The Oral Traditions and the Scientific Record

The Tlingit oral traditions, maintained across generations through the ceremonial practices of the clan system and through the specific forms of storytelling and knowledge transmission that characterize Tlingit culture, include accounts of the deep history of the people’s connection to the coast.

These accounts describe a world shaped by specific events — the retreat of the glaciers, the establishment of the modern coastal environment, the specific relationships between clans and the geographic features of their ancestral territories.

The relationship between these oral traditions and the scientific record established by archaeology and genomics is one of convergence rather than conflict.