Elijah

===Have you ever sate done with an elder and hear a story of a Tlingit Totem Pole? Well if you haven't I will tell you the amazing thing about Tlingit story's in this Article.=== This is a photo of a the totem pole in Sitka Alaska it means when the Tlingit's lost the battle agents the Russian's. I'll explane what the animals are. The top of the totem is the Raven then a sockeye after the sockeye is a Killer whale.

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000105 EndHTML:0000004337 StartFragment:0000002826 EndFragment:0000004301 **__Tlingit and Russian Battle in Sitka, Alaska year 1802__** **//By Elijah Marks//**

I'm eight-teen years old. My name is Kinkodinek. As I was standing at the shore line, all of a sudden I got chills up my back, and I knew something bad is going to happen. I smelled smoke coming from the forest, so I ran to go tell the people. The elders told me and the men to put it out before it got to the village. Then I heard a scream ; I ran towards it. It was one of the women getting attacked by a black bear.

As I yelled out, "CHOOK CHOOK TLINGIT ANI CHOOK!!" The bear slowly walked away. As the woman got up I noticed that she had scratches on her face. Then I noticed it was my sister. So then I carried her to our clan shaman, Stoonook, to heal her wounds. As we got to Stoonook, he asked me, "What was she doing alone in the woods?" I told him " I think she was picking berries."

The shaman put on a mask, a deer skin robe with panting on it also a red cedar rope was wrapped around him, then on top of his head were feathers standing up (the shaman's were the one that mostly wore the masks because it was like they where acting like the spirit to heal the person.) but then it always astounded me to watch the shamans. Then the shaman and I looked at each other. Then I said, " WHAT WAS THAT?!" "I don't know?" said Stoonook. "I'll go see what it is." Then when I got out there I saw it was the glatka (white-man) attacking our village. I ran as fast as I could to my father, K'alyaan.
 * BOOM BOOM!!!**

He just wasn't my father; he was our clan leader. I was proud to be his son. Then I tolled him the glatka were attacking. So he told me and the other men to put on our armor and attack them. As we were getting ready, he kept on saying, "YEEGU.'AAYAXX'WON YEEGU.'AAYA__X__X'WON!!!(be of good courage) "The men and me were getting ready, and so was my father. He put on the armor his father made my grandfather Yanalcheen. I remember him very well. He was a tall man, had broad shoulders, big arm muscles, and his legs were huge because he ran every morning. Also he had dark, dark, long brown hair, and his eyes were the same dark brown. My father looks exactly like him, and I look exactly like my father. Then my father told me to get out there and start fighting for our people.

So when I got out there there were gunshots going off. All the leaders of the three-man team were saying, "OON!!" (Shoot!) If the man didn't die, one of the men would hit him with a heavy hammer and kill him, or if the guys weren’t there, a dagger would stab him and kill him. Then my father and I left as a two-man team and he kept on telling me, "Yeegu.’aayxx’won (be of good courage) Kinkudink!" The first two men my father and I killed were a blacksmith and the watchmen. About seven hours later we killed 20 Russians and 130 Aleuts. Then all of a sudden. **BOOM!!**

A gunshot went off, and someone killed my father. I ran up behind him and caught him right before he fell onto the ground. Then right before he died, he said to me, " Kinkudink, you are my son; you fought well. I am glad to have been your father, but you are the leader now. You will lead our people to victory and kill all the Glatka..."

"I will, father, I won't let you down!" I cried, my face was full of tears. My tears were falling form my face, and landing on my father's wounds." Yeegu.'aa__x__x'won Kinkudink, be strong, just as Haa shuka. (Our Ancestors) don't be afraid or scared, but never forget that I will always be with you. So I'm telling you now when you put on my armor tomorrow to fight the glatka. Put on my armor and fight with pride and beat the glatka. So be strong, my son for our Tlingit people will live forever."

