Clans and Corporations: Society and Land of the Tlingit Indians Rosita Worl

Clans and Corporations: Society and Land of the Tlingit Indians Rosita Worl Native Corporations Relationship to the Land The North Pacific Coast has always been a Tlingit complex environment, abundant in resources but Belong to the land. difficult in access. The indigenous population Free to wander anywhere developed knowledge of their habitat, a special Signing pieces of paper ized technology, and well-organized productive Village labor units to maximize the sustainable exploita Regional CORPORATIONS tion of the environment. Elements that the native Land in corporations population could not control by physical means Stocks replace fish drying were appeased through spiritual rituals. An abun Dividends replace hides curing dant environment, an efficient extractive technol Corporate offices replace ogy, and extensive methods of food preservation for later use allowed them to pursue a broad Tribal houses spectrum of activities. Voting replace storytelling A house group consisting of a chief, his broth We are of the land ers and their wives, children and maternal neph Not corporations ews was the basic production unit. Male children This was forced upon us over the age of ten moved into their mother's Choices were never ours brother's house and received a rigorous course of Our forefathers taught us well training from their maternal uncles. The house WE WILL SURVIVE group had a well-defined organization of labor, WE WILL ADAPT which assigned its members various tasks in WE WILL SUCCEED hunting, fishing, gathering, preparing and pre WE WILL THRIVE! serving their foods. All members of the house were expected to work. Grandparents took care Sherman J. Sumdum of children too young to help, while their moth Chookaneidi of Hoonah ers gathered and stored foods for future use. The cycle of production was determined by the sea With the rich resources of their homeland in sonal availability of resources. As long as fish Southeast Alaska, the Tlingit Indians developed were running, men harvested them, and women one of the most complex cultures in indigenous hung them up to smoke or dry. North America. With their vast stores of surplus Like most American Indian tribes, the Tlingits' goods, they extended their aboriginal commerce relationship to nature is rooted in their religious along ancient trading trails through valleys and systems. According to the ancient beliefs of the mountain passes to the northern interior regions Tlingit, animals, like humans, are endowed with of Alaska and Canada where they traded with the spirits. These ideas were the basis of their behav Athabaskans. They traded westward with the ior towards animals; people felt a form of kinship Eyak and the Chugach Eskimo along the Gulf of with them. But their beliefs did not prevent their Alaska coast in south-central Alaska. In their 60- effective, sustainable exploitation of the environ foot long canoes, they traveled south to the ment and its wildlife. On the one hand, they Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada to trade with were skilled hunters, fishermen and foragers who the Haida and the Tsimshian on the mainland. effectively utilized their environment; and on the LA ND IN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES 91 other hand, they revered their environment and vices, but perhaps more significantly they intro attributed their success in its exploitation to the duced a new legal system that suppressed Tlingit spirits and deities which abounded in their world. customary property laws and rights and paved The distinctive arts of the Tlingit and the the way for permanent American settlements and Northwest Coast Indians were visual symbols of economic expansion into Tlingit territory. their relationships to one another and to nature. In 1878 two salmon canneries were estab They mastered the use of horn, bone, stone, lished at Sitka and Klawock followed by ten wood, skins, furs, roots and bark to satisfy their more in the next decade (Gruening 1968). And utilitarian and aesthetic needs. Their woodwork unknowingly, an Auk Tlingit named Kaawaa'ee ing was unrivaled among American Indian tribes. unleashed the 1880 stampede into Southeast Artistically inspired by their relationship to the Alaska by showing Joe Juneau and Dick Harris environment, Tlingit adorned their bodies and now credited as discoverers in most historical homes with symbols of their real and supernatu accounts- where gold could be found (Worl ral world. 