Tlingit, northernmost of the Northwest Coast Indians of North America, living on the islands and coastal lands of southern Alaska
from Yakutat Bay to Cape Fox. They spoke the Tlingit language, which is
related to Athabaskan. According to their traditions, some of their
ancestors came from the south and others migrated to the coast from the
Canadian interior.
Traditional Tlingit society included three levels of kinship organization. Every individual belonged to one of two moieties, the largest kin group. Each moiety comprised
several clans, and the members of a given clan attributed their origin
to a common legendary ancestor. The most basic and important
organizational level was the lineage, an extended family
group related through maternal descent. Each lineage was essentially
self-sufficient: it owned a specific territory, could conduct
ceremonies, was politically independent, and had its own leaders. There
was rarely a leader or authority over the entire tribe; lineages might
cooperate during periods of war and choose a temporary leader for that
purpose, but there was no compulsion to join such alliances. During the
historic period there was a tendency for two or more lineages to consolidate into unified villages, but before contact with Europeans each lineage probably had its own village.
The traditional Tlingit economy was based on fishing; salmon
was the main source of food. The Tlingit also hunted sea, and sometimes
land, mammals. Wood was the primary material for manufacture and was
used for houses, memorial (totem) poles, canoes, dishes, utensils, and
other objects. Large permanent houses were built near good fishing
grounds and safe landing places for canoes, often along the beaches of a
bay sheltered from the tides. These houses were winter residences;
during the summer, inhabitants dispersed to take advantage of more-distant fishing and hunting grounds. Potlatches, or ceremonial distributions of gifts, marked a cycle of rituals mourning the death of a lineage chief.
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