Discover the journey of the Cuttlefish Project, where the voices of the Unangam Tunuu language come alive through archival recordings in Alaska. In this episode of Sound Files, we explore how these valuable tapes were rescued from obscurity and digitized, thanks to the dedicated efforts of educators Ray Hudson, George Pletnikoff Junior, and curator Leslie McCartney. We'll hear the powerful stories behind these recordings, highlighting the unwavering commitment to preserve the cultural heritage of the Unangax̂ community and the vital role these sounds play in revitalizing a language on the brink of extinction.
How are languages on the brink of extinction preserved? This episode looks at the Cuttlefish Project, an initiative dedicated to revitalizing the Unangam Tunuu language through a treasure trove of archival recordings. You'll hear how these once-overlooked tapes were brought back to life, thanks to the efforts of educator George Pletnikoff Junior and curator Leslie McCartney, who worked tirelessly to digitize them and make them accessible to a global audience.
We'll also take a look at the past, and the rich cultural significance these recordings hold for the Unangax̂ community and the challenges they face in keeping their language alive. From the heartfelt stories behind the tapes to the complex historical backdrop that led to the decline of fluent speakers, this episode emphasizes the importance of audio archives in cultural identity. However, the path to revitalization is not without its hurdles. With fewer than 200 fluent speakers remaining today, George and his community are grappling with the unique challenges of engaging new generations while honoring their linguistic roots.
The digitized tapes from the Cuttlefish Project can be found and streamed in full from the University of Alaska. To find them, search for "cuttlefish project" in the UA's online catalog, or link directly at https://archives.library.uaf.edu/uncategorized/SO_f708948d-f76b-4dff-81d7-e2590cb7c841/. The excerpts heard in this episode can be located at: https://archives.library.uaf.edu/uncategorized/IO_09335df2-b07b-4d89-bd0e-78a0d6d03ff9/, https://archives.library.uaf.edu/uncategorized/IO_45d2c5d5-69f8-4376-8b97-52e4a4b4bab3/, and https://archives.library.uaf.edu/uncategorized/IO_66ef0a8e-ca10-40f2-8599-c56db445f06d/.
Credits:
Jesse Johnston, creator of Sound Files and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, hosts the podcast. Teresa Carey is the senior producer, editor, and creative lead for Morse Alpha Studios, which produced this podcast. Writing is by Jacob Pinter, and sound engineering by Steve Lack. Original music by Evan Haywood.
George Pletnikoff Jr: We’ll start the day off. The kids walk in and we’ll do an energizer of sorts. // You know the first group will do a game. It could be–in Unangam Tunuu–like a counting. [speaks in Unangam Tunuu]. You know, you look up at somebody. An elimination game.
Host (Jesse Johnston): On an Alaskan island called St. Paul … George Pletnikoff Junior is trying to revitalize his ancestors’ language.
The language is called Unangam Tunuu (pronunciation).
And George teaches it to kids, as an employee of the local tribal government.
George Pletnikoff Jr: We have an alphabet of sorts that we’ve put together. // Like say an “A”. It’s “ah”. Our alphabet, it starts–our focus is to start with sounds that are out here. So [he makes sounds]. It’s kind of where the sound is working our way into our mouth, into our lips, and then use of our tongue down to our throat. You go from [front of mouth sound] to [back of throat sound].
Host: A little over 400 people live on St. Paul. It’s in a chain called the Pribilof Islands, about 300 miles west of mainland Alaska. More than 80 percent of the community is Unangax̂ (pronunciation) … the native people who have lived here for centuries.
Today, most people on St. Paul speak English at home. The number of fluent speakers of Unangam Tunuu is dwindling. By some estimates, there are only about 100 left. George wants kids to get in touch with their roots … which often starts with games and songs.
George Pletnikoff Jr: Kind of the Frere Jacques–we have that in Unangam Tunuu. [Sings] Things for kids. And then we’ll have one kind of traditional song. You know, we’re working these things back together, right?
Host: George has dedicated himself to teaching and revitalizing Unangam Tunuu. He also performs traditional music and dance. But he is not a fluent speaker himself. George’s first language is English. As a kid, he remembers hearing Unangam Tunuu around the house … but not much.
