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Tsimshian
The Tsimshian (; tsi, Ts’msyan or Tsm'syen) are an Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace, British Columbia, Terrace and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only reservation in Alaska. The Tsimshian estimate there are 45,000 Tsimshian people and approximately 10,000 members are federally registered in eight First Nations communities (including the ''Kitselas,'' ''Kitsumkalum,'' ''Gitxaala,'' ''Gitga'at'' at Hartley Bay, and ''Kitasoo'' at Klemtu) ''Lax Kw'Alaams,'' and ''Metlakatla, BC''. The latter two communities resulted in the colonial intersections of early settlers and consist of Tsimshian people belonging to the 'nine tribes.' The Tsimshian are one of the largest First Nations peoples in northwest British Columbia. Some Tsimshian migrated to the Annette Islands in Alaska, and today ap ...
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Coast Tsimshian Language
Tsimshian, known by its speakers as Sm'álgyax, is a dialect of the Tsimshian language spoken in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. ''Sm'algyax'' means literally "real or true language." The linguist Tonya Stebbins estimated the number of speakers of Tsimshian in 2001 as around 400 and in 2003 as 200 or fewer (see references below). Whichever figure is more accurate, she added in 2003 that most speakers are over 70 in age and very few are under 50. About 50 of an ethnic population of 1,300 Tsimshian in Alaska speak the language. Phonology Vowels Next to transcriptions in the IPA are the conventional orthography in angle brackets. The low back vowel can either be the long or the short and slightly raised depending on context. John Asher Dunn assumes this vowel as the schwa.Dunn, J.A. (1995) Underlining /a/ is optional for indicating the back long vowel, and fluent speakers will usually omit it. Dunn's representation of the high back vowel seems to ...
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William Duncan (missionary)
William Duncan (3 April 1832 – 30 August 1918) was an English-born Anglican missionary who founded the Tsimshian communities of Metlakatla, British Columbia, in Canada, and Metlakatla, Alaska, in the United States. Although sometimes referred to as "Father Duncan" in subsequent reports, he was never ordained. Early years Duncan was born in the hamlet of Bishop Burton, Yorkshire, England, the illegitimate son of Maria Duncan, a teenaged servant. He was raised by his mother's parents, William and Elizabeth Duncan. In the 1841 census he is recorded as living with his father and his sister Mary Duncan on Lairgate in Beverley. In 1851 he was lodging with William Botterill, a tailor, and Mary Botterill in Keldgate, Beverley and his occupation is described as book-keeper. Duncan later worked in his grandfather/adoptive father's trade as a tanner. Duncan became the only churchgoer in his impoverished family. In 1854 he joined the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and attended the C ...
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Metlakatla, Alaska
Metlakatla (; Tsimshian: ''Maxłakxaała'' or ''Wil uks t’aa mediik''; Lingít: ''Tàakw.àani'') is a census-designated place (CDP) on Annette Island in Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 1,405; this had grown to 1,454 by the 2020 census. Since the late 19th century, it has been the major settlement of the Metlakatla Indian Community of the federally recognized Annette Island Reserve, the only remaining reserve in Alaska. The Metlakatla voted to opt out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of the 1970s and retained rights to their land and waters. Membership in the community is primarily by lineage; it consists primarily of Tsimshian people and also includes those from other Alaskan Native tribes who wish to join the Metlakatla Indian Community as a bona fide member. Bona fide membership is granted upon approval of the Metlakatla Tribal Council and Executives. History ''Metlakatla'' comes from ''Maxła ...
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Kitkatla
The Kitkatla or Gitxaala are one of the 14 bands of the Tsimshian nation of the Canadian province of British Columbia, and inhabit a village, also called Kitkatla (sometimes called Laxklan), on Dolphin Island, a small island just by Porcher Island off the coast of northern B.C. Because of their location, the Kitkatla 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 Tsimshian name Gitkxaała, from ''git-'' (people of) and ''kxaała'' (open sea), since they are the farthest from the mainland of the Tsimshian tribes. Another name for themselves is ''Git lax m'oon'' ("people of the saltwater") in recognition of the land they lived on: the islands and inlets of this rugged piece of coastline. The Kitkatla are reputed to be the first Tsimshians to encounter (formally anyway) Europeans and the first to use guns. Stories record ...
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Indigenous Peoples Of The Pacific Northwest Coast
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and spiritual symbol, and many cultivation and subsistence practices. The term ''Northwest Coast'' or ''North West Coast'' is used in anthropology to refer to the groups of Indigenous people residing along the coast of what is now called British Columbia, Washington (state), Washington State, parts of Alaska, Oregon, and Northern California. The term ''Pacific Northwest'' is largely used in the American context. At one point, the region had the highest population density of a region inhabited by Indigenous peoples in Canada.Aboriginal Identity (8), Sex (3) and Age Groups (12) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 ...
