Shtax’héen Kwáan Shagóon:
Names and places of the Stikine Tlingit
James A. Crippen
[email protected]
7 April 2007
Abstract
An ethnohistorical examination of placenames belonging to the Stikine
Tlingit (Tl. Shtax’héen Kwáan). Sources include both oral and written history
from Russian, British, American, and Tlingit perspectives. Besides gathering
a number of widely dispersed and nearly forgotten placenames into a single
work, this paper includes attempts to explain the linguistic meaning of the
names and to fix them in the wider Tlingit sociopolitical environment.
.
I
e Tlingit people are the indigenous inhabitants of Southeast Alaska and parts of
neighboring British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. Archaeological evidence
for inhabitation in the Southeast Alaska region dates back to between 11 000 and
9800 years before the present (Ames and Maschner 1999:68), which is probably before the date of the last glacial maximum (Pojar and MacKinnon 1994:15). Material
recovered from archaeological digs indicates a fairly continuous inhabitation and
development of culture in the region from the oldest finds through the historical
present.
..
E
e land inhabited by the Tlingit is beautiful but forbidding. Southeast Alaska
comprises a small “30 mile wide strip of mainland bordered by an 80 mile wide
compact chain of islands”, which are “mountainous, rough, broken, and covered
with dense growths of spruce, hemlock, and cedar except on the higher summits”
1
(Office of Coast Survey 2005:117). e winter weather is a “seemingly endless procession of storms responsible for dreary, gray skies and frequent rain and snow”,
with temperatures varying between 10 °C (50 °F) and −10 °C (15 °F) (id.:120ff.).
Summer is little different, characterized by frequently cloudy skies and intermittent precipitation, with temperatures climbing up to 20 °C (68 °F) (id.). Along the
steep river valleys which pierce the Coast Range, the clouds moderate somewhat
but temperatures are generally colder, both from higher elevations and from the
extensive glaciers which feed the silty rivers.
e profuse rain and snowfall from the sullen weather supports an extremely
dense and productive biome, with thick forests of mostly coniferous trees, particularly Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis, Tlingit shéiyi) and Western hemlock (Tsuga
heterophylla, yán), as well as yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, xáay) (Pojar and MacKinnon 1994:15). e famed western redcedar (uja plicata, laax),
so important to the life of all other Northwest Coast groups, only grows south of
Frederick Sound in Southeast Alaska because of the increasingly cold winters further north; as such it is highly sought aer for Tlingit woodworking but not always
readily available. e great abundance of easily worked wood meant that stone was
used only sparingly in prehistoric tools, leaving little behind for the archaeologist
to uncover.
e marine environment supports large numbers of salt water and anadromous
fish, which formed the majority of the prehistoric diet and still provide the staple
Tlingit foodstuffs to this day. Fish of particular note in the Tlingit diet include
the various species of Pacific salmon (Onchorynchus spp., in Tlingit xaat1 ), Pacific
herring (Clupea pallasi, yaaw), eulachon2 (aleichthys pacificus, saak), and Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis, naalx). e Tlingit name for halibut is synonymous with wealth or great riches, a reflection of the enormous size of older
individuals.
In addition to fish, marine mammals such as harbor or “hair” seals (Phoca
vitulina, tsaa), Steller’s sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus, taan), Dall’s porpoises (Phocoenoides dallii, cheech), and sea otters (Enhydra lutris, yáxwch’) form a source of
both food and resources.
It should be noted that the Tlingit have never historically hunted whales unlike
most other indigenous inhabitants of the Northwest Coast. e traditional explanations for this practice vary, but the most concrete reason for avoidance is that
1
A number of different Tlingit names exist for the different species and their different stages of
life, testifying to their enduring cultural significance.
2
In Southeast Alaska this fish is called “hooligan” /ˈhu.lɪ.ɡən/, but “oolichan” /ˈu.lɪ.kʰən/ in
British Columbia. Both names derive from Chinook Jargon /ˈʔu.lɪ.χən/.
2
whale can be classed with “beach food”, i.e. food which takes little effort to harvest
and is thus an indicator of poverty. It is however quite obvious that considerable
effort must be expended to successfully kill one, and as such the idea of harvest
simplicity seems inappropriate. But if the whale is considered as a unit food source
the return on harvest is far too much for a single family to process. As such, harvesting whales requires extensive cooperation from a larger group, which would in
Tlingit terms require some form of labor compensation besides simple shares in
the take. So whales might also be considered to be “too complicated” to harvest,
because of the attendant social obligations which would arise from the large scale
cooperative hunting venture. Indeed, oral histories include taking advantage of
beached whales which must be the preeminent example of “beach food”, but whale
hunting appears to have never been an important economic activity even in the
archaeological record of the region (Ames and Maschner 1999).
