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ž Sergei A. Kan is an American anthropologist known for his research with and writings on the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska, focusing on the potlatch and on the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Tlingit communities. ž ž Kan is of Russian Jewish origin and came to the U.S. in 1974. He did u...

ž Sergei A. Kan is an American anthropologist known for his research with and writings on the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska, focusing on the potlatch and on the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Tlingit communities. ž ž Kan is of Russian Jewish origin and came to the U.S. in 1974. He did undergraduate studies at Boston University and received his master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago, where he was a student of the anthropologist Raymond D. Fogelson. Kan also cites the influence of Nancy Munn, George W. Stocking, Jr., and John and Jean Comaroff. ž ž ž ž He began fieldwork with the Tlingit in Sitka, Alaska, in 1979 and in 1980 was adopted by Charlotte Young (Tlaktoowú) (1916-1982) into the Kaagwaantaan clan. In 1991, he was adopted by Mark Jacobs into the Tlingit Dakl'aweidí clan. He was an associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan before going to Dartmouth College, where he was granted tenure in 1993. ž ž ž ž ž ž The Tlingit are also known as Kolosh and are a Native American people that belong to the Southeastern coast and coastal islands of Alaska. The Tlingit Indians and the Haida are closely related in culture. Both of these tribes are governed by CCTHITA or the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The Tlingit's culture has been molded by the conditions of the Alaskan area. The coast of Alaska is covered with mountains. The climate is temperate and humid. The forests are populated with animal life and seas are bountiful as well. The Tlingit Indians survived by fishing, hunting, and gathering. The Tlingit Indians lived in three groups including the Yehl or Raven, Goch or Wolf, and Nehadi or Eagle. Since the Nehadi were a small group, some researchers leave out this group of the Tlingit. Each of these groups usually consisted of over twenty clans. The clans may have contained two or more villages which was further divided into house groups which contained a number of families. The clans of the Tlingit Indians and the family groups were given their status based on the wealth, character, and ancestors of their members. The oldest male was the head of the family group. The family head with the highest status was the leader of the clan. There were no village leaders and disputes were mediated by the clan heads. The Tlingit Indians are known for their elaborate ceremonies. One of the more well known ceremonies was the potlatch which was usually performed out of respect for the dead. These ceremonies traditionally lasted for four days. They consisted of dances, songs, performances, gifts, and a feast which were hosted by one group for another. The Tlingit commonly encountered explorers looking for the Northwest Passage. As the fur trade began to boom, Russian traders and trappers started to settle in the area around 1775. http://www.indians.org/articles/tlingit-indians.html In the 1890s-1900s Russian Orthodox missionaries established a religious brotherhood among the Tlingit Indians of southeastern Alaska to fight indigenous customs incompatible with Christianity. ž After the majority of the Russians departed from Alaska in 1867, the interest of the Indians in Orthodoxy declined dramatically. ž The first Russian attempt to Christianize the Tlingit was in 1834. It did not succeed until a devastating smallpox epidemic demonstrated the inability of the native shamans to combat the new disease and displayed the impressive power of the Russian priests, equipped with holy water and vaccines. Most agreed that even though there was a number of Tlingit members in the church, their commitment was not strong. There were several reasons for the lack of success, the Tlingit people had retained total political independence from the Russian-American company. Their interest in trading with the Russians was stimulated by the recognition of the superiority of some of the European tools, as well as by the traditional Tinglit emphasis on the accumulation, display and redistribution of wealth as a means of maintaining and raising status. Evidence supports the idea that the native willingness was to take advantage of the new sources of spiritual power, adding it to their own arsenal of spirits, magical practices and potent substances. At the same time, the Tlingit resisted the Russian occupation of a portion of their ancestral territory as well as attempts to interfere in native practices such as warfare, slave sacrifices, and shamanism. With the departing of the majority of Russians, American ruling brought many jobs in mining, canneries, and lumbering, which the Tlingit were eager to perform to earn money. Much of the new wealth was channeled into the traditional system of potlatching, reinforcing the indigenous social order and world view. The American political domination was a serious blow to the indigenous social order of the native Alaskans; civil and military authorities, particularly Presbyterian missionaries who came to Alaska in 1878, began a massive campaign against shamanism, witchcraft, trials, slavery, polygamy, and other practices they perceived as “heathen.” Presbyterian schools, were attendance was mandatory and the native language forbidden, were a big threat to the indigenous culture. Even though the Tlingit people were encouraged to intermarry, and move into American-style cottages built by the mission and away from the evil influences of the native community, they were still viewed as inferior. Natives were drawn to the churches because of their hymns; they had always been fond of singing. Other things such as medical assistance and gifts also triggered curiosity and ultimately attracted them to the church, however, there was resentment due to the heavy pressure exerted on them to eradicate and abandon practicing the potlacht. Anti-native sentiment in the church resulted in having separate churches. The Tlingit were anxious to be recognized and respected by the Euroamericans, did not shy away from contact with them but resented being treated as inferior. Finally, in the 1880s , the Presbyterian missionaries became closely allied with the local civil authorities, so that American abuses began to be identified with that church. Russians were also viewed as inferiors by the Americans. ž They often mediated between Americans and Indians ž They appealed several times to the U.S government and the Russian ambassador in Washington on behalf of the Tlingit, defending them against abuses by the civil