George Pletnikoff Jr: So my parents would speak very minimally. They weren’t fluent speakers. // My grandparents, they wanted them to succeed in the American world. // So for me, I would hear phrases and stuff growing up. And that would usually be at times that my parents didn’t want me to know what they’re talking about. So little bits here and there.
Host: For George – or anyone learning Unangam Tunuu – there is a valuable resource: audio recordings! Fluent speakers have recorded casual conversations … vocabulary lessons … and examples of games and songs. At work, George has access to archival recordings of fluent speakers, conversing freely with each other.
George Pletnikoff Jr: I have a side focus here as part of my job is to transcribe them. // Which is–oh man. I get burnt out so fast because they were native speakers. They were fluent. // Some things that sound like a mumble to me is a full sentence to them.
Host: I’m Jesse Johnston, and you’re listening to Sound Files… a podcast about the preservation of recorded sounds supported by the National Recording Preservation Foundation. We’re hoping the podcast offers our listeners a chance to hear some of the amazing stories preserved in audio, as well as meet some of the folks involved in helping to give us new ways to preserve and access these sounds!
In this episode … we’ll hear about a trove of recordings in Unangam Tunuu/
Host: In the 1970s and ‘80s, a teacher captured dozens of audio recordings of fluent speakers of this endangered language. Then, the tapes went into storage … and were probably untouched for years.
We’ll hear from the man who recorded them … the oral history professor who digitized them and shared them with the world … and we’ll also hear how … with the help of audio recordings … George and other speakers of Unangam Tunuu are fighting to revitalize their language.
Host: Anyone with an internet connection can listen to the tapes that are known as the Cuttlefish Project. There are almost 60 reel-to-reel tapes … adding up to hours and hours of recordings. The man who recorded all of this wasn’t a professional archivist, and he’s not originally from Alaska. His name is Ray Hudson.
Ray Hudson: I’m a retired schoolteacher. ... Initially first and second grades and eventually high school art and high school Alaskan history.
Host: Ray grew up in Washington state. He moved to Alaska in the 1960s. At the time, he was working on a philosophy degree in college … although he didn’t really have a plan for how to use it. Then, he heard about a town in Alaska that needed teachers.
Ray Hudson: And so I applied and eventually they offered me first and second grades. And so I went off with a couple of boxes of lesson plans that my aunt supplied me. And I had 12 first and second graders. And I had of course no idea what to do apart from teaching them philosophy, which wasn’t going to help them a lot.
Host: Ray ended up in the town of Unalaska, in the Aleutian islands. When you look at a map of Alaska, you’ll see a long chain of islands stretching west … nearly reaching Russia. These are the Aleutians. The islands are mountainous – the product of volcanoes that ring the Pacific Ocean. According to Ray, there are no native trees in the Aleutians … only a few brought there by Russians or Americans.
Ray Hudson: So in a way it’s a very stark landscape. But in the summer, it’s vibrantly green with hundreds of wildflowers, just extraordinarily beautiful. In the summer there’s a lot of mist. // And in the wintertime, of course, we get some wonderful storms. The Aleutians are notorious for their storms. But the good weather is sort of a secret that we keep, and it’s really quite lovely.
Host: Ray got to Unalaska in 1964. As he settled in, he grew to like both the community and his teaching job. He also began researching the Aleutians and the people who lived there. One of the people he met was a woman in her 60s. She was originally from a different island, a few hundred miles away. She spoke English, Russian, and Unangam Tunuu – and she could read and write all three languages, too. Ray started picking her brain.
Ray Hudson: She warmed to me a bit and started answering a few questions I might have about the community. But she wanted me to write down what she said. She sort of enjoyed having me as a part-time recording secretary. And so I would sort of take notes. And when I asked if I could make a tape recording, she was hesitant because she said, If I record things then you won’t need me. And I thought that was quite an interesting statement.
Host: Ray did manage to make a few short audio recordings with her. But in 1973, the woman died. Ray realized that the language and stories of this woman – and people like her – might not be around forever.
Ray Hudson: And by that time I had been in the Aleutians for about nine years and so I’d seen a number of elders come and go. And so I guess it dawned on me that it might be a good idea to record people. And so that’s probably how I started doing it.