Land animals are hunted in the fall and winter when the salmon runs have
completed. Sitka black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis, guwakaan) are
highly prized for both their meat and their hide. Black bear (Ursus americanus,
s’eek) and brown bear (U. arctos, xóots) are taken primarily for their hides, however bear meat is fairly unpalatable except during the early fall berry season. Other
land mammals hunted for fur or meat include wolves (Canis lupus, gooch), beaver
(Castor canadensis, s’igeidí), mink (Mustela vison, lukshiyáan), and in the mainland river valleys, moose (Alces alces, dzískw) and porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum,
xalak’ách’). River otters3 (Lontra canadensis, kóoshdaa) were traditionally avoided
because of their unwelcome associations with shamanism and death by drowning
(Kan 1989), however hunting and trapping of them increased marginally with the
introduction of Christianity.
.. S
e Tlingit divide their society into two exogamous moieties, one known in English as “Raven” and the other variously as “Wolf ”, “Eagle”, or occasionally “Brown
Bear”. ey further separate each moiety into a large number of matrilineal clans,
in Tlingit termed naa. e moieties or “sides” serve little or no direct political
role, although they frequently provide an initial division for any large gathering
of Tlingit people. is lack of political salience for the moiety as a whole is underscored by the lack of a Tlingit term referring directly to moiety, which is instead lumped together with naa as e.g. Yéil naa “Raven clan(s)”. Instead the clan
3
Locally called “land otter” in contrast with the “sea otter”, probably because rivers are somewhat
scarce in the islands.
3
functions as the primary social unit among all Tlingit people, usually regardless
of territory (see kwáan below). e so-called “chief ” in Euroamerican historical
narratives is usually a local clan leader or naashadekáa,4 a position which is inherited matrilineally from maternal uncle to nephew, but which is ratified by the
agreement of other highly ranked clan members.
Beneath the clan are houses (hít) which are identified with the house buildings of a traditional Tlingit village. Today nearly all of the traditional houses have
disappeared, however as Emmons points out, “a name once given to a clan house
survives the mere structure” (Hope 2003). at is, the house remains a salient social group for generations despite destruction of the physical building. In a given
house, the house leader (hít s’aatí) is one of the highest ranked elder members who
has been chosen by the other elders as a thoroughly knowledgable and qualified
representative of the house. e house leader serves as caretaker of the house, its
history, and its at.óow (see below), and speaks for the house on ceremonial occasions. e house leader’s office may coincide with that of clan leader if the given
house is the highest ranking or oldest house of the clan.
Any smaller kinship subdivisions are essentially informal arrangements and
are largely irrelevant by political reckoning. Nevertheless, many Tlingit elders are
keen genealogists and are intimately aware of not only the complex kinship relations within their own clan and those of their neighbors, but also of other clans
and houses with which they may have very little social business. is maintenance
of genealogical knowledge outside of one’s own house and clan has allowed many
modern Tlingits to reconstruct kinship knowledge previously lost in the rush of
American or Canadian acculturation.
Although today the distribution of clans and houses is fairly rigid, the clan and
house divisions were both historically and prehistorically somewhat fluid. Houses
expanded and split over time to form new clans, oen signified by the telltale
-hittaan or “people of the house” suffix in their new clan names. Besides simple
population growth, internal disputes also lead to division, particularly when a dissenting group of clan members le their original home and travelled to a foreign
village or established a new settlement in a distant location. Despite resettling and
renaming, descendant clan groups today preserve the knowledge of the lands and
clans from whence they came, and traditional orators oen reflect upon these relationships in their addresses to other clans.
Although the clan system is the primary and most salient political and social
organization among the Tlingit, a second geographic system is also prevalent. e
4
Trans. “person towards the head of the clan”.
4
indigenous land of the Tlingit, the Lingít Aaní or “Tlingit Country” is divided up
into 21 separate geographic units known as kwáan (Hope 2003). Each kwáan is
politically centered today around a particular settlement, however it is clear from
both oral and historical records that there were normally multiple winter villages
in a kwáan. An example is the Xutsnoowú5 Kwáan historically consisting of at
least Angoon (Tl. Aangóon), Killisnoo (Kenasnoow), Basket Bay (Kák’w), and Neltushkin (Naltóoshgaan), among others (Goldschmidt and Haas 1998:67–72). Indeed, as will be shown in this paper, the Shtax’héen6 Kwáan still includes a large
number of historic and prehistoric village sites, although today only the towns of
Wrangell and Petersburg are inhabited.
Because the kwáan forms a political unit which crosses the divisions between
clans, its position in Tlingit society does not fit into the hierarchical moiety structure. Clan relationships are strongly maintained across kwáan boundaries, however there is still some distance sensed between clan members raised in different
kwáan. If a clan went to war with another which resided in a different kwáan,
members of a cognate clan in the foreign kwáan were obliged to at least not interfere with the war if they were not actually assisting in the fight against their own
local brothers-in-law. On the other hand, such “foreign” clans would also oen
argue for peace between the warring groups, and would serve as intermediaries in
peace negotiations.
