Exploring the Tlingit Native Heritage in Klukwan

Tuesday, June 25

Twenty miles north of Haines on the bank of the Chilkat River lies Klukwan, a residential Tlingit village that Roland and I decided to visit on the day we rented a car to explore the area outside of Haines. Klukwan is one of the oldest native communities in the Southeast, and possibly the original settlement for the Tlingits (it seems many communities lay claim to being “first”).

As background ... Alaska’s Native peoples descended from wanderers that crossed what is now the Bering Sea from Asia and Siberia thousands of years ago, evolving both geographically and culturally into different groups with distinct and complex social structures.

The two primary native inhabitants of Southeast Alaska seem to be the Tlingit (pronounced kilnk-et) who settled the 600-mile coastline from Yakutat Bay to the southern Alaskan border, and the Haida (pronounced hy-dah) who settled south of the Tlingit on the coast of British Columbia and the Queen Charlotte Islands, and later took over the Prince of Wales Island from the Tlingit.

To the eye, Klukwan is little more than two streets of run-down homes and a Native cultural center. But as Roland and I witnessed when we walked over to look at the totems in front of their Veterans Memorial, the natives value their heritage and culture much more than material belongings.

An older native by the name of “Jones” was riding by on his bicycle, pulled to the side of the road, and walked across the grassy lawn to chat with us. He had a soft, soothing manner of speech, and very slowly with an unchanging inflection told us the meaning behind the emblems of the totems we were looking at, and the significance of the Raven and the Eagle.

He began by explaining that every person in the Tlingit and Haida society is either an Eagle or a Raven, a social subdivision known as a moiety. There are strict social rules surrounding moieties, and the lineage is matriarchal. An Eagle must marry a Raven, and vice versa; all children automatically belong to the moiety of the mother.

Further complicating matters (which I will try to explain, as best I understand it), the Eagle and Raven moieties are then divided into kinship lines that identify themselves through specific clans. Common clans for the Raven include Frog and Beaver, and for the Eagle moiety, popular clans include Wolf, Grizzly Bear, and Killer Whale. Traditionally, these clans identified themselves in totems, canoes and native artwork, such as blankets, ceremonial drums and beads, with the animals and symbols of their clan, making them traceable like a family tree.

We learned more about the Tlingit culture when we also visited the Sheldon Museum in Haines and observed amazing artifacts, such as intricately woven blankets, war masks, and carved storage boxes. The coastline natives are renown for their works of art ... due to the over abundance of food from the sea and coastline forests, they had the luxury of pursuing cultural interests, another societal attribute that had links to status and class structure.

There is more complexity to the Tlingit culture than I’ll ever understand, but after hundreds of years of abuse, it’s just nice to see Alaska (and the U.S.) finally value and recognize its native heritage.