Bark Cloth - Conclusion

I will try to wrap up the series of posts on bark-cloth in the Pacific region.

I have given examples and mentioned the different bark-cloth traditions found in Indonesia (Sualwesi - Celebes), Polynesia, Mesoamerica (Mayas and Aztecs), Northwestern Pacific coast of North America (British Columbia and Canda). The use of bark cloth was frequent in these societies before the arrival of Europeans, who replaced them with linnen, and cotton garments (Polynesia, Asia and NW North America - in Mesoamerica cotton was used in textiles by the upper classes) and with European paper.

Non woven textiles: Beaten Bark cloth

Beating bark to produce a fine and soft non-woven fiber which is shaped to produce barkcloth has been a common practice in many cultures around the world.

It is ancient, and predates weaving (interlacing threads in a crisscross pattern). The discovery of beaten bark may be very ancient, and originate in different places in a convergent independent discovery process, or, perhaps, a shared ancient knowledge like fire-making, or fish hook making, stone knapping, part of the survival kit of our ancestors.

Africa

The Mbuti pygmies of the D.R. of Congo in Africa have made and used barkcloth since antiquity (known as "pongo" in Kimbuti language and "molumba" in Kiswahili), they used it for their loincloths and traded it with farmers for food. They are made from bark of different trees, pounded with ivory hammers and painted by the women (Learn more: Barkcloth Designs of Mbuti Women, Barry S. Hewlett and L.L. Cavalli-Sforza (1991) Human Mossaic, Vol. 25, Nos. 1-2).

Southeast China and into Polynesia

The Southeastern China barkcloth beaters dating back almost 8,000 years were found in Dingmo, Guangxi (Dawei Li, Wei Wang, Feng Tian, Wei Liao, Christopher J. Bae, (2014). The oldest bark cloth beater in southern China (Dingmo, Bubing basin, Guangxi), Quaternary International, Vol 354, 15 December 2014, ps 184-189.) Dingmo site is SW China (see Google Map) produced a beater excavated from a layer dated to 7898 ± 34 BP. This is roughly 1,300 years older than the previous oldest beater, found at the Xiantouling Site in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China (close to Hong Kong).

These were neolithic modern humans, who spoke an Austric language (this was long before the current Han-Chinese appeared). They originated the proto-Austronesian people and language, which later spread south across Indonesia, Melanesia, and Poloynesia.

Current consensus (Source) is that the bark cloth technology that originated in SE China, spread from there to Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and with the outflow of Austronesians, into Papua New Guinea, and the near Pacific Islands Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu, and then into Polynesia, Niue, Cook Islands, Salomon Islands, Hawaii, and New Zealand. These peoiple made "Tapa cloth" and used the bark of paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) of the Moraceae family. Surprisingly, Africans also use ficus trees from the Moraceae family like Ficus natalensis (Mutuba) and Antiaris toxicaria (Kilundu).

A paper published in 2015 used DNA to track the trees used in barkcloth across SE Asia, Melanesia and Polynesia, suggesting that the migrants who moved from Taiwan into this region, took the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) with them together with their dogs, chickens, and pigs (C. Chang,H. Liu,X. Moncada,A. Seelenfreund,D. Seelenfreund, & K. Chung, (2015). A holistic picture of Austronesian migrations revealed by phylogeography of Pacific paper mulberry, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 112 (44) 13537-13542, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503205112.)

The study reported that "Using chloroplast DNA sequences, we demonstrate a tight genealogical link between its populations in South China and North Taiwan, and South Taiwan and Remote Oceania by way of Sulawesi and New Guinea, presenting the first study, to our knowledge, of a commensal plant species transported to Polynesia whose phylogeographic structure concurs with expectations of the “out of Taiwan” hypothesis of Austronesian expansion..."

But barkcloth didn't catch on in New Zealand. (Source) the ancestors of the Maoris brought their paper mulberry with them, which they called "aute" but it didn't gro well there, and bark cloth which was suitable in a Tropical climate didn't stand up to the colder and wetter New Zealand weather.

The Maori used local species like houhi, whauwhi, or houhere to replace the aute, but eventually they plaited and knitted strips of bark, and fiber from different vines and grasses to knit their skirts and capes-

Bark cloth in Mesoamerica

The Maya used different ficus species to make bark paper (Source). The main source for bark paper was the amate tree. Paper which they used for codices (books) and clothing for the poor. They also used bark from non-ficus trees for this purpose.