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Skeena River
The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" ,and "people of the Skeena River," respectively. The river and its basin sustain a wide variety of fish, wildlife, and vegetation, and communities native to the area depend on the health of the river. The Tsimshian migrated to the Lower Skeena River, and the Gitxsan occupy territory of the Upper Skeena. During the Omineca Gold Rush, steamboat services ran from the sea to Hazelton, which was the jumping-off point for the trails to the goldfields. The Hudson's Bay Company established a major trading post on the Skeena at what became called Port Simpson, British Columbia (''Lax Kw'alaams''), where nine tribes of the Tsimshian nation settled about 1834. Other tribes live elsewhere in BC, and descendants of ...
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Klemtu
Klemtu is an unincorporated community on Swindle Island in the coastal fjords of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Kitasoo Indian Reserve No. 1. Klemtu is the home of the Kitasoo tribe of Tsimshians, originally from Kitasu Bay, and the Xai'xais of Kynoch Inlet, extends eastward from Queen Charlotte Sound, approximately at . It is adjacent to the Fiordland Conservancy. These two tribes live together as, and are jointly governed by, the Kitasoo/Xai'xais Nation. Traditional languages spoken at Klemtu are the southern dialect of the Tsimshian language, called Southern Tsimshian, and Xaixais, a dialect of the Heiltsuk language. In religious affiliation, the community is dominated by the United Church of Canada. The government of the Kitasoo/Xai'xais Nation is a member government of the Oweekeno-Kitasoo-Nuxalk Tribal Council. The population of Klemtu in 1983 was 269. the population of Klemtu was 505. Name origin An alternate older name for Klemtu is Kitasoo. it was ...
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Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., it borders the Canadian province of British Columbia and the Yukon territory to the east; it also shares a maritime border with the Russian Federation's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west, just across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean, while the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is by far the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the next three largest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. It represents the seventh-largest subnational division in the world. It is the third-least populous and the most sparsely populated state, but by far the continent's most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel, with ...
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Annette Island
Annette Island or ''Taak'w Aan'' (Tlingit) is an island in the Gravina Islands of the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean on the southeastern coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is at . It is about long and about wide. The land area is . Annette Island is located west across the Revillagigedo Channel from the Alaska mainland and south of Revillagigedo Island. The Island was named in 1879 by William Healey Dall, an American naturalist and explorer in Alaska, in honor of his wife Annette Whitney Dall. The meaning of the Tlingit name for the island is Winter Town. Since the late 19th century, it has been the base of the Annette Island Reserve of the Metlakatla Alaska Native Community, composed mostly of Tsimshian people. This is the only remaining Indian reservation in Alaska, as the Metlakatla voted to opt out of giving up their lands under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of the 1970s. In 2016 they elected Audrey Hudson as their first Tribal Chairwoman. Comm ...
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Terrace, British Columbia
Terrace is a city located near the Skeena River in British Columbia, Canada. The community is the regional retail and service hub for the northwestern portion of British Columbia. With a current population of over 12,000 within municipal boundaries, the city services surrounding communities as well bringing the Greater Terrace Area population to over 18,000 residents. The Kitselas and Kitsumkalum people, tribes of the Tsimshian Nation, have lived in the Terrace area for thousands of years. The individual Indigenous communities neighbour the city with Kitselas to the east and Kitsumkalum to the west. Terrace was originally called Littleton, but this name was rejected by postal authorities because of possible confusion with Lyttleton, a town in New Brunswick. The new name is descriptive of the manner in which the land rises from the river. As northwest British Columbia's main services and transportation hub, Terrace is intersected by the Canadian National Railway as well as Highway ...
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Gitxsan
Gitxsan (also spelled Gitksan) are an Indigenous people in Canada whose home territory comprises most of the area known as the Skeena Country in English (: means "people of" and : means "the River of Mist"). Gitksan territory encompasses approximately of land, from the basin of the upper Skeena River from about Legate Creek to the Skeena's headwaters and its surrounding tributaries. Part of the Tsimshianic language group, their culture is considered to be part of the civilization of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, although their territory lies in the Interior rather than on the Coast. They were at one time also known as the ''Interior Tsimshian'', a term which also included the Nisga'a, the Gitxsan's neighbours to the north. Their neighbours to the west are the Tsimshian (a.k.a. the Coast Tsimshian) while to the east the Wetʼsuwetʼen, an Athapaskan people, with whom they have a long and deep relationship and shared political and cultural community. ...
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Hartley Bay
Hartley Bay is a First Nations community on the coast of British Columbia. The village is located at the mouth of Douglas Channel, about north of Vancouver and south of Prince Rupert. It is an isolated village accessible only by air and water with a population of 200. It is home to the Gitga'ata (sometimes Gitga'at or Gitk'a'ata), which means "People of the Cane." The Gitga'at are members of the Tsimshian nation. As of 2013, 167 band members live on the reserve and 533 members live off reserve in Prince Rupert, Vancouver or other regions. The community is served by seaplane and ferry from Prince Rupert. A distinctive feature of the community is the wooden boardwalks which are used rather than gravel roads. History and culture The Gitga'at geographical name for the bay where the village is situated is Txałgiu. This name was anglicised to Kalkayu when Indian reserves were formed in 1889, these being Kulkayu (Hartley Bay) Indian Reserve No. 4 and Kulkayu (Hartley Bay) Indian ...
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