Teslin Tlingit Council


	A precious source of Teslin Inland Tlingit knowledge, oral tradition suggests the presence of Tlingit in the Yukon further back in time than written history conveys. These are the stories best told by our Elders—and yet to be recorded.The Teslin Tlingit people are descendants of the Taku Qwan who, in the early 18th century, moved and

Last updated November 3, 2003

	they started a way of life separate from that of their coastal relatives. By the mid-19th century, the Taku Qwan gradually expanded their contacts with the people who lived on the Yukon plateau while maintaining their social and economic ties with the coast. Trading furs from the interior with coastal Tlingit, the Taku Qwan introduced the first Russian, American and European trade goods to the Yukon. Over the course of time, the Taku Qwan intermarried and shared their coastal culture with other Yukon Indian people. Firmly established in their new geography as a distinct society, they became collectively known as Inland Tlingit. Though the Tlingit integrated with their interior neighbors, Tlingit traditions, culture and social patterns have remained largely intact and alive today. of Teslin Lake and later, up the lake, on the west shore of Nisutlin Bay. This was a time when Tlingit people bore the full brunt of exposure to European culture. The construction of the Alaska Highway and Canol Road, in 1942, brought more drastic changes and prompted the local, semi-nomadic Tlingit population to permanently settle in what today is the Village of Teslin on the shores of bountiful and scenic Teslin Lake. Political traditions also distinguished Inland Tlingit from other Yukon First Nations: Tlingit people look back to a time when they adhered to strict laws rooted in a sophisticated Clan system. The five Clans still play a prominent role in contemporary Teslin Tlingit society and, into the 21st century, have helped shape the implementation of their modern treaties.

The Teslin Tlingit Council Land Claim and Self-Government agreements were enshrined in settlement legislation in 1995, after two decades of negotiations with the governments of Canada and Yukon.

These treaties set the stage for a Teslin Tlingit self- government structure that incorporates traditional Clan culture into contemporary organizational and management principles. From these treaties the Teslin Tlingit Council draws the authority to enact laws for the good government over 2,428.60 square kilometers of settlement lands located on approximately 10,000 square kilometers of Teslin Tlingit Traditional Territory in the Yukon.

At the grand opening of the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre in 2002, the pinnacle of ceremonies was the raising of the five Clan posts, a symbolic first in the history of the Inland Teslin Tlingit Council, the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and the Taku River Tlingit. The posts were created by famous Tlingit carver Keith Wolfe-Smarch. Standing ten feet tall, carved in high relief and brightly painted, the posts are staunch manifestations of the five Clans. Teslin Tlingit society remains firmly rooted in: Kukhhittan (Raven Children), Ishkitan (Frog), Yanyedi (Wolf), Deshitan (Beaver), and Dakhlawedi (Eagle). The posts, too, for Inland Tlingit people, symbolize the elements of land, water and air, and their raising, more indomitably, signifies the “standing up” of the people.

The Tlingit language is spoken primarily in the communities of Teslin and Carcross, Yukon. Tlingit is also spoken in the Atlin area of British Columbia, and by large numbers of Alaskan natives in coastal settlements stretching along the Alaskan panhandle from Yakutat to Ketchikan. Given the geographic range of the language, there is relatively little dialect diversity and all speakers can understand each other. With the coastal Tlingit controlling trade between Europeans and Inland Tlingit, trade relationships were reinforced by marriage, prompting the coastal language and culture to spread to the interior perhaps two to three centuries ago. Tlingit is distantly related to Eyak (an extinct language from the Alaskan coast) and is the Athapaskan family. Today, many southwestern Yukon Athapaskan are related to Tlingit people and a few Southern Tutchone Elders have a rudimentary knowledge of the Tlingit language.

Elvel, a folklore troupe from the village of Kovran in Northern Russia, preserves the stories, songs and dances of their ancestors, the Paleoasian Itelmen, who are the indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka. After an appearance at the Yukon International Storytelling Festival in 2002, Elvel joined up with the Teslin school dancers (photo below) on the deck of the Tlingit Heritage Centre.

In the summer of 2002, two Teslin residents happened upon an antler tool on the shores of the upper Nisutlin River (photo left), a beaver spear the Elders only remember being manufactured from metal. The exact origins of this specimen however, judging by design and material, still remain a mystery.

Inland Tlingit are renowned for their opulent culture. Most of the material assets which have been misappropriated, reside scattered across Canada and other parts of the world in public and private collections. The repatriation of their material culture is high on the Teslin Tlingit Council agenda. Or, as the Elders would say: “their spirits rest in our lands; they will not come alive until they are returned to where they belong.”