I began to weep more and more as my father was telling me this. Then I carried my father all the way to our shaman to see if he could heal the wound. Then Stoonook put on a different mask. It was a transformation mask of a human transforming into a bear. I asked him while I was trying to catch my breath, "Can you heal him?" " I don't know? It may be to late,” he said to me. I began to cry again. "YEEGU.'AAY__X__X'WON YEEGU.'AAY__X__X'WON!!"said Stoonook.

So then I carried my father's body to the clan house to let everybody else know what happened. Then the Kaagwaantaan clan came to our land so we could send my father up to Acheenoncow (the great spirit). Then we attacked the glatka again. As we were going to war I felt like all my ancestors were standing right by me. Like a mother bear, would never leave here cub alone in the woods.

So then I felt all my ancestors strength go inside of me, and I never felt afraid again. I attacked the glatka like I was the only one on the battlefield. The glatka men were afraid of the men and me. I knew they were afraid because they started to run. Most of their men were Aleuts, and we killed most of them. So then the battle continued the next day. The glatka were getting more men. They didn't kill one of our men that day. It was a blessing for that to happen.

So then the men that had very bad wounds went to our shaman to heal them. Then all our men were held, and we started our plan for our next attack. Our plan was to go on the water and attack when they were getting ready. So we got ready to attack them the next day.

As we were getting closer, I stood up on the canoe and was wearing my father's armor. It was deer leather with a tlingit raven design.I wore my dagger on my neck while I was wearing my fathers helmet that was a raven looking up; I wore a visor on my neck, and I had my rifle in my hands. I was wearing my father’s armor proudly. Then as the men were paddling, they were making no noise at all. It was as if they where cutting the water with there paddle's. The way they were paddling was they put their left hand first and slowly pulled it back to make there right hand to be infrant no noise at all.

Then we got to their ship, and we climbed up on. They were so surprised that it was us, so then we started shooting and they weren't ready, we killed most of them. There was more then one ship there were two. On both ships most of the men were dead. Then we couldn't find the captain at all on both ships, so we looked all around in both ships. We thought he ran away.

Then we say him on the land, trying to take our atoow and shaakeeats and headdress. He didn't know how strong our women were, and they killed him when he was trying to run away with all of the stuff. Then the rest of the men gave up. And we won the war against the glatka.

After all that, we took the dead and had the Kaagwaantaan.We keep it so all the men could be with Akeankowou. (The great spirit). After we did that, the women all came together and chose who would be the next clan leader. After at least a week, their made there choice. There choose was me, Kinkudink, as the clan leader. I asked them, "Why did you choose me to be the clan leader?" They told me, "We choose you because you are the son of the clan leader before you."

I was so happy, I began to cry. All my tears were falling onto my hands. I slowly wiped my tears off my eyes and I said to them, "gunalch’eesh! (Thank you)". After I was done crying, they told me, "Now keep our clan and people safe." "I will. I won't let anyone down I promise!" = =

My Preface
Did you know the Tlingit faight the Russians in 1802 and wan the battle? In the historical fiction story you're about to read will give you a glimss on how brave the tlingit's are and how they wan the battle. ... The names used in this story are real traditional Tlingit names. The Tlingit did have shamans who would heal wounds and sicknesses. The description of armor is based on drawings and elders' stories about the battle. It's true that the Tlingit fought in three-man groups in battle, and that the Tlingit attacked the Russians in the way I described. What is fictional in this story? ... do. The calnecaln leader wouldn't ... what the TlingitsTlingit's had to

Then the shaman and I looked at each other. Then I said " WHAT WAS THAT?!" "I don't know?" said Stoonook. "I'll go see what it is." then when i got out there I saw it was the glatka(white-man) attacking our village. I ran as fast as i could to my father K'alyaan. ...

My Preface Did you know the tilingit faight the Russians in 1802 and wan the battle? In the historcel fiction story you're about to read will give you a glimss on how brave the Tlingits are and how they wan the battle.

If you want to read/hear MORE about these topics, I used these sources in my story: "Battle of Sitka." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/battle_of_sitka. Accessed 16 February 2010.