TAHLTAN

an Athabascan-speaking Indian tribe living on the upper Stikine River and other nearby streams in what is now northwestern British Columbia, Can. The country, though grassy and rocky with only sparse woodlands, has been rich in salmon and such game as caribou, moose, bears, and various other furbearing animals. The Tahltan were nomadic, keeping only the barest of portable goods, as they gathered at the salmon runs in summer and moved through the various hunting grounds in winter. Their dwellings consisted of either lean-tos or huts made of poles, bark, and brush. In their central village, however, there was a more substantial 100-foot (30-m) ceremonial and residential lodge for all the chief families of the several clans. The Tahltan were traditionally divided into six clans, headed by chiefs and grouped three and three into the Raven and the Wolf subgroups, or phratries, which had reciprocal ceremonial functions, reciprocal marital obligations (a Raven person had to marry a Wolf person), and ownership of separate hunting grounds (though in practice hunters usually did not have to observe the division). In the 18th century the Wolf added a fourth clan, making seven clans altogether. This social organization was borrowed from their neighbours on the Pacific coast, as was their stratification into nobles, commoners, and slaves. Another important borrowing was the potlatch, the gift-giving festival held for validating ennoblement, advancing one's prestige, or marking an event, such as a funeral. The Tahltan carried on trade (as well as some raiding and warfare) with the coastal tribes and with the Kaska to the north. Though recognizing a sun god and a sky god, the Tahltan were more engrossed in all the supernatural powers seen in the things of nature around them, particularly the birds and beasts that constituted their food supply. The spirits seen in dreams or visions and evoked by medicine men were almost invariably animals. Today the Tahltan, overwhelmed by European civilization, have been severely reduced in numbers; in the late 20th century only about 700 still existed.