In 1980, John Carlick gave a speech in which he stated that all of our Tahltan people need to learn about our wars. He said that it is important for us to realize that our ancestors went to war to defend our Tahltan country.

Wars were not usually major operations between nations, but were mainly small battles fought between a Tahltan Family group and our neighbours to the north or south. We did not go to war with the Tlingit, Kaska, and Sikani. They were our traditional trading partners. We went to war only with the Taku to the north and the Nass people to the south. Our people fought as a Family group; the Nass people fought as a village. Often battles broke out when one nation hunted in another nation's hunting grounds. Or maybe a member of the other nation was killed. This led to a war of revenge.

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Starting a war was simple. If anyone wanted to fight the neighbour for any reason, they asked his relatives to join. If they joined, then others in the Family group were invited. Then other Family groups were asked if they wanted to go to war. Going to war was a matter of choice. Any Family from either Clan could either refuse or could choose to go to war. Any man could refuse if he wished.

Sometimes war started with only a small group, maybe a dozen men. If it grew bigger, others might choose to join. It has been said th bat when a Family of the Wolf clan went to war, their Family often went alone. Other Wolf clans joined soon if needed. The Crow clans were the last to join, and then only if the war was going badly for the Wolf clans. However, if a Crow clan went to war, other Crow clans joined quickly since the first women in the Crow clans were sisters.

Sometimes all Tahltans went to war. When this happened, Nonnock was the leader. His Family, the Iskahititoten, owned the Tahltan War Knife, which was the symbol of leadership. When all Tahltans went to war, this knife was taken into battle. And it must not be lost. And, when it was taken into battle, Tahltans must not retreat.

Before going to war, men cleansed themselves. They plunged into icy water to harden their bodies. This form of hardening their bodies was done at other times also. Before the battle, a Shaman would sing, calling on the spirits to help. He would see if signs pointed to success in battle or not. He also went with the fighters and tried to cause the enemy to go to sleep (so that they could be ambushed easily).

Our men wore armour made from heavy tanned moose or goat hide covered with ropes of goat hair or rawhide. They usually wore their hair on top of their head tied in a topknot. If the hair was worn down, it was covered with ashes or black paint. They painted their faces with red ochre and black paint.

They had helmets made of rawhide to protect their head or hats of raven skin, wolf or bear scalp, etc. Feathers of various kinds of birds might be attached to the hair. Eagle feathers were most prized.

Sometimes only men from the Wolf clan could fight enemies from the Wolf clan. The same for those of the Crow clan. It is said that when this type of battle was carried on, then each warrior wore a head-dress showing their clan.

To our ancestors, war was not fought with guns, tanks, or land mines. Battles were usually skirmishes, ambushes, and attacks on unsuspecting villages. War was hand to hand fighting with knives, spears, and bows and arrows.

There was a formal process to ending the war and making peace. After fighting, a singing ritual was begun with one side singing a friendly song. If the reply was very angry, then the war would continue. When the reply to a song was friendlier, then the singing ritual continued until both sides sang friendly songs.

Then, in a show of good faith, four important men were exchanged. These men were called kuwegan (meaning deer in the Tlingit language). They were adopted into the enemy's camp. They were named and treated with great honour. Feasting, singing, and dancing carried on for up to eight days, depending on the seriousness of the war. At the end of the time, the kuwegan returned to their own people. Peace was formally declared.

Stikine River

Sometimes one side or the other would fight with great aggressiveness and ferocity. This meant that when peace was made, they had to pay compensation to the other side to make up for losses suffered. Our stories tell of how at the end of a war with the Taku, each side collected the same number of rocks as the number of men that were killed. Both sides then met and began piling up the rocks, naming the dead as they did so. When one side ran out of rocks, the other side received payment as compensation for the losses. Once, our ancestors gave up a portion of our territory to the south, in the Meziadin area, as payment for our aggression. We have had no wars in our territory for a long, long time.

Our people learned the lesson that fighting is not an effective way to settle a dispute. Our story of the War of the Fishes emphasizes this point. As children we were taught that fighting was not allowed. If we had a problem, we were encouraged to use our heads to figure out how to deal with our problems.