.. A.  S
Without delving too deeply into traditional Tlingit philosophy, it is essential to understand a few culturally specific concepts for this discussion. One of the most important aspects of Tlingit culture is the concept of at.óow7 (Worl 1998). is term
translates roughly as “a thing owned”, but in English language discussion among
Tlingits the native term is usually used. e idea of at.óow is one of property belonging to a clan or house group whose use or disposal is regulated by consensus
decisions among the clan aristocrats. e Tlingit concept of property embedded
in at.óow is not restricted to real property, i.e. land and the structures built upon
it. Instead, Tlingit property also includes movable property, intellectual property,
and the rights to exploit resources or what could be termed “usufruct” property.
In this paper we are concerned with at.óow as intellectual property, particularly
names and their associated stories which label the landscape.
Nearly all names in Tlingit culture are associated with or derived from sto5
Also known as Xudzidaa Kwáan by some residents.
In English, “Stikine” /stɪˈkin/.
7
Also at.óowu, which has the possessive suffix -wu/-yi.
6
5
ries. Since a given story typically recounts the history or tradition of a particular
clan, stories are normally a form of intellectual property possessed by clans. is
posssession is not always exclusive, but exclusivity can be predicted by how specifically a given story refers to a character or crest which is closely identified with a
clan. If a story speaks of Raven then it can be guessed that Raven moiety clans will
make some claim to ownership of the story. If a story mentions frogs then it is
almost certain that the Kiks.ádi, who claim the frog (xíxch’) as their predominant
crest, will argue their possession of the story to the exclusion of all other clans.
us since names are closely tied to stories, names are also possessions of clans.
Another form of at.óow important to this discussion is the idea of shagóon. is
term is difficult to translate from Tlingit, as shown by the following definition from
a Tlingit noun dictionary (Leer et al. 2001:T63).
a shagóon — its source, origin, background; fundament(s), element(s), component(s); its what it is (to be) made of; its parts, components, materials;
cause and effect
du shagóon — ancestor(s) of his/her clan or nation; his/her background,
heredity
In a sense, shagóon is the history of a person and their clan, although in another
sense shagóon is the future of a person and their clan (Kan 1989:ch. 3). e heritage of a clan revolves around its crests which represent its history and stories, and
these are central to the idea of shagóon. Because these crests and the designs associated with them are a form of at.óow, it can be seen that shagóon and at.óow are
intimately related concepts. Names are a form of shagóon because they are at.óow,
and hence they are both representative of a clan’s heritage and at the same time are
a clan’s heritage. us the identification and explication of names is inherent in the
description of the shagóon of a people. As implied in the title, this paper describes
the shagóon of the Shtax’héen Kwáan in terms of its places and their names.
.
N-T N
e name “Tlingit” is peculiar for a few reasons. It is an English ethnonym derived
from the Tlingit lingít, or /ɬɪn.kɪ ́t/ in IPA transcription, meaning “person, people”.
e English pronunciation /ˈklɪŋ.kʰɪt/ is approximated by the English words “cling
kit”, clearly at odds with the spelling. An explanation from Chinook Jargon is possible for this unexpected spelling. In Chinook Jargon the voiceless lateral fricative
sound /ɬ/ is common, as it is in many if not all of the languages of the Pacific
Northwest. is sound is quite exotic and difficult to replicate for English speakers
despite its existence in many languages, e.g. Welsh (written ll). English learners
6
of Chinook Jargon therefore resorted to various approximations, with /kl/ being
perhaps the most common. is is recognizable in the many extant transcriptions
of Chinook Jargon words such as klatskanie (CJ /ɬatsˈke.ni/, Eng. /klætsˈkʰeɪ.ni/)
“outside, backwoods”.
is explanation for the pronunciation of the name is adequate, however the
reason for the spelling of English /kl/ by tl remains to be explained. e name
“Tlingit” has suffered from a wide variety of other spellings over its history of
contact with English speakers, including such examples as lingit, Hlinkit, and
Qulinkit, among others. A complete list of the variations in spelling this name has
not yet been compiled, but it would be of great help to researchers in these days
of computer databases where thorough searching is hampered by the profusion of
spellings in early works.
To further confuse the record, during the Russian period of Alaskan colonization the Tlingit were known to the Russians and their scribes by a completely different ethnonym, usually rendered as Kolosh (pl. Koloshi, Cyr. Колошъ, Колоши),
but also occasionally as Kolyushi (Колюши), as in Kamenskii (1985). German
transcriptions of this name include Koulischen and Koljuschen, as used by Aurel
Krause in the first professional ethnography of the Tlingit (Krause 1956). e
French also described the Tlingit as Kolsches which was clearly taken from German
writers, however later writers moved to Tlinquit or Tlinkit, e.g. De La Grasserie
(1902). e term kolosh is apparently derived from the Aleut kalu:kax̣,8 which is a
term describing the labret prominently worn by aristocratic (Tl. aanyátx’i) Tlingit
women (de Laguna 1990:226). e Dena'ina of the Cook Inlet apparently adopted
the Russian name for the Tlingit with their term gulušutna or gulušuht’na (id.).
