Angela Sidney (1902-1991) was a remarkable storyteller in the Yukon territory of Canada. As one of the last members of the Tagish, she recognized the power and importance of preserving Native culture and traditions.
Angela Sidney (1902-1991) was a remarkable storyteller in the Yukon territory of Canada. As one of the last members of the Tagish, she recognized the power and importance of preserving Native culture and traditions.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting Indigenous women from around the globe.
Today’s womanican was a remarkable storyteller in the Yukon territory of Canada. As one of the last members of the Tagish, she recognized the power and importance of preserving Native culture and traditions. Please welcome Angela Sidney.
Angela Sidney was born in Carcross in Yukon, Canada on January 4th, 1902. Originally known as Caribou Crossing, Carcross was home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. Angela’s parents, John and Maria, were of Tagish and Tlingit ancestry. They were both members of the Deisheetaan clan. When Angela was a baby, she was given a Tagish and a Tlingit name in addition to her English name. It’s been said she was given the name Angela because her godfather said “she looks like a little angel”.
Before Angela and her brother and sister were born, her parents had four other children. Tragically, these children died at the hands of various illnesses, including German measles, dysentery, smallpox, and jaundice.
Angela’s mother was not immune to these diseases and suffered from long-term side effects for the rest of her life. As the eldest surviving daughter, Angela was responsible for taking care of her mother.
Angela took advantage of their mother daughter time by asking her mother question after question about the traditions and culture of their people. She heard many colorful stories about the way things used to be. One of Angela’s favorite activities was listening to her elders share ancient stories that had been passed down through many generations.
Growing up, Angela learned three languages - Tlingit, Tagish, and English. She learned Tlingit and Tagish from family members while learning English at an Anglican mission school in Carcross. When Angela was just five years old, she stopped regularly speaking Tagish. As she would continue to grow older, she noticed that Tagish language and culture was starting to fade.
Throughout Angela’s childhood, her Tagish community was going through a significant transition. For hundreds of years, the Tagish and Tlingit people harmoniously lived side by side, even trading goods and intermarrying. However by the mid 19th century, the Tagish people had started adopting Tlinglit language and customs. Tagish culture slowly began to disappear. It became almost obsolete in the 1900s, a decline perhaps hastened when white prospectors came to Yukon in search of gold and disrupted their way of life.
When Angela was 14, with her parent’s support, she married a section worker named George Sidney who was twice her age. They married in a traditional Tlingit ceremony. When one of Angela’s white school teachers learned of the marriage, her teacher told George that they needed to marry the “white-man way.” George and Angela obliged and had a second wedding in the Anglican Church.
Shortly after their marriage, Angela gave birth to their first child in 1917. In the years to come, she would have six more children, but four of them died young. When it came to passing her knowledge down to her children, Angela embraced the old and new ways of her world. She wanted her children to be progressive, without forgetting the ways of their ancestors.
Angela herself had her feet in both worlds. She learned the traditional healing methods of her clan while caring for her mother, but also studied modern medical textbooks as an adult. Because of this dual wealth of knowledge, Angela served as the unofficial nurse of Carcross.
Angela’s husband George, became the Chief of Carcross after Chief Patsy Henderson died. In this new position of power, he and Angela made it a mission to maintain mixed raced schools of white and First Nation kids.
After her husband passed away in 1971, Angela dedicated her life to preserving the language and stories of the Tagish, as well as the history of the Yukon. She was one of the last fluent speakers of the Tagish language and one of the few people still telling and passing down old stories.
Angela was intent on not letting Yukon tradition and customs disappear. She was all too familiar with the disappointment of feeling like the stories she was told growing up did not match her lived experiences. For example, when it was time for her to receive a potlatch name, there was no clan Elder to give it to her because those with the knowledge had passed without sharing it with their descendants. In the last 17 years of her life, she worked with anthropologists and other elders to keep the Tagish language and traditions alive.
In collaboration with anthropologist Julie Cruikshank, Angela published two books - My Stories are My Wealth in 1977 and Tagish Tlaagu: Tagish Stories in 1982. She also published a book that archived place names for Tagish and Tlingit locations around the region’s southern lakes. In 1983, Angela and Julie produced a record of Angela’s family tree that encompassed six generations starting in the mid 1800s.
Angela made history in 1986 when she became the first Native woman from the Yukon to become a member of the Order of Canada. She was recognized for her contributions to northern linguistics and ethnographic studies.
In 1988, Angela’s niece and a fellow storyteller created the Yukon International Storytelling Festival in honor of Angela and her stories.
Angela Sidney died on July 17, 1991.
Her contributions to preserving her language and culture are commemorated with a bust in Whitehorse, Canada. Underneath the statue lies a plaque inscribed with her words: “I have no money to leave for my grandchildren. My stories are my wealth”
All month, we’re talking about Indigenous women.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!