Inland Tlingit of Teslin, Yukon: G̲aanax̲.Ádi and Kook̲hittaan clan origin stories for the immediate and clan family of Emma Joanne Shorty (nee Sidney)

Abstract

The purpose of my research is to learn the story of Mother's clan, and to document the processes of gathering knowledge about the clan connections between the G̲aanax̲.ádi and Kook̲hittaan from Teslin, Yukon, Canada. The objective of this thesis is to document the stories and the story-gathering processes of published and private holdings on my Mother's clan stories. The study includes published literature from indigenous and non-indigenous historians and oral history reviews, especially on those who have knowledge about the Kook̲hittaan and G̲aanax̲.ádi clans and have connections to the Inland Tlingit from Teslin, Yukon. This indigenous-led research focuses on my mother and her clan stories. I am an insider and an outsider to my culture. From an insider perspective I am privileged to hear, to learn, and to retell Mother's maternal clan stories. As a result of this research, Tlingit ways of documenting history are discovered and Tlingit research (literacy) frameworks are revealed. I learned that the Kook̲hittaan and G̲aanax̲.ádi clans are one. Our oral history is validated by face paint designs, petroglyphs and clan shirt designs. In their published work some non-indigenous ethnographers made changes to words and designs which distorted the indigenous record. This dissertation compares all possible information sources showing the heavier weight of evidence is provided by available indigenous sources. Colonization has greatly impacted the perpetuation of indigenous knowledge systems by referring to indigenous knowledge as "traditional" because the term tradition conjures up images of living in the past.