Other Native ethnonyms for the Tlingit were quite varied. e Haida, one of
the two groups having perhaps the most prehistoric contact with the Tlingit, had
at least two names for them. One was łî'nagît, clearly derived from the Tlingit’s
own name for themselves, and the other was łaŋgas, which means roughly “northerners” (de Laguna 1990:226). e Coast Tsimshian, the other close neighbors of
the Tlingit, called them gyid-ġbane'dz meaning “people of the north”. e Chugachmiut Eskimos, a group of the Alutiiq or Sugpiaq people who inhabit most of Prince
William Sound, called their neighbors and mortal enemies the Yakutat Tlingit ax̣łut
or “killer whales” aer the crest of a prominent clan among the Laxaayík Kwáan
(id.). e Eyak, close neighbors of the Yakutat Tlingit, gave the name to that kwáan
with their term for the Tlingit, ƛaʔx̣aʔlahġ, roughly “people of ƛaʔx̣aʔ” which is the
Eyak name for Yakutat Bay (id.).
8
is and the following terms are given in their original transcriptions, not in IPA.
7
Narrowing the focus to the Wrangell area, the English name “Stikine” derives
from the Tlingit name for the Stikine River, Shtax’ Héen /ʃtʌx’ hín/. In contracted
form this is normally Shtax’héen or Shtax’éen. e exact meaning of the name is
unclear, and explanations include “silty river”, “river clouded with milt”, and “bitter
river”. e last is the most convincing following a derivation of the name from sh
ditaax’, which would translate loosely as “to bite oneself ” (ornton n.d.).
e name “Wrangell” itself derives from Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel (Cyr.
Фердінандъ Петровичъ Врангель), a Russian admiral and explorer, chief administrator of Russian settlements in North America 1829–1835, and president
of the Russian-American Company from 1840 to 1849. is is an English name,
not a Russian one, as the Russians referred to their fort on the location of modern Wrangell as “Redoubt Saint Dionysius” (Cyr. Редутъ Санктъ Дионѵсіусъ).
e name upon English settlement under the Hudson’s Bay Company was “Fort
Stikine”. When the US Army moved into the post aer the sale of Alaska and the
cancellation of the English lease, they renamed the fort “Fort Wrangel”. is was
reduced to “Wrangell” by later white settlers.9 e name “Wrangell” is also applied
to the island on which Wrangell is located, as well as to a narrow passage between
Mitkof and Kupreanof Islands to the north, and to the volcano Mount Wrangell
and its associated mountain range along the Gulf Coast of Alaska.
e placenames used in English today for the many islands and geographic
features in the Stikine region are mostly from Russian and English sources, with
later additions from Americans and Canadians during the gold rush periods and
subsequent settling. An excellent source for descriptions and histories of these
Euroamerican names is Orth’s Dictionary of Alaska Place Names (Orth 1967). Unfortunately, the scholarship on Tlingit names was poor at the time, and as such this
volume is not reliable for Native names in the region.
.
M
A date for the settling of the Stikine region has yet to be determined, either from archaeological investigation or by geomorphological comparison with Tlingit myths.
Nevertheless, it is reasonable to believe that the Stikine area has been inhabited at
least since aer the last ice age ended to provide passage through the Coast Range
from the interior. is is congruent with Tlingit myths which describe various
clans migrating down river from the interior. is shared narrative is relatively
similar to other Tlingit clan migration narratives which feature groups of people
9
e extra l appeared at some point in the late 19th century for reasons unknown. It does not
exist in the original German name or in the other Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean.
8
suffering in the brutal climate of the interior and subsequently following a river
to the ocean. e Stikine River seems to be particularly significant as a migration
corridor, given that many clans not now resident in the Shtax’héen kwáan claim
descent from people who travelled down the river. But not all Tlingit people migrated down the Stikine – rivers referenced in Tlingit migration narratives also
include the Nass, Skeena, and Taku, among others.
e following narrative abstract gives the flavor of many of these stories. Clan
migration stories are particularly important and highly valued at.óow and are not
meant to be freely told, hence I have avoided describing the migration story of any
clan in particular.
e people in the interior live a nomadic life, wandering from river
valley to river valley in search of a rich land to settle in. Aer travelling down the Stikine river for some time the migrants come across a
glacier which bars their path. Young men climb the glacier and traverse it, returning to report that there is land visible on the other side,
and they note that the river seems to flow beneath the glacier to find an
outlet beyond. Two elders volunteer to travel beneath the ice, arguing
that their lives are less important than others because of their advanced
age. ey journey beneath the glacier in a crude cottonwood canoe10
and arrive on the other side. ey then attract the attention of the
remaining people through a large signal fire, assuring them that the
passage beneath the glacier is truly open. e people then build many
canoes and travel under the glacier to reach the rich coastal lands beyond, where they settle to become the true Tlingit people.
