du yinaanáx

by Ben DeGroat

The Tlingit are the people of the tides. We are split into two moieties with more than thirty clans and houses under these clans as well. The moieties are Raven and Eagle. The moiety, clan, and house which you come from are determined by which your mother comes from. I am from the Eagle Moiety.

Preface

On September 9, 2017, my mother, her two sisters, my older sister, and 3 of my cousins collectively decided upon a tattoo. They wanted it to be meaningful and ultimately thought about my Grandma Patty. du yinaanáx̱ in Lingít, directly translates to ‘her family’ in English. The intention behind getting the tattoo was so that we would all be more connected and to honor my Tlingit grandmother.

During my break between Winter and Spring term, I visited my older sister in Culver City, California. I had wanted the tattoo ever since my other family members got it and I realized that this was the perfect opportunity for me to get it.

Being Tlingit has always been a complex experience. I grew up on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, immersed in Hawaiian culture for my entire life. As I got older, I realized more and more how much I wished I could be as connected to Tlingit culture as I am to Hawaiian culture. My mother never allowed us to forget about our Tlingit background, but due to extenuating circumstances, she only had a few years of direct exposure to and practice of our culture when she lived in Ketchikan, Alaska as a child.

Getting the tattoo was a way for me to connect with my family and especially my native grandmother, who I never got to meet and feeling like in a way, I could reconcile my 18 years of existence with no exposure to my language or culture. It serves as a reminder of who and where I came from and that when I have the ability, that I will always be able to start my journey of reconnection and make it home.

Introduction

In this essay, I intend on examining Tlingit women’s roles in society and how that has developed and changed over time. “Through the female body’s ability to create, if she chooses, the woman becomes the carrier of the ancestral line with the ability to regenerate” (Laronal, 240). In Tlingit culture, women have always been the backbone of our families and relied upon to keep things such as trade and finances in order. This was not because of misogynistic ideals of what women should do, but because it was believed that women were simply better for these tasks such as negotiating in trade and money handling. Along with other ongoing impacts of settler-colonialism, the ‘nuclear family’ has ruined the recognition of women as people with insight and knowledge. However, Tlingit women have risen as activists for Alaska Native and other Indigenous peoples, and the movement toward Indigenous feminisms work to restore women’s humanity and agency.

Traditional Roles of Tlingit Women

The subsistence lifestyle was always a group effort. The most significant part of the Tlingit lifestyle was salmon. There were five species of which collection and preparation would be the responsibility of everybody through July, August, and September so that they would have food for the winter. While men usually caught the fish, women usually smoked and dried them, but these roles were not strictly defined by gender. Furthermore, earlier in the summer, women would collect and preserve berries and in the spring, did the same with seaweed (Klein, 33). Survival in the winter was entirely a group effort and women had a key role in the preservation of food. Family structures were very unlike the nuclear family we think of today. They all lived in longhouses in which, even if they were not all directly related by blood, they were all responsible for each other. Though there were usually separate responsibilities between men and women, they were not seen as unequal.

Russian Colonial Impact

The first Russian settlement on Tlingit homelands was established in 1795 in Yakutat Bay. This followed continuous trade between Russians (who were interested in furs) and the Tlingit (who were interested in various European goods) since 1788 (Grinev, 1345). This, however, would not promote romantic or sexual relations between Russian and Tlingit people. The “normalization” of relations between them would not occur until 1821, when the “governor of the colonies, Captain Lieutenant Matvei Murav’ëv, permitted the Sitka people to settle by the walls of Novo-Arkhangel’sk.” Tlingit women who were involved with Russian settlers would thus become “informants” about “affairs” in both the Russian and Tlingit settlements (Grinev, 1348).

Trade which occurred between the Tlingit and Russians was mediated by Tlingit women: “Traders complained of deals done and undone by women’s objections: ‘No bargain is made, no expedition set on foot, without first consulting the women’ (Wood 1882:333)” (Klein, 32). Even when Russian influence was becoming more prominent, the Tlingit still maintained that women were important for making decisions in trade. They handled the money after trade was complete and in order to spend the money, their husbands would have to get permission from them (Klein, 35). In 1834, Russian law banned women from trading posts because managing relationships between Russians and Tlingit was so complex (Grinev, 1349).

When Russian colonization began, the idea that women were not supposed to be leaders or the head of the household was becoming more dispersed in society. “Father Anatolii Kamenskii ([1906] 1985:50) notes, ‘A Tlingit man’s wife is neither his slave nor simply a worker, as is common among savages. She is more in command in the house and family matters than her husband’” (Klein, 32). This shows that the general consensus among Russians was that women should be complacent and passive in a family, that their only real responsibility should be to take care of the children. However, the amount of influence Tlingit women had in their families was apparent in the way that they managed the family finances. When the Russians banned women from trading posts, this would have created a major cultural shift and enforced the ideas that women should not be involved with family affairs other than what involves inside the household or with their children.

