Tahltan

The Tahltan , historically often called Nahanni , are a first nation of the northern Athabasques in northeast British Columbia in Canada . Today most of the Tahltan live in the area around three parishes: Telegraph Creek (Tlego'īn husłīn / Tlegohin) , Dease Lake (Tatl ah) and Iskut (Łuwe Chōn / Tuwe chon) lives. In December 2008, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development recognized 1,668 people as Tahltan.

Surname

Together with the culturally and linguistically closely related Kaska Dena and Tagish who lived between the Yukon River and Mackenzie River as well as in the valley of the Liard River , the Tahltan were often referred to as Nahanni or Nahani Dene ("People Over There Far Away").

However, since such diverse peoples as the T'aaku Kwáan the Tlingit (Lingit) , the Pelly River Northern Tutchone , the Tsetsaut (Wetaɬ) and the Sekani (Tsek'ene) and Daneẕaa were called Nahanni , it is often difficult in the historical sources distinguish the individual tribes from one another.

In addition, the Tahltan, together with the Kaska Dena and Tagish, were also referred to as (Mackenzie) Mountain Peoples - but here mostly the Shita Got'ine (Mountain Dene) of the North Slavey (Sahtu Dene) and some groups of the South Slavey (Deh Cho Dene) were meant.

Tribal area

The Tahltan consider themselves the first inhabitants of the Stikine River . Their territory comprised about 242,163 square kilometers (93,500 sq.mi., m i) in what is now northeastern British Columbia , ranging from the Coast Mountains in the west to the deeper boreal forest in Yukon in the north, in the east to the (according to the Kaska Dena) Cassiar Mountains and comprised to the south the upper reaches of the Nass River and Skeena River ; other important rivers within their tribal area besides the Stikine River are the Iskut River , Klappan River and Dease River .

society

The Tahltan had a matrifocal and matrilineal society with regard to the prevailing marriage rules, inheritance, kinship and the associated political power and were also - like many Northern Athabasks - divided into two exogamous clans or es-dah-tsehi (which in turn were divided into several Subclans were divided), which were separated from each other by different totems (group badges):

• Tsesk'iya / Tse 'Kiya / Tceskea / Cheskie Clan (crows, exactly: Raven Clan) - from the Tlingit as Katcede called
• Ch'ioyone / CheYonne / Tseone / Chiyone Clan ( Wolf Clan) - called Taxtlowede by the Tlingit

Since they believed that every clan descended from a common ancestor , their marriage rules did not allow marriages within the same clan and were taboo . Therefore they were forced to look for their future spouses outside their own clan within their band or tribal group or among neighboring peoples also organized in matrilineal clans, so that these mutual exogamous marriages between two (or more) bands on the one hand to consolidate the common identity within the Tahltan on the other hand also led to the basis of comprehensive alliances between (as with the Athabasks and Tsimshian even ethnically and linguistically) different peoples (see exchanging women ) - several families of the Tahltan can be traced back in whole or in part to Tlingit .

The Tahltan were divided into several bands / family groups or yes sini , which in turn were divided into local groups consisting of several families. Each family group belonged to one of the two clans and therefore traced back to a common ancestral mother. The respective clan affiliation is, however, partly controversial today, since the forced assimilation and the almost complete abandonment of one's own language and tradition, even through the Tahltan, can no longer be precisely reconstructed. The following information is taken from the website of the Dease Lake Community, one of the Tahltan communities (different classifications are indicated in italics and indented):

Crow / raven

1. Iskahititoten / Tudenekoten (also called Ilkaihitoten , Edditoten / Edaxhoten (Teit), Tich'an'oten (Thorman) or Stikine Tahltan ; today's common name: Iskahigotine or Edatigotine )
2. Naloten (Teit, also called Nahlodeen (Thorman) or Narlotin (Emmons 1911); commonly used today: Nahlotin )
3. Nawthcoten / Naskoten
   1. Kartchottee (Emmons 1911, today is generallyequatedwith the Iskahititoten / Tudenekoten )

wolf

1. Tl'abanōt'īne / Klawbonoten (also known as Klappanoten , Tlepanoten (Teit), Thlegodeen / Tlogoten (Thorman) or Klabbahnotin (Emmons 1911); commonly used today: Tlepanotin or Klogotine )
2. Tagishquan / Tagicotena (also called Tagicoten / Nakagotin (Teit))
3. Tahlo-k'ōt'īne / Talarkoteen (also Talakoten (Teit), Tahlagoteen (Thormann) or Talarkotin (Emmons 1911); commonly used today: Tahlogotin )
4. Nanaai / Nanyiee (Teit, Emmons 1911, also called Shutin (Thorman); common name today: Nana'a / Nanga'ai )
   1. Tl'abanōt'īne / Klawbonoten (are sometimes assigned to the raven clan)
   2. Tagishquan / Tagicotena (are sometimes assigned to the raven clan)
   3. Tuckclarwaydee / Tucklarwaytee (Emmons 1911, also called Naskoten (Teit), Nassgodeen (Thorman); commonly used name today: Tlkowedi ; this family group (band) is either regarded as the founder of the wolf clan or mostly as the original tribe of all Tahltan)