Some clans are offshoots of parent clans who migrated to the region, such as the
S’iknax.ádi and Kayáashkihittaan who derive from the Naanyaa.aayí, a claim underscored by names and stories shared between them (DeWitt n.d.). However there
are a number of clans who maintain a separate identity and claim they migrated to
the islands in an event separate from others. us the majority of the Stikine clans
are not directly descended from progenitor clans. Tracing these descent patterns is
difficult, particularly since one clan may claim that another descended from them,
but the supposed descendant clan may disagree and claim an original lineage. See
table 1 on page 18 for a list of clans and houses of the Shtax’héen Kwáan compiled
from several sources.
10
Tl. duk, a common and somewhat disposable mode of riverine transportation until the American introduction of inexpensive plank boat construction.
9
.
P
Wrangell is today the primary Tlingit town in the region, although the town of
Petersburg is perhaps more commercially important. e traditional Tlingit settlement surrounds Wrangell Harbor, which is a small, north-facing bay sheltered
to the west by Point Shustak. e Tlingit name of this bay is Kaachxana.áak'w,
“Kaachxán’s Little Lake”. According to Margaret Gross-Hope, the name derives
from a man named Kaachxán who was a hermit or misanthrope who retired from
his winter village to this summer camp site and built permanent housing. His presence later attracted other residents, much to his dismay. It is uncertain which
clan he was, but the Kaach.ádi are a likely group given their name, which may
translated as “people of Kaach”, however many other clans with -.ádi names refer to ancient settlements, and naming a clan aer a person is rare if not unheard
of. Kaachxana.áak’w may or may not have been a small winter village before Euroamerican contact, but its later growth was unquestionably influenced by white
traders from its proximity to the river mouth and hence control of the lucrative
interior trade (Andrews 1937).
Old Town was the previous major settlement in the region, located on the shore
of Wrangell Island halfway down Zimovia Strait in the “Village Narrows” (Goldschmidt and Haas 1998:73). e Tlingit name has been written by many as “Kotzlitzan” or similar variations. e name is supposed to be Kaalch’al’aan per Swanton
(1908:397), but ornton gives Ch’aal’it’aan (ornton n.d.). e meaning is uncertain, but has something to do with willow bushes from ch’áal’ “willows”. e
version from Swanton contains a contracted form ch’al’ which is not unusual for
Tlingit, but the prefixed portion is peculiar – kaal is not a common word in Tlingit
if it is a word at all. One possibility might be dividing it into kaa “person” and l
which is a negative verbal prefix or a reduced verbal classifier prefix, but neither of
these give any further elucidation to the meaning. On the other hand, if ornton’s
version is correct then the name may be derived from ch’áal’ hít aan “willow house
town”, or perhaps from ch’áal’ at aan “willow thing town” among other possibilities. Whatever the meaning of the name, before the move to present day Wrangell,
this site seems to have been the most important winter village for the Shtax’héen
Kwáan. Old poles and house posts were extant through the mid-20th century according to many Wrangell residents, although visits as early as the 1970s found
little but alder and berry brush covering the site.
e mouth of Mill Creek, on the mainland shore about five miles south of
the Stikine River delta, was another important village site in the precontact era.
Its Tlingit name was Chux’áas.aan, “waterfall town”, from de Laguna (Emmons
10
1991:81). It was oen written “Chugasan” in historical records, e.g. by Krause
(1956) and Andrews (1937). e word x’áas means “waterfall” (Leer et al. 2001:92),
but I have no explanation for the initial chu- which is not a prefix known to me in
Tlingit.
e place south of Wrangell along the Zimovia Highway which is now known
as Shoemaker Bay – or Schumacher Bay on some older maps – was purportedly the
original settlement of the Naanyaa.aayí in the region according to Olson (1967:49).
ornton says this village was called Keishangita.aan, meaning “alder top village”
(ornton n.d.). Sitka alder (Alnus crispa ssp. sinuata, also A. sitchensis) is known
in Tlingit as keishísh (Leer et al. 2001:T36) which is recognizably close to this name
but differs crucially by the initial consonant, which is velar rather than uvular.
A location nameless in English, on the southern mainland shore of the mouth of
the Stikine River, was called Shaaxlu.aan “gray currant point town” or Shákwlu.aan
“strawberry point town” according to de Laguna (Emmons 1991:81). is was
given as Shuk-thu-an in Emmons’s original (and highly unreliable) transcription.
I am inclined to the latter of the two alternatives because gray currants are not a
particularly relished berry however strawberries have always been highly prized.
e village S’iknáx11 has two locations proposed for it. DeWitt gives a place
somewhere up the Stikine River near Telegraph Creek (DeWitt n.d.), which is confirmed by S’iknax.ádi elder Margaret Gross-Hope. ornton gives an alternative
location as Limestone Inlet, a small bay on the mainland coast along Stephens Passage near the mouth of the Taku River (ornton n.d.). e meaning is oen given
as “grindstone”, or “grindstone town” for S’iknáx.aan. However the usual term for
a grindstone is gíl’aa (Leer et al. 2001:T21), from the verb yayagéel’ “to grind, to
sharpen with a stone” (Story and Naish 1973:331).12 e word seek’ is “black bear”
(Ursus americanus), and the word seet’ is “glacier”. I hesitantly propose a relation
to seet’-náx meaning “along the glacier” or to seek’-náx meaning “along or beside
the black bear”, although these are only to be taken as suggestions. I vaguely recall
a story about a stone which sits atop a glacier, and as such lean more towards the
former of the two proposed derivations, but merely from gut feeling.
