All of the people of southeast Alaska are a part of the larger Northwest Coast Culture area which extends from Yakutat in Alaska down to the northern parts of Oregon. In this course we emphasize the Alaskan people of southeast Alaska.
Overview of ethnographic material
Tlingit 15,000 people at time of contact located on the coast from Wrangell to Yakutat
Haida 1,800 people in Alaska (Prince of Wales Island population called Kaigani Haida)
Tsimshian 200 migrated 1887 to Annette island, Metlakatla reservation created 1891)
1. Tlingit Social Environment
Language: Possibly Na-Dene. Some of the linguistic structures and tonal patterns are like that of their Athabascan neighbors. Vocabulary and sentence organization differ to a significant extent.
Regional distribution in 13 kwans.
Social hierarchy includes anyeti (nobles), commoners and slaves. The hitsati or yitsati are heads of the clan houses, while ankaua are the heads of village or rich man. Paid professional occupations include the ixt (shaman of war and prophecy), carvers of small objects, carvers of totem poles, carvers of interior house screens, storytellers, actors, and singers.
Tlingit and Haida Kinship structure is based on the moiety system in which the Raven (corresponds to Haida Raven and Tsimshian Raven), the Wolf (south) (corresponds to Haida Eagle and Tsimshian Wolf), and the Eagle (north) (corresponds to Haida Eagle and Tsimshian Eagle).
Tlingit clans are as follows:
Raven moiety clans (27 total, 9 large) include Ganaxtedi (people of Ganax: crests included frog, heron, woodworm) and Kiksadi (people of Kiks, crests included: frog, goose, owl, sea lion), Qatsadi (people of Admiralty Island), Kasqaqwedi (people of Kasqe, crests include eagle, crane, raven beak and green paint), Lenedi (big dipper: crests include dog salmon names), Kosk'edi (people of Kosex, crests include mouse), Tluk'naxadi (king salmon people, crests include king salmon, swan, sleep spirit), Tluqaxadi (quick people, crests: real ravens), and Kask'egoan (people of Kask' creek).
Wolf/Eagle clans (23 total, 5 large) include Teqoede (people of Teqo Islands, crests include grizzly bear), Naniyaya (crests include grizzly bear, mountain goat, shark), Tsukanedi (bush people or commoners, crests include porpoise), Kagwantan (Burnt house people, crests include wolf, te'it, murrelet, eagle, grizzly bear, killerwhale), and Daklawedi (crests include killerwhale and eagle).
Tlingit clan houses were led by the yitsati or hitsati, who is the senior maternal uncle of the clan who headed each house. The Tlingit and Haida practiced the avunculate: reliance on the senior clan men to instruct the younger people in clan history, clan ceremonialism, clan social behavior in a general sense and for men in specific ways. Women of are entrusted with specific training for the young women, and their training is specific to whether or not the young woman is of their clan or not, and is of married to one of their clan members or not.
Tlingit Houses included seasonal leantos for summer fish camps or berry/herb gathering, and trading expeditions and winter gabled houses which were permanent structures measuring around 40' x 60'. They were rectangular cedar plank houses with 4 large interior house posts (two were usually carved) with long beams when from front to back. A single hearth for heat and cooking served the entire house. Elevated platforms served as living quarters separated by hanging bark mats for privacy. They housed 20 to 30 people in 4 to 6 family units. Houses faced the ocean, with the hitsati and his family living in the back of the house. Tlingits and Haida also used forts built on steep promontories, palisaded, wooden walls. Settlement patterns included permanent winter villages from October through March, fish camps in mid summer, trading expeditions in May, June, and October.
Tools were predominantly woodworking implements, such as adzes, mauls, wedges, stones for cutting, poking and drilling, Hunting implements included bows, spears, clubs, fish traps (stone traps in tidal runs), wiers, dip nets, spears, and gaffhooks, halibut hooks. Transportation was by cedar dugout canoes. The small canoes were 10' to 16' for local and inland travel, and served 6 to 8 passengers. The large canoes (imported from the Haida) were 20' to 50' for long distance travel and outer reefs and warfare.
Northwest Coast Cosmology is tri-part: sky, middle (surface world), underwater/land in which each represented at the highest form by numerals of 8. The SKY represented by big dipper, the MIDDLE represented by objects of 8 (wolf packs of 8, sacred saagi of human and spirit animals, such as land otter), and the UNDERWATER/LAND represented by octopus, certain seaweed).
Northwest Coast mythology includes beliefs that Raven: brought animals and plants into the world in a humorous and dazzling way, starting with the creation story about the sun. Storytelling and stories are the corporate property of the clans, and other people are not supposed to tell Tlingit stories.
Tlingit Potlatching includes two kinds: the xu'ix for house building, burial, and life cycle ceremonies; and the tutxu'ix for prestige.
