Yeilxaak, also spelled as Yeilxáak and sometimes known as Ilkhak, was a powerful chief of the Chilkat

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

Klukwan Klukwan (Tlingit: ''Tlákw.aan'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in Alaska, United States. It is technically in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, though it is an enclave of Haines Borough. At the 2010 census the population was 95, down from 139 at ...

. He is the earliest chief of Klukwan to have been encountered by Europeans.

Meetings with Europeans

It is not certain when his rule started, but he was both the head of the Gaanaxteidee clan and the chief of all of Klukwan Tlingits by 1788. During this year, during a trading visit at Yakutat, he met the Russian explorers Izmailov and Bocharov. These men recorded his name as Ilkhak. According to

Alejandro Malaspina Alejandro Malaspina (November 5, 1754 – April 9, 1810) was a Tuscan explorer who spent most of his life as a Spanish naval officer. Under a Spanish royal commission, he undertook a voyage around the world from 1786 to 1788, then, from 1789 t ...

's Spanish expedition in 1791 and to Tlingit oral histories, Yeilxaak became the rival and enemy of

X'unéi X'unéi, also spelled as X'unei and sometimes known as Juné, was a powerful chief of the Tlingit at Yakutat in 1791. War Against Yeilxaak Chief X'unéi was encountered by Alejandro Malaspina's Spanish expedition to Yakutat in 1791 under the nam ...

. X'unéi, whose name was recorded as Juné by Malaspina's expedition, was a powerful chief of the Yakutat Tlingit and the head of the L'ukwnax.ádi clan. Yeilxaak was killed in 1791 during the long and bloody war between the L'ukwnax.ádi clan of Yakutat and the Gaanaxteidee clan of Klukwan.

Family

In Cora Benson's genealogy, Yeilxaak was the son of K'uxshóo I and Yeidukdatán. His two sisters were Nuwuteiyi and Kaaguneteen. After his death, Yeilxaak was succeeded as the chief of Klukwan first by his nephew Xetsuwu, the son of Nuwuteiyi, and later by his other nephew Shkeedlakáa, the son of Kaaguneteen.

References

{{NorthAm-native-bio-stub Year of birth missing 1791 deaths 18th-century Native Americans Native American leaders Tlingit people Tribal chiefs People killed in action