Another location somewhere up the Stikine River but before the Stikine Grand
Canyon, known as Shaal Aan “fish trap town” from a notable fish trap used there
(DeWitt n.d.). is location is supposed to be one of a number of villages estab11
is is oen Sik’náx, and it is unclear which pronunciation is “correct” or at least more etymologically accurate. Both are about equally common, and both are in use by members of the clan. I
have chosen one version somewhat arbitrarily.
12
is is unrelated to gíl’ “cliff ” or géel’ “mountain pass” (Leer et al. 2001:T21), both of which are
near homophones.
11
lished along the Stikine during the migration of the Naanyaa.aayí and their kin
down to the coast. Unfortunately, many of these locations are uncertain and their
names have been mostly lost.
Anan13 Creek, near the mouth of the Bradfield Canal, is oen just “Anan” to
locals. is name is an example of a name like “Stikine” which has been transferred
successfully from Tlingit to English, and in Tlingit it is An.áan or “resting village”
(ornton n.d.). is village site was apparently never very significant, given how
little mention of it is made in oral and recorded history. Today, however, Anan is
an important location for Wrangell tourism, the site of the Anan Creek Wildlife
Viewing Observatory14 which is famed for its concentration of both brown and
black bears during the salmon run.
Helm Bay on the Cleveland Peninsula, was the prehistoric site of a village called
Kiks. According to the Kiks.ádi clan this village was their home for some time
and the location from which their clan name derives (ornton n.d.). e neighboring landscape features are derived from this name, such as Kiks Áa “Kiks bay”,
Kikskax’áat’ “island on Kiks”, Kiks.áak’w “little Kiks lake”, and Kiksx’aa “Kiks point”.
Wood Point, the eastern point of the entrance to omas Bay on the mainland
coast across Frederick Sound from Kupreanof Island, is Taalkuka.aan “town on
Taalkú”. is site is named aer Taalkú “inside the bowl-shaped basket”, which is
the name for omas Bay. is location is the source of name for the Taalkweidí
clan (ornton n.d.). e bay came into their possession aer the death of a clan
member who was living at the entrance, whose sons killed the monster named
Kaxkuyendu.aa which took his life. e monster is claimed as a crest for the clan,
as evidenced by the Kaxkuyendu.aa Hít or Water Spirit House. e prominent
Devils umb mountain behind omas Bay is named Taalkunáxk’u Shaa which
translates to “mountain along the back of Taalku”, and is also a possession of the
Taalkweidí, giving the name for the Taalkunáxk’u Shaa Hít or Devils umb Mountain House, oen just Shaa Hít or “Mountain House”. A group of the Taalkweidí
later moved to a village on Duncan Canal which was called Lukaax, and these people became the Lukaax.ádi clan found in the Áak’w Kwáan and the Jilkáat Kwáan,
as well as a number of other northern kwáan.
e modern town of Petersburg is known in Tlingit as Gántiyaakw Séedi, which
translates as “Steamboat Passage”. is is obviously a modern name, and was applied to the area aer steamboats began travelling through the Wrangell Narrows
on the way to Juneau during the gold rush period. e term also refers to the en13
14
Pronounced in English as /ˈæn.æn/.
See e.g. http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/ro/naturewatch/southeast/anan/anan.htm.
12
tire Wrangell Narrows between Kupreanof and Mitkof Islands. e original name
for the Tlingit settlement called Kupreanof, which sits opposite the Narrows from
the town of Petersburg, was Séet Ká “on the passage”. is latter name should not
be confused with the town of Sitka, whose English name derives from the Tlingit
Sheet’ká.
Brown Cove is a small cove on the mainland shore about 5.5 miles northeast
of the northern entrance to Wrangell Narrows near Petersburg. is location was
the site of a village known as Kaasx’áa which may be related to kasgaax “weeping,
groaning” (Leer et al. 2001:T32). Another potential gloss is Kaas-x’á-a, meaning
“touching the mouth of Kaas”. e site is reputed to feature a number of petroglyphs, and is the name source of the Kaasx’agweidí clan.
e mountain Devils umb, Taalkunáxk’u Shaa was mentioned previously
as being a crest of the Taalkweidí, situated behind Taalku or omas Bay. Another notable mountain which is claimed by a clan is Seikóok Shaa, owned by the
Naanyaa.aayí (Swanton 1909:231). Keithahn, who was resident in Wrangell for
some time as the director of the Wrangell Institute (an Indian boarding school),
argues that this mountain is probably Kates Needle which is situated along the Stikine River at the head of Mud Glacier (Keithahn 1940).
