Peter Kalifornsky

Peter Kalifornsky a self-taught writer and scholar of Kenai, Alaska, who wrote and compiled traditional stories, poems and language lessons in the Dena'ina Athabascan language of Lower Cook Inlet for nearly 20 years.

The largest of his works, A Dena'ina Legacy, K'tl'egh'i Sukdu: The Collected Writings of Peter Kalifornsky, contains 147 bilingual Dena'ina-English writings.

A Dena'ina Athabascan elder who, in order to write the book, first had to study and help create the written version of the Dena'ina language, and then went about writing down all the stories of his cultural language of Dena'ina.

Peter wrote the stories in Dena'ina first, and then translated the stories into English. The Dena'ina translation appears on the left pages and the English translation on the right pages. It covers the full spectrum of cosmology of the Dena'ina culture.

A great resource for anyone interested in understanding about one of the most successful subsistence cultures ever on Earth.

See also: Tanaina, Athabascan