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Tlingit Latseen Project
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Tlingít culture is constantly adapting to the changing world around it. To understand these adaptations, Sealaska Heritage Institute in 2002 initiated Tlingit Latseen, a cultural preservation project meant to address issues that have arisen among young Tlingit men, including high levels of alcoholism, suicide and drug abuse.
Under the project, SHI convened a two-day meeting with five Tlingit male Elders and recorded the men telling personal accounts, clan stories and histories. During the meeting, the Elders repeatedly emphasized the value of the following themes, which are inherent in traditional Tlingit training:
- Know who you are as a Tlingít;
- Be disciplined;
- Have strength;
- Listen to others;
- Respect others;
- Respect yourself; and,
- Conserve all resources
All of the male Elders agreed that young Tlingit men today have not been exposed to traditional forms of training and that this lack of traditional training likely contributes to social ills among Native people.
Sealaska Heritage Institute will make this information available to its shareholders and will use the concepts isolated by the Elders in our programs, including PITAS, the Sealaska Kusteeyí Program and Language And Culture Camps.
This
project was supported in part by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum
and the National Endowment for the Humanities. SHI also received funds
from Sealaska Corp.