ere are also many placenames in stories but which are not clearly associated
with any particular location. Perhaps they once were known places which have
since lapsed from memory, or perhaps they are merely literary devices meant to
provide an appropriate setting for a tale. An example example is Kilnáxei, an unknown location associated with a short story about winter (Swanton 1909:43). is
name does not seem to have an obvious meaning in Tlingit, lending credence to the
idea that it may be an old name long forgotten, or perhaps a name adopted along
with the story from a foreign language. Such adoptions of foreign names are fairly
common in Tlingit culture, the most salient being the name Shéiksh, the name of
Chief Shakes taken aer a battle with the Nisga.a people (Neal n.d.). e name
Xixch’ Xáayika Aan15 is perhaps an example of a purely literary device, as it was a
legendary village where frogs were plentiful and the frog crest was obtained by the
Kiks.ádi (Swanton 1909:232).
15
Perhaps translated as “frogs inside of it town” but this is only my guess which has not been
verified by a native speaker. e word xixch’ is clearly “frog”, and -yik is a suffix meaning “within,
inside”.
13
.
C
A few outstanding problems remain with this work. One is of course that it does
not provide complete coverage of all the placenames used in the Stikine area, a task
which is enormous at best and probably can never be completed due to the decreasing base of knowledge which is rapidly disappearing along with the last traditionally educated elders. ornton’s work sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute
(ornton n.d.) will provide a significantly increased catalog of placenames along
with some associated stories, and this will serve as a strong foundation for future
placename work among all the Tlingit kwáan, however it is and cannot be a complete onomasticon. Another issue at hand is that the stories behind many of the
names which have been given here are not certain. Some, such as the story about
Kaxkuyendu.aa in Taalku, are fairly well known. Many others are poorly known if
at all, and only with luck will they be recovered in time for knowledgable elders to
verify them.
One problem not raised in this paper is that of English placenames which are
clearly derived from Tlingit predecessors, but which have no accurate Tlingit form
as yet. ese are more common than might be thought, even with the knowledge
of native Tlingit speakers who were raised in the area with a traditional education.
An of these sorts of names is “Shustak Point” or “Point Shekesti”, both names for
the point of land at the mouth of Kaachxana.áak’w or Wrangell Harbor, and both
of uncertain translation. Another clearly Tlingit-derived name is “Kah Sheets”, the
name of both a bay and a lake on the southern shore of Kupreanof Island to the
south of Duncan Canal. e former part of the name is probably from káa “person”,
but as of yet I have found nothing in any historical sources which gives even the
barest hint of why the Tlingit name was retained here rather than a Euroamerican
name being applied.
It is of course possible that these names are not in fact derived from Tlingit
sources, but there are only two other non-European languages which might serve
from being spoken in the area as sources for such names, those being Haida and
Chinook Jargon. e derivations from Chinook Jargon are however usually rather
obvious, particularly since a fairly repetitive catalog of CJ names are scattered up
and down the Northwest Coast. e use of Haida for names in this region would be
peculiar, especially considering that most Haida placenames in Southeast Alaska
were originally derived from Tlingit predecessors. So unless some source is discovered which illuminates these names, they will continue to be “lost Tlingit”.
us this paper stands as a bulwark against the continuing loss of Tlingit placenames, particularly in areas where Euroamerican acculturation has been strongest,
14
such as Wrangell. With the increasing interest in Tlingit language and culture
among both Tlingit and non-Tlingit youth in Southeast Alaska, the preservation
of these names serves as a compass which children can orient themselves on land
and water with the paths of their ancestors.
R
Ames, K. and H. D. G. Maschner
1999. Peoples of the Northwest Coast. London: ames and Hudson.
Andrews, C. L.
1937. Wrangell and the gold of the Cassiar. Seattle, WA: Luke Tinker.
De La Grasserie, R.
1902. Cinq langues de la Colombie Britannique: Haïda, Tshimshian, Kwagiutl, Nootka et
Tlinkit, volume 24 of Bibliotheque Linguistique Américaine. Paris: J. Maisonneuve.
de Laguna, F.
1990. Tlingit. In Handbook of North American Indians, W. Suttles, ed., volume 7 “Northwest Coast”, P. 203–228. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
DeWitt, F.
n.d. Wrangell stories. Narrative recorded on cassette tape circa 1980.
Emmons, G. T.
1991. e Tlingit Indians, volume 70 of Anthropological papers of the American Museum
of Natural History. New York: American Museum of Natural History. Edited with additions by Frederica de Laguna.
Goldschmidt, W. R. and T. H. Haas
1998. Haa aaní, our land: Tlingit and Haida land rights and use. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Originally “Possessory Rights of the Natives of Southeastern
Alaska”, 1946. Edited by omas F. ornton.
Hope, A.
2003. Traditional Tlingit country: Tlingit tribes, clans, and clan houses. Poster from
Tlingit Readers, Inc.
Kamenskii, A.
