Two of the 231 (as of 2022) officially recognized Tribes of Alaska are the Tlingit or Lingít (TLING-kit, KLING-kit), Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. While some Tlingit are First Nations in Canada, the majority are Alaska Natives.
The Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes, the Angoon Community Association, the Craig Tribal Association, the Hoonah Indian Association, the Ketchikan Indian Corporation, the Klawock Cooperative Association, the Organized Village of Kasaan, the Organized Village of Kake, the Organized Village of Saxman, the Petersburg Indian Association, Skagway Village, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, and the Wrangell Cooperative Association are among the Tlingit people, who speak the Tlingit language (Łingít, pronounced [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ]). Some members of the Sitka Tribe in Alaska and the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in the Yukon are of Tlingit ancestry. The Taku Tlingit are members of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Canada and the Douglas Indian Association in Alaska.
With children born into the mother's clan and property and hereditary functions flowing down the mother's line, the Tlingit follow a matrilineal kinship structure. The temperate rainforests of the Alexander Archipelago and the southeast Alaskan coast are where their culture and lifestyle evolved. The semi-sedentary management of fisheries has allowed the Tlingit to preserve a sophisticated hunter-gatherer civilization. Prior to being prohibited by the US government, hereditary slavery was widely practiced. The southern Yukon and the far northwest region of British Columbia are home to the Inland Tlingit.
"People of the Tides" is the meaning of their autonym, Łingít. The Russian name Koloshi 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.
The Tlingit formerly inhabited the largest area, which stretched from the Portland Canal along the current Alaska-British Columbia boundary north to the coast of Alaska, just southeast of the Copper River delta. With the exception of the southernmost tip of Prince of Wales Island and its environs, where the Kaigani Haida settled just before the first contacts with European explorers, the Tlingit inhabited almost the whole Alexander Archipelago.
One of the mountain passes leading into the interior of the Yukon was under the control of the Coastal Tlingit tribes, who were split into three groups: the Taku Tlingit (Tʼaaḵu Ḵwáan:), the Chilkat Tlingit (Jilḵáat Ḵwáan) along the Taku River, and the Chilkat Tlingit (Jilḵoot Ḵwáan) along the Chilkat Peninsula.
The Tlingit lived inland along the Alsek, Tatshenshini, Chilkat, Taku, and Stikine rivers, which are the main rivers that drain into the Pacific after piercing the Coast and Saint Elias Mountains. The Tlingit often intermarried with the Athabascan tribes of the interior and established vast trading networks with them as a result of their frequent trips up these rivers. A few sizable Tlingit communities gathered around Atlin, Teslin, and Tagish Lakes—whose headwaters originate from regions close to the Taku River's sources—as a result of their frequent travel and commerce.
Because the Tlingit dwell in both Canada and the United States, have no official reservations, have a highly migratory population, and other intricate legal and political issues, it is difficult to define their present area. The Tahltan, Kaska, and Tagish are among the Athabascan peoples who share their area. The Interior Tlingit communities in Canada have reserves, including the Taku River Tlingit in Atlin, British Columbia; the Teslin Tlingit Council in Teslin, Yukon; and the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Carcross, Yukon.
Because the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) created regional businesses with intricate property ownership portfolios throughout the state, rather than circumscribed reservations run by Tribal Governments, Tlingits in Alaska do not have Indian reservations. Serving the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples in Alaska, Sealaska company is the company in the Tlingit area.
Tlingit people mostly reside in privately owned homes and land and are involved in Alaska's economic economy. Many also have land allotments from previous distributions that predate ANCSA or from Sealaska. Their present homes are located in their ancestral homelands. Lingít Aaní, the Land of the Tlingit, is the area around Yakutat and stretches south through the Alaskan Panhandle to the lakes in the interior of the Yukon.
These classifications show variations in languages, food gathering methods, and civilizations. Tlingit tribes engage in commerce with nearby populations. Similar Tlingit self-identification supports these scholarly groupings.
The Tlingit people, who live along the Northwest Pacific Coast and have easy access to many resources, are known for their complex and diversified culture. Family, kinship, and a strong oratory history are highly valued in Tlingit society. In addition to wealth and economic influence, other significant markers of status include decency and excellent manners, which are all indications of "good breeding" and connections to the nobility. Almost every aspect of Tlingit culture incorporates art and spirituality; even commonplace items like spoons and storage boxes are adorned and given mystical meanings derived from the Tlingits' ancient beliefs.
