmon" Curriculum.

In addition, three articles will be helpful in understanding the philosophy behind the present Unit: "Education Indigenous to Place," by A. O. Kawagley and R. Barnhardt, 1997; and "The Axe Handle Academy: A Few Words about the Model, " by Richard Dauenhauer, February 1997; and "The Axe Handle Academy: A Proposal for a Bioregional, Thematic Humanities Education," by Ron and Suzanne Scollon." These may be obtained through the Alaska Rural Systemic Intiative project.

The activities included here are also designed to address both the Alaska Department of Education Content Standards for Alaska Students and the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools. In the final draft, the lessons will be aligned as closely as possible to the standards, and the activities to the "key elements."

The story on which this Unit is based is widespread along the Northwest Coast, with the most significant versions coming from Tsimshian, Haida, and Tlingit cultures. It is variously known as "The Prince and the Salmon People" and "Moldy End." I have previously called it "Salmon Boy" for convenience. It is sometimes referred to in Tlingit by the name of the boy who is the main character, Aak’wtatseen, which title is the Sitka elders’ preference, and the one used here (unless citing earlier titles).

Moreover, this Unit is based on one important version of the story, that told by Deikeenaak’w to John Swanton in Sitka in 1904, and published by Swanton in 1909 as story #99 in his classic volume, Tlingit Myths and Texts. From among all the variants available, this particular version was independently selected as most appropriate to start with by several different teachers, including Native teachers from Juneau and Sitka. So, I follow suit and use it as the focal point and starting point here. The other versions, each fascinating and valuable in its own right, are also addressed as a language arts activity in folklore and comparative literature.

Conceptually, the Unit is outlined and organized on a grid vertically according to events in the story plot, and horizontally according to the content areas of the February 1999 edition of the Alaska DOE Content standards: English / Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Geography, Government and Citizenship, History, Skills for a Healthy Life, Arts, World Languages, Technology, and Employability. Some natural science and geography topics (life cycle of salmon, watershed, habitat, etc.) are not major categories here because they are addressed as central topics in "I Am Salmon," and I leave that material to science teachers to include as appropriate.

As will be noted, some topics such as place names (geography) have been developed very productively by research teams including other academic scholars and community elders, whereas other areas remain to be developed (such as word-processing the Native language texts as part of the World Languages activities). In the case of the Native language texts, most school classes in Tlingit and Haida have not yet reached the level of instruction where they can use the original language texts; these exist in draft and will be developed later.

Finally, the present draft of the Unit offers most of the material as a set of notes for teachers: a mix of questions, topics, activities, information. It is not yet fully organized as lessons and activities. Future drafts will be more complete in this regard, but ultimately I feel that classroom teachers are more qualified and competent than I to select what is useful and arrange it as appropriate for their needs. Teachers are the ones who will make the materials come alive.

There is no "busy work" here. I hope that all the activities are worth doing. These are the questions we ourselves ask and the activities we do. Some have easy answers (find Sitka). Others take more time and effort, and some questions may have no easy answer or no answer at all. But that is part of learning.

As noted above, this Unit is designed to connect with the "I Am Salmon" curriculum, although it could be used on its own. The story and Unit meet all the goals of the I Am Salmon Curriculum, and, for teachers working from the I Am Salmon material to the story, this version fits well in Part Two, which in its current draft features other versions for comparison.

For teachers working outward from the story, the version featured here is site-specific to Sitka. Because this unit is designed for Alaska, we wanted to begin locally in Sitka, then expand to the rest of Southeast Alaska, and then outward to the rest of the North Pacific rim.

For teachers working outward from the I Am Salmon Curriculum, this Unit offers site-specific resources from Alaska. Especially exciting are the "Notes on Tlingit Personal and Place Names in the Aak’wtaatseen (‘Moldy End’) Story." The information is highly localized, but the concepts are universal and can be applied to other sites. You start with world maps, and then become more specialized with regional maps, then local charts and topographic maps. You eventually end up making your own maps with the help of local elders, who know things that are beyond the official maps and charts. Finally, you run out of human maps and place names, and you begin to explore the geography from the point of view of the salmon, who, as it turns out, have special names for some of the places along their migration route.

As the lessons and activities in this Unit suggest, teachers may want to go from the story to activities in the I Am Salmon curriculum, especially at first to those about maps, watersheds, and finding one’s ecological address. The map activities suggested here are Alaska-specific and are based on those in I Am Salmon, but do not duplicate them. Likewise, teachers wishing to link up with science activities on the life cycle of the salmon should examine I Am Salmon, as such material is not duplicated here. Teachers will probably want to read through all of the I Am Salmon notebook to decide what material is appropriate to their needs.