The Aztec people also used ficus and jonote, as well as a species of yucca, and maguey fiber. For paper and also for fiber which, they wove into mats and clothes for the lower classes. Notice the emphasis in the word "wove". The Aztecs had deep textile knowledge, and weaved cloth using not only maguey fiber, but also cotton, and wool. This wasn't beaten bark, it was a fiber fashioned from beaten plant fiber (maguey). Their paper was indeed beaten bark. But not used for clothes amont the Aztecs.

Northwestern North America

The natives along the Pacific coast of Canada and Alaska used the bark of redwoods (cedar) to make beaten bark textiles. The texts that I found show that they wove it, without using a loom, so it was similar to the Mexican textiles: it was woven, this makes it different to the Polynesian "tapa" wich was a non-woven textile.

Amazon Ashenikas

The Ashenika people who live in the Peruvian Amazon (Google Maps), wear a tunic called cushma. It is their typical dress, and it is made with woven cotton. Perhaps they adopted weaving after their contact with the advanced Inca civilization that lived to the west. But it seems likely that they originally used beaten bark for their clothing.

Sø Hvalkof, a researcher from Copenhagen University acquired a barkcloth cushma made in the Ene region. The natives told him that similar bark cloth cushmas were still used in the remote jungle areas between the Tambo River and the Gran Pajonal.

The Ashéninka Indians produced barkcloth cushmas in the past, and this fact was recorded by John Elick, 1970¹ who reported having seen children in the hills east of the Nevati river wearing rough cushmas of barkcloth in the 1950s. They were made from a ficus the natives called llanchama, (Olmeida aspera), a Moracea They told Hvalkof in the 1980s that they still knew how to make them, but that they lost their shape when the got wet, and preferred woven cotton clothes. Source and Source

¹ Elick, John William. 1970. An ethnography of the Pichis Valley Campa of Eastern Peru. Los Angeles: University of California dissertation. (297pp.).

Conclusion

Human beings are resourceful creatures who learn how to use what nature has to offer. The beaten bark fiber used by Africans, Asians, and Amerindians seems to be either an ancestral knowledge, or one fruit of independent discovery. The Melanesians and Polynesians seem to be the only group who received it as part of the Austronesian culture, as their ancestors moved across Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, into New Guinea, and the South Pacific Islands.

I don't think that the Polynesians took their beaten bark techniques to America.

Bark cloth Pacific rim. Fig. 2. Judith Cameron

As mentioned in my previous post, Judith Cameron (Trans-oceanic transfer of bark-cloth technology from South China-Southeast Asia to Mesoamerica?, 2008, in Islands of inquiry: colonisation, seafaring and the archaeology of maritime landscapes (Terra Australis 29). Editors, Geoffrey Clark, Foss Leach & Sue O'Connor, PublisherANU ePress, pp.203-210. Vol 1.) suggested an independent discovery of barkcloth:

"Notwithstanding the above-mentioned parallels, there is also the possibility that the Meso-american archaeological bark-cloth beaters belong to an independent cultural tradition that has no links with Southeast China or Southeast Asia... An... explanation is that prehistoric groups in Mesoamerica independently developed stone bark-cloth beaters..."

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Bark Cloth in British Columbia and Alaska

Continuing with the subject of the bark coloth and beaten bark that seems to be a pan-Pacific industry, found in Indonesia, Polynesia, China, Southeast Asia, Mexico and the Northwestern coast of North America, this post deals with the latter, the beaten bark of the natives of Alaska, British Columbia.

The book Cedar: Tree of Life to the Northwest Coast Indians By Hilary Stewart (see p. 143) shows images of different types of clothes, like aprons, skirts, capes, and blankets fashioned by the natives in cedar bark. It also mentions Captain Cook's and John Jewitt's accounts about these woven bark mats and textiles.

Captain James Cook visited this region during his final (third) voyage (1776-1780). He carried an artist to record the events of his expedition, John Webber, who drew several images, some nicely watercolored, of the expedition's stop in Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, in what is now Canada. The two ships, Resolution and Discovery anchored there between March 29 and April 26, 1778.

Further down, the illustration of the interior of a Nootka home, shows the natives, wrapped in mats of woven bark, seated on mats, weaving, and cooking. Smoked salmon can be seen under the ceiling. Below is what Cook wrote at that time, as recorded in The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VI. Being the Second of the Third Voyage, by James Cook, p. 298.

