Tlingit
The Tlingit or Lingít (English: /ˈtlɪŋkɪt, ˈklɪŋkɪt/ TLING-kit, KLING-kit) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and constitute two of the two-hundred thirty-one (231, as of 2022)[3] federally recognized Tribes of Alaska.[4] Although the majority, about 14,000 people, are Alaska Natives, there is a small minority, 2,110,[2] who are Canadian First Nations.
This article is about the Alaskan Native group. For the Siberian people, see Telengit.
Their language is the Tlingit language (natively Lingít, pronounced [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ]),[5] in which the name means 'People of the Tides'.[6] 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.[7] Tlingit people today belong to several federally recognized Alaska Native tribes including the Angoon Community Association, the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska,[8] Chilkat Indian Village, Chilkoot Indian Association, Craig Tribal Association, Hoonah Indian Association, Ketchikan Indian Corporation, Klawock Cooperative Association, the Organized Village of Kasaan, the Organized Village of Kake, the Organized Village of Saxman, Petersburg Indian Association, Skagway Village, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, and the Wrangell Cooperative Association.[9] Some citizens of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska are of Tlingit heritage.[10] Taku Tlingit are enrolled in the Douglas Indian Association in Alaska and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Canada.
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.[11] 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.[12] Hereditary servitude was practiced extensively until it was outlawed by the United States Government.[13] 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.
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.
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.[30]