Angela sidney

Angela Sidney (1902-1991) was given two names at birth: Ch’óonehte’ Ma in the Tagish language of her father and Stóow in the Tlingit language of her mother. 

She spent much of her youth listening to her mother’s stories and later worked for her community, contributing to Tagish linguistics and ethnography and ensuring that her people’s traditions, language, dances and stories were passed on to the younger generations. She famously said “I have no money to leave my grandchildren. My stories are my wealth.” 

She taught the art of storytelling, emphasizing the need to listen to the audience and preface the telling with a prayer to allay any unintended offense. 

Angela named the Yukon University Whitehorse campus “Ayamdigut” meaning “she got up and went”. At the campus’ official opening in 1988 she sang a traditional Tlingit song associated with the story of Kaax’achgóok who had trouble reintegrating into his society because of the changes that had taken place in his absence.

Angela was co-founder of the Yukon International Storytelling Festival and the co-author of Tagish Tlaagú: Tagish Stories (1982) and Life Lived Like a Story (1990).

The Yukon Native Languages Projects published two more booklets by Angela, Place Names of the Tagish Region, Southern Yukon (1980) and Haa Shagóon: Our Family History (1983), and they applauded her efforts to save the Tagish language. Angela received the Order of Canada in 1984; the first Yukon First Nation woman to be honoured in this way.