Kaska Traditions and Women
Many Athapaskan groups including the Kaska were matrilineal and matrilocal (de Laguna 1981; Crow and Obley 1981:508; Honigmann 1981:446). The most important social relationships were to the mother and grandmother. It is from them that young women would aquire their artifice or knowledge to be able to survive and raise children in the bush. Kaska women lived together; elder woman in very close proximity (if not in the same tent) to grandchildren. Kaska skills and values would be passed along matrilineal lines in matrilocal camps.
"Sit one place when people eating. Don't run around (they said). The elders they eat first. The visitors gotta eat first all the time." Aggie Magun, Watson Lake.
"I remember Grandma always telling us, you know, how everthing is a'i, to be respectful around you. That doesn't (just) include people, it includes everything around you, you know. The plants, the water, everything. So we were really careful when we were growing up how to be respectful to everything around us. And especially people, you know, be respectful to people. Leda Jules, Liard
"If people aren't wise they will die soon. When you are wise you won't die prematurely. From there they talk about everything. Doris Etzel, Ross River
BECOMING A WOMAN
MARRIAGE
BABIES
SPECIAL TIMES
SURVIVAL
All quotes gathered from the book:
(Dene) Gedeni: Traditional Lifestyles of Kaska Women
Produced for the Ross River Dena Council
by Angela Wheelock and Patrick Moore
About The Creators
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