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Evan S

Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian | Cultures of Alaska - 0 views

  • Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian share a common and similar Northwest Coast Culture with important differences
  • Tlingit language has four main dialects: Northern, Southern, Inland and Gulf Coast with variations in accent from each village
  • Haida people speak an isolate (unrelated to other) language, Haida, with three dialects: Skidegate and Masset in British Columbia, Canada and the Kaigani dialect of Alaska
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  • Tlingits have occupied this territory for a very long time. The western scientific date is of 10,000 years
  • original homeland of the Haida people is the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia
  • environment is a temperate rain forest
  • many tall and massive trees
  • Wood was the most important commodity
  • tools to make the wood into usable items were adzes, mauls, wedges, digging sticks
  • To cut the wood people used chipped rocks, bones, beaver teeth and shells
  • seasonal salmon runs
  • weirs (fences) and traps were placed in streams
  • Holding ponds were built in the inter-tidal region
  • Dip nets, hooks, harpoons and spears were also used to harvest salmon
  • specialized hook, shaped in a ‘V’ or ‘U’ form allowed the people to catch specific sized halibut
  • baskets were used for cooking, storage, and for holding clams, berries, seaweed and water
  • inner cedar bark was pounded to make baby cradle padding, as well as clothing such as capes, skirts, shorts and blankets
  • no central government existed
  • Decisions were made at the clan, village or house level
  • highly stratified culture, consisting of high-ranking individuals/families, commoners and slaves
  • unions were arranged by family members
  • Slaves were usually captives from war raids
  • had an exogamous (meaning they married outside of their own group), matrilineal clan system, which means that the children trace their lineage and names from their mother
  • children inherit all rights through the mother, including the use of the clan fishing, hunting and gathering land, the right to use specific clan crests as designs on totem poles, houses, clothing, and ceremonial regalia
  • In the Tlingit clan system, one moiety was known as Raven or Crow, the other moiety as Eagle or Wolf depending upon the time period
    • Evan S
       
      moiety -  one of two groups into which a tribe is divided on the basis of (matrilineal) descent Source dictionary.com
  • Haida have two moieties, Eagle and Raven, and also have many clans under each
  • used animal fur, mountain goat wool, tanned skins and cedar bark for clothing
  • After western trading, wool and cotton materials were common
  • main means of travel was by canoes
  • Haida canoes, made from a single cedar log up to 60 feet in length, were the most highly prized commodity
  • water supplied their main food. One of the most important fish was salmon
  • Steelhead, herring, herring eggs, and ooligans (eulachon) were also caught
  • lans owned the salmon streams, halibut banks, berry patches, land for hunting, intertidal regions, and egg harvesting areas
  • food was preserved by smoking in smokehouses or was dried, either by wind or sun
  • known for a ceremony called the “potlatch”
  • Potlatches were held for the following occasions: a funeral or memorial potlatch, whereby the dead are honored; the witness and validation of the payment of a debt, or naming an individual; the completion of a new house; the completion and naming of clan regalia; a wedding; the naming of a child; the erection of a totem pole; or to rid the host of a shame
  • Education
  • built their homes from red cedar, spruce, and hemlock timber and planks
  • houses, roofed with heavy cedar bark or spruce shingles, ranged in size from 35’-40’ x 50’-100’, with some Haida houses being 100’ x 75’
  • houses had a central fire pit with a centrally located smoke hole
  • Each local group of Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian had at least one permanent winter village
  • had winter villages along the banks of streams or along saltwater beaches for easy access to fish-producing streams
  • from the Copper River Delta to the Southeast Panhandle is a temperate rainforest with precipitation ranging from 112 inches per year to almost 200 inches per year
  • each house could hold 20-50 individuals with a village size between 300-500 people
Evan S

Tlingit-map.png (637×1057) - 0 views

shared by Evan S on 15 Sep 13 - No Cached
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