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Tlingit
Tlingit,
group of North American tribes of the Athapaskan language
family and of the Northwest
Pacific Coast culture area. They inhabited the Pacific
coast of southeastern Alaska. All the tribes speak the
same language.
The economy of the Tlingit is based mainly on fishing,
and they are especially noted for their skill in
wood carving.
In
both appearance and social customs, they closely
resemble the neighboring Haida.
The
tribes include the Sitka, Auk, Huna, and Tonga.
The
Tlingit fought frequently with the early Russians
who settled in Alaska.
Today,
the largest concentration of Tlingit is in Alaska,
where many Tlingit work in the logging and fishing
industries.
In
1971 the tribes received money and land as a result
of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
In
1990, 13,925 people in the United States claimed
to be of Tlingit descent.
"Tlingit,"
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com
© 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Tlingit
The
Tlingit occupied the coast of southeastern Alaska
from Mount St. Elias to the Portland Canal, with the
exception of part of Prince of Wales Island, which
had been occupied by the Haida shortly before contact
with Europeans.
Like
the other tribes of the North Pacific Coast, their
staple food was fish (principally halibut, salmon
and eulachon), but the flesh of seals, porpoises and
sea otters, and an abundance of berries, roots, shellfish
and seaweed, gave their diet a considerable measure
of variety.
(IC
Indians of Canada"," D. Jenness)
Museum
of Civilization, Ottawa, Canada
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