"The flaxen and woollen garments, with which they cover themselves, must necessarily engage their first care, and are the most material of those that can be ranked under the head of manufactures. The former of these are made of the bark of a pine-tree, beat into a hempen state. It is not spun, but, after being properly prepared, is spread upon a stick, which is fastened across to two others that stand upright. It is disposed in such a manner that the manufacturer, who sits on her hams at this simple machine, knots it across with small plaited threads, at the distance of half an inch from each other. Though, by this method, it be not so close or firm as cloth that is woven, the bunches between the knots make it sufficiently impervious to the air, by filling the interstices, and it has the additional advantage of being softer and more pliable. The woollen garments, though probably manufactured in the same manner, have the strongest resemblance to woven cloth. But the various figures which are very artificially inserted in them, destroy the supposition of their being wrought in the loom; it being extremely unlikely that these people should be so dexterous as to be able to finish such a complex work, unless immediately by their hands. They are of different degrees of fineness; some resembling our coarsest rugs or blankets, and others almost equal to our finest sorts, or even softer, and certainly warmer. The wool of which they are made, seems to be taken from animals, as the fox and brown lynx; the last of which is by far the finest sort, and, in its natural state, differs little from the colour of our coarser wools; but the hair, with which the animal is also covered, being intermixed, its appearance, when wrought, is somewhat different. The ornamental parts or figures in these garments, which are disposed with great taste, are commonly of a different colour, being dyed, chiefly, either of a deep brown, or of a yellow; the last of which, when it is new, equals the best in our carpets, as to brightness."

The Inside of a House in Nootka Sound. Webber

In the case John Rodgers Jewitt (1783-1821), we have his account, The adventures and sufferings of John R. Jewitt, only survior of the ship Boston, during a captivity of nearly three years among the savages of Nootka Sound. With an account of the manners, mode of living, and religious opinions of the natives (see p. 72 below).

"From bark they likewise make the cloth for their garments, in the following manner : A quantity of this bark is taken and put into fresh water, where it is kept for a fortnight, to give it time to completely soften; it is then taken out and beaten upon a plank, with an instrument made of bone, or some very hard wood, having grooves or hollows on one side of it, care being taken to keep the mass constantly moistened with water, in order to separate, with more ease, the hard and woody from the soft and fibrous parts, which, when completed, they par cel out into skeins, like thread. These they lay in the air to bleach, and afterwards dye them black or red, as suits their fancies, their natural colour being a pale yellow. In order to form the cloth, the women, by whom the whole of this process is performed, take a certain number of these skeins, and twist them together, by rolling them with their hands upon their knees into hard rolls, which are afterwards connected by means of a strong thread, made for the purpose.
Their dress usually consists of but a single garment, which is a loose cloak or mantle (called Kutsack) in one piece, reaching nearly to the feet. This is tied loosely over the right or left shoulder, so as to leave the arms at full liberty.
Those of the common people are painted red with ochre, the better to keep out the rain, but the chiefs wear them of their native colour, which is a pale yellow, ornamenting them with borders of the sea-otter skin, a kind of grey cloth, made of the hair of some animal which they procure from the tribes to the South, or their own cloth wrought or painted with various figures in red or black, representing men’s heads, the sun and moon, fish and animals, which are frequently executed with much skill. They have also a girdle of the same kind, for securing this mantle, or Kutsack, around them, which is in general still more highly ornamented, and serves them to wear their daggers and knives in. In winter, however, they sometimes make use of an additional garment, which is a kind of hood, with a hole in it for the purpose of admitting the head..."

Jewitt had been an armourer and blacksmith on board an American ship, the "Boston" on a trading expedition around the world. The natives attacked the crew in March 1803, sparing Jewitt as they needed his know-how as an armourer. He was held captive for 28 months when he managed to escape aboard another ship that was visiting Nootka Sound.

Ninety years later, the Report on Population and Resources of Alaska at the eleventh census: 1890, by Robert P. Porter, published in 1893 (see p. 57-58), indicated that the natives still continued with this tradition:

" The early visitors to the Alexander archipelago [see Google Maps] found the natives of both sexes wearing conical or truncated hats woven of grass or finely split spruce root, and painted with totem shapes in different colors, generally black and red. From the same material, blankets and mats ornamented with grotesque designs were manufactured and found in general use. They also had a rain coat or rather blanket with a central aperture for inserting the head [like a poncho].
These garments were woven from coarse grass with the shaggy side exposed to the rain. The inhabitants of the southern part of the archipelago substituted the more pliable material obtained from cedar bark for grass and roots. Mats and cloths manufactured in this way are still in general use throughout the Thlingit tribe and they are applied to every imaginable purpose from carpeting a house and lining a canoe to packing cases bags and coverings. In cases of emergency they also serve as garments and bedding while nearly everything the Thlingit brings for sale to the settlement is carefully wrapped in cedar matting."

