= Klen-ee-kate, Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, V, 489, 1855.
= Klen-e-kate, Kane, Wanderings of an Artist, app., 1859 (a census of
N.W. coast tribes classified by language).
= Thlinkithen, Holmberg in Finland Soc., 284, 1856 (fide Buschmann,
676, 1859).
= Thl’nkets, Dall in Proc. Am. Ass., 268, 269, 1869 (divided into
Sitka-kwan, Stahkin-kwan, “Yakutats”).
= T’linkets, Dall in Cont. N.A. Eth., I, 36, 1877 (divided into
Yăk´ūtăts, Chilkāht’-kwan, Sitka-kwan, Stākhin´-kwān, Kygāh´ni).
= Thlinkeet, Keane, App. Stanford’s Comp. (Cent, and So. Am.), 460,
462, 1878 (from Mount St. Elias to Nass River; includes Ugalenzes,
Yakutats, Chilkats, Hoodnids, Hoodsinoos, Takoos, Auks, Kakas,
Stikines, Eeliknûs, Tungass, Sitkas). Bancroft, Nat. Races, III, 562,
579, 1882.
= Thlinkit, Tolmie and Dawson, Comp. Vocabs., 14, 1884 (vocab. of
Skutkwan Sept; also map showing distribution of family). Berghaus,
Physik. Atlas, map 72, 1887.
= Tlinkit, Dall in Proc. Am. Ass., 375, 1885 (enumerates tribes and
gives population).
Derivation: From the Aleut word kolosh, or more properly, kaluga,
meaning “dish,” the allusion being to the dish-shaped lip ornaments.
This family was based by Gallatin upon the Koluschen tribe (the
Tshinkitani of Marchand), “who inhabit the islands and the adjacent
coast from the sixtieth to the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude.”
In the Koluschan family, Gallatin observes that the remote analogies to
the Mexican tongue to be found in several of the northern tribes, as the
Kinai, are more marked than in any other.
The boundaries of this family as given by Gallatin are substantially in
accordance with our present knowledge of the subject. The southern
boundary is somewhat indeterminate owing to the fact, ascertained by the
census agents in 1880, that the Haida tribes extend somewhat farther
north than was formerly supposed and occupy the southeast half of Prince
of Wales Island. About latitude 56°, or the mouth of Portland Canal,
indicates the southern limit of the family, and 60°, or near the mouth
of Atna River, the northern limit. Until recently they have been
supposed to be exclusively an insular and coast people, but Mr. Dawson
has made the interesting discovery[63] that the Tagish, a tribe living
inland on the headwaters of the Lewis River, who have hitherto been
supposed to be of Athapascan extraction, belong to the Koluschan family.
This tribe, therefore, has crossed the coast range of mountains, which
for the most part limits the extension of this people inland and
confines them to a narrow coast strip, and have gained a permanent
foothold in the interior, where they share the habits of the neighboring
Athapascan tribes.
[Footnote 63: Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Canada,
1887.]