Tagish
The Tagish are a First Nations people primarily located in the Yukon territory of Canada, specifically around the Yukon River, Marsh Lake, and Tagish Lake. Traditionally, they were hunter-gatherers who followed caribou migrations and engaged in fishing. Over time, with the arrival of European fur traders, the Tagish became intermediaries in trade between inland tribes and the coastal Tlingit people, leading to significant cultural exchange and intermarriage. This resulted in many Tagish adopting Tlingit customs and language, contributing to the near extinction of the Tagish language by the twenty-first century.
Today, the modern Tagish populace is primarily found in two communities: the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and the Kwanlin Dun First Nation. Both communities have been granted self-governing status, allowing them to manage their own health care, education, and land use. The Tagish maintain elements of their cultural heritage, including the potlatch ceremony, while their traditional clan structure, influenced by Tlingit practices, remains a significant aspect of their social organization. Despite the challenges faced, the Tagish continue to navigate their identity and cultural legacy in contemporary society.
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Tagish
The Tagish are a First Nations people who live in the Canadian territory of Yukon in the Pacific Northwest. At one time, the Tagish hunted in the forests and fished in the lakes in their traditional homeland near the Yukon River. With the arrival of foreign fur traders, they became intermediaries who facilitated trade between the inland tribes and the coastal Tlingit people. Through interaction and intermarriage, the Tagish began to adopt the ways of the Tlingit. Over time, many Tagish became assimilated into Tlingit culture and language, and the Tagish language is just about extinct in the twenty-first century. The modern Tagish reside primarily in two communities in Yukon—the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and the Kwanlin Dun First Nation.
Background
The first humans in North America are believed to have crossed into modern-day Alaska and Northern Canada over a land bridge in the Bering Strait at least 13,000 to 15,500 years ago. The first archaeological hints of human habitation in the Yukon region date back about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, soon after the glaciers of the last ice age receded. The people of the area developed into hunter-gatherer societies who maintained their traditional cultures for many centuries until the arrival of Russian and European fur traders in the eighteenth century.
The homeland of the Tagish was the area around the source of the Yukon River near Marsh Lake and Tagish Lake in southern Yukon and northern British Columbia. Tagish is a place name in their native tongue meaning "[spring ice] is breaking up." Traditionally, the Tagish were hunters who followed the seasonal migration of the caribou herds. As the fur trade prospered in the nineteenth century, the Tagish began to switch their focus from hunting to trapping. They did not have much direct dealings with the foreigners; instead, they traded furs with the Tlingit who moved inland and handled business at the trading posts. The Tagish also served as go-betweens with the Tlingit and native people farther east.
In 1896, gold was discovered at Rabbit Creek near the Klondike River in Yukon, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. The discovery was credited to an American prospector named George Carmack, but many Tagish maintain it was really one of Carmack's companions, a Tagish man named Skookum Jim, who spotted the gold. The Chilkoot Trail, a traditional Tagish trading route that ran from British Columbia into Alaska, was one of the primary access routes used by prospectors in the early days of the gold rush.
Overview
After centuries of intermingling, many of the First Nations communities in Yukon have populations of mixed cultural backgrounds. The largest Tagish community was the Kwanlin Dun First Nation near Whitehorse, Yukon's capital and most populous city. According to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Kwanlin Dun had a registered population of 984 in 2017. That figure also includes a number of Tlingit and Tutchone people. The Carcross-Tagish First Nation in Carcross, a village south of Whitehorse near the British Columbia border, had a registered population of 679.
The Tagish language was one of many that belonged to the Athabaskan language family, the largest indigenous grouping in North America. Tagish was closely related to the Kaska and Tahltan dialects, other Athabaskan-speaking peoples of the region. Over the course of centuries worth of intermarriage and contact with the Tlingit, many Tagish adopted the Tlingit language, a distant linguistic relative of Tagish. The use of Tagish declined, and by the end of the twentieth century, very few native speakers remained. Angela Sidney, a Tagish author and storyteller who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1986, died in 1991. Sidney was one of the last fluent speakers of Tagish. The last known native Tagish speaker, Lucy Wren, died in 2008.
In addition to their language, the Tagish also adopted many aspects of Tlingit culture. The Tagish clan system was patterned after the matrilineal structure of the Tlingit. Family or clan descent in a matrilineal system follows the linage of the mother. For example, a Tagish child would become a member of his or her mother's clan. Tagish societies were split into two social groups, or moieties: the Wolf, or Gooch, and the Crow, or Yeitl. These groups were further divided into six clans, two associated with the Wolf and four with Crow. The Daklaweidi (Killer Whale) and Yan Yedi (Wolf) clans are part of the Wolf groups; while the Deisheetaan (Beaver), Ganaxtedi (Raven), Kookhittaan (Crow), and Ishkahittaan (Frog) belong to the Crow. Under traditional Tagish law, a member of the Wolf group was only allowed to marry someone from the Crow, although that custom has been relaxed in the modern era.
Each clan had its own specialized totem, a crest or symbol that represents the clan. The symbol could be attached to a blanket or clothing and served as an identification mark to denote clan membership. Among the Tagish, it was considered taboo to wear the emblem of another clan. A representative chosen by members led clans. The leader was known as the Kaa Shaa du Heni, or "headman standing up." As of 2006, both the Carcross-Tagish and Kwanlin Dun First Nations were granted self-governing status by the Canadian government and were led by an elected chief and council. While they must abide by Canadian law, the self-governing status gives them control over health care, education, cultural and social welfare, and land use for hunting, fishing, and logging.
Like many native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, the Tagish practice the potlatch ceremony, a traditional community feast marked by the giving of gifts and redistribution of goods. A potlatch could be held to note occasions such as births, marriages, funerals, or simply to demonstrate an individual's social status.
Bibliography
"Carcross/Tagish First Nation." Council of Yukon First Nations, cyfn.ca/nations/carcrosstagish-first-nation. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
Cruikshank, Julie. Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native Elders. U of Nebraska P, 1990.
McClellan, Catharine. "Tagish." Canadian Encyclopedia, 12 Nov. 2021, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/tagish. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
"Restoring the Tagish Role in the Klondike Gold Rush." CBC News, 2 Jan. 2014, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/restoring-the-tagish-role-in-the-klondike-gold-rush-1.2480389. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
Wren, Lucy. "Language." Carcross/Tagish First Nation, Dec. 2022, www.ctfn.ca/haa-kusteeyi/language/. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.