Nelson, Mark Heritage Manager, Ta’an Kwäch’än Council
The Stories of Coastal and Interior Peoples: Looking for Connections through Dánän Kwänje – Our Land Speaks (www.taan.ca/placenames) With Gail Anderson and Frances Woolsey The Ta'an Kwäch'än (“people of Lake Laberge”) have recently launched an interactive website called Dánän Kwänje – Our Land Speaks. This site explores the cultural history of the Ta'an Kwäch'än to their lands through native place names and histories. Several of these histories illustrate the ancient relationships between coastal Tlingit people and interior Athabaskans, and the ancestral relationship of the Ta'an Kwäch'än to the coastal Tlingit. The Ta'an Kwäch'än are descended from Łande, a woman of the Dakl'awedí clan from the Tagish area of Yukon. Since becoming established in the Lake Laberge area, the Ta'an Kwäch'än have continued to have trade and kinship relations with the coastal Tlingit. Through our presentation about the website, we will highlight these points of connection, and hope to encourage our audience to share their own knowledge of this relationship through stories, history and kinship. We hope to build lasting relationships that will result in additionalresearch and sharing of knowledge, so that it can in turn be passed through Dánän Kwänje – Our Land Speaks.
