Southeast Alaska — Tongass Rainforest and Alexander Archipelago
The Tlingit
Cedar masters who built the great clan houses and commanded the eulachon trade
Honoring oral tradition through audio narration
The Tlingit clan house was one of the largest single-room structures built without metal tools — up to fifty by one hundred feet, sheltering multiple family groups. Built from split cedar planks fitted precisely together without nails, these houses demonstrated mastery of cedar technology.
The fish weir — a fence of stakes and woven branches across a stream — was the most effective tool, funneling salmon into baskets. Weirs were managed with specific rules governing when they were opened and how many fish were taken, preventing destruction of the run.
Eulachon — the oily candlefish — were rendered for oil in massive spring runs. Eulachon oil was the butter of the Northwest Coast, used for cooking, preservation, and trade. Trade trails from coast to interior were called 'grease trails' for the eulachon oil that flowed along them.
The eulachon gave us the grease that went everywhere — up the Chilkat, up the Stikine, all the way to the interior. The grease trail was our trade road. Oil was our currency.