Tlingit

This article is about the Alaskan Native group. For the Siberian people, see Telengit.

For other uses, see Tlingit (disambiguation).

Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America

Tlingit

Chief Anotklosh of the Taku Tribe, wearing a Chilkat blanket, Juneau, Alaska, c. 1913
Regions with significant populations
United States (Alaska)| 14,000[1]
Canada (British Columbia, Yukon)| 2,110[2][1]
Languages
English, Tlingit, Russian (historically)
Religion
Christianity, esp. Russian Orthodox, traditional Alaska Native religion
Lingít
"People of the Tides"

People| Tlingit
Language| Lingít
Country| Tlingit Aaní

The Tlingit or Lingít (English: /ˈtlɪŋkɪt, ˈklɪŋkɪt/ ⓘ TLING-kit, KLING-kit) are Alaska Native Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and are one of two-hundred twenty-nine (229) federally recognized Tribes of Alaska.[3] Their language is the Tlingit language (natively Lingít, pronounced [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ]),[4] in which the name means 'People of the Tides'.[5] The Russian name Koloshi (Колоши, from a Sugpiaq-Alutiiq term kulut'ruaq for the labret worn by women) or the related German name Koulischen may be encountered referring to the people in older historical literature, such as Grigory Shelikhov's 1796 map of Russian America.[6] Tlingit people today belong to two federally recognized Alaska Native tribes: the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska[7] and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe.[8]

The Tlingit have a matrilineal kinship system, with children born into the mother's clan, and property and hereditary roles passing through the mother's line.[9] Their culture and society developed in the temperate rainforest of the southeast Alaskan coast and the Alexander Archipelago. The Tlingit have maintained a complex hunter-gatherer culture based on semi-sedentary management of fisheries.[10] Hereditary servitude was practiced extensively until it was outlawed by the United States Government.[11] An inland group, known as the Inland Tlingit, inhabits the far northwestern part of the province of British Columbia and the southern Yukon in Canada.

## Territory[edit]

## Housing[edit]

Tlingit tribes historically built plank houses made from cedar and today call them clanhouses; these houses were built with a foundation such that they could store their belongings under the floors. It is said that these plank houses had no adhesive, nails, or any other sort of fastening devices. Clan houses were usually square or rectangular in shape and had front facing designs and totem poles to represent to which clan and moiety the makers belonged.

## Economy[edit]

Many Tlingit men work in the fishing industry while women are employed at canneries or in the local handicraft industry. These handicrafts include items like wood carvings and woven baskets which are sold for practical or tourist consumption.[12]

## History[edit]

Main article: History of the Tlingit

Various cultures of indigenous people have continuously occupied the Alaska territory for thousands of years, leading to the Tlingit. Human culture with elements related to the Tlingit originated around 10,000 years ago near the mouths of the Skeena and Nass Rivers. The historic Tlingit's first contact with Europeans came in 1741 with Russian explorers. Spanish explorers followed in 1775. Tlingits maintained their independence but suffered from epidemics of smallpox and other infectious diseases brought by the Europeans.[13] The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic killed about 60% of the Mainland Tlingit and 37% of the Island Tlingit.[citation needed]

## Food[edit]

Tommy Joseph, Tlingit woodcarver and sculptor from Sitka, Alaska[14]

Main article: Food of the Tlingit

Food is a central part of Tlingit culture, and the land is an abundant provider. Most of the richness of intertidal life found on the beaches of Southeast Alaska can be harvested for food. Though eating off the beach could provide a fairly healthy and varied diet, eating nothing but "beach food" is considered contemptible among the Tlingit and a sign of poverty. Indeed, shamans and their families were required to abstain from all food gathered from the beach, and men might avoid eating beach food before battles or strenuous activities in the belief that it would weaken them spiritually and perhaps physically as well. Thus for both spiritual reasons as well as to add some variety to the diet, the Tlingit harvest many other resources for food besides those they easily find outside their front doors. No other food resource receives as much emphasis as salmon; however, seal and game are both close seconds.

Halibut, shellfish, and seaweed traditionally provided food in the spring, while late spring and summer bring seal and salmon. Summer is a time for gathering wild and tame berries, such as salmonberry, soap berry, and currants.[15] In fall, sea otters are hunted.[9] Herring and eulachon are also important staples, that can be eaten fresh or dried and stored for later use. Fish provide meat, oil, and eggs.[15] Sea mammals, such as sea lions and sea otters, are used for food and clothing materials. In the forests near their homes, Tlingit hunted deer, bear, mountain goats and other small mammals.

