The Tlingit people have lived on the coast and islands of what is now southeastern Alaska since time immemorial. Tlingit society is organized into clans, which follow maternal descent. Fishing, gathering, and hunting were central to historic Tlingit lifeways. They used salmon, shellfish, seals, berries, deer, and other food sources, making sure to use every part for different purposes, not wasting anything. The Tlingit also had many uses for cedar trees, from houses, to totems and baskets. Cedar was also used for canoes, which were one of the main modes of transport for the Tlingit and enabled them to travel and trade not only amongst each other but also with neighboring peoples north and south along the Pacific coast.

This young Tlingit boy is photographed in a photographer's studio wearing a blanket and a woven spruce root hat typical of the northern Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples. The spruce root is twined so tightly that it sheds water, and the hat's rim is decorated with a geometric pattern.

SHS category: Alaska - Eskimos

Caption information source: "Our History," Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, retrieved from http://www.ccthita.org/about/history/index.html