Tlingit

The Tlingit or Lingít (/ˈtlɪŋkɪt, ˈklɪŋkɪt/ ^ⓘ TLING-kit, KLING-kit) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. As of 2022^[update], they constitute two of the 231 federally recognized Tribes of Alaska. Most Tlingit are Alaska Natives; however, some are First Nations in Canada.

Their mother tongue is the Tlingit language, a Na-Dene language. Tlingit people today belong to several federally recognized Alaska Native tribes including the Angoon Community Association, Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes, Chilkat Indian Village, Chilkoot Indian Association, Craig Tribal Association, Hoonah Indian Association, Ketchikan Indian Corporation, Klawock Cooperative Association, the Organized Village of Kasaan, the Organized Village of Kake, the Organized Village of Saxman, Petersburg Indian Association, Skagway Village, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, and the Wrangell Cooperative Association. Some citizens of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska are of Tlingit heritage. Taku Tlingit are enrolled in the Douglas Indian Association in Alaska and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Canada.

The Tlingit have a matrilineal kinship system, with children born into the mother's clan, and property and hereditary roles passing through the mother's line. Their culture and society developed in the temperate rainforest of the southeast Alaskan coast and the Alexander Archipelago. The Tlingit have maintained a complex hunter-gatherer culture based on semi-sedentary management of fisheries. Hereditary slavery was practiced extensively until it was outlawed by the United States Government. The Inland Tlingit live in the far northwestern part of the province of British Columbia and the southern Yukon in Canada.

Their autonym Łingít means 'People of the Tides'. The Russian name Koloshi (Колоши, from a Sugpiaq-Alutiiq term kulut'ruaq for the labret worn by women) or the related German name Koulischen may be encountered referring to the people in older historical literature, such as Grigory Shelikhov's 1796 map of Russian America.

The greatest territory historically occupied by the Tlingit extended from the Portland Canal along the present border between Alaska and British Columbia, north to the coast just southeast of the Copper River delta in Alaska. The Tlingit occupied almost all of the Alexander Archipelago, except the southernmost end of Prince of Wales Island and its surroundings, where the Kaigani Haida moved just before the first encounters with European explorers.

The Coastal Tlingit tribes controlled one of the mountain passes into the Yukon interior; they were divided into three tribes: the Chilkat Tlingit (Jilḵáat Ḵwáan) along the Chilkat River and on Chilkat Peninsula, the Chilkoot Tlingit (Jilḵoot Ḵwáan) and the Taku Tlingit (Tʼaaḵu Ḵwáan:) along the Taku River.

Inland, the Tlingit occupied areas along the major rivers that pierce the Coast Mountains and Saint Elias Mountains and flow into the Pacific, including the Alsek, Tatshenshini, Chilkat, Taku, and Stikine rivers. With regular travel up these rivers, the Tlingit developed extensive trade networks with Athabascan tribes of the interior, and commonly intermarried with them. From this regular travel and trade, a few relatively large populations of Tlingit settled around Atlin, Teslin, and Tagish Lakes, whose headwaters flow from areas near the headwaters of the Taku River.

Delineating the current territory of the Tlingit is complicated because they live in both Canada and the United States, they lack designated reservations, other complex legal and political concerns make the situation confusing, and their population is highly mobile. They also share territory with Athabascan peoples such as the Tahltan, Kaska, and Tagish. In Canada, the Interior Tlingit communities, such as Atlin, British Columbia (Taku River Tlingit), Teslin, Yukon (Teslin Tlingit Council), and Carcross, Yukon (Carcross/Tagish First Nation) have reserves.