Ethnicity in the making: the TRingits of south-east Alaska on the eve of the 21st century

The Tlingits of south-east Alaska provide a fascinating example of the construction of ethnicity by indigenous people at the end of the twentieth century. In order to survive as an ethnic group and to protect their language and culture from the economic and cultural pressures of mainstream society, contemporary Tlingits have modified their traditional norms, cultural codes and even clan loyalties. They have reinterpreted their cultural legacy and introduced innovations in order to maintain their distinct ethnic identity. One result has been a conflict between old and new loyalties, between traditionally and non-traditionally oriented Tlingits. The contemporary situation is full of paradoxes since, in order to sustain their traditional culture, Tlingits have had to reinterpret and transform it, and it is the most acculturated and assimilated people who are most enthusiastic about their indigenous heritage.i Modern Tlingits and an identity crisis The ethno-demographic pattern of Alaska has changed drastically over the last 150 years. During the gold boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Alaska was flooded by thousands of white migrants who accounted for about a half of its population between 1900 and 1940. The next wave of migrants arrived in the 1940s and 1950s with the development of Alaska as an area of strategic military importance during and following World War Two. Finally, a third migratory wave occurred in the early 1980s encouraged by rapid economic growth. As a result, the Alaskan indigenous population has dropped from 98.4 % to 15.3 % of the total Alaskan population during th