The Kitkatla or Gitxaala are one of the oldest First Nations whose unceded territories are now occupied by the Canadian province of British Columbia , and inhabit a village, also called Kitkatla (Lax Klan), on Dolphin Island, a small island just by Porcher Island off the coast of northern B.C. Because of their location, the Gitxaała have sometimes been called Porcher Island Indians. They were also, in the early contact period, called the Sebassa tribe, for their paramount chief at the time, Ts'ibasaa. The name Kitkatla derives from the name Gitxaała, from git- (people of) and kxaała (open sea, or channel), since they are the farthest from the mainland. Another name that inland-based neighbors use in reference to the Gitxaała is, 'Gitlaxmoon ("people of the saltwater") in recognition of their coastal presence on the islands and inlets of this rugged piece of coastline. Gitxaała don’t refer to themselves as Gitlaxmoon or as Ts’msyen (meaning ‘Inside the Skeena River’).
7-466: The Gitxaała are reputed to be the first Indigenous people of the northwest coast to encounter (formally anyway) Europeans and the first to use guns. Stories recording this encounter tell of the acquisition of the hereditary name He'l by the Gispwudwada (Blackfish or Killerwhale clan) House (extended matrilineal family) of Ts'ibasaa, from an English ship's captain. In the more recent period, one holder of
14-589: Is a large and thriving community. Its population in 1983 was 493. It has temporarily suspended treaty negotiations with the British Columbia government. Other Gitxaała house-groups include: Gispwudwada The Gispwudwada or Gisbutwada (variously spelled) is the name for the Killerwhale "clan" ( phratry ) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia , Canada, and southeast Alaska . It
21-679: Is considered analogous or identical to the Gisgahaast (variously spelled; also Gisk'aast) clan in British Columbia's Gitxsan nation and the Gisḵ'ahaast/Gisḵ'aast Tribe of the Nisg̱a'a . The Nisg̱a'a also call this group the Killerwhale Tribe, though the Gitxsan use the term Fireweed clan; Gisgahaast means literally "people of the fireweed ." The name Gispwudwada is of unknown etymology. The chief crests of
28-750: The Gispwudwada are the Killerwhale (a.k.a. orca ) (' neexł in Tsimshian) and Grizzly Bear ( midiik ). Tsimshian matrilineal houses belonging to the Gispwudwada tend to belong to one of two groups, the Git'mlaxam and the Gitnagwinaks. The Git'mlaxam trace their origins to the legendary Temlaxam (a.k.a. Temlaham, Dimlahamid , etc.) or "Prairie Town" on the Skeena River in what is now Gitksan territory. The Git'mlaxam can be further subdivided. Git'mlaxam house-groups among
35-688: The Tsimshian include the royal House of Ts'ibasaa in the Gitkxaała ( Kitkatla ) tribe. The Gitnagwinaks (sometimes spelled Nagunaks) trace their migrations southward, to the vicinity of the Kitasoo Tsimshians at Klemtu , British Columbia. In a discussion of the Bear Mother myth, the anthropologist Marius Barbeau in 1950 published information recorded by the Tsimshian ethnologist William Beynon from his fellow Gitlaan Tsimshian E. Maxwell which describes
42-614: The house of Nisweexs (Ts’ibasaa’s nephew) in the Ginadoiks tribe of Ts’msyens at Lax Kw'alaams (Port Simpson), B.C. A large amount of information on the hereditary names, territories, and oral traditions of the Gitxaała people was collected in 1916 by William Beynon , a Ts’msyen chief and translator in the employ of the ethnologist Marius Barbeau . The Gitxaała people primarily live in Lax Klan, their main winter (and now permanent) village, and
49-518: The name He'l also assumed rights over the Gispwudwada chief name Seeks, which represents another Gitxaała Gispwudwada (Blackfish Clan) house-group. One holder of the title Ts'ibasaa was Joshua Ts'ibasaa, who died in 1936. The anthropologist Viola Garfield has published a detailed description of his mortuary potlatch . Garfield also describes the House of Ts'ibasaa's genealogical merging with another Gispwudwada (Blackfish or Killerwhale clan) house-group,
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