Tagish

The Tagish ( " the ice ( of spring ) breaks " ) are a Native American First Nation of Northern Athabaskan, their traditional homeland in the region around the Tagish Lake and Marsh Lake was in the Yukon Territory in northwest Canada.

Name

Together with the culturally and linguistically closely related Kaska Dena and Tahltan who lived between the Yukon River and Mackenzie River and in the valley of the Liard River, Tagish previously often than Nahanni or Nahani ( "People Over There, Far Away" ) were designated.

However, since such different peoples like the T'aaku Kwaan the Tlingit ( Lingít ), the Pelly River Northern Tutchone that Tsetsaut ( Wetaɬ ) and Sekani ( Tsek'ene ) and Daneẕaa were called Nahanni, it is often difficult in the historical sources, the individual strains to be distinguished from each other.

Sometimes they are referred to, together with the Kaska Dena as ( Mackenzie ) Mountain Peoples - being here but mostly the Mountain Dene ( Shihgot'ine ) of the North Slavey ( Dene Sahtu ) and the South Slavey ( Deh Cho ) were meant.

History

In the 19th and 20th century several Tlingit ( Lingít ) families moved from the Pacific coast and Taku ( T'aaku Ḵwáan ) from the Taku River and Auke ( Aakw Ḵwáan ) from the Alexander Archipelago and the Alaska Panhandle from the vicinity of today's city of Juneau to the Tagish. The Tlingit were among the already decimated by disease and wars around Carcross Tagish down, married into the local families and as they soon culturally and linguistically dominated the group, they called themselves and the Tagish later Tagish Ḵwáan; Kwaan means in Tlingit ( Lingít or Lingít ) about " regional tribal group " so that they now considered themselves to ( former ) Tagish Territory as a subgroup of the Tlingit. Today you can find their descendants in the Carcross / Tagish First Nation around Carcross.

Other Tagish lived mostly with Southern Tutchone from the headwaters of the Alsek River and Yukon River as well as some Tlingit. Just as the Tagish had taken over the Lingít around Carcross, they took here the culture and language of the largest ethnic group - the Southern Tutchone. Their descendants are around Whitehorse to find as members of the Ta'an Kwach'an Council and the Kwanlin Dun First Nation today.

Tribal members of the Tagish were involved in the discovery of gold, which led to the end of the 19th century gold rush at the Klondike River: Keish ( Skookum Jim Mason), Shaaw Tláa (Kate Carmack ) and Kaa goox ( Dawson Charlie ).

Language

Their language, Tagish ( Tagish or the K'e ), one of the Nordathapaskischen languages ​​in northwestern Canada and is linguistically the neighboring Tahltan ( Tāłtān or Dahdzege ) and Kaska ( Dene Zage ) so close, so some linguists argue Tahltan is a language with three divergent but mutually intelligible dialects ( Mithun 1999).

Today, there are among the approximately 400 Tagish only two speakers, a deaf speaker and a member of the tribe, which is only partially the Tagish powerful as most either Tlingit ( Lingít ), Southern Tutchone or today mostly speak Canadian English is the language most endangered and threatened with extinction.