Belle Young Gochenauer Deacon (September 23, 1904 – 1995) was an American basketmaker and language and folklore expert. As an

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a numbe ...

elder, she held and shared knowledge of the language and traditions of the Athabascan people. She received the National Heritage Fellowship in 1992.

Early life

Young was born in an Athabascan community in

Anvik, Alaska Anvik ( Deg Xinag: ) is a city, home to the Deg Hit'an people, in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. The name Anvik, meaning "exit" in the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, became the common usage despite multiple names at the ...

, the daughter of John Young and Ellen Young. Her grandmother Marcia was a basketmaker, and Deacon learned the art in childhood.

Career

Deacon gathered, prepared and dyed a range of natural materials for weaving, and sold baskets and furs while she was a widow with young children. Her baskets were included in a Contemporary Native American Arts show that toured in Alaska in 1971. In 1984, she was an artist at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. In 1992, she received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She told folktales in

Deg Xinag Deg Xinag (Deg Hitan) is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Deg Hitʼan peoples of the GASH region. The GASH region consists of the villages of Grayling, Anvik, Shageluk, and Holy Cross along the lower Yukon River The Yukon River ( ...

to the

Alaska Native Language Center The Alaska Native Language Center, established in 1972 in Fairbanks, Alaska, is a research center focusing on the research and documentation of the Native languages of Alaska. It publishes grammars, dictionaries, folklore collections and research m ...

at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and nine of those tales was published, with translations and illustrations, as ''Engithidong Xugixudhoy: Their stories of long ago'' (1987). Her stories are valued not only for their narrative content, but as examples of Athabascan pedagogy and rhetoric.

Personal life

Belle married twice. Her first husband was Henry Oliver Gochenauer, a white trader from Pennsylvania. They had three children together; he died before 1940. Her second husband was fur trapper John Deacon. They had at least four more children together in the 1940s, and lived in

Grayling, Alaska Grayling ( in Holikachuk language) is a city in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 194, unchanged from 2000. Since 1977, the Athabaskan village has seen a surge of interest on odd-numbered ye ...

. One of her daughters, Daisy Demientieff, became a noted basketmaker after her example.Kaplan, Diane
"Remembering Daisy Demientieff: A treasure of cultural knowledge"
''Rasmuson Foundation'' (June 21, 2018). John Deacon died in 1984, and Belle Deacon died in 1995.

References

External links

with transcript and annotation, from a DVD produced by the University of Washington
A photograph of two baskets made by Belle Deacon
from the Alaska Contemporary Art Bank
A photograph of a basket or bowl made by Belle Deacon
from the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution {{DEFAULTSORT:Deacon, Belle 1904 births 1995 deaths Athabaskan peoples Basket weavers National Heritage Fellowship winners