Tlingit

Tlingit

Chief Anotklosh of the Taku Tribe, wearing a Chilkat blanket, Juneau, Alaska, c. 1913
Regions with significant populations
United States (Alaska)	14,000[1]
Canada (British Columbia, Yukon)	2,110[2][1]
Languages
English, Tlingit, Russian (historically)
Religion
Christianity, esp. Russian Orthodox Traditional Alaska Native religion

The Tlingit or Lingít (English: /ˈtlɪŋkɪt, ˈklɪŋkɪt/ ^ⓘ TLING-kit, KLING-kit) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and constitute two of the two-hundred thirty-one (231, as of 2022)^[3] federally recognized Tribes of Alaska.^[4] Although the majority, about 14,000^{[citation needed]} people, are Alaska Natives, there is a small minority, 2,110,^[2] who are Canadian First Nations.

Their language is the Tlingit language (natively Lingít, pronounced [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ]),^[5] in which the name means 'People of the Tides'.^[6] The Russian name Koloshi (Колоши, from a Sugpiaq-Alutiiq term kulut'ruaq for the labret worn by women) or the related German name Koulischen may be encountered referring to the people in older historical literature, such as Grigory Shelikhov's 1796 map of Russian America.^[7] Tlingit people today primarily belong to two federally recognized Alaska Native tribes: the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska^[8] and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe.^[9] Some citizens of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska are of Tlingit heritage.^[10] Taku Tlingit are enrolled in the Douglas Indian Association in Alaska and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Canada.

The Tlingit have a matrilineal kinship system, with children born into the mother's clan, and property and hereditary roles passing through the mother's line.^[11] Their culture and society developed in the temperate rainforest of the southeast Alaskan coast and the Alexander Archipelago. The Tlingit have maintained a complex hunter-gatherer culture based on semi-sedentary management of fisheries.^[12] Hereditary servitude was practiced extensively until it was outlawed by the United States Government.^[13] An inland group, known as the Inland Tlingit, inhabits the far northwestern part of the province of British Columbia and the southern Yukon in Canada.