## Genetics[edit]

Genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 gene frequencies links the Ainu people of Japan to some Indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially to populations on the Pacific Northwest Coast such as Tlingit. The scientists suggest that the main ancestor of the Ainu and of the Tlingit can be traced back to Paleolithic groups in Southern Siberia.[16]

## Notable Tlingit people[edit]

* Todd Gloria (b. 1978), politician
* Nora Marks Dauenhauer (1927–2017), poet, author, and scholar
* Ernestine Hayes (b. 1945), poet, memorist, and professor
* Ursala Hudson, Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver
* Nathan Jackson (artist) (born 1938), woodcarver
* Esther Littlefield (1906–1997), artist, cultural interpreter
* Byron Mallott (1943–2020), Lieutenant Governor of Alaska (2014–2018)
* Da-ka-xeen Mehner, photographer and installation artist
* Larry McNeil (b. 1955), photographer
* Tillie Paul (1863–1952), civil rights advocate and educator
* William Paul (1885–1977), attorney
* Elizabeth Peratrovich (1911–1958), civil rights advocate
* Clarissa Rizal (1956–2016), Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver
* Dino Rossi (b. 1959), politician
* Martin Sensmeier (b. 1985), actor
* Louis Shotridge (1883–1937), a Tlingit anthropologist and curator
* Preston Singletary (b. 1963), glass artist
* Walter Soboleff (1908–2011), scholar, elder, and religious leader
* Jennie Thlunaut (c. 1891–1986), Chilkat weaver
* X'unéi (unknown), a powerful Yakutat chief that went to war against Yeilxaak
* Yeilxaak (unknown–1791), the first chief of Klukwan to be encountered by Europeans
* Vera Starbard, playwright and author
* X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell, scholar and author

## See also[edit]

* Chilkat weaving
* Ravenstail weaving
* Battle of Sitka (Tlingit Rebellion, 1802)
* Battle of Port Gamble
* History of the Tlingit
* List of edible plants and mushrooms of southeast Alaska
* Maritime fur trade
* Tlingit clans
* Alaska Native storytelling

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ a b As of the 1990s. Pritzker, 209
2. ^ "Aboriginal Population Profile, 2016 Census". Statistics Canada. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
3. ^ Pritzker, 162
4. ^ "Lingít Yoo X'atángi: The Tlingit Language." Sealaska Heritage Institute. (retrieved 3 December 2009)
5. ^ Pritzker, 208
6. ^ Shelikhov, Gregorii Ivanovich and Richard A. Pierce. A Voyage to America 1783–1786. Kingston: Limestone Press, 1981.
7. ^ "Tlingit & Haida". Bureau of Indian Affairs. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
8. ^ "Yakutat". Retrieved 1 September 2023.
9. ^ a b Pritzker, 210
10. ^ Moss, 27
11. ^ "NEWS_Blog_Slavery_QA | Sealaska Heritage". www.sealaskaheritage.org. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
12. ^ Winston, Robert, ed. (2004). Human: The Definitive Visual Guide. New York: Dorling Kindersley. p. 354\. ISBN 0-7566-0520-2.
13. ^ Pritzker, 209
14. ^ "Tommy Joseph." Alaska Native Artists. (retrieved 27 December 2009
15. ^ a b "Sealaska – Programs – Language – Culture – Curriculum – Tlingit." Archived 28 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine Sealaska Heritage Institute. (retrieved 3 December 2009)
16. ^ "Genetic link between Asians and Native Americans: Evidence from HLA genes and haplotypes". ResearchGate. Retrieved 17 September 2019.

## References[edit]

* de Laguna, Fredericæ. "Tlingit." Suttles, Wayne, ed. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7: Northwest Coast. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990: 203–28. ISBN 0-87474-187-4.
* Boyd, Robert Thomas. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774–1874. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-295-97837-6.
* Moss, Madonna. Northwest Coast: Archaeology as Deep History. Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology, 2011.
* Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000: 286–7. ISBN 978-0-19-513877-1.
* Kan, Sergei. "Shamanism and Christianity: Modern-Day Tlingit Elders Look at the Past." Klass, Morton and Maxine Wiesgrau, eds. Across the Boundaries of Belief: Contemporary Issues in the Anthropology of Religion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-8133-2695-5.

## Further reading[edit]

* Emmons, George Thornton (1991). The Tlingit Indians. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-97008-0. (Contributors Frederica De Laguna and Jean Low)
* Grinev, Andrei Val'terovich (2005). The Tlingit Indians in Russian America, 1741–1867. Translated by Bland, Richard L.; Solovjova, Katerina G. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-0538-4.
* Olson, Wallace M. (2001). The Tlingit. An Introduction to Their Culture and History (Fourth ed.). Auke Bay, Alaska: Heritage Research. p. 110\. ISBN 0-9659009-0-8.
* Shearar, Cheryl (2000). Understanding Northwest Coast Art. A Guide to Crests, Beings and Symbols. Madeira Park, British Columbia: Douglash & MicIntyre, University of Washington Press. p. 144\. ISBN 978-1-55054-782-5.
* Stewart, Hilary (1979). Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast Art. Madeira Park, British Columbia: Douglash & MicIntyre, University of Washington Press. pp. 112. ISBN 978-0-295-95645-9.
* Alaskan Tlingit and Tsimshian Essay by Jay Miller \- From the University of Washington Library
* Duly, Colin. The Houses of Mankind. p. 55,58.

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tlingit.

* Map and list of Tlingit Kwaans and territories
* Tlingit Language and Culture Resources, Alaska Native Knowledge Network
* Anash Interactive—An online destination where users create comics, write stories, watch webisodes, download podcasts, play games, read stories and comics by other members, and find out about the Tlingit people of Canada.
* Tlingit Myths and Texts, John R. Swanton, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 39, 1909
* Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
* The Carving of the Raven Spirit Canoe, housed in the Smithsonian Institution Archived 17 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine Smithsonian Ocean Portal
* The Tlingit Culture and Language with Resources

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