The Raven and the Eagle are the two moieties that make up Tlingit civilization. These are then separated into a large number of clans, each of which is further broken into house groups or lineages. The mother's line is the source of descent and inheritance in their matrilineal kinship structure. Totem poles, boats, feast dishes, house posts, weavings, jewelry, and other artistic creations all bear the heraldic crests of these clans. The blankets or ows that the Tlingits passed down symbolized trust. One may only be inherited by a Tlingit, although they can also give it to a trusted person who takes care of it but does not legally possess it. The Tlingit did engage in hereditary slavery, as did other indigenous groups of the Northwest Coast.
Despite never having been fully codified, Tlingit philosophy and religion was traditionally a reasonably well-organized philosophical and religious system whose fundamental ideas influenced how Tlingit people saw and engaged with their environment. Traditionally, Tlingits practiced animism, and before hunting, hunters would purify themselves. Shamans, mostly males, helped with hunting, affected the weather, treated illnesses, foretold the future, and defended people against witches. The idea that both people and animals reincarnate is a fundamental component of the Tlingit belief system.
Many Tlingit people converted to Orthodox Christianity between 1886 and 1895 after discovering that their shamans were unable to cure illnesses from the Old World, such as smallpox. The liturgy was translated into Tlingit by Russian Orthodox missionaries. They saw Eastern Orthodox Christianity as a means of avoiding assimilating into the "American way of life," which was linked to Presbyterianism, according to certain arguments. The Tlingit belief system started to decline once Christianity was introduced.
Some young Tlingits now find inspiration, safety, and a sense of identity in their traditional tribal faiths and worldview. Even if a large number of elders become Christians, modern Tlingit "reconcile Christianity and the 'traditional culture.'"
The Tlingit language is a part of the Na-Dené language family and is spoken by the Tlingit people of Western Canada and Southeast Alaska. In addition to using several phonemes that are not heard in almost any other language, Lingít features a sophisticated grammatical and phonetic system.
There are 100 native speakers of Tlingit in Canada and 200 to 400 in the United States, according to estimates. The speakers speak English well or quite fluently. In Southeast Alaska, linguists, institutions, and tribes are working hard to conserve and revitalize the Tlingit language and culture via revitalization projects. Community lessons are offered in Klukwan and Angoon, and Tlingit language programs are offered by the University of Alaska Southeast, Sealaska Heritage Institute, and Goldbelt Heritage Institute.
In the past, Tlingit tribes constructed cedar plank homes, which are now known as clanhouses. These homes had a foundation so that their possessions could be kept under the flooring. There were reportedly no nails, glue, or other attaching tools on these board homes. Clan residences were often square or rectangular in form, with totem poles and front-facing motifs to indicate the clan and moiety to which the creators belonged.
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.
The Tlingit are the result of thousands of years of continuous habitation of the Alaska area by several indigenous civilizations. Around 10,000 years ago, human society with Tlingit-related characteristics began to emerge close to the Skeena and Nass River mouths. Russian explorers had the first European encounter with the historic Tlingit in 1741. In 1775, Spanish explorers arrived. Despite the Europeans' introduction of smallpox and other contagious illnesses, the Tlingits managed to hold onto their independence. About 37% of the Island Tlingit and 60% of the Mainland Tlingit perished in the smallpox pandemic in the Pacific Northwest in 1862.
The land provides a plentiful source of food, which is essential to Tlingit culture. The majority of Southeast Alaska's beaches' abundant intertidal life may be gathered for human consumption. Eating just "beach food" is seen as disrespectful by the Tlingit and a sign of poverty, even if eating from the beach might provide a somewhat diverse and healthful diet. In fact, shamans and their families were forbidden from eating anything that was collected from the beach, and men could refrain from consuming beach food before to combat or other physically demanding tasks because they believed it would weaken them both spiritually and perhaps physically. Therefore, in addition to the materials they may readily access outside their front doors, the Tlingit collect a wide array of additional resources for sustenance for both spiritual and dietary purposes. Salmon is given more attention than any other food source, although game and seals are not far behind.
Traditionally, the spring brought halibut, shrimp, and seaweed, while the late spring and summer brought salmon and seal. Gathering both wild and domesticated berries, including currants, soap berries, and salmonberries, is best done in the summer. Sea otters are hunted in the autumn. Other essentials are herring and eulachon, which may be consumed right away or preserved for later use. Fish provide eggs, oil, and meat. Sea otters and sea lions are examples of water creatures that are exploited for clothing and food. Tlingit hunted bears, deer, mountain goats, and other small creatures in the woods close to their houses.
The Ainu people of Japan are linked to some Indigenous peoples of the Americas, particularly to communities on the Pacific Northwest Coast like the Tlingit, based on genetic tests of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 gene frequencies. According to the scholars, Paleolithic people in Southern Siberia are the primary ancestors of the Ainu and Tlingit.
Comments
Post a Comment