Every single family elected its head, who should represent its interests internally as well as externally. In addition, the leader or clan chief of the respective clan was elected within each family group or band; the chief of the crow / raven clan was Nonnock or Nan-nok and the one for the wolf clan was Kentai . When European epidemics had drastically reduced the population of the Tahltan, it was decided that now the nonnock of the crow / raven clan of the Iskahigotine / Edatigotine would represent the affairs of all Tahltans towards Europeans and other tribes.

history

In 1824, Samuel Black of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) explored the region in order to take advantage of the trade ties that existed between the northwestern Indian tribes for the fur trade . Between 1832 and 1838, presumably infected Tlingits first introduced smallpox .

In 1834 John McLeod came from Fort Halkett across the Liard River and discovered Dease Lake. Although he reached the Stikine River via the Indian trade routes , he did not succeed in establishing trade contacts with them. In 1838, the fur trader Robert Campbell, an employee of the HBC, established the Lake House trading post on the shores of Dease Lake . In 1838 he succeeded in establishing contact with the Tahltan. The lake, in turn, was named after the chief factor Peter Warren Dease in 1834 . The trading post played a role in the local fur trade, but Campbell and his group first had to retreat to Fort Halkett. It was not until 1839 that the British reached an agreement with the Russian traders in return for the sale of 2000 otter furs per year and the obligation to stock up on Russian traders, which opened the region to the HBC. 1840 they renamed the fort on Wrangell Iceland in Fort Stikine , and built another on the Taku River .

However, this brought them into conflict with the Tlingit, who saw their trade disrupted. They forced the British to restrict their trade to the coast and even traded with the Tahltan, with whom they maintained intensive contacts. The metal goods that were now arriving replaced the traditional tool materials of bones, antlers and obsidian. The Tahltan also took over cultural elements from the dominant Tlingit. From 1847 to 1849 the Tahltan, the number of which was estimated at 1,000 to 1,500, was hit by a new smallpox epidemic, which probably only 300 to 325 of them survived. Several fishing spots had to be abandoned and the cultural leaders had fallen victim to the disaster.

In 1861, gold discoveries on the Stikine made by Choquette and Carpenter sparked the Cassiar gold rush . Captain William Moore brought the Wrangel prospectors into the hinterland the next year . Although most of them withdrew in the fall, given the low gold reserves, Governor James Douglas hastily took control of the newly established Stikine region.

When the Western Union or Collins Overland Telegraph Company wanted to set up a telegraph line to link America with Europe via North Asia, cartographic operations took place in 1866. Hence the Telegraph Creek got its name. However, the operation was canceled when the first submarine cable was successfully laid in the Atlantic in 1867.

In 1873 new gold was discovered at Thibert Creek, not far from Dease Lake, by Thibert and McCullough. These findings were followed by the Cassiar Gold Rush in 1874 . The gold diggers landed in Glenora , where HBC's John C. Calbraith opened a shop for their needs, and they went overland to Dease Lake. Captain Moore was given permission to build a path along the old trade path. The Tahltan suffered from new diseases such as measles, and there were also arguments with the gold diggers. The number of Tahltan continued to decline, and eventually they decided to live together in one place, no longer clan-by-clan. At the same time trade with the Tlingit broke off, whose monopoly collapsed.

With the Klondike gold rush thousands of prospectors came north, in the winter of 1897 to 1898 alone, 3,000 to 3,500 of them camped in Glenora. Telegraph Creek, which linked shipping on the Stikine to the north, was linked to Atlin in 1897 . The Lady of the Lake steamboat operated on Dease Lake.

The Tahltan hired themselves as porters and traded furs for food. Tahltan and their wives, who had previously tried to set themselves apart, more often married white men. In addition, in 1896, Bishop Ridley from the Anglican Diocese of Caledonia, the first missionaries to the Tahltan. In 1897 he sent Reverent FMT Palgrave to set up a first mission station in Tahltan Village . Palgrave, who stayed until 1901, kept extensive records of the language of the 225 remaining Tahltans. His successor was TPW Thorman, who built a mission house and a church that still exists today. He baptized 50 Tahltan, but had to leave the place in 1903 due to lack of funds.

However, he was in the same year by the Presbyterian Dr. F. Inglis replaced. He came to Telegraph Creek and established an elementary school. Thorman returned in 1910 and he and his son Fred taught 15 children until 1912.