authorities and Presbyterians. ž ž By the early 1900s almost the entire Tlingit population of Sitka had converted. St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church A young Missionary by the name of Anatolii Kamenskii was convinced that much more needed to be done to convert the tlingit people into true christians. Kamenskii saw intemperance and the “Clan-based model of life” as the true greatest evils to be fought. He perceived the indigenous social system as the source of various pagan practices incompatible with Christianity, including memorial feasts for the dead (potlachtes), polygamy, the refusal to marry at a church, blood revenge, shamanism and witchcraft. The best solution, to him, was the establishment of a native society of temperance and mutual aid. The model for such an organization was orthodox brotherhoods practiced among slavic immigrants in the U.S in the late nineteenth century. Their main goal was to combat the increasing temperance among the locals, promote religious education and moral improvement, preserve the Russian language, help maintain peace and goodwill in the orthodox community, engage in laity in taking care of the church property and, finally to establish a fund for the poor, the sick, and the survivors of the deceased members. They elected their own officers, and the priest served as the spiritual advisor. Each person wishing to join had to make a pledge to abstain from drinking, gambling and engaging in pagan ceremonies and lead the peaceful, “brotherly” life of a true Christian. The ceremony of swearing in new members included publicly confessing his sins in front of the congregation and a promise to abandon the old life and follow all the statutes of the organization. The new organization was looked upon with suspicion, out of 800 local Orthodox Indians, only 17 joined. Its goals of eliminating old customs might have kept the Tlingit away. Even though many preached against the old customs, it was really hard to know how sincere they were or how far they were prepared to go The Tlingit were afraid that the legalized church marriage would undermine the traditional matrilineal system of inheritance, since children of such marriage could claim their father’s property in court. The Russians and the Creoles did not want to give up their leadership and influence in the church. In the 1890’s they were outnumbered by the Indians and were getting more attention from the clergy and this created resentment. The tension between the Russian and Indian brotherhood had more to do with internal parish dispute over leadership and power than with racial prejudice. Memberships fluctuated and had ups and downs between1896 and 1902. One of the major difficulties in this period was that “matters of protocol completely overshadowed the inner meaning and purpose of this useful church organization. A few years after the establishment of the brotherhood, older men of aristocratic background began to join, bringing with them their wives, children and matrilineal kin. This meant that the image of the brotherhood would be better in the eyes of the natives and the Russian missionaries were happy. The missionaries inevitably had to sacrifice the quality of the brotherhood members, they could hardly expect native chiefs to abandon potlachting. It appears that the senior aristocrats joined the society when they recognized the potential benefits. Here was an organization that could give them considerable leverage in the affairs of the parish and help elevate their status in the dominant, non-native society, whose American establishment was beginning to look more favorably on the Indian brotherhood. In addition, rituals in the church were also attractive, where rank, prestige and ceremonial regalia were closely linked in the traditional sociocultural system. The main goal of these activities were religious instruction. The brotherhood members started gathering weekly and inviting all those non-members who wished to participate Christian ideas were often presented in a “tlingitized” form, encouraging a syncretism of Orthodoxy and indigenous beliefs. The use of the Tlingit language for instruction and translation of major prayers, at a time when the Presbyterians were punishing Tlingit schoolchildren for speaking it, gave a strong boost to the Orthodox church by reinforcing its image as a “native church.” The Tlingit began to call these meetings “gospel” or “testimonials”; they read passages of the bible, each person would stand up and express their interpretation, followed by a confession of sins and a promise to lead a Christian life. These meetings provided an important forum for social interaction and discussion of various matters, not necessarily related to Christianity. Brotherhood activities were clearly a product of Tlingit creativity, a process of blending elements from the indigenous culture, Orthodoxy, and other Christian traditions. Brotherhood banquets were hosted, and they offered the Tlingit an opportunity to interact more freely with the clergy, as well as Russians and creoles. This was sort of a symbolic potlatch and it was used to replace old native traditions. Another important activity of the native brotherhoods was the performance of mortuary rituals, the missionaries could not change this practice and decided to include a few elements into their funeral procedures. The main problem between the natives and the Russian missionaries was the language barrier, very few understood the language since it was very difficult for a European. A misunderstanding of their culture also added to this problem, most missionaries were not fully aware of the degree of persistence of traditional values and social relations beneath the Christian veneer. Native confessions often seemed so sincere that the missionaries truly believed they had abandoned their old ways. The clergy viewed this as “social and religious progress.” Because the newer statutes of the church did not enforce such strict practices anymore, the Presbyterians criticized them. The Russian Orthodox church was much more popular among the natives. ž The Tlingit were successful in utilizing these organizations to strengthen their position with the church and thereby establish a more balanced relationship with the Russian clergy and parishioners, to maintain the power and prestige of the aristocracy, and to indigenize Orthodoxy. In this way, the Tlingit were able to present themselves as “civilized Indians” and thus were able to improve their standing within the larger sociopolitical system they did not control. THE END http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 9JVJ76FVVxY&playnext=1&list=PLD7E 516F105EA2CCB&feature=results_vid eo All images were found on google. Additional information on the Tinglit People of Alaska was obtained from: http://www.indians.org/articles/tlingit-indians.html