Modern Tlingit Women

Although the nuclear family was instilled as the primary and default vision of family in the U.S. and Canada, Indigenous people, women especially, have always strove to work against this narrative. More recently, wider movements of activism and representation have emerged and show the strength and agency of Indigenous women.

Elizabeth Peratrovich was an activist who, in 1941, with the help of her husband, Roy Peratrovich, petitioned against discriminatory businesses who displayed signs such as, “No Natives Allowed” or others of the same vein. Within the next two years, she would become a key figure in the drafting of the Alaska House Resolution, which was the first anti-discrimination act in Alaska. She was also one of the first women to represent both the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood at the National Congress of American Indians, and would continue to advocate for civil rights until her death in 1958 (Lauth, 19-20).

Dr. Rosita Worl is the first woman to be president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute of which the primary goal is to preserve and promote Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures. She is also an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Southeast. Dr. Worl serves on many committees and boards whose primary goals are to fight issues which affect Alaska Native people and communities such as “the Alaska Conservation Foundation Native Writers Award Subcommittee, the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Examination Advisory Panel, the Board of Trustees for the National Museum of the American Indian, and as the Chair of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Review committee” (Lauth, 21).

Women such as Mrs. Peratrovich and Dr. Worl, who have worked tirelessly for the benefit of Alaska Native people, show how Tlingit women have maintained and regained their power and humanity throughout time: “Our ability to reflect on all of our experiences, both challenging and successful, up to this present moment caters to our individual and collective evolution. As we move forward in a proper and balanced way, we must look back and recall everything and everyone who came before us. The land and matriarchal presence teach us, as leaders, that we are capable of survival through change by identifying clues, patterns, and structures through a deep reflection of our inner and outer worlds. We look back to the past to support us in the present and develop our human potential” (Laronal, 240-241). By looking back to our ancestors who experienced the decimation of our culture first-hand, we can realize that it is possible to maintain our values despite the fact that the patriarchy is so prominent now. It is important to recognize that indigenous women have been essential to the maintenance and revitalization of our culture and humanity. Especially within our families, despite all else, we have continued to know who we are and where we come from due to their resilience.

Indigenous Feminisms

The concept of Indigenous feminisms is very complex and cannot be defined as one thing, especially when considering how different each Indigenous culture is. “A monolithic approach to a Native feminism is not possible and that the false dichotomy of feminist and nonfeminist is oversimplified and undermines Native women’s approaches to decolonization” (Goeman and Denetdale, 10). It works hand-in-hand with sovereignty and decolonization movements because colonization has created the space for racism, homophobia, and (most relevant to our current conversation), misogyny. “...Indigenous feminism promises a future world wherein everyone is saved from patriarchal and heteronormative oppressions and social injustices” (Barker, 3). Despite the fact that ‘feminism’ seems to only imply that they are seeking an elimination of misogyny and nothing else, Indigenous feminism being so intertwined with sovereignty and decolonization movements would mean the liberation of many others as well.

Conclusion

“Philosophically, land and motherhood became synonymous with nationhood, material possession, and wealth, rather than collective universal consciousness as defined by Indigenous people. This shift in discourse has erased the relevant nature of the human body and its connection to land” (Laronal, 243). The perception that women’s only purpose is to give children and take care of the nuclear family’s house minimizes Indigenous values which see women as protectors of knowledge and more than capable of being a responsible head of the household. The reality of Indigenous feminism is that it can allow for traditional knowledge to be restored and for women to be seen as equal and capable in families, just as our ancestors intended.

Works Cited

Barker, Joanne. “Indigenous Feminisms.” The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous People's Politics. 2015. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195386653.013.007

Goeman, Mishauna. Denetdale, Jennifer. Native Feminisms: Legacy, Interventions, and Indigenous Sovereignties. Wicazo Sa Review, Volume 24, Number 2. University of Minnesota Press. 2009. pp. 9-13. http://doi.org/10.1353/wic.0.0035

Grinev, Andrei V. “Interethnic Marriages and Relationships of the Tlingits in the Russian–American Period and Their Significance.” Sexuality & Culture, vol. 22, no. 4, 2018, pp. 1340–1360, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9529-z.

Lauth, Lena. Tlingit Women in Leadership: One Culture, Two Worlds. 2011. Regis University. https://epublications.regis.edu/theses/672/?utm_source=epublications.regis.edu%2Ftheses%2F672&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages

Klein, Laura F. (Laura Frances), and Lillian A. (Lillian Alice) Ackerman. Women and Power in Native North America. University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. pp. 28-45.

Laronal, Kapi’olani. “The Time Before Us: Land, Matriarchy, and Leadership in the Face of Change.” The Routledge International Handbook of Indigenous Resilience. New York, Routledge, 2022. pp. 238-251.http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003048428-20\