Tlingit (people)

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Distribution of Tlingit speakers (2005 map)

The Tlingit (pronunciation in Tlingit : [ ɬìnkítʰ ]) (also Thlinget, Tlinkit ) are a North American Indian people who speak a Na-Dené language . They call themselves Lingit - 'human beings', the Russians called them Koloshi (Колоши) (derived from the Alutiiq word for labret piercing ), from which the meanwhile rarely used German term Koulischen is derived . They used to be counted among the Tsimshian along with the Nisga'a and GitxsanThe former were referred to as inland Tsimshian, the actual Tsimshian as coastal Tsimshian (Interior or Coast Tsimshian). They belong to the northwest coast culture.

The traditional settlement area of ​​the approx. 10,000 Tlingit stretches over the coastal regions of southeast Alaska ( United States ) and the outermost peripheral areas of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory.

history

Early history

The raven plays an important role in Tlingit mythology. He stole the daylight from an old man named Naas-sháki Yéil or Naas-sháki Shaan . This old man owned three legendary boxes containing the stars, moon and sun that the raven let escape. These creation myths are common property and, unlike family stories, can be told by anyone. They reflect memories of migrations far back in time, with most of the Tlingit tracing back to the Athabasques . But they indicate connections not only to the hinterland, but also far to the south.

In 1996, vertebrae, ribs, teeth, the jaw and a pelvic bone were found on the Prince of Wales Island , the age of which is dated to 10,300 years. They belonged to a man in his twenties who lived mostly on sea animals. The accompanying obsidian finds indicate extensive exchange relationships, because obsidian does not exist in the region. Genetic studies suggest a relationship with today's Tlingit.

society

Tlingit Chief Kian
totem pole on a postcard

The Tlingit were divided into two halves, or moieties , and each member of the tribe was assigned according to their mother's ancestry - one to the raven, the other to the wolf (sometimes called an eagle). It was not allowed to marry within these halves. The children stayed with "half" the mother.

Moieties, in turn, were divided into clans (the raven half consisted of 27 clans), which traced their ancestry back to a common ancestor. The basic social unit, however, was the lineage, whose members were related to one another in a maternal line. Each lineage had its own chief, but he did not have extensive authority. For example, different lineages could cooperate in war, but there was no obligation to do so.

They lived in large wooden communal houses with a gable roof, in which 50 to 100 people lived. The house posts were decorated with totem symbols of the corresponding clan. Several such houses formed a village. Possibly around 1800 tribes made up of one or more lineages united in common villages, but in more recent times each lineage apparently has its own village. Each lineage had and used their own land and functioned as a basic ceremonial unit. There were also stakes of guilty deaths, which were removed after the debt was repaid, and burial stakes with the ashes of the deceased. For example, to mourn the death of a chief and publicly introduce his successor to office, the Tlingit celebrated the potlatch , a cycle of rituals that culminated in the distribution of gifts.

The Tlingit's livelihood was fishing, with salmon being caught with harpoons, nets and traps. The canoes made of red cedar wood or the wood of the Nootka false cypress were up to 15 meters long and offered space for up to 30 or 40 people. The Tlingit also hunted marine and land mammals. Wood was the most important material for houses, canoes, dishes, utensils and other objects. Large permanent houses were built near good fishing spots and safe moorings for canoes, often sheltered from the tides on the banks of a bay. The houses were only inhabited in winter, in summer people went hunting and fishing. In addition, the Tlingit were very good weavers.

Depiction of raven by a Tlingit artist around 1810

The ruling clans were the Yeil or Raven, the Gooch or Wolf, and the Chaak or Adler. The items necessary for the numerous rituals belonged to the entire clan. They were mainly used by the shamans, who held an influential position. According to them, every thing and every being was animated, accordingly the hunt was accompanied by strict rituals. The Tlingit were excellent wood carvers and sculptors. On many house fronts and wooden sculptures, Gonankadet is depicted, a mythical creature who rules under the waters.

The Tlingit society is traditionally structured in matrilineal organized clans . Until the 19th century, girls were isolated from society for several months at the onset of puberty and locked away in a windowless dwelling. They received an initially thin lip plug as a sign of belonging to the community. The initiation period ended with a celebration. Adult women wore a wooden lip plug that grew larger and larger in the course of life.

Contacts with Europeans

Vitus Bering reached the American coast south of Kayak Island on his second expedition in 1741 , Aleksei Chirikov reached another 600 km further south near the 55th parallel. The news of the abundance of fur animals prompted hunters and fur traders from Russia from 1743 to drive south and further along this coast along the Aleutian Islands and Alaska.

With the appearance of these Dléit Khaa , the white people, the trade routes changed first. From 1785 onwards, the Tlingit traders managed to act as intermediaries between the coastal tribes and the mainly Russian, American and British fur traders. They later even used the Chilkoot Trail towards the Yukon River and traded in what is now Washington and Oregon. In 1859, 223 Tlingit camps - along with more than 2,500 other Indians - outside Victoria to take part in the trade and development of the city.

