Tlingit

The Tlingit are an Alaska Native tribe and Canadian First Nations people. Their name for themselves is Lingit, meaning “people”. The Russian name Koloshi (from an Aleutian term for the labret) or the related German name Koulischen may be encountered in older historical literature.

The Tlingit are a matrilineal society who developed a complex hunter-gatherer culture in the temperate rainforest of the southeast Alaska coast and the Alexander Archipelago. The Tlingit language is well known not only for its complex grammar and sound system but also for using certain phonemes which are not heard in almost any other human language.

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