Taku people
The Taku are a Native American tribe ( Kwaan or tribe ) and are among the Tlingit. The self-designation in the Tlingit language is T'aaku Kwaan - about "stem from the river above the geese flood ".
They live in the Alexander Archipelago in the south of Alaska and the lower reaches of the Taku River on the mainland, which belongs to British Columbia, Canada.
History
Human traces rich in the region to about 8000 BC. Because they lived on the islands of the Alexander Archipelago, they must have had water companion available. Similarly, far enough back of the obsidian trade, a type of stone that came from the Mount Edziza in British Columbia and on Sumez Iceland west of Prince of Wales Iceland.
There were boats, people lived in small groups and were dependent on the resources of the coast, such as shellfish and marine mammals. This earliest phase is therefore called paläomarine tradition and extends up to about 5000 or 4500 BC
This phase was followed by the so-called Transitional Period, a transition period. It differs by new tool techniques from the preceding and ranged from about 5000 to 3000 BC Perhaps wandered around this time Tlingitgruppen, which, following a few oral traditions, such as the Gaanax.a 'di and Kaagwaantaan, from the area of wet and Skeena River came. The Kaach.a 'di, however, believe that they are from the Southeast Alaska. Maybe there was a mixing of populations, or at least a cultural alignment through to language.
This phase was followed by the Developmental Northwest Coast Traditions (up to about 1800/1850 ) with complex stone and bone tools. The settlements were inhabited significantly larger and longer and longer. The houses were also larger and created huge totem poles. In addition, the diet was based much more on salmon. Thus arose fish trap systems and extensive, as shell middens designated waste and settlement clusters. The company had developed complex rituals and beliefs.
The main village of Taku lay on the eponymous river and was inhabited in winter. Two more were on the islands. It succeeded the tribe to build a trading monopoly, based on their position in today's Juneau. There, in 1989 found himself a fish trap, which could be dated to about 1350. A nature trail ( Kaxdegoowu Heen Dei, "clear water that runs back " ) at the confluence of Montana Creek and Mendenhall River opens up to the visitor the cultural significance.
Europäer
The first Europeans in Alaska were from about 1741 the Russians. They established a settlement in 1784 Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Iceland. 1808 transferred the governor Alexander Andreyevich Baranov his headquarters from there to Sitka. 1833 was a fort at Wrangell.
1794 reports the team of George Vancouver campfires at the Auke Bay, Vancouver circumnavigated Douglas Iceland, which he named after the Bishop of Salisbury.
When the first Europeans arrived, lived around present-day Juneau the tribes of the Auk, the Taku and the Sumdum (at the Holkum Bay below the Sumdum glacier ). Perhaps the Auk lived since about 1550 in the Auke Bay. In 1880 there were three villages. They lay on Admiralty Iceland at the Youngs Bay, on Douglas Iceland (possibly Fish Creek ) and on the mainland north of Auke Bay (now Auke Village Recreation Area ).
Also with respect to traders from Europe, such as the Hudson's Bay Company, it acted as sole intermediary. This company built the early 1840s a trading post at Fort Durham in Taku Harbor. The Taku left their winter village and moved to the fort, where they remained, although the unprofitable fort was in 1843 abandoned until 1880. This year gold was found, and the Taku saw itself compelled to work for wages in the gold prospectors. They moved into the area of the Sheep Creek (Gold Creek ).
Meanwhile, Alaska was bought in 1867 by the United States. 1872 was discovered in Sitka gold, other findings between Windum Bay and Berners Bay led to the emergence of Juneau. The engineer George Pilz offered each Tlingit 100 blankets, when he showed him a gold course. Cowee of the Auk showed him such a place on the Gastineau Channel. On October 18, 1880 put the claim on which Juneau soon emerged, from which, however, initially Harrisburg said. The population of the town increased within 9 years from 150 to 1,200. Of the numerous individual investigators ultimately remained three mining companies, namely Treadwell, Alaska Gastineau and Alaska Juneau, who were also able to operate the now capital-intensive industry. They brought gold for $ 158 million from the mountain. Treadwell, Douglas worked on Iceland, went bankrupt in 1922, a year before the Alaska Gastineau. The Alaska Juneau dug until 1944. Nevertheless Juneau not disappeared, like many other mining towns but was capital of Alaska with more than 2,000 inhabitants around 1900.
Like all Tlingit, as the tribe divided into two Moietys, the Raven and the Wolf and Eagle Moiety.
In the U.S., the Tlingit and thus the Taku by the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska are recognized as a people. In 1912, she founded the Alaska Native Brotherhood, was followed by the Alaska Native Sisterhood. Both are now campaigning for the preservation of the culture of the Tlingit.