In 1910 the Tahltan turned against the feared conversion of reserve land into crown land with a Declaration of the Tahltan Tribe. The signatories were Chief Nanok and 80 tribesmen. The ethnologist James Teit co-founded the Friends of the Indians and acted on behalf of the Allied Tribes of British Columbia . The Thormans, who ran a mission for another generation that closed in 1952, complained.

In 1931 the Road Construction Commission proposed the construction of the Pacific Yukon Highway , which would connect Washington and Alaska , and for which an asphalt surface was planned in 1939. The main artery is still the British Columbia Highway 37 , which also put an end to shipping traffic on the Stikine in 1972. The road construction brought new settlers north and the Tahltan were forced to live in Telegraph Creek. Their children had to attend local schools and traditional techniques such as fish traps and weirs using nets were increasingly being replaced.

language

Their language, the Tahltan (Tāłtān ẕāke) , Dahdzege or didene ẕake, is a poorly documented northern Athapaskan language in northwestern Canada. Tahltan is linguistically so close to the neighboring Kaska (Dene Zágéʼ) of the Kaska Dena and the Tā̀gish (Den k'e) of the Tagish that some linguists claim that Tahltan is a language with three divergent but mutually understandable dialects (Mithun 1999). The numbers below are Poser (2003):

1. Tahltan (Tałtan ẕāke), Dahdzege or didene ẕake (estimated 35 speakers)
2. Kaska or Dene Zágéʼ (estimated 400 speakers)
3. Tā̀gish or Den k'e (estimated 2 speakers)

Other linguists consider these different languages.

Sounds

Consonants

The 45 consonants of Tahltan:

		bilabial	interdental	dental		post-alveolar	palatal	velar		uvular	glottal
				central	lateral			not more labial	labial
Plosive sound	not aspirated	​p​		​t​				​k​	kʷ	​q​
	aspirated							kʰ	kʷʰ	qʰ
	ejective							k '	k'ʷ	q '	​ʔ​
Affricates	not aspirated		t θ	​ʦ​	tɬ	​ʧ​
	aspirated		t θ ʰ	ʦʰ	tɬʰ	ʧʰ
	ejective		t θ '	ʦ '	tɬ '	ʧ '
Nasals	not labial	​m​		​n​
	glottal			n '
Fricatives	unvoiced		​θ​	​s​	​ɬ​	​ʃ​	​ç​	​x​	xʷ	​χ​	​H​
	voiced		​ð​	​z​	​ɮ​	​ʒ​		​ɣ​	ɣʷ	​ʁ​
Approximants							​j​		​w​

Phonological processes

• Flatten the vowels
• consonant harmony
• Nasalization of the vowels
• Loosening of the vowels

See also

• First Nations history
• History of British Columbia
• List of Indian tribes recognized in Canada

Web links

• Tahltan Central Government
• Dease Lake and Stikine Regional History
• Map of the First Nations of the northwest coast (including Tahltan)
• Tahltan , Firstnations.de

bibliography

• Eung-Do Cook: Stress and related rules in Tahltan. In: International Journal of American Linguistics. 38, 1972, pp. 231-233.
• Adamantios Gafos: The articulatory basis of locality in phonology . Garland Publishing, New York 1999, ISBN 0-8153-3286-6 . (Revised version of the author's Doctoral dissertation, Johns Hopkins University).
• Margaret F. Hardwick: Tahltan phonology and morphology. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Toronto, Ontario 1984.
• Marianne Mithun: The languages ​​of Native North America . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, ISBN 0-521-29875-X .
• Hank Nater: Some comments on the phonology of Tahltan . In: International Journal of American Linguistics. 55, 1989, pp. 25-42.
• William J. Poser: The status of documentation for British Columbia native languages. Yinka Dene Language Institute Technical Report (No. 2). Yinka Dene Language Institute, Vanderhoof, British Columbia 2003.
• Patricia Shaw: Consonant harmony systems: The special status of coronal harmony. In: C. Paradis, J.-F. Prunet (Ed.): The special status of coronals: Internal and external evidence. (= Phonetics and phonology. 2). Academic Press, San Diego 1991, ISBN 0-12-544966-6 , pp. 125-155.

Remarks

1. ↑ Registered Population, December 2008 ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Hodge, FW (1906). Handbook of American Indians
3. ^ Dease Lake Community Website - Tahltan Clans ( Memento June 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Tahltan Traditional Use and Knowledge Report - Social Organization
5. ↑ A photo from this period can be found in the British Columbia Archives : Steamer 'Lady of the Lake' on Dease Lake near Cassiar; looking south from Porter's Landing. ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ Tahltan language - About Us