Below is an image of one of these cedar bark mats

Cedar bark mat, late 1800s–early 1900s from Alaska or British Columbia, Canada. Material+technique: cedar bark; weaving. Dimensions: (Length x Width): 106 x 49.5 cm (19.5 x 41-75 in.). Source

But, they also made sophisticated clothes, as you can see below, and not only coarse mats.

Tunic and leggings, Date: ca. 1890. Alaska, United States. Tlingit, Native American Medium: Cedar bark, mountain sheep wool and dye. Source

Woven Bark and also wool

In their book, The Tlingit Indians, George Thornton Emmons and Frederica De Laguna (see p. 222), describe how the Tlingit wove cedar bark into mats and "cloth". They also used animal wool to weave blankets, like the famous Chilkat blanket (see this online source for more details about the blanket).

Comments

To my non-scholar eyes, these mats and cedar bark mats and rugs of the Tlingit natives seem less sophisticated than the Celebes-Sulawesi paper (the key here is "paper") garments. The Indonesians beat bark into a paper pulp and then fashioned it into clothing. The Tlingit wove (the key here is "weaving") the bark, they used very primitive looms (if the word loom could be used), actually frames onto which they wove the bark. The only similarity is that they used a plant fiber to make clothes. But the processes seem different.

My next post on the Mesoamerican beaten bark will show that they made paper from the bark. So Mexican bark-cloth is similar to the Indonesian product.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Haida, Tlingit and Polynesians in a text from 1894

Continuing with research on the link between Polynesians and natives from the Northwestern coast of North America, in this post I will share an article published in 1894 (The American Antiquarian, Vol XVI, No. 1, Jan. 1894, Origin of the Indians, p. 8, Cyrus Thomas), that mentions the similarities between both groups, Polynesians and Amerindians.

An 1894 Article

The article mentions other books as refrences (underlined by me in the text, and commented further down), which widens the bibliography on this subject.

"No one has failed to remark the strong resemblance in many respects of the arts customs etc. of the people of the west coast especially of the Haida Indians and cognate tribes with those of the South Pacific islanders particularly the Melanesians and Polynesians.
If we compare the arts customs and traditions of some of the west coast tribes with those of the South Sea Islanders we shall find such striking coincidences as to render the supposition that they are accidental highly improbable.
The comparison made by Ensign AP Niblack in his recent work 'The Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia', between the Maori of New Zealand and the Haida Indians of our northwest coast brings out a series of coincidences which to say the least is, remarkable. And what renders this comparison of special interest is the fact that it is not made to sustain a theory, as the author is not an advocate of the idea of relationship or even contact between these widely separated tribes. It is thus he brieflly summarizes them: "In point of physical resemblance both are of the Mongoloid type, and both live on groups of islands whose climates are remark ably similar... Their political organization of the tribe, their ownership of land, and their laws of blood revenge are similar. The men tattoo with designs intended to identity themselves with their subtribe or household and they ornament their canoes, paddles, house fronts, etc., in somewhat the same manner as on the northwest coast... Under the head of "Rain Cloaks", Dixon (1787) is quoted as saying that the cloaks of the Haida and Tlingit were the same as those worn by the New Zealanders... Also a statement [from the same authority] that a Haida fortified house on an island of the Queen Charlotte group was built exactly on the plan of the hipah of the savages of New Zealand... and that the adzes of the Tlingit and Haida made of jasper were the same as those used by the New Zealanders. The cloaks of shredded inner bark in the National Museum from New Zealand and the Queen Charlotte Islands are so much alike that it takes a close inspection to distinguish them. In plate XXXII Fig 167 a New Zealand paddle is reproduced with a few from the northwest coast. The resemblance is marked and interesting... But it is safe to say that while this is not accidental, yet the resemblances and similarities are as likely to have arisen from the like tendencies of the human mind under the same external conditions or environment to develop a long parallel line, as through contact of these tribes or through a common origin."

The bibliography quoted by Cyrus Thomas

This work quotes a book by Ensign Albert P. Niblack, of the U.S. Navy, his book published in 1890 "The Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia." Which in its Chapter XV (General Notes: Relations and affinities of the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and Kwakiutl —the Haida— Remarks on the Maori of New Zealand —the Kaigani- Ethnological work to be done.) starting on p.382, explores the similarities between Polynesians and NW Coast natives. The text quoted by Cyrus is found on p. 385. And the plate XXXII mentioned by Cyrus Thomas is shown below (adapted, only displaying the New Zealand and NW coast paddles).