Host: Ray also saw an opportunity for his students. By this point, he was teaching older kids – not just first and second graders. He brought Unangax̂ elders into his classroom … to interview them, to record them, and to get his students more engaged with their community.
Because this all happened almost 50 years ago … there are some details that have been lost to time. Like, where did Ray even get a tape recorder? He thinks he started with a small cassette recorder and then upgraded to a reel-to-reel machine that he borrowed from someone in town. Also … where did the name “Cuttlefish Project” come from? Ray doesn’t remember exactly. But he’s positive about one thing: it wasn’t his idea.
Ray Hudson: The students named it. It sort of came down to either “Fireweed” or “Cuttlefish”. And I’m not even sure we have cuttlefish in the Aleutians. But it’s better than “Fireweed”. (laughs)
Host: Starting in 1977 … Ray brought in a series of speakers for the Cuttlefish Project. This class project – and the tape recordings that survive today – are a unique window into Unangax̂ culture and the language Unangam Tunuu.
Host: Leslie McCartney – a professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks – says one tape is a vocabulary lesson.
Leslie McCartney: They originally start off with English words, like what’s the word in Unangam Tunuu for “bread”? “Water”? And they’re very Western-oriented foodstuffs. And then they go into the traditional foods, which I thought was really interesting.
[Archival audio excerpt from tapes]
Host: Leslie would eventually lead the charge to preserve these tapes … which we’ll get to in a little bit. In one of her favorite recordings, you hear two men talking to Ray’s students in a mixture of languages. There’s a younger man, who speaks English. And his uncle, who apparently does not.
Leslie McCartney: You introduce him in the class and he speaks in Unangam Tunuu and then someone is translating. And it’s a wonderful recording, in that he speaks in Unangam Tunuu, it’s translated back, and then you ask him questions. He answers but then the children start to ask questions. They ask the questions in English, they’re translated into Unangam Tunuu // But he would only answer back mainly in his language, which I think is a really wonderful treasure of a recording.
Host: Beyond the Unangam Tunuu language … the Cuttlefish tapes document unique details of life in the Aleutians and some important historical information.
During World War II, Japan attacked Alaska and took dozens of Unangax̂ people as prisoners. In response, the US government relocated more than 800 people from the Aleutians and other islands to mainland Alaska. This was devastating. Almost a hundred people died in the relocation camps. And when survivors returned home, many of them found that American forces had burned their homes so the Japanese couldn’t use them.
In 1988, the federal government passed a law giving reparations to survivors. It also established a trust fund for Unangax̂ communities. Several years before the bill passed, Ray recorded testimony from survivors, which he thinks fills in an important part of the historical record.
And there’s other important cultural information, too. Leslie points to a recording of two women talking.
Leslie McCartney: So the older woman is definitely speaking Unangam Tunuu, and the younger woman is translating. And they’re talking about how they used to use sea lion stomachs for bags and how many dried salmon they could fit into these stomachs of these sea lions. And the younger woman obviously speaks Unangam Tunuu very fluently, but the older woman keeps correcting her on pronunciation. And so she’s trying very hard to pronounce it as she’s being corrected.
Host: Ray’s project filled dozens of reel-to-reel tapes … some of them hours long. Taken together, the Cuttlefish recordings add up to an impressive archive with cultural and linguistic significance.
Ray says, at the time … he didn’t have lofty goals.
Ray Hudson: Well, in the moment it was one class I taught out of many during the day, and so I was probably doing other things. // So no, there was no attempt to make a coherent archive.
Host: Besides his day job teaching … Ray has written several books and many journal articles about life in the Aleutians. He and his students also published some material from the Cuttlefish Project. But he says there’s something special about hearing the voices in these tapes.
Ray Hudson: There’s a kind of immediate accuracy in listening to a recording that you don’t get from a transcript because of the intonations, just the whole pattern of the voice. And so I think people in the future that listen to a recording are going to get a sense of how important certain things were to people in a previous time.
Host: The final recording from the Cuttlefish Project dates to 1982. Ray kept working in Unalaska schools for years after that. Then in the early 1990s he retired and moved away. And he didn’t give much thought to what would happen to all those tapes.