1990). The biggest gold mill in the world was later established in Juneau (Gruening 1968). The Historical Overview United States recognized the Tlingit as the rightful Their rich environment and their social and owners of the land under aboriginal title, but cultural strengths enabled Tlingit to confront the ironically, did not allow them to file gold claims initial arrival of western explorers and traders in on their own land because they were not citizens 1741 much on their own terms. Fur trading was of the United States. The traditional hunting and conducted from the ships that frequented Tlingit fishing economy that had supported the rich communities. Once tenuous peace agreements culture of the Tlingit was giving way to a new had been established between Tlingit and Rus economic order, which they could neither control sians, trading posts were built in Yakutat in 1796 socially or share in economically. and then Sitka in 1799 (Krause 1956). Tlingit used the goods they received in trade to enrich their Land Claims society. Gathering the inner strengths that had given But nothing in their shamans' or herbalists' rise to this proud society, the Tlingit entered the repertoire of medical care could resist the waves 20th century. They were undaunted by losses of infectious disease that the new visitors brought epidemics, Russian occupation, gold rush stam to their shores. The Tlingit aboriginal population, pede, bombardments of their villages by the which is estimated at near 15,000, was reduced Navy, depletion of fish and wildlife, and dispos by more than 50% after the great smallpox epi session of their ancestral lands - which might demic of 1835-1840 (Boyd 1990; De Laguna have demoralized other people. They strove to 1990). With several villages reduced by as much learn and use the institutions of the westerners to as two-thirds, social and economic systems al protect their society; but at the same time, they most ceased to function. retained the elements of their ancient culture they Another significant element of their culture deemed appropriate for the modern era. was undermined, and new religions gained influ They repeatedly brought their blankets ence, when the Tlingit learned that their shamans adorned with clan crests to Washington, D.C. were powerless to combat the smallpox. Father They showed Congressmen these blankets, which Veniaminov observed that three months before served as their title to the land. They told the clan the smallpox epidemic a Tlingit forced to submit stories and sang the songs that recorded the his to the needle probably would have torn the very tory of ownership of their territories. With a flesh from his vaccinated arm. But when the highly developed system of customary property Tlingit saw that Russians vaccinated against small laws, a powerful conviction of their inherent pox survived, they clamored to be vaccinated. rights to their land, and a strong love for their Once they realized its effectiveness, they also homeland, they successfully appealed to the began to accept the Russian Orthodox faith at the sense of fairness and justice of American jurispru expense of their own religion (Fortuine 1989). dence. They achieved an unprecedented settle The Tlingit who had scoffed at many of the ways ment with Congress and secured legal title to of the white men now sought the establishment their land. of churches and schools. From the time of their first contact with Euro The process of social disintegration heightened peans, the Tlingit resisted outside claims on their after American jurisdiction was established in land. They did not allow the first Europeans who 1867. Military forces brought other diseases and set foot on their shores to leave. They removed a 92 LA DIN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES cross the Spaniards left in 1775 as a sign of their claim to Alaska. They extracted payment from the Spanish not only for the fish they brought to them but also for the water the Spaniards got for themselves (Krause 1956). From the time the United States and Russia signed the Treaty of Cession in 1867, the Tlingit protested the foreign ers' assertion of ownership. They argued that if the United States wanted to purchase Alaska then they should negotiate with its rightful owners. The Haida joined with the Tlingit to pursue a land claims settlement with the United States. They relentlessly pursued compensation for the land the United States forced them to surrender. The Southeast Alaska Indians attained two separate land settlements with the United States: the first, a judicial settlement in 1968 through the U.S . Court of Claims; and the second, a legislative compact through an Act of Congress in 1971. The Tlingit and Haida used the first settlement of $7.5 million to establish the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Its primary function is to promote the social and educational welfare of its tribal members. The second settlement achieved by the Tlingit and Haida was an unprecedented land settlement with America's indigenous populations. Its Fish continues to be the primary source offood for native peoples of southeastern Alaska. However, in uniqueness was not in the size of the settlement, recent years, subsistence practices have been limited by but rather in the means by which it would be governmental regulations. Areas designated for subsis accomplished. Under the Alaska Native Claims tence fishing may be Jar away from home. A subsis Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA), Congress or tence fisherman skillfully fillets the fish to prepare for dered that the Alaska Natives form corporations smoking and drying.

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