History of the Tlingit
Although the tales are associated with the Raven moiety, most are shared by any Tlingit regardless of clan affiliation and make up of the stories told to children.
Comparing several stories reveals logical inconsistencies between the two, which is usually explained by their setting in a mythical place and time in which the rules of the modern world did not apply.
The story varies primarily in location, with some versions referring to specific rivers and glaciers; one describes the relationship with their inland Athabaskan-speaking neighbors.
Stories about the Tlingit people as a whole, the creation myths and other universal records, however, are usually considered the property of the tribe and may be shared without restriction.
One version begins with the Athabaskan (Ghunanaa) people of interior Alaska and western Canada: a land of lakes and rivers, of birch and spruce forests, moose and caribou.
The elders gathered and decided that a group of explorers would be sent to find a land rumored to be rich in food, a place where one did not have to hunt.
The next summer's harvest was poor, again threatening the people, and the elders again decided to send explorers to find the land of abundance.
They made a simple dugout canoe, took it downriver under the glacier, and came out to see a rocky plain with deep forests and rich beaches.
Tlingit traders were middlemen who brought Russian goods inland over the Chilkoot Trail to the Yukon and northern British Columbia.
[citation needed] The main Tlingit moieties are yeil (raven), gooch (wolf) and ch'aak (eagle).
Younger clans generally have histories describing a separation from other groups due to internal conflict or the desire for new territory.
The Tlingit quickly appreciated the trading potential of valuable European goods and resources, exploiting it in their early contacts.
Expeditions were: Russian settlement in Tlingit lands (1790s onwards) involved both peaceful trade and periodic violent clashes - notably the Battle of Sitka in 1804, the culmination of the Russian-Tlingit War [ru] of 1802-1805.
Chilkat Tlingit warriors attacked and burned Fort Selkirk, the Hudson's Bay Company post at the juncture of the Yukon and Pelly Rivers, in 1852.
The Chilkat had been middlemen between the company and the Athapaskan people of the interior (on preexisting trade routes), and were unwilling to be excluded from the arrangement.
Confronted at Port Gamble, Washington Territory by the USS Massachusetts and other naval vessels, the raiders suffered casualties, included a Haida chief.
Although the territorial government pressed the colonial government of Vancouver Island to apprehend Ebey's killer, the colonial authorities lacked a sufficient military capability to mount an expedition capable of defeating the Haida-Tlingit alliance, and Ebey's killer was never identified or captured.
Lowan's father, Scutd-doo, entered the fort the following morning and fatally shot trading-post operator Leon Smith.
That summer, Tlingit led by Anaxóots of the Kaagwaantaan protested the arrival of eighteen Chinese workers in Sitka and demanded that they not take their jobs.
The ANB and ANS are nonprofit organizations which assist in societal development, preservation of native culture, and equality.
The Tlingit were a driving force behind the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), which was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971.
Some interior Tlingit live in Atlin, British Columbia, and the Yukon communities of Whitehorse, Carcross and Teslin.
