Tlingit cuisine facts for kids
The Tlingit people are an Indigenous group living in Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon. Food is super important to their culture. They often say, "When the tide goes out the table is set." This means there's lots of food on the beaches of Southeast Alaska when the tide is low. Another saying is, "in Lingít Aaní you have to be an idiot to starve." This shows how easy it is to find food there.
Even though beach food is easy to get, eating only that is seen as a sign of poverty. Tlingit people gather many other foods too. Salmon is the most important food. Seal and other game animals are also very important.
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Healthy Tlingit Meals
The Tlingit diet makes sure people get all the vitamins and minerals they need. Protein is easy to find. Iodine comes from seaweed. But they need to get enough calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, and vitamin C.
To get these, Tlingit people eat almost all parts of the animals they hunt.
- Bones are used for soup, which gives calcium.
- Livers provide vitamin A.
- Berries and plants like wild celery and wild crab apples give vitamin C.
- A favorite berry is the nangoonberry, also called the Arctic raspberry. Its Tlingit name, Neigóon, means "jewel." Kids help gather these tasty berries.
- Bone marrow gives iron and vitamin D.
- Intestines and stomachs provide vitamin E and B vitamins.
Today, many Tlingit people also eat store-bought foods. These include dairy, grains, beef, pork, and chicken. In bigger towns, you can find pizza and Chinese food. SPAM and ice cream are very popular. Rice (koox) and pilot crackers (gháatl), have been staples for a long time.
Seafood from the Beach
Tlingit people gather many kinds of seafood from the beach. These include razor clams, clams, oysters, mussels, and crabs. They also collect seaweed and limpets. These foods are usually cooked over a fire or boiled.
A large mollusc called the gumboot is a special treat.
Salmon: A Main Food Source
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Salmon is the most important food for the Tlingit. They used many ways to catch salmon. One common way was using a fishing weir or trap. These traps stopped fish from swimming upstream. This made it easy to spear many fish. It needed a lot of teamwork between the men fishing and the women cleaning the fish on shore.
Catching Salmon
Tlingit people built fish traps in different ways. This depended on the river or stream.
- At the mouth of small streams, they put rows of wooden stakes into the mud. These stakes held up a fence made of flexible branches.
- Another trap used rocks piled up to make low walls. Fish would swim over these walls at high tide. When the tide went out, people would scare the fish into staying inside the walls. Then, men could easily spear the salmon. You can still see parts of these old rock walls today.
On bigger rivers, Tlingit people built weirs that went all the way across the river. These weirs had small gaps with platforms above them. Salmon had to swim through these gaps. This made them easy targets for spearmen on the platforms.
Later, Fishwheels became popular. These wheels had large baskets that spun in the river's current. Salmon would get caught in the baskets and drop into a container. Fishwheels are still used in some places today. They are good because they don't need constant watching.
Traditional ways of catching salmon did not harm the fish population. Once enough fish were caught in one area, the Tlingit moved to other spots. This allowed the remaining salmon to lay their eggs for future harvests.
Today, winter trolling is common. This means fishing slowly from a boat with lines and lures. It provides fresh fish in colder months. This method is often a family activity on weekends.
Preparing and Storing Salmon
Salmon can be roasted fresh over a fire, frozen, or dried and smoked. All types of salmon are used. The Tlingit language has different names for each type. Some salmon are better for smoking, canning, or baking.
Today, common ways to store salmon are freezing it in vacuum-sealed bags. They also hard smoke or soft smoke the fish. Soft-smoked salmon is often canned in jars. Smoking is done over alder wood in smokehouses.
Tlingit people still use traditional ways to prepare salmon.
- Salmon are cleaned right after they are caught.
- They are split along the back and hung to dry on racks for a few days. This helps the fish's slime dry and makes the meat easier to work with.
- After drying, the fish are cut and put in a smokehouse.
- Once smoked, the fish are cut into strips.
- Traditionally, they were stored in wooden boxes filled with seal oil. The oil protected the fish from mold and bacteria.
In the summer, many families lived in their smokehouses. These were temporary homes used during the busy fishing season.
