While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Tahltan, The southwestern most tribal
division of the Nahane Indians of the Athapascan family. Their
hunting grounds include the drainage basin of Stikine river and its
tributaries as far as the mouth of Iskut river, Dease lake, and the
river halfway to McDanes creek (but according to the old law the
head of Dease lake, was Kaska territory, and this assumption of
rights has never been acknowledged by the Kaska people, the northern
sources of the Nass, and some of the southern branches of the Taku,
in Alaska arid British Columbia. In early days the salmon streams
flowing into the Stikine from the north, from 4 miles below Glenora
to, but not including, Telegraph creek, were claimed and fished by
the Stikine tribe of Tlingit, but this overlapping of the two
peoples seems to have produced little friction, possibly because the
Tahltan had no living places hereabouts, and in the matter of the
exchange of the products of the coast and the interior it was of
mutual advantage to keep on friendly terms.
The Tahltan have always lived on the upper reaches of
the Stikine and near by on the Tahltan and Tuya rivers. In early
days their living places were used more as storage depots and were
resorted to through the summer months for salmon fishing, which was
also the season of ease and feasting, when the pursuit of the
furbearing animals was without profit for the Tahltan people have
always been hunters and trappers, living in the open throughout the
year, meat eaters through necessity and choice, and accepting fish
diet only as a change.
The primitive houses were similar to those found in the
fishing camps to-day; they were constructed of stout saplings stuck
upright in the ground and bound together with bark rope or tree
roots and roofed over with slabs of spruce bark. But in camp the
typical shelter was a lean-to of bark and brush laid over poles, two
being placed opposite each other, with a central fire. Today,
throughout most of the year, they live in the same manner, except
that canvas has superseded the bark and brush covering.
After the Cassiar gold excitement in 1874 they built a
substantial log village on level space upward of a mile and a half
from the junction of the Tahltan with the Stikine, which is
generally known as Tahltan, though its native name is Goon-tdar-shaga
('where the spring water stops'). The only other native settlement
is at Telegraph Creek, where a number of small log houses have been
built to keep pace with the growth of the white settlement.
The social organization of the Tahltan without doubt
has developed from association with the coast Tlingit. It is founded
on matriarchy and is dependent on the existence of two exogamous
parties who intermarry. These parties may be designated, from their
totemic emblems, as Cheskea (Raven) and Cheona (Wolf). These are
subdivided into families, which assume all the functions of the
party and supplement each other at all meetings and on all occasions
of ceremony. The family is the unit of social and political life, in
which all individuality is merged, succession follows, and
inheritance is secured. The families are:
(1) Tuckclarwaydee, of the Wolf party, which, besides having
the wolf emblem, is represented by the brown bear, the eagle,
and the killer-whale. It originated in the interior about the
headwaters of Nags r. This family is credited with having been
the first to settle in this country and the founders of the
Tahltan tribe.
(2) Nanyiee, of the Wolf party, which, besides having the wolf
emblem, is represented by the brown bear, the killerwhale, and
the shark. The original home of this people was in the interior,
about the headwaters of Taku river, which they descended to salt
water and settled among the Stikine Tlingit; in later years they
ascended Stikine river and became a family of the Tahltan, while
others crossed the trail in still more recent times and joined
their brethren.
(3) Talarkoteen of the Wolf party, represented by the wolf
crest. They originated in the interior, about Peace river, and
followed down Liard river to Dease lake and then crossed to the
Tuya. They are nearly extinct.
(4) Kartchottee, of the Raven party, represented by both the
raven emblem and that of the frog. This family originated in the
interior toward the headwaters of the Taku. Some of the family
married among the Tahltan in early days. Another branch
descended Stikine river long ago, affiliated with the Kake tribe
of the Tlingit people, and generations later their descendents
followed up the Stikine and became Tahltan. This is now the most
numerous family of the tribe.
The Tahltan live by hunting and trapping. The country
is rich in fur-bearing animals and big game. In late years,
since hunters have been attracted thither, they have earned
considerable as guides, besides working for the trading
companies' pack-teams. They are an adaptable people, who are
fast giving up the traditions of the past for the luxuries of
civilization, with which their earnings supply them, and in the
course of a few years there will be little left of their more
primitive life. They numbered 229 in 1909, and have reached that
stage where they are holding their own. They are of medium
stature, spare rather than stout, and have high cheek-bones,
full mouth, aquiline nose rather broad at the base, small hands
and feet, coarse black hair, and mild and pleasant expression.
On the whole they are an honest, agreeable, kindly people,
hospitably inclined and dignified in bearing. In many instances
their admixture with the Tlingit is expressed in their features,
producing a much less pleasing type.
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