Tlingit Shark Belt Buckle, Indian Style, Bronze, Sand Cast.
Tlingit Shark Belt Buckle, Northwest Coast Indian Style, Gold Bronze with Satin Finish, Sand Cast, Back Of Buckle Reads Rainbow Metals, Back Of Belt Reads Genuine Steerhide and Belt Size 36.
The Tlingit were a seafaring people, skilled fishers, traders and hunters-gatherers, who were located southern Alaska in the United States and British Columbia and the Yukon in Canada. The Tlingit tribe, whose name means "People of the tides" lived off the produce from the Pacific Ocean and surrounding coastal areas. Their shelters were plank houses built from the abundant Cedar trees which also provided the material for their dugout canoes.
The Tlingit people were organized into settlements and communities, rather than tribes. Tlingit society was multi-layered involving social classes, kin ties, and territorial units. The Tlingit were divided into eighteen great families, with the name of the wolf, bear, eagle, whale, shark, porpoise, puffin, orca, goose, beaver, owl, sea-lion, salmon, orca-bear, raven, frog, dogfish and crow. The Tlingit people were not allowed to marry into a family with the same animal name or totem. The totem posts erected outside their houses reflected the animal totem of the family and symbolized guardian spirits who watched over the family, clan and people.
Item Code - JEW1C5385HAE
Length: 42 1/2" Width: 2 1/2" [Buckle] 1 1/8" [Strap] Size: 36 Weight: 191 g