Alaska natives sue over B.C. company’s exploration plans near eagle preserve

The state created the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve to protect salmon and the world’s largest concentration of bald eagles. The preserve is downstream from a copper, zinc, gold and silver prospect that could some day be developed into a hard rock mine. (Matt Hage/Associated Press)

Tlingit village of Klukwan wants permits revoked from Constantine Metal Resources, for area near Haines

The Associated Press, Dec 6, 2017

An Alaska Native tribe and three environmental groups sued the U.S. government, claiming an agency granted mineral exploration permits without considering how a mine could affect a major salmon river and bald eagle preserve.

Tlingit men trained hard to become warriors

“The Battle of Old Sitka, June, 1802”, © Ray Troll, 2002.

By Mary Catharine Martin

No matter the season, every day from age six began the same way for a young K’inéix Kwáan man training to be a warrior in pre-contact Yakutat — by wading into the ocean and staying as long as he could without passing out.

‘New salmon run:’ Planes now fly in fish as Yukon chinook decline

Chinook salmon.

‘It is funny, but it’s also sad,’ says Duane Aucoin of the Teslin Tlingit Council

The Canadian Press, August 2, 2016

Salmon no longer collect in the nets along the Teslin River where the Tlingit people have harvested them for
thousands of years. Now, they come from the sky.

“It’s the new salmon run,” Duane Aucoin, member of the Teslin Tlingit Council, said recently.

Knives and Daggers of the Pacific Northwest Coast

Steel war dagger with abalone inlay, designed to represent a dogfish [although it appears to be a wolf]. Collected by A. Mackenzie, 1884, Haida, Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands (VII-B-948). Canadian Museum of History.

by Warrior Publications, Sept 30, 2015

Prior to European colonization, Indigenous peoples on the Pacific Northwest Coast used a variety of knives and daggers.  These were most commonly made from bone and, in the northern region, copper.  When the first European colonizers encountered Indigenous peoples along the coast in the late 1700s, they already had terms for iron and steel and were familiar with their uses as well as basic forging techniques.  It is speculated that iron and steel found their way to the coastal nations as a result of trade and ship wrecks.

Tlingit attack on Russian Fort at Sitka, June 1802

“The Battle of Old Sitka, June, 1802”, © Ray Troll, 2002

This drawing was inspired by reading historical accounts of Russian and Tlingit conflicts in Southeast Alaska in the late 1700’s and early 1800s. It intended primarily as a study of the incredible carved wooden war helmets and intricate body armor that Tlingit warriors of high status wore into battle.