Our ancestors learned and lived by 3 R's: respect, responsibility and religion. Everything that we think and do is based on our belief system. A belief system is our world-view, our way of looking at life. In this section we will look at what our traditional Tahltan beliefs were. We will also see how these beliefs affected our culture. Culture is the blueprint for living that we all live by. These are unspoken "rules" that everyone knows, but do not usually discuss. We see our culture our behaviour.

We believed that the world was formed by the God, the Creator. This being was responsible for creating everything on earth. Everything has life, a spirit of its own. Even things that we now think of as being life-less, like rocks, were believed to be alive. It was our belief that the Creator provided us with gifts of food, water, and all things that we needed for a good life. That is why our ancestors said prayers of thanks every day, throughout the day. They said thank you to the animals for giving their life. They said thank you for our children. Each morning they prayed to Day Dawn to say thank you for a new day.

Tsesk'iya Cho is a sacred bird, the raven (or crow, as we often call it). The creator was responsible for the creation of the world, but Tsesk'iya Cho created it. This sacred bird is in many of our legends as well as legends from the coastal natives and natives inland and to the north.

Our Tsesk'iya Cho stories tell the story of how this sacred bird painted animals, put salmon into our rivers, and was a role model. We looked at his behaviour and learned ways to behave and ways not to behave.

God created everything. So we believed that everything was part of one sacred family. Everything in the world was related. We respect our relations. So, everything in our world: the environment, the animals, the plants, other people, ourselves everything was treated with respect.

We respected ourselves first. Our people knew that if a person does not respect themselves, they cannot respect anyone or anything else. That is why our children were taught in a way that encouraged strong self-respect. They were treated as valued individuals whose contributions

It was our belief that everything has a spirit. This is both a analogy and real. Spirits can be seen by people who have strong power. The spirits of people who have passed on are always around us. These spirits could be called upon for help and we believed that they would help when we asked.

Long ago, Teit was told, "all Tahltans are dreamers". All of our people had communication with certain spirits, usually animal or other nature spirits. Nature spirits gave us special powers. Some people could tell what was coming in the future. Others had power with certain animals. If a man had power with bears, he could communicate with these animals. This was a private, personal matter, which we did not discuss or argue about.

Our society placed great value on individuals. Each person was valued for themselves and for their contribution to the community.

Each person had freedom of choice. This was a sacred gift which was not interfered with by anyone, not even the Creator. Each person's freedom of choice was honoured. We believed that each person knew what was best for themselves.

We also believed that each person also accepted the consequences of their behaviour. Every behaviour has a consequence. If a person was kind-hearted, they were popular and would be welcomed everywhere. Sometimes a person chose to behave in a manner which caused harm to others, including his Family. If this was the case, then the consequences might be much more serious. If the person chose not to change their behaviour, the consequence was death.

Each person's religious and spiritual beliefs were a personal matter. It was a matter between themselves and the Creator. We also knew that each person received advice from their spirit guide. Therefore, not every person honoured God or prayed in exactly the same way.

Each person had freedom of choice, but with that freedom came responsibility. We often say that natives do not talk about rights, they talk about responsibility.

Each person was responsible for their own learning. For example, the training of a boy began only when the boy stepped forward and said that he was ready. Some were ready and began training when they were eight years old. Some waited until they were fifteen. When their training began, each boy was responsible for setting out the plan for his training. Then he was responsible for carrying out his training plan.

Each person had the responsibility to become the best person that they could be. They strived to be lani etie, an excellent person. If they were the ideal Tahltan, a well-rounded, truly good person, then they might spoken of as "being so good that were almost as good as God." Each person was responsible for learning how to be self-reliant. This was taught early in a child's life. By the age of six, each child had realized that they had something to contribute to their family. They were cheerful, willing helpers. That is how they learned to be self-sufficient.

Each person was responsible for learning and showing respect to all things in their world. We had a close bond with the land and animals. Not only did the land and animals provide us with a living, but we had a spiritual bond with them. This was especially true of our land. We always tried to behave in a way that caused the land no harm.

And each person had a responsibility to their immediate family, to their extended Family group, and to our people as a whole. We helped to teach others when needed. We helped whenever we could, because we knew that if we need help, then others would help us.

Each person had the responsibility to learn and follow our code of behaviour. If everyone lived a crime-free life, then there is no need for a police force.

Our society depended on the skills and knowledge of individuals. Our children were taught this attitude at an early age and so began to learn skills while they were young. Our teenagers practiced skills that they chose until they were perfect. We say that they learned skills to "mastery" level. That means that they learned everything about the subject of their choice. Our people helped the young to learn his skills by providing expert advice and coaching. A young man would receive help from a master hunter. A young woman would be taught to bead by a master beader.

There was a good reason why the family was so important to us long ago (and now!). Our ancestors lived in a time when there was no schools, hospitals or police force. The only "help" that a person had was from their family. If a person was unable to hunt, his family brought meat when they killed an animal. If a woman was ill, her sisters would come to help with her family and take over all of her chores.