Fig XXXII in A.P. Niblack, E (1890), p.292

Niblack also quotes Dixon; you can see the original text by Dixon in "Voyages" (1787), p.266: "Besides their ordinary dress, the natives at this place have a peculiar kind of cloaks made purposely to defend them from the inclemency of the weather. I had no opportunity of examining them minutely, but they appear to be made of reeds sewed very closely together, and I was told by one of our gentlemen who was with Captain Cook during his last Voyage, that they are exactly the same with those wore by the inhabitants of New Zealand."

The reference to the fortified houses built by the Haida, given by Dixon can be found on p. 206 "Captain Dixon no sooner saw the fortified hut just mentioned, then this suspicion was strengthened, as it was, he said, built exactly on the plan of the hippah of the savages at New Zealand."

Captain Cook, in February of 1777, visited a hippah, a fortified village with buildings made from reeds, on Motuara Island, New Zealand. It was unoccupied at that time. John Webber drew some sketches of the huts, and they were printed as engravings after Cook's death by B. T. Pouncy. Below is the engraving (Source).

To be continued. See my previous post on this subject.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Alaska and Hawaii another trans-Pacific link

A reader posted a comment after reading about Inca Tupac Yupanqui's voyages in the Pacific, asking " I was wondering if you have noticed that by dropping a few letters from Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands Canada) you get Hawaii. They also have similar artifacts and customs like we had here in Hawaii."

No, I was not aware of any similatrities between the Haida Gwaii and Hawaii. So I set out to learn more about them.

This custom Google map shows the spots and places mentioned in this post.

Searching for a link between Hawaii and the Nothwestern coast of North America I came across a blog post (Connections, by Peter T. Young, Nov. 19, 2023, in ) which discusses the peopling of Hawaii. It included the following text:

"Solomon Lehuanui Kalaniomaiheuila was the son of Peleioholani (uncle to the Kings Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V) and Piikeakaluaonalani (mother.) For many, Peleioholani was considered an important Hawaiian antiquarian and the final word in Hawaiian genealogy, especially of the chiefs and royal families.
He wrote of the Hawaiian history. One of Peleioholani’s theories notes, “The ancestors of the Hawaiian race came not from the islands the South Pacific – for the immigrants from that direction were late arrivals there – but from the northern direction (welau lani,) that is, from the land of Kalonakikeke, now known as Alaska.”

The post also gave some additional information on the British Columbia natives, of Haida Gwaii "Peter Marsh makes several Canadian connections to Pacific Islands, noting, that archaeological and cultural evidence suggests that there is a strong connection between Coastal Canada and Polynesia. Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) is an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, Canada."

It lists the similarities between both people, Polynesians and Haida Gwai'i:

• Tahitian and Haida stone pounders, stone bowls from Kauai and Bella Coola Valley
• The war clubs with an angry mouth on the handle of Maori and NW Britich Columbian Coastal natives.
• Tattoos: "Polynesian skit derived from Haida tattooing implements."
• Fish hooks, fish hook pendants, rock art, Tiki-like carvings, totem poles with figures whose toungues are sticking out, like the Maoris. Inlaid shell in figures
• Carvings with similar eyes and mouths in BC and the Marquesas Islands.
• Similar war canoes. Use of hot rocks to steam and shape canoes.
• Use of squash gourds to carry water instead of ceramic bottles.
• Nose rubbing to greet.
• Pit ovens heated with hot stones
• " The use of the glottal stop in speech is similar e.g.; Hawai‘i and Haida Gwai‘i."

I decided to find the sources of both the Alaskan and the Haida Gwai'i refrences.

