Tlingit

[ tling-git ]

noun

, plural Tlin·gits, (especially collectively) Tlin·git.

1. a member of any of a number of Indigenous peoples of the coastal regions of southern Alaska and northern British Columbia.
2. the language of the Tlingit, a Na-Dene language.

Tlingit

/ ˈtlɪŋɡɪt /

noun

1. -gits-git a member of a seafaring group of North American Indian peoples inhabiting S Alaska and N British Columbia
2. the language of these peoples, belonging to the Na-Dene phylum

Word History and Origins

Origin of Tlingit¹

First recorded in 1865–70; from Tlingit tłingít “human being, person, Tlingit”

Example Sentences

“And I have, in a different and multidimensional way, tried to keep formline design and Tlingit sculpture and art growing and flourishing in the present day.”

From Seattle Times

The museum said the items are all of Tlingit origin, a group Indigenous to what is now Southeast Alaska.

From Seattle Times

The statue is important in continuing to share Indigenous history, said Lekanoff, who is part Tlingit and Aleut.

From Seattle Times

The white raven holds special meaning for Alaska Native people, according to Rosita Worl, a Tlingit anthropologist and president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

From Seattle Times

Yet North American societies like the Kwakwaka’wakw, Coast Salish, and Tlingit were seen as outliers on an evolutionary ladder that led from foraging to farming to complex states and the origins of modern society.

From Science Magazine