Juan José Pérez Hernández was sent north by the Viceroy of New Spain Don Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa in 1774. Thereby Father Tomás de la Peña Suria (or Savaria) created the oldest surviving pictorial representations. The second Bucareli expedition appeared as early as the next year. Here Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra played the most important role. He urged to continue north and so the expedition reached the area around today's Sitka . The third Bucareli expedition of 1779 first made trade contacts with the Tlingit. After the third voyage of Captain James Cook and the posthumous publication in 1784, several fur traders followed, mainly from Great Britain, then mostly from the USA. In 1791 Alessandro Malaspina sailed as far as Prince William Sound , but after the final settlement of the Nootka Sound controversy in 1795 , the Spaniards no longer gained any importance on this coast.

Meanwhile the first smallpox epidemic had reached the Tlingit of Sitka. Nathaniel Portlock, an English fur trader, was expecting a large crowd on his visit to Sitka, but he noted: “I noticed the oldest of the men who was badly marked by smallpox, like a girl of about 14 [...] the old man […] Told me that the chaos (distemper) had carried away a large number of the residents and that he had lost ten children himself ”.

It was not until 1840, when the first men of the Hudson's Bay Company appeared in the hinterland, that first contacts with Europeans came about. Within a few decades the buffalo herds disappeared here too - the Tlingit name of the Ross River (Xao Hini) is a reminder, as it means buffalo river. In 1852 the Chilkat Tlingit Fort Selkirk on the Yukon River attacked and burned it down. In 1867, the United States bought Alaska, where martial law had ruled for decades.

Due to a cultural misunderstanding that resulted in the death of two people, Commander Merriman of Sitka had Angoon (located on the southwest coast of Admiralty Island on Kootznahoo Inlet) bombarded and burned down in 1882.

In 1897 the Tlingit Skookum discovered Jim and Tagish Charlie with their white brother-in-law George Carmack Gold on the Klondike , a tributary of the Yukon. Tens of thousands gathered in Seattle and Tacoma , sailed north and dragged themselves and their equipment (around a ton because they had to stock up on food) on the Chilkoot Trail to the Yukon River - initially this took up to three months. The Chilkoot Trail follows a mountain trail used by the Tlingit who traded here between the coast and inland. The city of Dawson City grew to 16,000 inhabitants, but after 1911 the population halved.

In 1912 the Tlingit founded the Alaska Native Brotherhood in Sitka , followed by the Alaska Native Sisterhood. ANB and ANS are committed to preserving the Tlingit culture today. This is a difficult task, like everywhere in America, because both Canada and the United States have attempted to eradicate the culture and language of the indigenous people through forced assimilation . The schools, which forbade children to use their language until the 1960s, played a particularly inglorious role.

language

The language of the Tlingit (own name Lingít Yoo X 'atángi ) comprises two dialects: the Lingit spoken in Alaska along the coast and the Lingit spoken in the Yukon Territory (Interior Tlingit). The language is only spoken by the older generation. There is bilingualism with English . However, it is becoming fashionable among young people to speak their own language again.

Todays situation

Hoonah from the seaside

In the United States , the Tlingit are recognized as a people by the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska . Its traditional territory stretches from Yakutat Bay to Cape Fox. The largest settlement of the Tlingit is Hoonah , a place with 739 inhabitants (2006), of which over 500 are Tlingit.

See also

literature

  • Andrew Hope III, Thomas F. Thornton: Will the Time ever come? A Tlingit Source Book , University of Alaska, Fairbanks 2000
  • Sergei Kan: Memory Eternal: Tlingit Culture and Russian Orthodox Christianity through Two Centuries , University of Washington Press, Seattle 1999, ISBN 978-0-295-97806-2
  • Wallace M. Olson: The Tlingit. An Introduction to their Culture and History , Heritage Research, Auke Bay (Alaska), 5th ed. 2004
  • George Thornton Emmons (Author), Frederica de Laguna (Ed.): The Tlingit Indians. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, 70th University of Washington Press, Seattle 1991

Web links

Commons : Tlingit  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. Origin of TLINGIT: Tlingit li · ngít human being
  2. ^ Tlingit. Retrieved November 30, 2019 .
  3. A map of the traditional area can be found here (PDF, 548 kB): Traditional Tlingit Country (PDF; 559 kB)
  4. Associated Press reported on October 19, 2007 the return of these finds to the Tlingit, more precisely to the two communities of Craig and Klawock on the island. The significant find is now held by the Sealaska Heritage Institute : Tlingit Tribes to Get Ancient Remains, in: The Washington Post, October 20, 2007 .
  5. George Thornton Emmons, p. 266
  6. Cf. Royal BC Museum: Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca
  7. ^ Robert Boyd: The coming of the spirit of pestilence. Introduced infectious diseases and population decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874 , University of Washington Press, Seattle 1999, pp. 23f. ISBN 0-295-97837-6 .
  8. On September 14, 1982 the Navy apologized for the incident (Navy Department Library: Shelling of the Alaskan Native American Village of Angoon, October 1882 PDF )