One of printmaker Gidinatiy Hartman’s artworks depicts a dragonfly against a floral shield, above the word siq’angine.

The word means dragonfly in Deg Xinag, the language of Hartman’s native Alaskan Deg Xitʼan culture. But the literal translation is “protect me,” Hartman explained, because dragonflies eat mosquitoes — hence the shield imagery.

A print by Alaska-born St. Paul artist Gidinatiy Hartman depicts a dragonfly on a shield, a visual representation of the indigenous Deg Xinag language’s word for dragonfly, siq’angine. The word literally translates to “protect me,” Hartman explained, because dragonflies eat mosquitoes. (Photo courtesy Gidinatiy Hartman)

“My prints are mostly about language revitalization,” said Hartman, who grew up in Alaska and now lives in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood. “I try to incorporate (those meanings) into the print so people can learn more about the language.”

Measuring the health of any endangered language is notoriously difficult, but the status of Deg Xinag, like many Alaskan languages, seems particularly dire: Only about 40 total people can speak the language, according to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, home to most Deg Xinag revitalization and research efforts. A 2024 Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council report sounded an even louder alarm, estimating the number of proficient or native Deg Xinag speakers at just two people.

And though Hartman is working to learn the language, including through their own printmaking process, they are not fluent yet and did not grow up speaking it at all. As part of federal assimilation efforts, Hartman said, their maternal grandparents were sent to boarding schools where Indigenous children were generally prohibited from speaking their native languages or engaging in traditional cultural practices.

(Hartman, who uses they/them pronouns, is Deg Xitʼan on their mother’s side and white on their father’s side.)

Now, several members of Hartman’s family are on the forefront of efforts to rebuild the strength of the language. Their aunt, LaVerne Xilegg Demientieff, learned Deg Xinag as an adult and has been active in teaching the language and mentoring language-learners through the Doyon Foundation, a cultural arm of Doyon, Ltd., one of 12 native corporations which, in Alaska, occupy similar roles to those of tribal governments in the lower 48 states. Several cousins are also enrolled in Deg Xinag language-learning programs, Hartman said.

Hartman’s art has aimed to directly support these efforts, too.

From 2023 to 2024, Hartman was one of three Jerome Foundation early-career resident artists at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis, where their work continued to focus on visual representations of Deg Xinag words and phrases. In addition to selling prints at markets in the Twin Cities, Hartman also does commissions like coloring pages and illustrations of Deg Xitʼan cultural practices for Native organizations in Alaska.

A 2024 linocut print by St. Paul artist Gidinatiy Hartman is titled “sits’in tux dhitl’donh,” a phrase in the native Alaskan Deg Xinag language meaning “I keep you under my wing.” Hartman, born and raised in Alaska, makes prints devoted to revitalizing and helping people learn the endangered Deg Xinag language. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

Some language prints are fairly straightforward: A bee is shown over the word ginodzets, which means bee. In another, a Native woman flexes a bicep over the word istl’itth, which means “I am strong.”

And others are more whimsical in their interpretations: In one intaglio print, a woman sneezes, and the other people and objects in the room are thrown off balance. The print is titled “Yix xidina’ yi’idituq,” the phrase said in response to a sneeze, which literally translates to “the house spirits jump up.”

In 2021, before Hartman graduated from art school at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and moved to St. Paul, their undergraduate thesis took the form of a gallery show of prints about Deg Xinag language revitalization. Other Deg Xinag language-learners in the community, including Demientieff, helped Hartman identify and translate important terms, they said, and seeing the show on display was an important moment.

“My family and my cousins really enjoyed seeing the show up,” Hartman said. “They thought it was very meaningful — and I’ve given them lots of art!”

Hartman’s art website is anywhichwayart.com. They are on Instagram at @anywhichwayart.

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