Ray Hudson: So I just put them in a cabinet. // And you never know what will happen because, you know, one librarian goes, a new one comes along and sees these old boxes of stuff and tosses them out. But fortunately they sent them up to the university and that was fantastic.
Host: How exactly the Cuttlefish tapes changed hands is a mystery. This is the point where Leslie McCartney comes into the picture. Leslie is the curator of the oral history program at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. She’s been there since 2012. Her collection includes material from all over Alaska. There’s a vault that’s temperature- and humidity-controlled. And all she knows is that the Cuttlefish tapes ended up in that vault before her time.
Host: They had a tag indicating that they were “accessioned” – that is, formally accepted into the collection – in 1997.
Leslie McCartney: They could have arrived three years before that, five years before that. They could have arrived in 1997. There’s no paperwork to say. So obviously they–somebody, I would say, was cleaning out the cupboard that Ray used to have and called the university or just shipped them up. // And they were taken in.
Host: For years and years … the only way to hear the Cuttlefish tapes would be to go to Fairbanks … make your way to the library… find the right room in the basement … and hope that an employee could set you up with the reel-to-reel machine.
And that was assuming you even knew they existed.
Leslie McCartney: So, did they get used? I would say probably they’ve never been off the shelf.
Host: But a few years ago … the fate of those tapes began to change. Leslie had an opportunity for grant funding from the National Recording Preservation Foundation. One of Leslie’s colleagues tipped her off about the Cuttlefish tapes. As Leslie learned what was in the tapes … she also saw that time had been kind to them.
Leslie McCartney: To the seeing eye, there was no mold on the tapes. They looked like they were in great shape. As you know, you don’t really know until you start playing magnetic media, if it’s dry shed syndrome or other problems with the tape, but they looked physically good. // And really, because of the importance of them–not to say others aren’t important, they’re all important in our collection–I really wanted them professionally done.
Host: In 2020, the National Recording Preservation Foundation awarded a grant to digitize the Cuttlefish recordings. Leslie worked with a company called Mass Productions, which handled the technical work. The university also uploaded the files to their library catalog and made them free to access.
The Cuttlefish Project went from a stack of tapes in a basement that probably nobody had ever heard … to an online database that anyone around the world can find.
Leslie McCartney: We run pretty well on almost a very low budget, if any budget. We have a very small staff and we’re not sound engineers. We’re not experts in preservation sound recording. We do what we can. But when I see really precious recordings like this, I want them done professionally because they are so important linguistically and cultural heritage-wise. We want the best we can possibly do.
Host: There was one other factor that made the Cuttlefish tapes a success. It wasn’t just the moments they captured … or the fact that the tapes weren’t moldy. It was also because of Ray. As Leslie dug into the tapes … she reached out to Ray. Decades after the fact, he remembered crucial details about the people whose voices he had recorded. Details that Leslie couldn’t have discovered any other way.
Leslie McCartney: When you go to write a preservation grant for any particular audio, one of the questions is like, why is this important? What’s the big deal? Why is this important as opposed to something else? // Ray’s the context expert and who was also able to give me short biographies of many of the people who occur on the recordings. And I was able to use a lot of that information in the narrative for the grant application too, which proves why these recordings are important.
Host: According to linguists Leslie consulted … today there are probably fewer than 200 fluent speakers of Unangam Tunuu. Some estimates are even lower – around a hundred. Maybe less. On St. Paul island – the home of George Pletnikoff Junior – there is only one surviving fluent speaker. It’s George’s uncle. He’s in his mid-80s.
George tries to strike up conversations in Unangam Tunuu. But as a non-native speaker, George talks differently than fluent speakers. And that makes it tough.
George Pletnikoff Jr: A big focus we do have in this revitalization effort is to speak in the full way, like not abbreviating things. You know, we have the “cannot” to the “can’t” thing happening in language. And we want to say “cannot” in Unangam Tunuu. And that’s not always receivable to people like my uncle. // So I try to say something else. It’s either unclear or I’m saying it in a way he’s not familiar with.
