The Inland Dena’ina, an Athabaskan people of south-central Alaska, produce and value Culturally Modified Trees (CMTs) in myriad ways. Ethnographic interviews and field visits conducted with Inland Dena’ina residents of the village of Nondalton, Alaska, reveal the centrality of CMTs in the creation and valuation of an Indigenous cultural landscape. CMTs serve as waypoints along trails, as Dena’ina people travel across vast distances to hunt wide-ranging caribou herds and fish salmon ascending rivers from Bristol Bay. CMTs also provide bark and sap used in Dena’ina material culture and medicines, leaving signature marks upon the spruce, birch, and other trees found in the sprawling taiga forest of the region. Dena’ina travelers value these markers as gifts from their elders and ancestors, helping modern-day people to orient themselves geographically, culturally, and spiritually. Today, with industrial-scale resource extraction proposed for Dena’ina traditional lands, including extensive open-pit mines, there is new urgency in demonstrating the geographical presence and extent of potentially affected Dena’ina people. CMTs have been overlooked in existing literatures in spite of their ubiquity and their cultural importance. Our research draws from the first-hand accounts of Dena’ina elders and survey across the landscapes of the Lake Clark core of the Dena’ina homeland.

中文翻译：

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“他们行进时的标记”：阿拉斯加德纳纳文化景观中作为航点的改良树木

内陆 Dena'ina 是阿拉斯加中南部的阿萨巴斯坎人，他们以多种方式生产和评估文化改良树 (CMT)。对阿拉斯加 Nondalton 村的内陆 Dena'ina 居民进行的民族志访谈和实地考察揭示了 CMT 在创造和评估土著文化景观方面的中心地位。CMT 充当小径沿线的中转站，因为德纳伊纳 (Dena'ina) 人穿越很远的距离，以从布里斯托尔湾 (Bristol Bay) 上游的河流中捕猎范围广泛的驯鹿群和鲑鱼。CMT 还提供用于 Dena'ina 物质文化和药物的树皮和树液，在该地区广阔的针叶林中发现的云杉、桦树和其他树木上留下签名。Dena'ina 旅行者将这些标记视为来自他们的长辈和祖先的礼物，帮助现代人在地理上定位自己，文化上，精神上。今天，随着德纳纳传统土地（包括广泛的露天矿）的工业规模资源开采提议，展示潜在受影响的德纳纳人的地理存在和范围成为了新的紧迫性。尽管 CMT 无处不在且具有文化重要性，但在现有文献中却忽略了它们。我们的研究借鉴了德纳纳长老的第一手资料，并对德纳纳家园克拉克湖核心的景观进行了调查。尽管 CMT 无处不在且具有文化重要性，但在现有文献中却忽略了它们。我们的研究借鉴了德纳纳长老的第一手资料，并对德纳纳家园克拉克湖核心的景观进行了调查。尽管 CMT 无处不在且具有文化重要性，但在现有文献中却忽略了它们。我们的研究借鉴了德纳纳长老的第一手资料，并对德纳纳家园克拉克湖核心的景观进行了调查。