ABSTRACT
This chapter reports the findings of research to document Tlingit knowledge of and relations with salmon. A number of in-depth interviews with knowledgeable elders and experts were carried out, and the ethnographic record and the oral traditions and transcripts from recorded texts from various Tlingit sources were explored. Based on extensive fieldwork along the northeastern coast of the Pacific Ocean, which included excursions and hikes with the Tlingit key informants along streams inhabited by salmon, it is argued that Tlingit engagement with salmon and their empathic reflexivity about salmon behavior are based on astute empirical observations of environmental conditions and how these conditions affect salmon behavior.