The Alaskan link

A website called polynesianprehistory.com has the following text:

"The ancestors of the Hawaiian race came not from the islands the South Pacific – for the immigrants from that direction were late arrivals there. – but from the northern direction (welau lani), that is, from the land of Kalonakikeke, now known as Alaska.
The very first man and woman who came from Kalonakikeke to the continent of Ka-Houpo-o-Kane, they were Kalonakikeke (“Mr Alaska”) and his wife Hoomoe-a-pule (“Woman of my dreams”). They were said to both be high chiefs of Kanaka-Hikina (people of the east) and Kanaka-Komohana (people of the west) and were descended from the great great ancestor Huka-ohialaka.
They arrived at Ka Houpo-o-Kane before it was disrupted by a great flood that occurred during the reign of Kahiko-Luamea. This great flood carried away a floating log of wood named Konikonihia. On this log was a precious human cargo and it came to rest on the land of Kalonakikeke (Alaska).
‘Many generations later, Nuu, travelled from Alaska with his wife, Lilinoe, their three sons and their three wives in a canoe called Ka-Waa-Halau-Alii-O-Ka-Moku (the royal canoe of the continent), and it rested apon Mauna Kea (white mountain), on the island of Hawaii. They were the first Hawaiians.
From ‘The Ancient Hawaiian History of Hookumu Ka Lani & Hookumu Ka Honua’, by Solomon L.K. Peleioholani."

This is a direct reference to Solomon Peleiholani and his work. The book can be found online here. The text quoted above is found on page 35, and continues on page 36 with the floating log and deluge. The text was written using a typewriter, and is stamped by the Bishop Museum, uploaded on Jan. 14, 2004 and authored by Solomon Lehuanui Kalaniomaiheuila Peleioholani (1844-1916).

This text implies that the first Hawaiians (Menehune?) came from Alaska. The flood myth is universal, reflecting the submersion of the continental shelves during the period of deglaciation after the last Ice Age, when sea levels rose by over 120 m (400 ft.). Does it refer to the coastal plains by the NW coast of America? Sundaland or Sahul in SE Asia and Australia-New Guinea?

Tlingits, Haida, and Polynesians

The site polynesianprehistory.com has a second link between Polynesia and NW America. It says the following:

"The following Tlingit legend confirms that the female mitochondrial DNA found in Polynesian and Tlingit genes, came from across the Western Ocean (North Pacific). The possibility that the 7km/hr Kuroshio Current, a virtual ‘river of the Ocean', which flows from Taiwan to Alaska, played a part in this migration is extremely likely. There is an old story that says how some strange people came from the Western Ocean. Among them were two sisters. They landed on Dall Island in Southeastern Alaska. There the sisters met and married men whose people were coming down the rivers from interior North America. One sister-went with her family to Haida-gwaii or the Queen Charlotte Islands. Her children grew and multiplied into the Haida Nation. The other sister went with her family to Prince of Wales Island. She became the ancestress or Mother of the Tlingit Nation.
From ‘The Proud Chilkat', by Brendan and Lauri Larson."

The Tlingit people (also Tlinquit) are a Native American tribe that speaks a Na-Dené language. They live on the narrow southern strip of Alaska, known as the "Alaskan panhandle".

The Tlingit and Haida people have been living on the coast of NW America for at least 10,000 years. An article published in Science in 2017 clearly stated that " DNA of 10,300-year-old human remains from On Your Knees Cave in Alaska have found that he was closely related to three ancient skeletons found along the coast of British Columbia in Canada. These three ancient people were in turn closely related to the Tsimshian, Tlingit, Nisga'a, and Haida tribes living in the region today. The new finding reveals a direct line of descent to these tribes, and it shows—for the first time from ancient DNA—that at least two different groups of people were living in North America more than 10,000 years ago."

HLA-B*48

It does not mention Polynesian mtDNA in the Tlingits. However, I found a reference linking Tlingits and Polynesian genetics but it involves HLA: (Source). However, the original source of the quote is not given!

"One particular DNA haplotype - the human lymphocyte antigen (HLA)Bw48 is commonly found in Polynesian populations, but occurs only sporadically in Melanesia (Polynesian outliers). The only other known population with an appreciable frequency of HLA-Bw48 is that of the North American Indians or more specifically the Tlingit of Alaska.
"This DNA evidence is supported by cultural and archaeological evidence showing a definite link between Eastern Polynesia and the Tlingit, Kwakuitl and Haida of the islands off Alaska and Canada."

HLA-Bw48 is now known as HLA-B*48. Searching for the HLA B*48 allele (online, Allele Frequencies in World Populations) did not turn up any Tinglits!

HLA B*48 frequencies across the World. Source

It shows that this HLA variant is found in Amerindians, but it does not mention Tinglit people. It does not appear among Polynesians, though it is found in Asia (Armenia, India, Mongolia, Taiwan, and Russia). It does not provide anyd evidence to support the idea of admixture or a shared origin for Tinglit people and Polynesians, or any reference of common mtDNA, or unique HLA variant.

This is ongoing work, so I will follow it up in a future post.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©