Greer, Sheila staff, Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
The Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi Discovery - an Update With Marsha Hotch and Lawrence Joe Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi (Long Ago Person Found in the Southern Tutchone language) refers to human remains and associated artifacts found melting out of a glacier inChampagne and Aishihik First Nations (Canada) traditional territory in 1999. This presentation provides an update on what has been learned about the young man whose life ended so tragically roughly 200-300 years ago. He lived during the time when trade and interaction between the Chilkat Tlingit and the Southern Tutchone of the interior was at its height. For most of his life, the young man ate a marine-based diet, but he also spent a period in the interior in the months prior to his passing. His last journey started somewhere in the Haines area, and we suspect that he might have been heading to one of the Tutchone or mixed Tutchone-Tlingit villages that existed on the Tatshenshini River at this time. A mitochondrial DNA study was able to identify living relatives - meaning individuals who belong to the same female lineage. The relatives reside in both Alaska and Canada, and those who are Tutchone belong to the Wolf Clan, those who are Tlingit, to the Dakl'aweidí or Yanyeidí clans. Incredible craftsmanship is evident in the young man’s belongings (gopher skin robe, woven spruce root hat, knife).
