Troth Yeddha' Run for the Park is Saturday
September 8, 2015
The 4th Annual Troth Yeddha’ Run for the Park will start at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12,
2015, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
People from all walks of life will go the distance to help raise awareness for Troth
Yeddha’ Park, which celebrates Alaska Native culture and the University of Alaska
Fairbanks’ Troth Yeddha’ Legacy. The run will begin at the park, the green space between
the University of Alaska Museum of the North and the Reichardt Building.
The vice chancellor for rural, community and Native education and the UAF College
of Rural and Community Development sponsor the 5-kilometer event.
Registration is a $20 donation to the park initiative, but it's free to students with
a UA ID. Runners may register by mail, at Beaver Sports or at the vice chancellor's
office on the Brooks Building's fourth floor. This is a Running Club North event (www.runningclubnorth.org/calendar).
Centuries before it became home to an institution of higher learning, the ridge on
which the Fairbanks campus sits was a known as Troth Yeddha' by the Lower Tanana Athabascans.
The name means “Wild Potato Ridge.”
Troth Yeddha’ Park commemorates the Alaskan Natives who came to the hill to share
traditional knowledge and harvest wild potatoes in the area. The late Chief Peter
John of Minto suggested in a 1994 speech that the university carries on a similar
traditional use of the hill, making it a place for thinking and working together.
CONTACT: Pete Pinney, race director, 474-7089 or pppinney@alaska.edu