The Xu'ix includes mortuary or funeral (prepared by both the clan of the deceased and the clan of the bereaved widow/widower), memorial (prepared by the opposite clan of the deceased, paid by the clan of the deceased), naming (prepared by mother's clan, sometimes the father's clan), menarche (prepared by the mother's clan), marriage, and first-kill.
The Tutxu'ix includes face-saving (19th century innovation) and vengeance (from an older tradition, but heavily elaborated during 19th century).
Totem poles were used as primary symbols of the potlatches. The earliest recorded was in 1797 on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida). Totem pole construction: --up to 80' tall, --carved by a professional carver who usually lived with the clan members for around a year to hear the thoughts and formulate in collaboration with the clan the design. Totem poles are to be read only by the clan. Totem pole design considerations include telescoping of designs required (smaller toward top, interlocked with elements below), the back 1/3 was flat, the rest was round, and the attachment of wooden parts was sometimes difficult (no steel rivets or high-powered glues).
Types of Totem poles include the House pillar (weight-bearing pole of house) which illustrates the clan history and crests. They were carved by professionals, often with inlaid materials, such as abalone. The clan portal hole was outside or near the front of the house entryway with an ovoid hole for entry. Like the house pillars they also depicted clan history and crests. The Mortuary pole often contained ashes of deceased placed on top or near the top in a box. The mortuary poles were reserved for the anyeti class (male or female). The Memorial poles were raised in honor of a deceased chief or powerful shaman of war. They were commissioned and erected by the nephew of the deceased usually erected within one year of death to commemorate the deceased and to signal the heir's ascendancy to hitsati status. Potlatch poles for other occasions were recorded as beginning less than 150 years ago included the competitive, and were associated with the tutxu'ix potlatches. Among these were the Shaming pole which were put up to shame a person of high standing who either had not paid a debt or had done something reprehensible by members of another clan. It was usually left up until the debt was repaid or the misdeed was corrected. These too were associated with the tutxu'ix potlatches
Haida Social Environment
Language: termed a linguistic islate, although they share similar vocabulary terms with the Tling. Otherwise the syntax, structure and pronunciation are different.
Regional groupings:
a. Skidegate Haida on Moresby Island (dialect called southern Haida)
b. Masset Haida on Queen Charlotte Islands, N. Graham Island
c. Kaigani Haida on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska
Archeological data:
Queen Charlotte Island was an early Pleistcene refugium, which means that it was occupiable, while the surrounding territory was covered with ice or submerged under water.
Earliest occupation was 8,000 years ago
Northward expansion: the Kaigani Haida moved onto Prince of Wales Island approximately 250 years ago, taking possession either through warfare or subterfuge (moving in while the Tlingits were at fish camp) of two Tlingit villages: Suckwon and Klinkwon. They created two Haida villages: Hydaburg and Kasaan. Ketchikan has the largest population of Haida in Alaska.
Population: 10,000 at time of European contact, --9,800 on Queen Charlotte Islands per Hudson Bay Co. records, --200 to 250 on Prince of Wales Island. Between 1850 to 1880 Haida population declined to between 500 and 1,000 due to disease.
2. Haida Social structures
Moieties: Raven and Eagle
--in terms of marriage, corresponds to Tlingit Raven and Eagle/Wolf
--in terms of marriage, corresponds to Tsimshian Killer whale and Eagle)
Clans: Canadian Haida lineages are named in a pattern following the Kwatiutl, whose clan names are fixed to specific villages. In Alaska the Haida follow the Tlingit pattern, which is to keep the name of the clan, no matter where they move.
Hierarchical Social classes: the yahet: nobles (highest ranking people) had to have been potlatched with the right to give potlatches. The yahet own houses, and serve as village chiefs and decision makers. The other two classes are the alga (commoners) and the holdeng slaves (one of the Haida trade commodities).
Haida villages: were headed by men of the same matrilineal lineage. Haida villages were composed of single lineages except in Alaska where multiple houses in the same village with the same spatial organization. Haida Leadership: village chiefs and house chiefs. A central feature of Haida and Tlingit culture is corporate communal unit: the lineage. Haida Chiefs are responsible for overseeing the property. Property includes salmon streams, berry patches, food and medicinal herb zones, cedar stands (greatest value on Red canoe for the ocean going canoes), crests and other lineage symbols, bowls, boxes, masks, ceremonial regalia, coppers, and houses.
Haida trade customs: they traditionally traded with the Tlingit, Kwakiutl, Nuth cha luth, and Tsimshian. Products exported: canoes, slaves, dried halibut, seal oil, bird eggs. Products imported: from the Tlingit: skin, furs, eulachon oil, chilkat robes from the Kwakiutal and Nuth cha luth: dentalium shells, and from the Tsimshian: carvers/carvings. Products not traded: dried salmon.