Here Since Time Immemorial
Adapting to colonial reality and culture
Traditionally, the Tlingit people of Sitka governed themselves through the clan structure. Sitka Tribe of Alaska is the current form of Tribal government for Sheet’ká, based on the laws of the United States rather than Tribal tradition.Tlingit clans are now independent of our federally-recognized Tribal government, but they maintain our traditional values and oral history, and their leaders inform our governance in many ways.
Raven Makes His Brother
Told by Charlie Joseph, Sr. and transcribed by Sitka Native Education Program (Ethel Makinen), Raven Makes His Brother is a story of our Lingít people’s beginnings.
Néech wéi yaanagút wéi Yéil, yóo áwé kaduneek…(Raven, walking along the beach…)
After Raven (Yéil) broke daylight on the Night People (Taat Tukuháani), he continued walking. He came upon a fallen Sitka Spruce tree (Shéiyi) and said to it, “Get up so that you can be my brother (Kéek’)”. The Sitka Spruce tree got up and started walking with Raven. They did not get very far when Spruce tree started to limp. Raven did not want his brother to limp, so he threw him down and told him to be a driftwood (Nalháashadi). Raven began to walk again.
He did not walk very far when he came upon a fallen Hemlock tree (Yán). Raven told him, “Get up and be my brother (Kéek’)”. As they started walking, Hemlock began limping just like Spruce tree had. Raven threw him down also and told him to be a driftwood (Nalháashadi) and walked away from him.
Then Raven came upon a fallen Alder tree (Shéix’w) and told him, “Get up and be my brother (Kéek’)”. Alder tree got up and started walking with Raven. This time Raven knew he had found his brother. Alder did not limp like Spruce and Hemlock.
Our Lingít people are told that our lives do not last long since we’re made from Alder (Shéix’w). If we had been made from an Evergreen tree, each of us would have lived two hundred years or more. Also, since we are made from Alder trees, it does not take very much to break us. And when we die, since we were made from an Alder tree, we are cremated and return to the earth, from which we came.
The Arrival of Europeans
The arrival of Europeans in the traditional territory of our people was a catastrophe, resulting in unnatural deaths due to war and disease, deliberate efforts to destroy our culture through forced assimilation, and loss of title to our land, wealth, and at.óow – our sacred property – through outright theft and political coercion.
Individually and collectively, we bear the scars of colonialism. Historical trauma has real, ongoing impacts on our physical and spiritual health and economic wellbeing that we do not have the luxury to forget or ignore. But we did not choose this history, and we do not let it define who we are.
We have always adapted to our environment. We continue to do so today. We are reclaiming our language, practicing our traditions, and building on the knowledge of our ancestors. This is how we are healing from historical trauma and building a better future for present and future generations.
We exercise our sovereign rights and powers within the political structures available to us and advocate for full self-governance at the local, state, and federal levels.