Commercial and Family Fishing
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Many Tlingit people work in the Alaskan commercial salmon fishing industry. Alaskan law lets commercial fishermen keep some of their catch for their own families. Because of this, many families now get their salmon from relatives who fish commercially. But, fishing for personal use is still very common, especially during weekend family trips.
Halibut: Another Important Fish
Halibut was the second most important fish for the Tlingit. They ate it fresh and also dried it for winter or for trading. Instead of traps, they used special wooden halibut hooks. These hooks were made to catch medium-sized halibut. They let smaller and very large fish go.
Fishing for halibut was very spiritual. It was seen as a battle with the halibut people, who needed to be respected. The wooden hooks had carvings of animals or shaman images. These were meant to both scare the halibut and show respect.
Herring and Hooligan: Small but Mighty Fish
Herring (Clupea pallasii) and hooligan (Thaleichthys pacificus) are small fish. They are very important foods for the Tlingit.
Herring are caught with herring rakes. These are long poles with spikes. An experienced person can catch many fish with one swing. Herring are usually dried and smoked whole. They can also be frozen or canned. Traditionally, they were stored in seal oil.
Herring eggs are also gathered. They are a special treat, sometimes called "Tlingit caviar." People put ribbon kelp or hemlock branches in the water where herring lay eggs. Once enough eggs are on them, the branches are removed. The eggs are then boiled on the beach. This is often a family event. Children help stir the water. The cooked eggs can be salted, frozen, or dried. They can also be stored in seal oil.
Hooligan are caught in similar ways to herring. But they are valued more for their oil than their meat. Hooligan are boiled and mashed to get their oil. The oil is skimmed off and stored. Hooligan oil was a valuable item for trading. Today, hooligan are often frozen in vacuum-sealed bags.
When cooked, both herring and hooligan are usually served whole. Some people eat the whole fish, including the insides. They are often deep-fried or pan-fried. Baking is also common and more traditional. They can also be roasted over a fire on a stick. This is popular during harvests or at beach parties.
Other Fish Eaten
Besides salmon, halibut, herring, and hooligan, Tlingit people also eat other fish. These include cod, bullhead, flounder, and shark.
Marine Mammals
Seals
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Tlingit people have hunted harbor seals with harpoons for at least 600 years. The Tlingit in Yakutat, Alaska still hunt seals today. They have changed their diet as seal numbers have changed.
Whales
Unlike many other groups on the North Pacific coast, the Tlingit usually do not hunt whales. One reason is that many Tlingit clans see the killer whale or other whales as family members. Eating them would be like cannibalism.
Another reason is practical. A whale provides a huge amount of food that spoils quickly. Sharing such a large amount of food with others requires big, expensive parties called potlatches. Whale hunting also needs many people working together. This can create social obligations that are hard to repay. So, the Tlingit avoided whale hunting for cultural and practical reasons.
The Tlingit near Yakutat are an exception. They sometimes hunt whales. However, all Tlingit people eat whales that wash up on the beach. They see this as a gift that should not be wasted.
Game Animals
Game animals are a big part of the traditional Tlingit diet. They provide most of the food that doesn't come from the sea. Major game animals hunted for food include:
- Sitka deer
- Rabbit
- Mountain goat (in mountain areas)
- Black bear and brown bear
- Beaver
- Moose (on the mainland)
Eggs: A Seasonal Treat
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For hundreds of years, the Tlingit have gathered eggs from the Glaucous-winged gull. They especially collect them from island nesting sites near Glacier Bay National Park. This practice was made legal again in 2014. Scientists found that gathering eggs would not harm the gull populations.
An elder said that gathering eggs in Glacier Bay was like Easter. Families and cousins would gather eggs, and it was a joyful time. The egg-gathering season, from mid-May to mid-June, marked a change. It meant moving from stored foods to active fishing, hunting, and gathering in the warmer months. This month was even called the "Going to Get Eggs Moon" in the old Tlingit calendar.
Potatoes: A Long-Time Crop
The Tlingit have grown a special type of potato for hundreds of years. This old type is called "Maria's Tlingit potato." They plant it in sunny spots. Potatoes are not originally from Southeast Alaska. How they arrived is a mystery. Some think Russian traders brought them. Others say Tlingit people traveled far south by canoe and brought them back.
