Historical Vignettes
Tlingit History

"There is an old story that says how some strange people came from the western ocean.  Among them were two sisters.  They landed on Dall Island in Southeastern Alaska.  There the sisters met and married men whose people were coming down the rivers from interior North America.  One sister went with her family to the Queen Charlotte Islands.  Her children grew and multiplied into the Haida Nation.  The other sister went with her family to Prince of Wales Island.  She became the ancestress or Mother of the Tlingit Nation." (The Proud Chilkat by Brendan and Lauri Larson. 1977)

The origin of the Tlingit people is not certain.  It is possible the people came from the coast of Asia and Japan migrating north and east across the Aleutians and Gulf of Alaska into Southeast Alaska.  Art forms and physical features of the Tlingit are similar to some Pacific groups.

Over 300 years ago, a few Tlingit clans from Prince of Wales Island, the Stikine River Valley, the Nass River Valley and Kupreanof Island came north and established villages at Klukwan--the Mother Village: Kalwaltu; Yandestaki; and Chilkoot Lake.  Other camps were Taiyasanka Harbor, Tanani, the mainland near Sullivan Island and Dyea.

Tlingit men, Winter & Pond,
circa 1900

Southeast Alaska provided an idyllic setting for the villages and contained abundant local resources.  The forests supplied shelter, game and wild berries while the ocean was a storehouse of fish and see mammals.  In contract to interior peoples of North America, the Tlingits spent relatively little time surviving so were able to become traders and craftsmen.


Tlingit women, Winter & Pond, circa 1900

The ocean provided not only food, but also a transportation corridor.  Highly skilled navigators with seaworthy canoes, the Tlingit thought nothing of paddling for days in any direction.  The Chilkats and Chilkoots also had overland routes to the interior.  A great trade empire was established from interior Alaska/Canada south to northern California.  In the Americas, this trade empire was rivaled in size only by the Incas.

The Chilkat Valley and Lynn Canal inhabitants (Chilkats and Chilkoots) had trade access with the Athabascan Indians over the Chilkat, Chilkoot and White Pass routes.  These trade routes were jealously guarded, especially with the coming of the Russian and Hudson Bay Co. fur traders in the 1700's.  Highly skilled traders, the Chilkats and Chilkoots would meet the Russian and English ships towards the end of the Chilkat Peninsula to trade far away from the overland trade routes.  They would then take the goods over their trails to trade with the interior Indians.

White influence, late in starting, came rapidly to this country.  In 1869, George Davidson and William H. Seward first traveled to Klukwan to observe a solar eclipse.  In 1879, the Tlingits asked Dr. Sheldon Jackson to establish a mission.  A site for the mission was chosen at Dei shu ("The end of the trail" -- When traveling from the Chilkat River to Lynn Canal, the people portaged their canoes across the neck of the peninsula and present location of Haines.  This saved them a 20 mile paddle around the Chilkat Peninsula.)  In 1881 Presbyterian missionaries, Rev. and Mrs. Eugene Willard, first brought the Word of God to Chilkat country.  The town of Haines was established around the mission site and Ft. Seward was built nearby.

The Tlingit people of this area are often referred to as the Chilkats.  Actually, the Chilkats are the people who lived along the Chilkat River - in Klukwan, Kalwaltu and Yandestaki.  The Chilkats' local sphere of influence was the Chilkat River valley, trade trails over the Chilkat Pass (Haines Highway) into Athabascan country and down the west side of Lynn Canal.  Chilkoot country stretched from Chilkoot Lake along Lutak Inlet, Taiyasanka Harbor, on up to today's Skagway and along the east side of Lynn Canal to Berner's Bay.  They had permanent village sites at Chilkoot Lake and Tanani.  Their trade routes over the Chilkoot and White Passes were later used by Gold Rush prospectors.

Interior of a traditional Tlingit clan house.

Klukwan is the only original village which remains an active community today.  It is considered to be the citadel of Tlingit art and culture.  The Tlingit people traditionally embellished their lives with art-- even ordinary objects were decorated in highly sophisticated and stylized art forms.  Skilled craftsmen, the Chilkat people developed the Chilkat Blanket weave, made spruce root baskets and were beautiful carvers.  Highly stylized animal designs are common.  Animals, important in their legends, are also used as clan symbols.

For further information on Tlingit Culture please view the following links:
Basketry • Carving • Chilkat Blanket • Dance • Fishing • Potlatches

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