1985. Tlingit Indians of Alaska, volume 2 of e Rasmuson Library Historical Translation
Series. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press. Translated with an introduction and
supplementary material by Sergei Kan.
15
Kan, S.
1989. Symbolic immortality: e Tlingit potlatch of the nineteenth century, Smithsonian
Series in Ethnographic Inquiry. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Keithahn, E. L.
1940. e authentic history of Shakes Island and clan. Wrangell, AK: Wrangell Historical
Society.
Krause, A.
1956. e Tlingit Indians: Results of a trip to the Northwest Coast of America and the
Bering Straits, number 26 in American Ethnological Society Monographs. Seattle, WA:
University of Washington Press. Translation of Die Tlinkit-Indianer, Jena, 1885 by Gunther, Erna.
Leer, J., D. Hitch, and J. Ritter
2001. Interior Tlingit noun dictionary: e dialects spoken by Tlingit elders of Carcross
and Teslin, Yukon, and Atlin, British Columbia. Whitehorse, YT: Yukon Native Language
Center.
Neal, P.
n.d. Totem tales carved in cedar: Stories of the wrangell totem poles. Manuscript.
Office of Coast Survey
2005. United States coast pilot 8, Alaska: Dixon Entrance to Cape Spencer, volume 8 of
United States coast pilot, 27th edition. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of
Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service.
Olson, R. L.
1967. Social structure and social life of the Tlingit in Alaska, volume 26 of University of
California Anthropological Records. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Orth, D. J.
1967. Dictionary of Alaska place names, number 567 in United States Geological Survey
Professional Papers. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Pojar, J. and A. MacKinnon
1994. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Vancouver, BC: Lone Pine.
Story, G. L. and C. M. Naish
1973. Tlingit verb dictionary. Fairbanks, AK: Alaska Native Language Center.
16
Swanton, J. R.
1908. Social condition, beliefs, and linguistic relationship of the Tlingit Indians. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Swanton, J. R.
1909. Tlingit myths and texts, volume 39 of Bulletins of the Smithsonian Institution Bureau
of American Ethnology. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
ornton, T. F., ed.
In press. Southeast Alaska Native place names. Seattle, WA: University of Washington
Press. Review manuscript courtesy of omas ornton.
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1998. Tlingit At.óow: Tangible and intangible property. PhD dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
17
Raven (Yéil ) Moiety
Wolf (Gooch) Moiety
Kiks.ádi (R10)
Xíxch’ Hít (Frog)
Gagaan Hít (Sun)
Táax’ Hít (Retaining Wall)
Teeyhíttaan (R11)
Teey Hít (Cedar Bark)
Sukwtineidí (R25) ?
Shdéen Hít (Steel) ?
Kaach.ádi (R28)
Xíxch’ Hít (Frog)b
Yáay Hít (Whale)
Náalx Hít (Rich / Big Halibut)
Gaach Hít (Mat)
Kawdliyáayi Hít (Lowered from the Sky)
Alkaa Hít (Gambling)
Shaas Hít (Rush) ?
Kaasx’agweidí (R32)
Xeitl Hít (underbird)
Tl’adéin Hít (Sideways)
Xíxch’ Xaayí Hít (Frog’s Den)
Taan Hít (Sealion)
Taalkweidí (R33)
Gíl’ Hít (Cliff) ?
Kaxkuyendu.aa Hít (Water Spirit)
Taalkunáxk’u Shaa Hít (Devils umb)
Naanyaa.aayí (W18)
X’átgu Hít (Dogfish)
X’átgu Naasí Hít (Dogfish Guts)
Tatóok Hít (Cave)
Hít Tlein (Big)a
Kóok Hít (Box)
Kaa Yahaayí Hít (Ghost)
Aan Shuká Hít (Village End)
S’iknax.ádi (W19)
X’áan Hít (Red / Fire)
Ank’w Hít (Tsimshian Cane)
Xook’weidí (W26)
Aandaa Óonaa Hít (Cannon)
Gooch Hít (Wolf) ?
Kóon Hít (Flicker) ?
Shdéen Hít (Steel) ?
Xeilkweidí (W31)c
Shalax’eishx’w Hít (Bluejay’s Head) ?
Teikweidí (W32) ?
Wandaa Hít (Armor) ?
Kayáashkihittaand
Kayáash Hít (Shelf)
Kéet Hít (Killer Whale)?
Table 1: Clans and houses of the Wrangell Tlingit from Emmons (1991), Hope
(2003), and Swanton (1908), as well as oral histories (e.g. DeWitt n.d.). Numbers
such as R10 and W18 are De Laguna’s numbering system as in Emmons (1991).
Question marks indicate uncertainty or source disagreement.
a
e house of the Chief Shakes lineage.
Separate from the Kiks.ádi and not a duplicate house.
c
Also called the Xeelkweidí, and the Xeil or Xeel Kwáan. e latter is not a true kwáan, but is
an uncommon clan naming scheme found elsewhere.
d
Usually pronounced Kayáashkiditaan.
b
18