Angela Sidney, (January 4, 1902 – July 17, 1991) was a

Tagish The Tagish or Tagish Khwáan ( Tagish: ; ) are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group that lived around Tagish Lake and Marsh Lake, in Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory ...

storyteller. She co-authored two narratives of traditional Tagish legends and a historical document of Tagish place names for southern

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

. For her

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

contributions, Sidney received the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

, becoming the first

Native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

woman from the Yukon to be so honoured.

"Well, I have no money to leave for my grandchildren. My stories are my wealth!"

Biography

Sidney was born near

Carcross Carcross, originally known as Caribou Crossing, () is an unincorporated community in Yukon, Canada, on Bennett Lake and Nares Lake. It is home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. It is south-southeast by the Alaska Highway and the Klondike High ...

in 1902. She was given two names at birth, Ch'óonehte' Ma (in Tagish), Stóow (in

Tlingit The Tlingit or Lingít ( ) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. , they constitute two of the 231 federally recognized List of Alaska Native tribal entities, Tribes of Alaska. Most Tlingit are Alaska Natives; ...

), and a third, Angela, by her godfather, when she was two weeks old. Her mother, Maria John (or Maria Tagish) (born ca. 1871), was of

''Deisheetaan'' (Crow) clan ancestry. Her father, Tagish John (born ca. 1856), was Tagish Dakhl'awedi. Maria was left weak after

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infection ...

s killed the family's first four children. A brother, Johnny Johns, and a sister, Alice Dora, were Sidney's siblings from the couple's second family. Because her mother was not well, Sidney, eldest daughter, spent much of her time assisting her mother and listening to her stories. However, Sidney did receive some schooling in Carcross at the Anglican mission school prior to age ten. Her father's cousins, Skookum Jim,

Kate Carmack Shaaw Tláa, also known as Kate Carmack ( – 29 March 1920), was a Tagish First Nation woman who was one of the party that first found gold in the Klondike River in 1896, and is sometimes credited with being the person who made the actual ...

and

Dawson Charlie Dawson Charlie or K̲áa Goox̱ ʰáː kuːχ( – 26 December 1908) was a Canadian Tagish/Tlingit First Nation prospector and one of the co-discoverers of gold at Discovery Claim that led to the Klondike Gold Rush located in the Yukon territ ...

, were credited with making the gold discovery that led to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896.

Adulthood

At age 14, Sidney married George Sidney (ca. 1888 - 1971). They had seven children, four of whom died young. George worked seasonally for

White Pass and Yukon Route The White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&Y, WP&YR) is a Canadian and U.S. Class III narrow-gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other rail ...

railroad, he later became chief at Carcross. Sidney loved to listen to her parents' stories, and those of her relatives. To ensure that the dances, language, stories, and traditions of her people were recorded for future generations, Sidney started teaching Tagish traditions to schoolchildren. She assisted linguists Victor Golla, Jeff Leer and John Ritter and anthropologists

Catharine McClellan Catharine "Kitty" McClellan (March 1, 1921 – March 3, 2009) was an American cultural anthropologist who is known for her documentation of the oral history and storytelling typical of Athabascan speaking, Tlingit and Tagish peoples of the Yukon T ...

and Julie Cruikshank with their research on Tagish language and traditions to ensure the Tagish language would not be lost. In teaching the craft of storytelling to her niece, Louise Profeit-LeBlanc, Sidney emphasized the need to be cognizant of the needs of the audience, preface the telling with a prayer, and seek forgiveness before offense is taken. Sidney died in 1991. She was survived by a daughter, Ida Calmegane.

Awards and honors

* 1986, Member of the Order of Canada * Sidney was the inspiration for the development of the Yukon International Storytelling Festival, created in 1988, when fellow storytellers learned that Sidney had to travel to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 1984 to be part of a storytelling festival.

Selected stories

* ''Getting married'' * ''The stolen woman'' * ''How people got flint'' * ''The old woman under the world'' * ''Moldy head'' * ''Fox helper'' * ''Wolf story'' * ''Potlatch story''

Partial bibliography

* * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidney, Angela 1902 births 1991 deaths Canadian storytellers Women storytellers First Nations women writers Writers from Yukon Members of the Order of Canada People from Carcross, Yukon Tagish people 20th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century First Nations writers 20th-century First Nations women 20th-century Canadian short story writers Canadian women short story writers