Host: Hundreds of years ago – before contact with the western world – Unangam Tunuu had tens of thousands of native speakers. There were even nine different dialects. As Russians took control of Alaska, they inflicted violence on indigenous people. Unangam Tunuu – and every aspect of Unangax̂ culture – began to change.
When the United States bought Alaska, English became dominant. Children learned English in school–not Unangam Tunuu. And – as was the case for indigenous Americans across the US – some Unangax̂ kids were sent to boarding schools and forced to assimilate. Today, of those nine dialects, only two remain.
So George sees any recording of fluent Unangam Tunuu as a prized possession.
George Pletnikoff Jr: It’s a way to maintain that purity of how the language is developed and how it’s spoken. Because we have our American accents now and we’re losing our sense of being able to pronounce things in a way that’s clear and how our ancestors developed this language. // Each speaker from a generation and from a village had their own way of speaking that we can kind of weave together, and, you know, we have a dictionary from a lot of these things.
Host: George says that it can feel like the Unangax̂ people are scattered. There are people who have moved to the mainland. Others who went to the lower 48 states. But he sees revitalizing language as a tool that can bring Unangax̂ people together–no matter where they are.
George Pletnikoff Jr: What I see is just a unification. It’s something that I really hope for. And for our language, it’s something that we all do identify with. We heard those things from my parents, from my grandparents. Those are–they do bring us together, just to be able to hear these sounds.
Host: That’s a big project … bigger than just George. And it’s ongoing. Other Unangax̂ people are also working to revitalize the language and other cultural traditions. In the meantime, George is starting small. He uses Unangam Tunuu in his own house, with his kids.
George Pletnikoff Jr: My daughter’s going on three, and a two-month-old now. Even though she’s–we speak English mostly, but she gets more Unangam Tunuu than I did growing up. To be able to give that focus is to be able to foster a sense of at least a foundation of language within this next generation of kids that it’s almost second nature.
Host: And when George’s kids are old enough … they will have the Cuttlefish Project as a resource. Every person and every individual experience contributes to the mosaic of Unangax̂ culture. Leslie–the professor who preserved the recordings–takes the long view: She hopes that the work she does today pays off decades from now.
And Cuttlefish tapes are not the only place to hear fluent Unangam Tunuu …
Leslie McCartney: The more context that I can have around a collection–why it was recorded, who recorded it, what was the context of the recordings–it brings life to just having a bunch of recordings, right? You know, in long–when I’m gone and Ray’s gone, they can come back and look at these biographies that Ray has created, short biographies of these people to understand who they were.
Host: Even though Ray ended up with a treasure trove of recordings … he insists that he didn’t know how valuable they were at the time. Now, he wants more people to carry on this work. Every person and every individual experience contributes to the mosaic of Unangax̂ culture. There are still plenty of stories that haven’t been recorded–and cultural knowledge in danger of being forgotten.
Ray Hudson: People think of elders as being only–I don’t know how to say this–ancient, from a different culture kind of thing. But there are remarkable individuals who are now in their 60s and 70s who are the age of the people that we recorded in the Cuttlefish Project who have been very important to the history of their people. // And to record these people would be invaluable and give people in the future great insights into what was happening at the time it happened.
Host: So, how can you tell what’s valuable? And how do you know what will be useful to people in the future. Archivists call this process “appraisal”. Ray says that in the moment, it may not be clear. But the Cuttlefish recordings show what can happen when you ask questions … listen … and find a way to preserve what you hear.
Leslie McCartney: And I often think the work we do today–just like you, Ray, you didn’t realize the importance of the work you were doing. Sometimes we don’t see the value. I mean, we see the value of what we’re doing, but we don’t see that really important thing. And I like to think that in a hundred years, someone will say, boy, I’m so glad that that person made this collection or recorded these people.
[Credits]
Host: The Sound Files podcast is presented by the National Recording Preservation Foundation, an independent nonprofit established by the Library of Congress, and generous support from the University of Michigan School of Information. Learn more, or make a donation, at recordingpreservation dot org
The senior producer and editor is Teresa Carey, with writer Jacob Pinter, and sound engineer Steve Lack. With original music by Evan Haywood.
Host: I'm Jesse Johnston, creator of sound files and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information.
Remember: every sound tells a story — so let’s keep preserving them.