A portion of the Bible, Matthew's gospel, was first translated into Tlingit of Alaska by Ivan Nadezhdin of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1859. Although used in Churches, this was never published. According to Dr. Michael Krauss it is "a hardly readable, slavishly literal translation, and with a writing system so faulty that the spread of literacy would have been severely impeded even if there had been good translations"[1]. Nadezhdin also translated the sections from John's gospel that were used for Orthodox Easter liturgy.
Constance Naish and Gillian Story, both of Wycliffe Bible Translators, translated John's gospel into Tlingit—this was published in 1969 as Dikée ankáwoo doo yéet dàt John-ch kawshixidee yooxu̕tunk.
A few selected verses from both testaments were translated for their hymnal Utk'-uheenee X'usheex'ee. They also produced a 17 page booklet "The Brass serpent and other stories", containing stories from the Old Testament.
| Translation | John 3:16 |
|---|---|
| Naish/Story 1969 | Dikée Anḵáwoo-ch ḵónux̲ woosix̲ún yúh lingít ànee. Uh uyúh tléinux̲ doo jèe yéi yuteeyee doo Yéet hàhdei uh jeewunúḵ. Ldukút adoo súh doo éek' uh hèenee, tléil koot kei kw'g̲usgèet; 'l yun shoowjix̲inee x̲'uséikw ḵo.àh doo jèe yéi kw'g̲utée. |