Tlingit, Inland

The Inland Tlingit are a FIRST NATIONS people who define themselves as sharing a common cultural heritage, whether status or nonstatus Indians (see INDIANS), numbering well over 500. They speak a Tlingit dialect and are centered in Atlin in northernmost BC and Teslin in adjacent Yukon. They now exploit the boreal forest around the large lakes forming the headwaters of the YUKON RIVER, but many hold wage jobs, including government positions. In the 19th century most of their ancestors, some of whom had come from the coast, lived on the upper reaches of the Taku River that flows into the Pacific near Juneau, Alaska. The later move across the height of land to the Yukon was prompted first by its rich fur resources, then by the KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH of 1897-99. In each homeland Inland Tlingit intermarried with Coast Tlingit and surrounding Athapaskans such as the TAHLTAN. In the Taku basin they also feuded with the Tahltan over rights to fish salmon and to control the flow of fine furs from the interior to the coast. Both groups coveted fur of the LIARD RIVER KASKA but were themselves dominated by Coast Tlingit who monopolized access to white fur traders.

Keywords

Native Tribes

Early Economy

Nineteenth-century Inland Tlingit depended heavily on annual salmon runs in the Taku drainage but also hunted caribou, moose, sheep and goats as well as small game, especially marmots and birds. Their seminomadic subsistence pattern was equally adapted to the Yukon, where fur bearers were more numerous but salmon resources poorer. Their technology, like that of neighbouring Athapaskans (see TUTCHONE), was well suited to the hard conditions of the subarctic Cordillera.

Dance Hat
Maple wood dance hat, Admiralty Island, Alaska, Tlingit mid-19th century (courtesy NMC).

Tlingit
This most northerly Northwest Coast tribe traded in copper, blankets, shells, furs and slaves. House, pole and robe show highly developed art forms (courtesy Lazare and Parker/National Wildlife Federation).

Tlingit Basket
This Tlingit basket was made from spruce roots (courtesy UBC Museum of Anthropology).

Social Organization

Social organization, however, was modelled on and linked to that of the coast Tlingit. Their 6 matrilineal clans, grouped into exogamous Wolf (or Eagle) and Crow (Raven) moieties, structured rank, marriage and naming practices. Social relations rested on reciprocal obligations between members of clans in opposite moieties, the most important being associated with death and memorial feasts or potlatches that followed a year or so afterwards and were the occasion of rich oratory, singing and dancing as well as symbolic visual display (see POTLATCH). Because a head man's authority was limited to his own clan segment, there were no BAND chiefs until after WWII, when the Department of INDIAN AND NORTHERN AFFAIRS CANADA instituted elected band chiefs and councils. Inland Tlingit in Teslin now have their own judicial system.

Cultural and Economic Life

Although increasingly acculturated to white society following an early 20th-century gold rush and the development of mining activity near Atlin, and especially after the building of the ALASKA HIGHWAY in 1942, the Inland Tlingit have renewed their interests in their traditional arts and have set up commercial enterprises such as CANOE and SNOWSHOE manufacturing. They are also publishing their own literature and producing prize-winning radio and TV documentaries.

The Inland Tlingit signed no INDIAN TREATIES, and following the successful 1993 LAND CLAIMS settlement negotiated by the Council for Yukon Indians, Inland Tlingit have been selecting lands. They have also joined the Council for Yukon First Nations (which succeeded the CYI in 1995) in an effort to bring about a First Nation government to operate in the Yukon along with the territorial and federal governments.

See also NATIVE PEOPLE, SUBARCTIC and general articles under NATIVE PEOPLE.

Author CATHARINE MCCLELLAN

Links to Other Sites

Yukon Native Language Centre
A superb multimedia site that offers an introduction to native languages in the Yukon. Features the Gwich'in, Hän, Kaska, Northern Tutchone, Southern Tutchone, Tagish, and Upper Tanana languages. Includes information about training programs for teachers and the public.

The Man with the Wooden Wife
Marius Barbeau’s version of a traditional folk tale from the Tsimsyan and the Tlingit peoples of British Columbia and Alaska.

George Johnston Museum
The George Johnston Museum features colourful exhibits, dioramas and artefacts honouring the lives of George Johnston, the Inland Tlingit, and other Teslin Lake residents.

Fort Selkirk Tour
Scroll down the page for an illustrated history of Fort Selkirk, a home to both Selkirk First Nation people and Euro-American settlers. A Government of Yukon website.